Back to Basics, Résumé Writing 101

As we near the busiest time of the year for job seekers, I thought we should review the basics including what sections should be included on a résumé and what should and should not be included in each. As always, email your job search, résumé, cover letter, and interviewing questions to dearsam@ladybug-design.com. Happy job searching in 2008!

Aesthetics & Formatting
One of the major downfalls I see in reviewing résumés is that the majority lack any visual appeal, are typically created using very common templates, and are inconsistent in their use of fonts and spacing. While content is very important in creating a résumé that grabs the attention of a hiring manager, the aesthetics of that document can compel or repel someone's interest. For that reason, it is imperative to be consistent in your formatting choices, create a theme to how your information is going to be presented, and engage the reader through the use of a professional and visually appealing layout. If you are struggling for design ideas, review any of the samples on my website at www.ladybug-design.com/casestudies.html or check out any recently written résumé book in the library. Most contain hundreds of samples of professionally written and designed résumés and will provide sometimes much needed inspiration to make your résumé unique and engaging.

Heading
The heading on your résumé should include your name, address, home and possibly cell phone numbers, and email address. Take a moment to look at your email address and verify it reinforces the professional tone of your résumé and does not contain birth years, ages, and other personal information that should not be presented on a résumé. Likewise, review your voice mail messages and make sure they are professional and don’t disclose information of a more personal nature.

If you are looking to relocate and are not going to seek employer reimbursement for the move, think about placing a local and current address on your résumé to minimize the appearance of seeming expensive and timely to recruit (only possible if you have a friend or relative in the destination of choice). The goal by doing this is not to mislead a hiring manager, doing so would only lead to you losing credibility during the interview process, but instead to reinforce your move is a certainty and you are not seeking relocation expenses. To do this effectively without being misleading, make sure you present both addresses (current and upcoming) and make a note in the cover letter pertaining to your upcoming relocation and self-funded move.

Qualifications Summary
Defining your purpose or objective is critically important to the development of this section, not to mention an effective résumé. Instead of simply stating an objective, common in résumés of 5-10 years ago, this section, along with everything on your résumé, should be developed to sell yourself for the types of roles you are seeking.

Instead of presenting a self-serving statement about what you want, present an employer-centric section marketing what you can do for them. Develop this section based on a primary objective, presenting a brief summary of your key qualifiers related to your objective. Engage the reader by understanding the keywords for the positions of interest, and infuse those keywords throughout this summary and the remainder of your résumé.

This is typically the most difficult part of a résumé to write. As a tip, start writing your résumé from the bottom up, beginning with the easier sections and leading to the summary. Write the summary last so that you have a clear picture of what you have to offer your target audience. Think of this section as the executive summary to your résumé, it should tell the reader everything they need to know to evaluate your candidacy. Taking the time to develop this section will serve you well in an interview as it serves double duty and can fuel your answer to the question, “Tell me about yourself.”

Professional Experience
A strong professional experience section, with achievements highlighted, is critical in driving a successful job search. As a general rule, you should plan on including about 8-15 years of experience depending on how much of that experience enhances and supports your candidacy. Senior executives can include more experience as it is assumed they have the experience to complement their high-level objective. Include only years, not months and years, of employment in order to minimize the appearance of gaps, overlaps, frequent job hops, etc. Quantify experiences to add personality to your résumé (numbers jump off a page and draw the reader's eye), being sure to focus more on accomplishments versus daily responsibilities. And when presenting accomplishments, highlight them as such, do not intermingle them with daily responsibilities or the hiring manager will not be able to ascertain your "value."

Just as important is what not to include. Don’t tell your life’s story; your résumé is not a narrative of everything you have ever done. Instead, prioritize your experiences and present the ‘big,’ saving the ‘small’ for value-added content to present during an interview. Don’t omit anything that will get your foot in the door, but don’t include so much that you lose the reader’s interest.

Education
Omit the education section if it detracts from your candidacy. If you completed 1-2 years of college quite some time ago, and a degree is not required for the positions you are pursuing, then focus instead on any professional development you have completed. Don't include the year of graduation if it unnecessarily ages your candidacy and never include high school information as it is assumed you have a diploma.

