Resume Writing Quiz Answers: Experienced Job-Seekers

Resume Writing Quiz Answers:
Experienced Job-Seekers

by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D., and Katharine Hansen, Ph.D.

Thanks again for participating in our Resume Writing Quiz for Experienced Job-Seekers. 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!

Feel a need for more resume help?

Check out our Resume Resources for everything you ever wanted to know about resumes. And for a wide selection of professional sample resumes, go to Sample Job-Seeker Resumes for Job-Seekers in Various Professions.

Given that employers screen resumes for as few as 6 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 research study, 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. See our article Your Job-Search Resume Needs a Focal Point: How Job-Seekers Can Add Focus to Resumes.

One way to sharpen your focus is through a section called something like "Summary of Qualifications," "Profile" or the like. See our Resume Professional Profile/Qualifications Summary Worksheet.

Keywords are exceedingly important for today's resumes because they are what employers' Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) look for when resumes are placed in keyword-searchable databases after you submit them electronically. Keywords should be industry-specific and job-specific and taken right from the job posting. See our article, Tapping the Power of Keywords to Enhance Your Resume, for more ways to identify keywords and what keywords to use when not targeting a specific opening.

Most of the samples of in this portion of our sample resume section contain keyword sections in a table format.

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 a research study, 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.

A single resume style is preferred by all employers.

The correct response is False.

Resumes are extremely subjective documents, and employers disagree widely on their preferences. Many guidelines of resume writing and style are widely accepted, but it's not uncommon to find employers in disagreement about the quality of any given resume. See our Resume Do's and Don'ts for some of the widely accepted guidelines.

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 a research study, 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 and see our Accomplishments Worksheet.

You should always list Education before Experience.

The correct response is False.

New graduates typically list Education before Experience, while experienced job-seekers generally do the opposite. 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.

Employers' dependence on keywords to find the job candidates they want to interview has surged recent years because of technology. Inundated by resumes from job-seekers, employers have increasingly relied on placing 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, most employers search the databases of third-party job-posting and resume-posting boards on the Internet. More than 90 percent of resumes are searched for job-specific keywords. See: Tapping the Power of Keywords to Enhance Your Resume's Effectiveness and our Resume Keywords Worksheet.

Action Verbs

Hiring managers don't like functional resumes, so chronological resumes should always be used.

The correct response is True.

We include functional and chrono-functional formats as samples on our site because they can be used in extreme situations, but we recommend chronological resumes for most job-seekers. Purely functional resumes are the least common, least preferred by employers, detested by recruiters... and most Internet job boards do not accept this resume format.

While the chrono-functional/hybrid/combination resume is slightly more acceptable to employers than the purely functional format, most employers are unaccustomed to functional formats of any kind, finding them confusing, annoying, and a red flag that something is wrong in your background. At the very least, they will probably scrutinize a chrono-functional resume more closely to check for details and find the flaws that inspired the candidate to use this format. Some employers insist on knowing exactly what you did in each job.

Recruiters/headhunters particularly disdain functional formats, so this approach should never be used if you are primarily targeting recruiters with your job search. Employers in conservative fields are not fans of functional formats, nor are international employers. Functional formats, even chrono-functional, also are not acceptable on many online job boards. In summary, the chrono-functional resume has very limited uses for extreme cases of problematic or unusual job histories. If you feel you have no other choice than a chrono-functional resume, we recommend you enlist a professional resume writer to craft the resume into a viable marketing tool.

Let's say you've been in the workforce for 25 years. As an experienced job-seeker, how much of your job history should you list on your resume?

The correct response is a. All of it, but place the oldest experience in a section separate from your more recent experience.

Many hiring decision-makers, especially recruiters, are adamant about seeing every job listed from your college graduation to the present. They argue that background checks -- or even just seeing you in person at an interview -- will reveal your age anyway, so why hide it? Others recommend going back 15-20 years, with the idea that jobs beyond that point are likely not relevant to your next career move. If you have the opportunity to contact the decision-maker before sending your resume, you can always ask his or her preference. Another option is to include your jobs that are more than 15 years old, but list them in bare-bones fashion (title, employer, location) with or without dates of employment (instead of dates, you could give length of time worked at each older job). You may want to title this section Previous Professional Experience. Even if you opt to leave off the dates, the recipient will at least know that you have provided full disclosure by listing all jobs. Read more in our articles, Resume, Cover Letter, and Interview Strategies for Older Workers and Positive Attitude is Key When Fighting Prejudice Against Older Workers.

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 and our Free Sample Job Reference Lists for Job-Seekers.

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. While it's best to include all work experience, you can isolate experience older than 15 years in bare-bones fashion in a separate section, such as Previous Professional Experience. While an element of risk exists in leaving dates off this older experience, one option is to list numbers of years of experience in your older jobs.

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.

You should be sure to list your salary for each job on your resume.

The correct response is False.

Any discussion of salary belongs in the interview or job-offer phase of the job search. You may be asked to submit a salary history, but don't list that history directly on your resume, and don't submit a salary history unless asked to. Even then, proceed with caution. See our article, Responding to Requests for Salary Requirements or Salary Histories: Strategies and Suggestions.

It's best to use as much contact information as possible.

The correct response is False.

While job-seekers were once advised to include as much contact information as possible, the emerging trend for contact information on a resume is to include a Website address/URL, city and state only (no street address), a single phone number (no second/third number, no fax number), and a single email address, says Findings of 2011 Global Career Brainstorming Day: Trends for the Now, the New & the Next in Careers, published by the Career Thought Leaders Consortium.

Be sure your e-mail address is professional, not something silly or risque. You may also want to include links to online profiles, such as on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. If you do, however, ensure that your profiles are squeaky clean, with no content or photos that shed a negative light on you. 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 resume should be as general as possible so it won't limit your job choices.

The correct response is False.

Employers today expect resumes to be tailored to the targeted position. That means you do not send the same resume in response to each job you target; you tweak it to align with each job. You do not need to rewrite all of -- or even most of -- your resume for every job you apply for; but you do need to adjust it to show that you are a fit for each vacancy to which you send your resume. Consider using our Cover Letter and Resume Customization Worksheet.

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 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 with regard 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. See our article, The Scoop on Resume Length: How Many Pages Should Your Resume Be?

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, PhD, QuintCareers.com Creative Director

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.

QuintCareers.com Founder Dr. Randall Hansen

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.

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