Critical Resume Tips: Key Resume Writing Advice -- #6

Q-Tips: Critical Resume Tips
Key Resume Writing Advice -- #6

These resume writing related tips -- choosing the best resume style, tips for highlighting career accomplishments, and more -- have been gathered from numerous sources throughout Quintessential Careers and organized here for your convenience.

Are video resumes worth all the fuss? Considering the huge dollar investments supporting this new technology by so many corporations, video resumes may be worth considering on that factor alone, writes Joe Turner in his article for Quint Careers, Are Video Resumes for You? This growth wouldn't happen without the potential for profit and timesavings for job-search sites and employers. Although some dissenting voices have been raised within the industry, most notably around possible discrimination concerns, acceptance has been mostly positive so far.

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Review want ads for positions that interest you, suggests Ann Hackett in an article for Quint Careers, Writing a Winning Resume. Use the key words listed in these ads to match them to bullets in your resume. If you have missed any key words, add them to your resume. Learn more in our article, Tapping the Power of Keywords to Enhance Your Resume's Effectiveness.

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The Professional Experience section of your resume can also be labeled "Experience, "Work History," or "Employment." We like using Experience -- especially for new college grads, because experience is broader than work history, allowing you to include major school projects that showcase your skills and abilities. This section should include company name, your job title, dates of employment, and major accomplishments. List experiences in reverse chronological order, starting with your most current experience. List your accomplishments in bullet format (rather than paragraph format). Avoid discussing job duties or responsibilities. If you don't have a lot of career-related job experience, consider using transferable skills to better highlight your work experience. Finally, make sure to make use of action verbs when describing your accomplishments.

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Keywords should appear throughout your resume. Most applicant-search software not only looks for keywords but also ranks them on a weighted basis according to the importance of the word to the job criteria, with some keywords considered mandatory and others that are merely desirable. The keywords can also be weighted and your resume ranked according to how many times mandatory words appear in your resume. If your document contains no mandatory keywords, the keyword search obviously will overlook your resume. Those with the greatest "keyword density" will be chosen for the next round of screening, this time by a human. Generally, the more specific a keyword is to a particular job or industry, the more heavily it will be weighted. Skills that apply to many jobs and industries tend to be less weighty. Learn more in our article, Tapping the Power of Keywords to Enhance Your Resume's Effectiveness.

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Mature workers should be sure to list all courses and professional-development activities that illustrate your willingness to learn and keep your skills updated. Definitely list all the computer and other technological skills you possess that are relevant to the type of job you're applying for. Learn more in our article, Resume, Cover Letter, and Interview Strategies for Older Workers.

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Lead off your resume with your strengths, suggests Ann Hackett in an article for Quint Careers, Writing a Winning Resume. Since resumes are typically reviewed in 30 seconds, take the time to determine which bullets most strongly support your job search objective. Put those strong points first where they are more apt to be read.

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After creating a Web resume, submit your resume page(s) to the key search engines and directories. You have a couple options here. You can either submit your resume to each search engine and directory individually or you can use a free or fee-based resume submission service.

Go to our Web Directories and Search Engines for links to the key Internet search engines if you want to submit your resume to each search engine directly.
Go to ineedhits.com or Add Me if you want to use a service to submit your resume to the search engines.

Learn more about creating and publishing your resume on the Web -- and then promoting it via key search engines and directories in our article, Resume Found: Keys to Successful Search Engine Registration.

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Sprinkle keywords liberally throughout a section early in your resume labeled "Summary of Qualifications," "Professional Profile," or simply "Profile." Instead of a mere list of words, the summary or profile section presents keywords in context, more fully describing the activities and accomplishments in which the keywords surfaced in your work. This contextual collection of keywords that describes your professional self in a nutshell will certainly hold the interest of human readers better than a list of words will. Ideally, keywords are tied to accomplishments rather than job duties, so a good way to make the leap from keyword to a nice, contextual bullet point to include in a profile section is to take each keyword you've identified as critical to the job and list an accomplishment that tells how you've used the skill represented by that keyword. For example:

Solid team-building skills, demonstrated by assembling Starwood's marketing team from the ground up to service Starwood International's 7,700 hotels worldwide.
Savvy in e-commerce marketing concepts, having participated in design of two company Web sites, and conducted a symposia series to instruct hotel executives in the value of Internet marketing.

Learn more in our article, Tapping the Power of Keywords to Enhance Your Resume's Effectiveness.

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Use #'s, $'s and %'s on your resume, advises Ann Hackett in an article for Quint Careers, Writing a Winning Resume. Numbers, dollars, and percentages stand out in the body of a resume. Use them. Here are two examples:

Managed a department of 10 with a budget of $1,000,000.
Increased sales by 25% in a 15-state territory.