Value-Added Information
The sections that can be included on your résumé are virtually limitless. Gauge each piece of value-added information as to whether it reinforces the professionalism of your résumé and relates to your purpose. Sections you could include might be Professional Affiliations, Military Experience, Honors and Awards, Volunteer Work, and more. Remember that while some aspects of your life may be very important on a personal level, your résumé should only include those items that reinforce your professional candidacy. Sometimes it is hard to separate the two, but it is very important to distinguish those items that are a passion for you as a person versus you as a professional.

Qualifications Summary Key to Success in the 7-10 Second Screening Process

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Client Background
Tony’s objective was to secure a highly coveted pharmaceutical sales position. Tony’s main concern, and one brought up in previous interviews, was that he lacked the preferred business-to-business (B2B) sales experience. He had however been engaged in B2B transactions throughout his career, but they were not highlighted prominently, instead there was a clear B2C focus to his original résumé. Tony also wanted to showcase the transferability of his career in the fitness industry to support his strong medical and health knowledge. Tony had also participated in an informal preceptorship, which added to his qualifications to begin a career as a pharmaceutical sales rep.

Résumé Strategies
Tony’s original résumé was not strong enough in content or presentation, so both areas were addressed in the development of his new résumé. Instead of an objective statement, I opened the résumé with an extensive qualifications summary highlighting his related experiences and education. Beginning the qualifications summary is a brief highlighted list of key qualifiers, a highly effective approach when a candidate needs to focus the hiring manger’s attention on the aspects of their background that qualify them for a particular engagement. Next, Tony’s professional experience section was expanded significantly based on information we reviewed during his phone consultation. His primary B2B experience was expanded from only 4 bullet points on his original résumé, to a full paragraph and 7 bulleted achievements on his new version. The formatting of this section pulls the hiring manager’s eye to the most important information in the section. Page two of Tony’s résumé continued to explore his experiences, highlighting B2B interactions whenever possible. I also highlighted his preceptorship prominently along with a personal training certification. Lastly, Tony’s education was presented with a complete list of all science and medical coursework he completed.

Client Comments / Results
After one week with his new résumé Tony wrote: I've been re-sending my new résumé out for a little over a week now and I've had one phone interview, I'm scheduled for a face-to-face (F2F) next week, and I've had many emails from recruiters who comment on how great my résumé looks and that I'm moving to the top of their list of people to call for some upcoming opportunities...all in the new field I'm pursuing. All I can say is "thank you, thank you, thank you!" The finished product is awesome and turned out better than I even hoped for.

Three weeks later Tony wrote: As of this coming Monday, I'm a new pharmaceutical sales rep for ABC Pharmaceuticals!! And this is all possible because of the awesome résumé that you created for me. Once I started sending out the updated résumé, the calls started coming in. I had a F2F interview with two ABC Pharmaceutical DM's that went extremely well, so they scheduled me for a F2F with the Regional Director. When I met with the RD, the first words out of her mouth were "who did your résumé for you?"...I'm not lying!! When I told her it was professionally done, she said that it was one of the better looking résumés she's seen in a long time! She really liked the fact that I decided to "step up" and do what's necessary to make my résumé "stand out." Anyway, I'm finally in. Thanks so much for taking the time to give me an awesome résumé that catches the eyes of hiring managers.

Investing time and resources in résumé critical for successful job search

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Candidate’s Background
Bethany had not worked formally for 10 years and had sporadic experience previous to that spanning healthcare, sales, and proofreading roles. She wanted to reenter the workforce in an administrative or social work capacity but was finding it was challenging to present her dated experience in a manner that would attract a hiring manager. She was also finding it difficult identifying her core skills and marketing herself effectively, particularly as she had been out of the workforce for so long and wasn’t quite sure what employers were looking for in today’s job market.

