**UPDATE: If you want to create an awesome resume – I found a pretty cool resource for you… Amazing Resume Creator. It’s top notch. Check it out here**
How To Write A Resume That Will Get You A Job
I go through quite a few resumes on a daily basis – whether it be for clients themselves or for our own employees. Truthfully, most of them suck.
When I see a resume for the first time, I guage it no different than a website. I scan the top edge, then down the left column. I get through the objective, and maybe into the first few lines of text before it goes in the trash. And that’s if it is typed and formatted well! If something jumps off the page at me, I keep reading.
What I want to do is teach you how to write a resume that will get you a job. We are going to go through some points I consider to be important in formatting your resume correctly. Please keep in mind, this is more of a technology oriented position. Marketing and Healthcare have their own standards and creativity factors, but tech guys generally like it pretty cut and dried. Fluffy is for the marketing department!
How To Write A Resume
:
Top Section of the Resume or Header
There are a couple things I like to see in the first few lines. Things like a name, email address and phone number. An address is a good thing as well. For me, it doesn’t need to be on fun letterhead or have curly cues in the corners. Just show me you know what the hell you are talking about.
Resume Objectives
The first thing you should put right below your name and phone number is your objective. And here’s a tip: Make it specific. I hate seeing things like, “Looking for employment after graduation.” Sure, that may be true – but it gives me the impression that you will be here for a year or two, steal all our SEO secrets and half our clients, and go work for a competitor. That wouldn’t make me too happy.
Instead, write something specific to the job you are applying for. If you are looking to get into a project management position for Accenture, put something like, “To become the project manager for a world class consulting agency.”
The Experience Section of a Resume
The experience section is what you have done that will have some sort of impact on the company you are applying to. If you are straight out of college with a programming degree, write something like, “Application and Software Design for Manufacturing Companies.” Or how about, “Group Leader of a Case Analysis of Google.” Those are all relevant experiences that will cause an eyebrow to be raised by the reader.
The Skills Section of a Resume
This is my favorite part, because when you are in the world of technology, it is scary how much you know how to do. And don’t be bashful about putting your skills down. Bashful people are the ones still looking for jobs!
Do you know Flash? Modo? PHP? SQL? Dreamweaver? Access? Linux? Unix? List it all out!
Education Section
I don’t need to tell you what goes here. I will leave it to those damn student loan bills to give you a clue… $100,000 for one section of a resume!
Employment
The previous employment section is a bit touchy. If you are non traditional student, going to college, you might want to put it above the education section. If you have never had a job, don’t worry about it! And if you had too many jobs, only include the last 5 or so years worth, but don’t leave time gaps! Make sure you time is accounted for.
Honors
This is the nice, quaint, conceited section of your resume. Put anything you have won or been recognized for. Whether it be a pie eating contest when you were twelve or a marketing award from you college. Just make sure that it applies to the job you are looking for..
OK, leave the pie contest out unless you are applying to Google only for the free lunches!
Activities
In this section, just write what you do with yourself. Fill in any gaps, or put your personal interests down. If you work 55 hours a week, do projects on the side, and go to school full time – make sure that shows through here!
References
The one thing I will say about references is, “INCLUDE THEM!” Don’t make a perspective employer hunt you down to find out where that can get a hold of people. Frankly, an impressive application that says, “References available upon request,” ends up in the garbage.
Summary
A couple closing words on resumes. Make sure you update it every couple months. Our lives are so busy, we tend to forget about that last big project we just did, or the design software that we just learned. Make sure that you take note of all that stuff on a recurring basis.
Finally, your resume showcases you… What you have worked for… And what you know. Don’t just throw something together in a hurry because it is the only option. Did you work your ass off in school and in your internships so you can throw it out the window when it counts?
**UPDATE: If you haven’t checked out Amazing Resume Creator and you’re trying to figure out how to write a resume, you should. It’s an awesome resource. Check it out here**
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{ 13 comments }
Nice article. I always like to read what employers are looking for in resumes. I wonder though, why are the reference and objective sections so important to you? If the person has a good resume, won’t you want to contact them and have a chat with the person you will be hiring? If I put a reference on my resume, I probably had a good relationship with that person and expect them to say only good things about me. What about the objective? If I send my resume to an employer, referencing a job that I found listed somewhere, won’t you already know my objective? Isn’t this the purpose of the cover letter? Please don’t take this as bad criticism, I’m honestly interested in hearing what others have to say about the topic as everyone I talk to has their own opinion on the matter.
How do you find the time to do all this stuff that I read about on your site and still be in the Master’s program in intelligence at Mercyhurst college? You must be the ultimate master of time management! How do you get it all in?
