March 01st, 2017

Résumé Writing 101

We have all had to struggle through writing a résumé since graduation. It’s fun, isn’t it? How to start, how to format, what to type in and not type in, when to ‘end’ it, style and font size, text boxes/columns, page frames, graphics, acronyms behind my name, format (Word ’97, .pdf), etc.? YUK!
 
Let’s start with 101. “Résumé” is French for ‘summary.’ SUMMARY! Over the decades, Americans quit using the accents above the ‘e’ and simply type it as “Resume.” You may have heard of a ‘CV.’ From the Latin, Curriculum Vitae means ‘[the] course of [my] life.’ Those in Canada and Europe still refer to their ‘summary’ as a ‘CV,’ which it is generally not. It's a cultural thing. Few, if any hiring decision-makers (DMs) want, or need to know your life history. In America, DMs and those in Human Resources skim a resume for 3 to 7 seconds seeking a reason to read it further and possibly contact you for an interview, or quickly delete it. THIS IS THE SOLE PURPOSE OF A RESUME! Only great interviewing will earn you the job offer. Then, how ‘fair’ is that job offer and how desperate are you?

That said, for those in certain professions that are published, (inter)national speakers, TV guests, a true ‘CV’ may be the way to go. These are typically four to eight pages in length. Will your potential, future boss find it easy to skim for what they seek and then read it? I only author a handful of these each year, so they are rare no matter where you reside.
 
During my 30+ years as a Vice President/General Manager I reviewed more than 30,000 resumes. 98% of them were terrible. In 3 to 7 seconds I couldn’t tell what the applicant was professionally; their ‘market brand.’ I didn’t quickly see portable skills and achievements that I could use today. DELETE! There was no further reading since I did have a business to run. Please don’t prepare and send a ‘chronological obituary.’ Author and send a ‘marketing masterpiece’ that markets you well into interviews!
 
Is this the fault of the applicant? The author of the resume? Well, yes, but in all fairness, how many resumes have you had to author in your lifetime? Not many and certainly, without professional training, not enough to know what the reader is seeking, how best to make it both easy and pleasing to read while providing the elements stated above: market brand, portable skills, and portable achievements (s)he could use today BEFORE noting employers! This is the prime reason I leveraged my years of reviewing resumes, interviewing, hiring, coaching, mentoring into a profession that really helps people with a skill that is terribly lacking. I love helping people!
 
Opinions are like noses – everyone has one. There are those that may take an exception with what I am about to share with you, but most resume writers are NOT certified professionals and most come from a department that can deny your hire and never approve it – Human Resources and Recruiting. They look for different things than most DMs. That said, I have had many clients from both HR and recruiting, so they know they need help sometimes, too.
 
Before we get started, please realize that the resume for a recent graduate is going to look differently than someone that is older and has been with a few employers over the years and has had time to gain successes and achievements and build their skillset! That’s fine – you are where you are, but remember the word “marketing!” Market yourself well without grammatical errors, spelling errors, punctuation errors, poor paragraph separation, misuse of words, et al. For these purposes I’ll align everything to the left, although I seldom do that when preparing a resume, but this is an article! LOL!
 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
William A. Smith
Complete Home Address (Many omit this - DON'T!)
Email:  (Highlight and remove the underline)     Mobile Telephone:
 
Creative, Proven, Operations Manager (Your 'Market Brand')
 
(Brief, summary paragraph) e.g., Professionally, brings more than 10 years of expertise in operations management within the oil & gas sector. This requires a very broad skillset including outstanding communicative, collaborative, organizational, technical, budgetary, and leadership skills to improve customer satisfaction, promote corporate growth, and increase profit.
 
HIGHLIGHTS OF QUALIFICATIONS (Your portable, meaningful skills)
 
Regulatory Compliance · Strong Team-Builder · Mentor, Trainer & Coach
Dynamic Problem-Solver · Mechanical Engineering Expertise · (I use four, or five rows)
 
NOTABLE PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS (Use only those meaningful to the new job)
 
These better be good and relevant to the position and industry you're seeking! Achievements (preferably no older than 10 years)!! Five, or six of them is great, no more!
 
ACADEMIC SUCCESS & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
 
Bachelor of Science; Mechanical Engineering – University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
Six Sigma Black Belt Certification – Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
Professional Engineer Certification (P.E.)
 
(This is typically the entire first page. If you don’t have any, or much of the above, then continue here:)
 
PROFESSIONAL SYNOPSIS                                                                                             Page 2 of 2
 
ABC Enterprises, Inc.; Houston, Texas                                                                     2010 – Present
(Sometimes I’ll cut and paste a brief quote from the company website describing what they do.)
Senior Operations Manager
· Achievement
· Achievement
· Achievement
 
ABC Company; Dallas, Texas                                                                                          2007 – 2010  Operations Manager
· Achievement
· Achievement
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 
(…seldom a need to go into history more than 10 to 15 years since many of the skills required are now antique AND it displays ‘age.’ Yes, I ‘center’ certain areas, ‘justify’ where needed, and make the resume aesthetically pleasing to the eye…the reader.)

Most of my resumes are two pages, some three pages, and a few, one page. Yes, I change font sizes for some of the areas above. In certain areas I use gray color shading and borders above and below the 'headings' (never 'boxed!'). Notice that we’ve made good usage of ‘white space’ above and didn’t cram a ton of information in there – too difficult to skim!
 
When you apply online, thousands of others will do the same. Since no department can review that many, Applicant Tracking System (ATS) software will first receive your resume. It will expel it for page frames, format (.pdf, for instance), text boxes/columns, graphics, tiny margins, tiny fonts, pictures, headers, footers, and the list goes on. Obviously, you can’t design your new resume with these! It will never reach human eyes.
 
I hope this gives you a template, of sorts, and a way to get started. If you ‘Google’ “Resume Writers” in Houston, the nation’s fourth largest city, you’ll get nearly 12 million results! Interesting, since there are only eight, Certified Professional Resume Writers (CPRW) in the greater Houston area at present. So, who are the millions of others…former HR recruiters with a laptop? As with most things, you get what you pay for!
 
Good luck and all the best with your career search campaign!