Résumé Strategies
One of the keys to the strength of Bethany’s résumé was to pull out excerpts from a performance review attesting to her ability to excel in any environment and serve as an asset to any organization. Statements such as this serve as third-party validation of claims you make on your résumé and can add considerable value to one’s candidacy. Through the qualifications summary and core skills list, I positioned Bethany for the types of opportunities she wanted to pursue, presenting all the information the reader would need to know to thoroughly evaluate her candidacy. I also used a shaded box presenting comments from a former supervisor and a well formatted skills list to keep the reader’s eye at the top of her résumé (thereby minimizing the impact of her dates of employment). In the professional experience section, I minimized the appearance of employment dates as much as possible and highlighted accomplishments prominently, a strategy to draw the eye to the information that enhanced her candidacy. I also presented highlights that related well to the positions she wanted to pursue at this time in her life so the hiring manager could easily identify her transferable skills.

Cover Letter Strategies
Due to the strength of comments made about Bethany’s performance, I also opened her cover letter with pull quotes from her reviews. This sets the tone for Bethany’s candidacy, engages the reader, and minimizes any potential adverse reaction from having been out of the workforce for some time. The first paragraph of the cover letter only focuses on the value she has contributed, never mentioning the timeline of her career. It is imperative not to highlight disqualifying factors in a cover letter as if you handle your positive attributes appropriately, you can potentially prevent negative reactions from such factors as dated experience, frequent job hops, large employment gaps, etc. I used bullet points in her cover letter to focus the reader’s attention on where she had gone above and beyond in her career, really contributed extra value, and demonstrated her core skills. The cover letter closes with an actionable statement pertaining to her forthcoming follow up on the opportunity.

Keys to Success
Presenting someone for reentry into the workforce can be challenging, but with strategic inclusion/omission of experience, a focus on achievements, selective formatting, and a visually pleasing design, it is possible to create an effective résumé that facilitates reentry into the workforce. Additionally, one of the key areas a résumé can help someone reentering the workforce is in boosting their confidence and giving them a mechanism to outline their core skills and attributes that are marketable in today’s job market. In fact this is one of the items Bethany expressed as most helpful in her search. She went on to say, “Contemplating entering the workforce after many years as a full time homemaker, I felt that my skills were outdated, and had no idea where to begin in composing an up-to-date résumé. I now feel more confident and better prepared to enter the competitive job market with my skills and abilities well formatted, and certainly more organized…it is one of the best investments I have ever made.”

Samantha Nolan is a certified professional résumé writer and owner of Ladybug Design, a full-service résumé writing firm. Reach her at dearsam@ladybug-design.com, www.ladybug-design.com, or 1-888-9-LADYBUG (1-888-952-3928).

Dear Sam celebrates 3rd anniversary helping readers enhance their résumés

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of the readers for their ongoing support and readership of Dear Sam over the past three years. It’s been a sincere pleasure providing you with actionable résumé strategies and job search advice. I hope you have found the information to be useful and have been able to implement these strategies in your own searches. Please feel free to contact me anytime with questions or comments at dearsam@dispatch.com. ~ Samantha

Dear Sam: I have been looking for another position since March with no success. I hate my current job. I'm underpaid, overworked, and unappreciated. My main issue in finding another position is that I'm over-educated and under-experienced for most opportunities. You'll see on my résumé I have held mostly customer service positions. You'll also see I have a degree in Physics/Astronomy. I am at my wits end. I have looked at state and government jobs, small companies, and large companies. I have tried scientific fields, HR, finance/accounting, administrative, etc. and no one has given me a chance. I have been fully capable of all the positions I have applied for. The companies that turn me down use "experience" as an excuse to not hire me. If you have any advice I would certainly appreciate it. – Jamie

Dear Jamie: First, let me paint a picture of your résumé for our readers. It begins with a statement as to your availability, followed by technical skills, education, and lastly experience. Let’s go through each section and identify opportunities to enhance the information, as I fear with the current structure, your résumé will very rarely, if ever, yield a call for an interview.