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In his article for Quint Careers, Are Video Resumes for You? Joe Turner notes that candidates are typically allowed from one to three separate video uploads to these sites, in addition to uploading your conventional resume. You can link your video to your full bio, including your "real" resume. Employers can perform the usual keyword search and view the resulting videos before looking at the resumes. It's an easy click for employers to view the full bio of candidates they wish to learn more about.

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The Affiliations/Interests resume section is optional; include it only if you have room on your resume for it. Items from this section are often used as an ice-breaker by interviewers looking to start an interview on an informal basis. This section should only include professional memberships and non-controversial activities/interests. Learn more in Fundamentals of a Good Chronological Resume.

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If you are just entering the workforce after a career as a homemaker or volunteer or have large gaps of unpaid experience in your history, learn to portray your skills on your resume as transferable and applicable to your next job. See our article, Strategic Portrayal of Transferable Skills is a Vital Job-Search Technique. And learn more in our article, Resume, Cover Letter, and Interview Strategies for Older Workers.

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Use action words in your resume, advises Ann Hackett in an article for Quint Careers, Writing a Winning Resume. Action words cause your resume to pop. To add life to your resume, use bulleted sentences that begin with action words like prepared, developed, monitored, and presented.

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The prevailing wisdom for several years was that you should front-load your resume with a laundry list of keywords -- a keyword summary with no context -- because supposedly database search software would search no more than the first 100 words of your document. If that 100-word limitation was ever true, it doesn't seem to be anymore, and job-seekers are now advised to use keywords throughout the resume. It still makes some sense to front-load the resume with keywords, however, partly to ensure you get as many as possible into the document, and partly for the phase of resume review in which humans will actually screen your resume (after the initial screening by the search software) and may be attracted to keywords that appear early in the document. Learn more in our article, Tapping the Power of Keywords to Enhance Your Resume's Effectiveness.

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Regardless of which method you use to submit your Web resume to search engines, you'll want to keep track of your search engine registrations. Here are some tips:

Keep a log of when, where, and how you submit your Web resume.
If you haven't already, develop a list of keywords for your Web resume.
Create a file that has the title of your Web site, the URL, the set of keywords, and a short (about 20 words ) and long (under 50 words) description of your Web site. When it comes time to enter this information, simply cut and paste from the one application to the other.
Proofread your entire submission carefully. Check for misspelling and typos. Be sure to confirm the URL address and title and your email address.
Be prepared to spend more time than you might expect. While it is faster to a multiple submission service, the process can -- at times -- be tediously slow.
Follow-up! Keep a log of where you have registered your Web resume...and then go back some time later (within a month) and make sure your site is included in the databases of all the places you have registered.

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Use bulleted sentences in your resume, writes Ann Hackett in an article for Quint Careers, Writing a Winning Resume. In the body of your resume, use bullets with short sentences rather than lengthy paragraphs. Resumes are read quickly. This bulleted sentence format makes it easier for someone to quickly scan your resume and still absorb it.

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If you are thinking about creating a visume (video resume), your main advantage will be increased exposure, writes Joe Turner in his article for Quint Careers, Are Video Resumes for You? Employers will be more likely to view a short 1-2 minute clip than paw through hundreds of paper resumes. The video resume also opens up a new visual element that can play to your advantage. The downside is that you can appear unprepared, or even downright foolish. A Yale graduate sent his video to a major Wall Street investment firm and later found his video posted on YouTube, mocked throughout the Internet for its preposterous, bragging style.

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Many experts say the References resume section is passe, but if you have room, include it. If nothing else, this section signals the end of your resume. This section should include only a statement saying references are available upon request. Do not include the names of your references on your resume. Learn more in Fundamentals of a Good Chronological Resume.

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For good ways to identify the keywords that an employer might be looking for in any given job search, see our article, Resources for Identifying Keywords. The method that career experts most commonly mention is the process of scrutinizing employment ads to see what keywords are repeatedly mentioned in association with a given job title. We offer two examples of how to find keywords in want ads in our article Researching Keywords in Employment Ads.

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Use your resume to obtain an interview, not a job, writes Ann Hackett in an article for Quint Careers, Writing a Winning Resume. You don't need to go into detail about every accomplishment. Strive to be clear and concise. The purpose of your resume is to generate enough interest in you to have an employer contact you for an interview. Use the interview to provide a more detailed explanation of your accomplishments and to land a job offer. Rather than going into depth in one area, use your resume to highlight your breadth of knowledge. Use an interview to provide more detail.

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You can publish multiple versions of your resume on your personal Web site -- a Web-based (HTML) resume, a text-based (ASCII) resume, a PDF (Portable Document Format) resume, and a MS Word resume. Learn more about creating and publishing your resume on the Web -- and then promoting it via key search engines and directories in our article, Resume Found: Keys to Successful Search Engine Registration.

