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.
Should you list your GPA on your resume?
The correct response is d. Yes, if your overall GPA and/or GPA in your major is
over 3.0.
List GPA only if 3.0 or higher. If your overall GPA is lower than 3.0,
but your GPA in your major is 3.0 or above, you can isolate your major GPA.
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.
When listing your Education, list in this order:
The correct response is b. Name of degree in name of major, name of college, city/state of college, graduation date.
Information on a resume should be listed in the order of importance to the
reader. When it comes to education, the employer is primarily interested
in what degree you have. Don't forget your college's location, a common
omission. If you don't have the degree yet, you can still list your
graduation date (NOT a span of sates of attendance). Simply by virtue of the
fact that the date's in the future, the employer will know you don't yet have
the degree in hand.
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.
Students with very little experience, especially minimal experience in their chosen field, should consider this resume technique:
The correct response is d. All of the above.
When you are starting your career, you have the difficult challenge of showing that
you are qualified for that career even though you may have little or no experience in
the field. Therefore, you will want to emphasize skills you've gained that are transferable and
applicable to your career field. You may need to broaden your view of where
you've gained your skills -- such as from class projects and coursework; see
also Question 10. And see our article
Transferable
Skills -- a Vital Job-search Technique, and
this page, and
this page of our Resume Tutorial.
New grads 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.
Unpaid experience, such as you may have gained from internships, sports,
volunteer work and extracurricular activities, should be:
The correct response is c. incorporated with your paid experience.
Be aware that experience is experience, and it matters little whether
that experience was paid or not. Any activity in which you have spent significant
time and gained relevant skills is fair game for your resume's Experience section.
See this page of
our Resume Tutorial.
.
It's especially important to consider listing sports in your Experience section. You can exploit
many transferable skills (teamwork, leadership, competitive drive) with sports. Many on-campus
recruiters specifically ask to interview athletes. Use the
heading "Experience" rather than "Employment" or "Work History" so that
the section can include unpaid activities.
Students who have or are pursuing a four-year degree and also have an associate's
degree from a community college should include the associate's degree on their resumes.
The correct response is False.
Once you have or are on the path to a four-year degree, list your
associate's degree only if it adds something, such as a relevant
subject area that is different from that of your four-year degree.
If you don't have a lot to list on your resume, you can list your associate's
degree, but conversely, if you are trying to condense to one page,
community college is something you can easily omit.
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.
Students who belong to a greek organization should be sure to
mention their fraternity or sorority by name on their resumes.
The correct response is False.
Believe it or not, the name of your greek organization is something that
employers have been known to use to screen out candidates based on deep-seated
rivalries or animosities. So, naming your fraternity or sorority on your
resume is a calculated risk. You should avoid information that could be
used to screen you out. Better to list your Greek organization generically, for
example: Membership vice president for social fraternity.
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 high-school education on your resume.
The correct response is False.
Generally, omit high-school education from your resume. If you insist on
putting it on, at least list your college education first! High school is expected
on some international resumes, and it can also be listed if, for example,
you won a major award that shows early interest in your career field.
If you are trying to condense to one page, high school is something you
can easily -- and should -- omit.
Knowing that a prospective employer might try to reach you in your
dorm room after you've sent out your resume, what kind of greeting should
you have on your answering machine or voicemail?
The correct response is d. A professional greeting that tells the employer you are serious about job-hunting.
Employers don't want to hear silly messages about how you're out for a beer run
right now. Be sure your greeting is professional. Same goes for your voicemail
greeting on your cell phone.
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.
You should list all your coursework, or at least coursework in your major, on your resume.
The correct response is False.
Coursework is generally not listed unless it contributes something different
from what any other student from your major would offer an employer. You can
also list coursework if you have very little else to put on your resume and
need some padding. Instead of listing the same coursework that any student in
your major nationwide has taken, consider listing major projects (group
and individual) undertaken while in school.
It's an unbreakable rule that a new graduate's resume must be limited to one page.
The correct response is False.
If there's one group from which employers prefer to see one-page resumes, it's
new graduates, BUT the rule is NOT unbreakable. Do TRY to keep your resume to
one page, but if you've had great internships and experience, don't drive
yourself crazy or sacrifice your resume's readability -- go to two pages. (If the
material on the second page of your resume fills less than half a page, it may be
better to condense to one page.)
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.