Availability: A résumé should never open with a statement as to your availability. Instead you should engage the reader with a qualifications summary which showcases your related skills and experiences. You may have to develop different résumés for different purposes if you are going to pursue diverse objectives. Take a look at the Case Studies section of my website for ideas of how to structure this summary. In essence, it should answer the question as to why they should interview you, what makes you qualified for the job, and what value you offer over your competitors. With the screening process being as short as 7 seconds, this summary plays the decisive role in whether you get a call for an interview.

Education: You stated you are “over-educated” so opening your résumé with an education section will hurt your chances of getting an interview. You have also listed your diploma which is completely unnecessary being you have a degree. I realize you may have listed your high school studies as your class rank was quite impressive, but this information may be best placed on your cover letter to reinforce your ability to excel in all academic and professional pursuits. You also listed graduate studies that took place in 2004/2005. Unless you are pursuing opportunities related to that field of study (teaching), I’d suggest omitting this as it will position you as unfocused and overeducated.

Experience: There are some severe problems with your experience section. There are 8 positions listed spanning the past 9 years, and only the last 2 positions have any significant explanation as to what duties were involved. When perusing this section I have no idea what you like to do or what you want to do in your career. You have moved throughout roles focused in the areas of customer service, research, foodservice, teaching and office support. You have also included months of employment in this section, which is not necessary as it only creates a “messy” look. By removing the months, you could probably omit unrelated positions that do nothing to enhance your candidacy. Remember, you only graduated from college three years ago, so presenting 9 years of experience really creates a disconnect. It would be wiser to focus on only your related and most recent engagements, so to position yourself as a recent grad with five or so years experience and a consistent record of working throughout your college career. This would present you as a much more competitive, and not overqualified, candidate.

To revamp this section, review each position and figure out which ones add value to your candidacy. Consider omitting or relocating teaching/research positions you held while pursuing your degree if they are unrelated to your current objective(s). This would maintain focus on your positions in the areas of customer service and office support. Fully engage the reader by exploring your responsibilities and achievements for each of these employers. If you do not have many achievements to highlight, think about presenting an overview of your experiences in a “Select Highlights” section appearing before the “Professional Experience” section. Doing so will focus the reader’s attention on your skills and experiences in the customer service/admin field, removing focus from the movement throughout your career, short tenures, and abundance of experience despite being a “recent” grad.

If you describe your positions with only a few bullet points each only 4-6 words long, how much value is the reader going to see in those positions? If you want the reader to get a sense that these positions qualify you for what you now want to do, you have to give them some space on the page, add value through strategic content, and highlight where you went above and beyond your daily assignments. Again, reference some examples on my website or any recently written résumé book for ideas of how to expand the content within this section to work for you.
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Dear Sam: I read your column every Sunday and find myself needing your assistance. I recently left a position involuntarily after a 34-year history with the company. How do I address this on my résumé and in an interview? – Russell

Dear Russell: I'm sorry to hear of your separation from an employer you were clearly loyal to. As you haven't had to look for a job in some time, I am sure this is a difficult situation. Let's first address the résumé. There is no reason to include the reason for leaving a position on a résumé, so really that is not a concern. You can however utilize certain strategies within your résumé to curb some of the negativity a hiring manager may feel when they hear that you were let go involuntarily.

Be sure you focus your résumé on your accomplishments, doing so will diminish the impact of an assumption you were let go for performance reasons. Also, include the promotions you had over your tenure to show that you were recognized for a job well done. Additionally, if you have access to performance reviews, think about pulling out some key excerpts to serve as third-party validation of your core skills.

Next, you will have to formulate a response for the inevitable "Why did you leave your last employer?" question. First, try to put aside your hurt feelings, as hard as that can be at a time like this, as it is crucial that you not portray any sort of anger or assignment of blame to a hiring manager during an interview. Instead, prepare a confident and honest response to the question, ending on a positive note focusing on what the experience taught you. Perhaps this could be related to affording you the opportunity to assess what you wanted to do at this juncture in your career, and seeking a position where you are a match for the organization, their culture, and your shared goals.

Reach Dear Sam at dearsam@ladybug-design.com. If you would like Dear Sam's résumé writing firm to write your résumé, please visit www.ladybug-design.com or call 614-570-3442 or toll-free 1-888-9-LADYBUG.