Cory – To be honest, being in business plan competitions and starting businesses, I have gotten accustomed to one liners, or elevator pitches. I also liken it to good titles for blog posts – the better the title, the more readers you will affect. Having a good objective, or a good intro, will hook a reader (in this case, a prospective employer) into reading the rest of what you have to say. It is kind of like a good handshake while making eye contact – it’s just something you remember for a long time.
In regards to the reference section, I would rather the employee be up front about who to contact. I know that the employee was probably close with their references, but sometimes doing your homework before calling someone in for an interview is as important as the interview itself! Not only does it give you an idea of the character of the person, but it also gives a glimpse of what to expect!
You are right Cory – everyone does have their own opinion, and no one technically has the right one. The hardest part is trying to showcase your own talents in a resume, without being overly cocky. And sometimes the best way to do that is to make sure you put what you are good at towards the top of the resume itself.
Andrew – The funny thing is, I used to suck at time management. I found myself always being busy, but never really doing anything!
What changed all that was working at Pepsi as a truck driver/merchandiser/manager for 5 years, and going back to school on top of it. Working 60 hours a week and going to school full time tends to up the ante a bit. And for the last year and a half, since I opened up Tech Solution, it seems like I am on vacation :0)
Well… sometimes!
Jason, I really appreciate the reply. Very insightful, and I now see where you are coming from. Time is money, and if you can find a way for people to cut the bull, it’s just that much less time you spend sifting through the bad stuff.
Where I work we contact all the references and then uncover ones they did not mention.
Education is spelled with an A… not “eduction”.
I hope you don’t put “Eduction” and “detail oriented” together on your resume – it’s likely to be tossed out.
How do you like the Mercyhurst program, Jason?
Cory – It’s my pleasure! There again, these are only my opinions… I do know that a lot of other professionals look for similar things in a resume, and that’s what I tried to cater to. But the fact of the matter is, everyone has their own thing – and it is largely attributed to their field. For instance, in marketing and design – portfolios are key. There are some coders who carry around portfolios as well and that is usually pretty beneficial..
Duncan – That is also a good tip. The one problem with references is there are only so many questions you are legally allowed to ask. Most people don’t abide by the rules at all, though. I am really not sure how I feel about that either. For example, if you ask a previous employer if the worker was good or bad, that is illegal. But you can ask them if they would hire them back…
Amanda – sorry for the typo. The keys have a habit of getting away from me sometimes.. And in regards to being detail oriented, I think I have said, “I hate details” close to a hundred times on this site in it year of existence… I guess misspellings are the benefit of having a personal blog :0)
Andrew – I really like the school a lot. I have to finish up one more semester’s worth of Business Management classes before I move into the Intel program, but I really like all the professors and (most of) the students there. Being a non traditional student, I have come to appreciate education and the big picture – rather than all the partying…
Thanks, Jason for your thoughts on the school. And good luck to you with your schooling and your business ventures! : )
Very nice article, and ‘$100,000 for one section of resume’, lol, that’s about right, and it’s worth less and less these days, I’ll always give more weight to experience.
I’ve got a similar article myself on how to write a resume I just posted that’s got examples in downloadable Word doc format for Entry Level, Executive, Sales, and Retail Management if you’d like to have a look:
http://wickedhowtos.com/index.php/2007/08/04/how-to-write-a-resume/
Cheers,
Andrew
Hi Jason, first of all do I get a congrats and a prize for the 240th download? [even number!!]
Nice article… I come from a bad British legacy system so the CV has to be in reverse chronological order with lots of gory details.
Plus Im from India. some of the organizations still insist on knowing what your dad does, what religion you follow and what caste you belong to. [Whats EOE?]
Also, if you are good, you can fake a whole department, system etc. I personally think references can be managed suitably. What am I talking about? Entire department is planning an exodus. We give each other references. Everyone has clainmed they have worked at a level higher than the actual. They then seek a position atleast one level higher. [2 positional jumps in one move.].
So it always helps if you as a recruiter have horizontal, industrial knowledge, also called general knowledge. [Background checks can be expensive]
And dont you hate it when somebody lies, and the CV is 80% good, but the data conflicts and you know they are “over projecting”. My first reaction is “No Imagination!” followed by “I guess I have to look at more CVs” It also tells me whether this person is good at front line [Mostly talk and sales pitch] or back-end [detail oriented] positions..
Sorry to have vented on your comments page…Got carried away as usual..
I'm updating my resume and re-entering the job search. Thanks for the tips and wish me good luck!
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