1. The Right Resume

2. Purpose To market your relevant skills, knowledge and accomplishments
To obtain a job interview
To target a career field
To address needs of employer

3. What Does A Good Resume Do?
Provides information about you, not your work history
Focuses on the future
Focuses on achievements or accomplishments
Documents & prioritizes skills you enjoy using

4. A Good Resume Should…
Highlight skills & accomplishments that meet employer qualifications
Include only relevant information & experiences
Focus, Focus, Focus

5. Contents Of A Resume
Contact Information
Job Objective
Keyword List
Highlights of Qualifications
Accomplishment Statements
Chronologically
By Skill Areas
Combination
Work History
Education & Training
Special Characteristics or Qualifications

6. Types Of Resumes
Chronological - information is organized by job titles & presented in chronological order
Functional - information is organized by skills or functions
Combination
Executive Accomplishment - list of impressive career achievements
Curriculum Vitae
Resume Letters

7. Chronological Resumes - Uses
Call attention to a very stable & impressive work history
Call attention to consistent upward mobility and promotions in your chosen career
Use if remaining in same career field
Use if applying for a position in a very conservative field
Use if employer would be more comfortable with a traditional resume

8. When Not To Use Chronological
Changing career fields
Frequent changes in employers
De-emphasize age
Recent absences from the job market or gaps in employment

9. Functional Resumes - Uses
Making a career change/re-entering job market
Job titles don’t do justice to your accomplishments & responsibilities
Focusing on skills useful to future job rather than on past job content
Best accomplishments & most impressive work experience are not drawn from the most recent jobs but from farther back in time

10. Functional Resumes - Uses continued
Your work history is complicated or has long stretches of unsalaried periods
Most impressive skills came out of volunteer or otherwise unpaid work
Past career growth has not been continuous & progressive.
Variety of unrelated work experiences
Work has been free-lance, consulting, or temporary in nature

11. When Not To Use Functional
Little work experience or leadership experience
Want to emphasize promotions & career growth
Working in highly traditional fields, such as teaching, accounting & politics, where employers should be highlighted.

12. Combination Resumes Combines elements of chronological and functional
Presents patterns of accomplishments & skills in categorical sections
Includes brief work history and education summary

13. Use Combination Resumes
You have had several very different kinds of jobs, each one illustrating only ONE of several skills to be used in your new career
Past jobs are familiar to the public so job-description information is not important
You want to put equal emphasis on the jobs held in the past, and on the skills to be applied to the new job
You want to make it very obvious where each of the accomplishments occurred

14. Contact Information
Name at top of each page
Address – street address, city, state & zip code
Telephone numbers
Fax number
( if checked regularly)

15. Job Objective
Purpose
- Inform employer of your career goal and targeted interests.
- Describe focus of job search
Contents of Objective
Type of position
Level of position
Type and style of organization
Skills/Qualifications you bring, emphasize what you can contribute

16. Job Objective First information to appear after contact
Objective gives resume FOCUS and makes it more powerful and effective
Objective - necessary or not? You decide!

17. Highlights
Summarizes the most important skills, experience & personality traits you have to offer for a specific job.

18. Highlights continued Questions to ask yourself:
Why do you think you’d be a good candidate for this job?
What do you have to offer the employer?
How much experience do you have and what are your credentials?
If you don’t have credentials or experience, then how do you know that you’d be good at this?

19. Highlights continued
What does the employer need to know about you, to realize you’re the right one to hire?
What can you say about yourself, in about fifty words, that would get the employer excited about you?
Make answers into a series of about five powerful statements and place beneath the job objective

20. Accomplishment Statements
History of significant achievements
work
hobbies
volunteer projects
school activities
extracurricular activities
travel
life experiences

21. Accomplishment Statements continued
For each accomplishment create a list of:
chronological activities
transferable & specialized skills
results
Quantify
“Blow your own horn!”
Tailor to specific job
Provide unique commentary on who you are & what you can do

22. Accomplishment Statements Content
Incorporate action verbs & use the active voice when describing your experience
Use “keywords” appropriate for optical scanners
Avoid using the personal pronoun “I”

23. Examples of Action Verbs
abstracted augmented
accelerated authorized
accepted avoided
accompanied awarded
accomplished balanced
achieved bargained
acquainted based
acquired bought
acted briefed
adapted broadcast
added broadened
addressed brought
adjudicated budgeted
adjusted built
administered calculated
advanced called
advised canceled
For a complete list of Action Verbs see the Word document on our Employment website!

