The Ins and Outs of Resumes

In marketing, the first step to selling your product is developing a good campaign.  This involves several steps, and can include websites, brochures, etc.  When you are looking for a job, you should approach it in the same manner.  You are your product, and in order to sell it you need to put together a good pitch! Your first step in in this should be developing your resume (brochure).

Like a good brochure, a good resume should be organized in such a way that it is easy to read, while accentuating what’s important.  Different industries require different formats.  The format below is a basic, standard one that most anyone can use.

Heading

Your heading is your attention grabber. It should be succinct and easy to read, and should contain the following:

• Your full name  
• Your phone #
• Your email address 
• Your LinkedIn profile address

 

     Objective

      Your objective is basically your summary from your LinkedIn profile. This is a 2-4 sentence description of who you are, what you bring to the table, and what you’re looking for. 

     Skills

      Depending on the type of job you are seeking, your skills section can either be right under your objective, or at the bottom near your education section. This is a personal preference thing for the most part, however I do suggest that if you are trying to get a clerical or administrative position you put this at the top.  For these types of jobs, skillset is very important to an employer, so you want to make it easy to find. You also want to make this section easy to read. I recommend bullet points. If this takes up a lot of room, divide it into columns. It shouldn’t take up more than about ¼ of a page.

     Experience

      This of course should be the bulk of your resume, and it should cover the past 10 years of employment experience.  The format should be bullet points with 1-2 lines maximum for each point. Be concise. Your current (or most recent) job can have more, but there should be only 3-5 items for each job you have done. 

    Education

      I think this is self-explanatory.  For this section I would advise that unless it explains a gap in experience, dates are unnecessary, and in some cases might be a hindrance. If it's been a while since you have received any formal education or training, you don't want to have to explain why.

     References

      I don’t recommend providing references on your resume, unless it seems too short. Employers know that if they want references they simply have to ask.

     Extras

      If it is pertinent to the job, or your resume seems light you can add any or all of the following:

• Volunteer experience 
• Professional memberships 
• Hobbies 
• Extracurriculars

     
      Please be VERY careful about this section, and only put information that is relevant. For example, if the position you apply for requires event planning, and your only experience in that was while volunteering for a local food bank, put it in.  If you like to hang glide, but the job does not involve hang gliding or anything relating to it, do not include it. They don’t care.  They assume you have a life outside of work, but if the experiences you have there don’t help you do the job they don’t need to know.

     
        Your resume should be 2 pages maximum.  It should be 12 point font, Times New Roman or Arial. If you can, 1.5 line spacing.  I'll give more details on each section in future posts.