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Although all that's required to record your own video is some sort of digital video recording device that can upload to the Web, it helps to know what you're doing, writes Joe Turner in his article for Quint Careers, Are Video Resumes for You? Think of the video resume as a short trailer for a new movie. It has all the action elements necessary to entice you to see the movie itself. Same with your video. It should be brief and to the point.

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What kind of nouns do employers seek as resume keywords? Those that relate to the skills and experience the employer is looking for in a candidate. More specifically, keywords can be precise "hard" skills -- job-specific/profession- specific/industry-specific skills, technological terms and descriptions of technical expertise (including hardware and software in which you are proficient), job titles, certifications, names of products and services, industry buzzwords and jargon, types of degrees, names of colleges, company names, terms that tend to impress, such as "Fortune 500," and even area codes, for narrowing down searches geographically. Awards you've won and names of professional organizations to which you belong can even be used as keywords. Learn more in our article, Tapping the Power of Keywords to Enhance Your Resume's Effectiveness.

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Job-seekers have information and a number of tools at their disposal that can help them make educated guesses as to which keywords the employer is looking for in resumes. So, how can we figure out what the magic words are? First, we know that in the vast majority of cases, they are nouns. Job-seekers have long been taught to emphasize action verbs in their job-search correspondence, and that advice is still valid. But the "what" that you performed the action in relation to is now just as important. In the following examples, the underlined nouns are the keywords that relate to the action indicated by the verbs:

Conducted cross-functional management for initial and follow-up contact.
Coordinated marketing campaigns and special events.
Managed customer database, product updates, and upgrades.
Functioned in project-management role.
Oversaw procurement, allocation, distribution control, stock levels, and cost compilation/analysis.

Learn more in our article, Tapping the Power of Keywords to Enhance Your Resume's Effectiveness.

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Determine your job search objective prior to writing the resume, writes Ann Hackett in an article for QuintCareers, Writing a Winning Resume. Once you have determined your objective, you can structure the content of your resume around that objective. Think of your objective as the bull's-eye to focus your resume on hitting. If you write your resume without having a clear objective in mind, it will likely come across as unfocused to those that read it. Take the time before you start your resume to form a clear objective.

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Video resumes are offering a new wrinkle to the job-search process because they offer both timesavings and a new dimension to candidate evaluation for employers and recruiters, writes Joe Turner in his article for Quint Careers, Are Video Resumes for You? Time will tell how widespread this acceptance will be within the industry. At this point, though, the added exposure you may receive could be reason enough to add a video resume to your job-search approach. The major caveat is to educate yourself to produce as high a quality product as you can. Remember, your video may easily be viewed by thousands of people across the world. So put your "best face" forward.

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Imagine there was a way to encode your resume with magical words that would virtually ensure that employers would be interested in interviewing you. But the catch is that there's a different set of magic words for every job, and you have no way of knowing what the words are. Such is more or less the situation in job-hunting today, which increasingly revolves around the mysterious world of keywords. Employers' use 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. The bottom line is that if you apply for a job with a company that searches databases for keywords, and your resume doesn't have the keywords the company seeks for the person who fills that job, you are pretty much dead in the water. Learn how to identify keywords in our article, Tapping the Power of Keywords to Enhance Your Resume's Effectiveness.

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Think of your resume as a marketing tool, writes Ann Hackett in an article for Quint Careers, Writing a Winning Resume. Think of yourself as a product, potential employers as your customers, and your resume as a brochure about you. Market yourself through your resume. What are your features and benefits? What makes you unique? Make sure to convey this information in your resume.

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Free advice on creating a video resume is available, but you may wish to invest in some education to guide you through the scripting and recording process, writes Joe Turner in his article for Quint Careers, Are Video Resumes for You? Some individuals in higher-level executive positions are hiring producers who charge up to $3,500 for a professionally produced video. Most candidates won't need such elaborate production, but some forethought in planning and scripting would be well advised for this new technology, still in the infant stage. No doubt, the format will evolve considerably in the coming years.

Find even more resume tips in Critical Resume Tips: Key Resume Writing Advice -- #7.

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Q-Tips: Critical Resume Tips Key Resume Writing Advice -- #6

These resume writing related tips -- choosing the best resume style, tips for highlighting career accomplishments, and more -- have been gathered from numerous sources throughout Quintessential Careers and organized here for your convenience.

Check out all of our Quick and Quintessential Strategic Resume Tips.

Review all our Quick and Quintessential Tips to Guide Your Job Search and Work Life.

Maximize your career and job-search knowledge and skills! Take advantage of The Quintessential Careers Content Index, which enables site visitors to locate articles, tutorials, quizzes, and worksheets in 35 career, college, job-search topic areas.

Q-Tips: Critical Resume Tips
Key Resume Writing Advice -- #6