24. Accomplishment Statements Content
Incorporate action verbs & use the active voice when describing your experience
Use “keywords” appropriate for optical scanners
Avoid using the personal pronoun “I”
Use numbers & percentages whenever possible to demonstrate your performance on previous jobs

25. Accomplishment Statements Content continued
Include quotes relevant to your performance
Eliminate any negative references
Do not include names of supervisors
Be consistent in how you handle each description or summary
Put most important information first
Account for major time gaps

26. Education
If education relates to objective and is within the past three years, it should be the first section
Otherwise it should follow the work experience or relevant skills section

27. Fastest Way to Improve Any Resume
Provide how you performed each job in a unique way
Identify what you accomplished that nobody expected or asked of you
Explain what you are most proud of in each job
Distinguish what set you apart from others who held the same position

28. Improving Any Resume continued
Determine what your coworkers and supervisors will remember or miss about you
Describe the significance or beneficial outcome you contributed
Use plenty of action verbs
Be concise, to the point and clear
Don’t use narrative form for sentences
Emphasize your benefits for a potential employer
Make the resume visually pleasing and easy to read

29. Steps in Resume Writing
Self-assessment
Documentation
Research
Development of goal statement
Description of accomplishments
Selection of other supporting data
Selection of format and typing
Proofreading
Reproduction

30. Pitfalls to Avoid Too long or too short
Poor layout & physical appearance
Misspelling, bad grammar
Poor punctuation
Lengthy phrases, sentences, paragraphs
Too slick, “gimmicky”
Poorly typed & reproduced
Irrelevant information
Doesn’t convey accomplishments
Text doesn’t support objective
Use of abbreviations

31. Functional Skill Headings
Choose skill headings which match skills needed for job objective
Under each skill heading choose four or five accomplishments which demonstrate your expertise in that skill area

32. Examples of Skill Headings
Accounting
Acquisition
Administration
Advertising
Advising
Budgeting
Business Management
Career Development
Communication
Community Affairs
Construction
Consulting
Counseling
Crisis Intervention
Culinary Arts
Customer Service
Data Processing
Design
Engineering
Evaluation

33. Functional Skill Headings continued
Facilities Maintenance
Finance
fundraising
Graphic Design
Human Resources
Instruction
Investigation
Investment
Legal
Market Research
Needs Analysis
Office Support
Operations
Organizations
Planning
Presentations
Problem Solving
Product Development
Program Development
Project Management

34. Additional Acceptable Contents
Awards
Publications
Community service
Credentials
Professional affiliations
Internships
Relevant course work
Hardware/Software
Equipment
Languages
Presentations

35. Scannable Resumes
Machine reads resume and creates a database of applicant’s relevant skills, degrees and achievements in form of key words
Employer then searches by key words

36. Effective Scannable Resume
Keep it simple
Standard serif and sans serif fonts work best
Use sizes between 10 and 14
Use boldface for emphasis or ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, avoid italics and underlining
Avoid use of vertical or horizontal lines
Avoid graphics, shading or shadowing

37. Effective Scannable Resume continued
Do not compress or expand the space between letters or lines
Do not double space within sections
Submit an original printed on a laser printer
Describe your skills and accomplishments in key word phrases
Use the language of your profession

38. COVER LETTERS

39. Definition
Letter or note that must always accompany a resume whenever the resume is not delivered by you, in person, directly to the employer.

40. TIPS
Cover letter should not be generic, customize the letter and resume to the job
Before writing your cover letter ask yourself:
Why do you want to work for that particular company?
What do you know about the company, and how did you hear of them?
What do you know about the position you’re applying for?
How could you help that particular company reach its goals?

41. Guidelines
Research the employer’s organization and personalize each letter
Highlight one or two of your most significant accomplishments or abilities to show you are an above average candidate
Be brief, demonstrating you understand the value of the reader’s time
Use polite formal style that also demonstrates confidence in yourself and respect for the employer
Make your tone, content and expectations positive
Use active voice and powerful action verbs

42. Guidelines continued
Group similar items together in a paragraph and organize paragraphs so that they relate to each other logically
Back up general statements with specific facts or examples
Avoid jargon and cliches
Check spelling and grammar carefully
Never misrepresent yourself by overstating your experience or skills

43. How To Write a Good Cover Letter
Address your letter to someone who has the authority to hire you
Using your research about the company/organization write with their point of view in mind
Set yourself apart
Be specific
Take the initiative about the next step
Be brief

44. Employment Portfolio
A complete and permanent collection of your work history & a cumulative record of accomplishments
Living Document
Documents the scope & quality of your experience & training
Demonstrates your skills &
abilities

45. Organizing Your Portfolio
Determine the skills & experiences you have that relate to needs of the employer
Establish what you have done to exhibit those skills
Make sure presentation is professional
Place similar information together
Label different sections

46. Portfolio Contents
list of names, titles, addresses, & telephone numbers of persons to be used for references
certificates of special training
samples of work; programs of event you planned, photos of projects you completed, etc.
samples of your writing
newspaper clippings
copy of resume
fact sheet
updated application forms
letters of recommendation
list of experiences that do not fit into resume
letters of commendation, awards, & honors
personnel actions - SF 50s, performance evaluations (JF-50)
college transcripts

47. TIPS Obtain letters of recommendation before leaving a position.
Obtain letters to verify volunteer work & community involvement
HAND CARRY YOUR PORTFOLIO WHEN TRANSFERRING OR LEAVING POST BECAUSE OF EVACUATION!!!

48. Your Dream Job Is Only 3 Steps Away
Networking
Resume Writing
Interviewing