by Katharine Hansen, Ph.D., and Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.
Thanks again for participating in our
Resume Writing Quiz for Career
Changers. Need help with your resume? Scroll down for information about our resume-writing service.
Here are the correct responses. How did you do? Once you've checked
your answers, be sure to
score your results!
Given that employers screen resumes for between 2.5 and 20 seconds,
a resume should show the employer at a glance what you want to do and
what you're good at. What technique should you consider to sharpen the focus
of your resume and provide the reader with this vital information?
The correct answer is d. All of the above.
A sharp focus is an extremely
important resume element. In a recent study by Career Masters Institute,
employers wanted resumes to show a clear match between the applicant and
a particular job's requirements. A "general" resume that is not focused
on a specific job's requirements was seen as not competitive.
One way to sharpen your focus is through an objective statement. (See
Question 17 for more on objective statements)
You can also add a section called something like "Summary of Qualifications,"
"Profile" or the like. You can see examples of Profile sections in most
of these resume samples.
The above samples require Adobe Acrobat reader, a free
download available the same site. See also
this page
of our Resume Tutorial.
A small, tasteful graphic can be very effective, but it's not for everyone.
Be very careful and get some opinions from people in your field
before using a graphic. Use graphics only on the "print" or Web-page
version of your resume, not on text-based electronic or scannable versions.
We've seen job-seekers successfully employ small graphics depicting
the scales of justice (for a job in law), a horse (for a job working with
horses), and a world globe (for someone in international business).
The reader could instantly tell by the graphic what each of these
job-seekers wanted to do.
When describing work experience, paragraph-style job descriptions are preferred over bulleted lists.
The correct response is False.
A bulleted style will make your resume more
reader-friendly. In the above-cited study by Career Masters Institute,
use of bullets was the 2nd-highest ranked point by employers, and density
of type (paragraphs rather than bullet points) was ranked highly as a
factor that would inspire employers to discard a resume.
It's important for career changers to consider listing relevant skills gained from unpaid experience, such as volunteer work.
The correct response is True.
When you are changing careers, you have the difficult challenge of showing that
you are qualified for your new career even though you may have little or
no experience in the new career field. Therefore, you will want to
emphasize skills you've gained that are transferable and applicable to your
new career field. You may need to broaden your view of where you've gained your
skills. Be aware that experience is experience, and it matters little whether
that experience was paid or not. Consider volunteer work, course work, and
even "family management." See our articles,
Career Changers' Most Powerful
Resume and Cover-Letter Tool: Transferable Skills and
Transferable Skills
-- a Vital Job-search Technique.
Within your professional history, the most important element to highlight is:
The correct response is d. Accomplishments.
Skills are important but can be emphasized within descriptions of
accomplishments that demonstrate that you have the right skills. Accomplishments
will set you apart from other job candidates. In each job, what special
things did you do to set yourself apart? How did you do the job better
than anyone else or than anyone else could have done? What did you do
to make it your own? What special things did you do to impress your
boss so that you might be promoted? What were the problems or challenges
that you or the organization faced? What did you do to overcome the
problems? What were the results of your efforts? How did the company
benefit from your performance? How did you leave your employers better
off than before you worked for them? How have you helped your employer to:
make money
save money
save time
make work easier
solve a specific problem
be more competitive
build relationships
expand the business
attract new customers
retain existing customers
Accomplishments are the points that really help sell you to an employer --
much more so than everyday job duties. In the above-cited study by Career
Masters Institute, content elements that propel employers to immediately
discard resumes include a focus on duties instead of accomplishments,
while documented achievements were highly ranked among content elements that
employers look for.
Read more
about how to identify your accomplishments.
You should always list Experience before Education.
The correct response is False.
Experienced job-seekers typically list Experience before Education, but
if you have recent training or education relevant to your new career, you may want to consider
listing Education before Experience. The key is which
is your best selling point -- your education or your experience?
It's perfectly acceptable to use personal pronouns (I, me, my) on a resume.
The correct response is False.
Although the understood grammatical subject of most bullet points in a resume
is "I," the word "I" and other personal pronouns are not generally used.
