Resume Writing Quiz Answers: Entry-level Job-Seeker

Resume Writing Quiz Answers:
Entry-level Job-Seeker and New College Graduate

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

Thanks again for participating in our Resume Writing Quiz for Entry-level Job-Seekers/New Graduates. 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.

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 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.

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. If you are not comfortable using your grad date when you haven't yet graduated, you can say, for example, "expected 2014."

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

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.

Be aware that experience is experience, and it matters little whether that experience was paid or not. Any activity -- volunteer work, extracurricular activities, sports -- 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.

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.

Use the heading "Experience" rather than "Employment" or "Work History" so that the section can include unpaid activities. While a resume can sometimes include subsections, such as Relevant (or Professional) Experience and Other Experience, we find it confusing when resumes, especially those of college students, list multiple types of experience -- internship experience, volunteer experience, extracurricular experience, leadership experience, etc. Consider using our College Experience Worksheet for Resume Development.

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 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.

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 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.

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, 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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