When listing your job history, list in this order:
The correct response is d. Title/position first, followed by name of employer, city/state of employer, dates of employment.
Information on a resume should be listed in order of importance to
the reader. Therefore, in listing your jobs, what's generally most
important is your title/position. Don't forget employer locations;
many job-seekers leave those out. See also
this page
of our Resume Tutorial.
What types of words are most important to include in your resume?
The correct response is a. Action verbs and job-specific keywords.
Do not ever let your resume leave your hands until you have described your
accomplishments, skills, and experiences using these key action verbs. Remember
to use these action verbs in writing your resume to increase the strength of your writing
and make potential employers take notice of your accomplishments and skills!
See our detailed list of Action Verbs.
Employers' use of and eventual dependence on keywords to find the job candidates
they want to interview has come about in recent years because of technology.
Inundated by resumes from job-seekers, employers have increasingly relied on
digitizing job-seeker resumes, placing those resumes in keyword-searchable
databases, and using software to search those databases for specific keywords
that relate to job vacancies. Most Fortune 1000 companies, in fact, and many
smaller companies now use these technologies. In addition, many employers search
the databases of third-party job-posting and resume-posting boards on the
Internet. Pat Kendall, president of the National Resume Writers' Association,
notes that more than 80 percent of resumes are searched for job-specific
keywords. See: Tapping the
Power of Keywords to Enhance Your Resume's Effectiveness.
Career changers with minimal experience in the field they're changing to, should consider this resume technique:
The correct response is d. All of the above.
See Question 3 regarding transferable skills. Career-changers are among those who should consider
a chrono-functional resume format because it emphasizes transferable and applicable skills over job history.
A chrono-functional resume is organized around functional skills clusters. After
listing 3-4 skills clusters and showing how you've demonstrated those skills,
you would have a bare-bones work history at the bottom. Read more about
chrono-functional formats and see samples.
Personal information (such as age, race, marital status) should never be included on resumes in the U.S.
The correct response is True.
U.S. employers absolutely don't want to see that type of information on a
resume and will often black it out with a marker if it appears.
The reason is that they don't want to be sued for discrimination if you're
not hired. See this page of our
Resume Tutorial for a complete list of things never to list
on your resume.
It's important to list references on a resume.
The correct response is False.
References belong in a later stage of the job search and should never be
included directly on your resume. You can create a separate references list,
but don't submit it with your resume UNLESS SPECIFICALLY REQUESTED BY
THE EMPLOYER. See: this page
of our Resume Tutorial.
Even the line "References: Available upon request" is highly optional because
it is a given that you will provide references upon request.
If you couldn't, you would have no business looking for a job. The line can
serve the purpose of signaling: "This is the end of my resume," but if
you are trying to conserve space, leave it off.
It's okay to leave off dates from education and older work experience to help de-emphasize a job-seeker's age.
The correct response is True.
It's fairly standard to leave off the date of your college graduation if it's
more than about 10 years ago. For work experience older than 15 years, you have
the option of leaving it off altogether (see Question 10) or, if you feel it
is vital to leave it on, to omit the dates.
You should list hobbies and interests on your resume to make you more "human."
The correct response is False.
It's standard procedure these days NOT to include hobbies on a resume; they are
seen as superfluous and trivial. An argument can be made that they're
interview conversation starters or that they make you seem well-rounded, but in
most cases it's best to leave them off. An exception would be if your hobbies/
interests are job-related.
It's especially important for career-changers to tailor their resumes to each specific job they apply for.
The correct response is True.
An employer is much more likely to consider a job-seeker with minimal
relevant experience if the job-seeker's resume shows how he or she meets
the job's requirements. One of the best ways to show that fit is to use
the same keywords and buzzwords in your resume that appear in the job
posting, ad, or job description. See Question 8 for more about keywords.
Also make sure your Objective statement aligns exactly with the specific
job you're applying for. See Question 17 for more about Objectives.
It's best to keep your resume uncluttered with minimal contact information.
The correct response is False.
Surprisingly, some recent research has shown that employers don't often
use contact information such as fax numbers and cell-phone numbers. Still,
it's important to list as much contact information as possible on your
resume in case the employer has difficulty reaching you through your main
phone number or e-mail address. Be sure your e-mail address is professional,
not something silly or risque. And be sure you have an answering machine,
voicemail, or human being to take messages for you when you're not available.
See this page of
our Resume Tutorial.
Your Objective statement should be as general as possible so it won't limit your job choices.
The correct response is False.
The objective statement should be as specific as possible. If you fear limiting
yourself, it's better not to have an objective than to have one that's vague.
The objective statement can be very simple and straightforward; it can be
simply the title of the position you're applying for, which can be adjusted
for every job you apply for. Or you can embellish the Objective statement
a bit with language telling how you'll benefit the employer. Something like:
Objective: To contribute strong ________ skills and experience to your
firm in a _________ capacity.
In this day of being able to manage our own computer files, you could
have several versions of your resume that are exactly the same EXCEPT for the
objective. A specific objective is always better than a vague or general one.
You can read more about resume objectives in our article,
Should You Use a Career Objective on Your Resume?,
and on this page of our Resume Tutorial.
It's okay for job-seekers to pad work experience, create job titles, and the like - as long as they do not lie on their resumes.
The correct response is False.
In a recent study by ResumeDoctor.com of recruiter pet peeves about
resumes, recruiters stated the most common misleading information
being put on resumes consists of:
Inflated titles
Inaccurate dates to cover up job hopping or gaps of employment
1/2 finished degrees, inflated education or "purchased" degrees that do not mean anything
Inflated accomplishments
Out and out lies in regards to specific roles and duties
Now, you may have worked in a job where your title was not especially
impressive or descriptive of what you actually did in the job. In a case like
that, you can try asking the employer you worked for if there is any
objection to tweaking your job title for resume purposes. But don't ever
use a different title on your resume without covering yourself with the
corresponding employer.
A resume can be as many pages as a job-seeker needs to include
all his or her pertinent job, skills, and education information.
The correct response is False.
U.S. resumes generally should not be more than two pages.
One or two typos or misspellings on a resume won't hurt if you're
well qualified for the job.
The correct response is False.
Typos and misspellings are usually the kiss of death in a resume. Be sure
to spell-check but not rely on spell-checking. Also proofread, proofread
again, and ask someone else to proofread, too.
Questions about some of the terminology used in this quiz? Get more information (definitions and links) on key college, career, and job-search
terms by going to our Job-Seeker's Glossary of Job-Hunting Terms.
Katharine Hansen, Ph.D., creative director and associate
publisher of Quintessential Careers, is an educator, author,
and blogger who provides content for Quintessential Careers,
edits QuintZine,
an electronic newsletter for jobseekers, and blogs about storytelling
in the job search at A Storied
Career. Katharine, who earned her PhD in organizational behavior
from Union Institute & University, Cincinnati, OH, is author of Dynamic
Cover Letters for New Graduates and A Foot in the Door: Networking
Your Way into the Hidden Job Market (both published by Ten Speed Press),
as well as Top Notch Executive Resumes (Career Press); and with
Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D., Dynamic Cover Letters, Write Your
Way to a Higher GPA (Ten Speed), and The Complete Idiot's Guide
to Study Skills (Alpha). Visit her
personal Website
or reach her by e-mail at
kathy(at)quintcareers.com.
Dr. Randall S. Hansen is founder of Quintessential Careers,
one of the oldest and most comprehensive career development sites on the Web, as well CEO of
EmpoweringSites.com. He is also founder of
MyCollegeSuccessStory.com and
EnhanceMyVocabulary.com. He is publisher of
Quintessential Careers Press,
including the Quintessential Careers electronic newsletter,
QuintZine. Dr. Hansen is also a
published author, with several books, chapters in books, and hundreds of articles. He's often
quoted in the media and conducts empowering workshops around the country. Finally, Dr. Hansen is
also an educator, having taught at the college level for more than 15 years. Visit his
personal Website or
reach him by email at randall(at)quintcareers.com.
