Writing (or updating) Your Resume

I've been meaning to write this post for a looooong time, but it's a BEAST, and I've chosen to prioritize other things (like going to Hawaii, or hitting recruiting metrics at my job, or exercising--I make no apologies).  

With the snow storm in full effect, though, I've had the time to work on this.  In the event that you think that I'm writing this because of YOU, I assure you that I am not.  On a "slow" week I get 2-3 requests to review a resume, and on a busy week, I get 5-6.  If each one takes me a few hours, you can see how this quickly becomes a part-time job for me.  Coupled with the fact that a former employer is laying lots of employees off, I decided that it's high time I put this together.  So without further ado...

How to Write An Effective Resume

If you only take two things from this post, they should be this:

1) Your resume should SCREAM "I'm an awesome HR Lady/Lion Tamer/Project Manager/Columbian Drug Lord/whatever." (In reference to the Columbian Drug Lord, I've been watching Narcos on Netflix. It's good--you should watch it.)

2) Whatever you say you're good at, or that you've done, YOU. MUST. PROVE. IT. With SPECIFIC examples.

Outside of that, the rest of my advice here is just that--my advice.  You could ask 10 different HR Professionals, and you'll get 10 different sets of advice, some of it conflicting.  Take what you think is useful here, and feel free to ignore what doesn't work for you.

OBJECTIVE
Let's start with the Objective. In my opinion, you only need this when you are posting your resume on Indeed, LinkedIn, or similar. But most importantly, it should NOT look like this:

To obtain a job within my chosen field that will challenge me and allow me to use my education, skills and past experiences in a way that is mutually beneficial to both myself and my employer and allow for future growth and advancement.

If you wrote this--congratulations--you belong to an exclusive group of people called Every Job Seeker Ever! The above example is a total waste of words--what's your chosen field? What are you education, skills, and experience?

For those times you need an objective, it should SCREAM "I'm an awesome (job your applying for) and I fit your requirements!" For example, if I was applying for an HR role at my company, and the ad mentioned an ambiguous environment, increasing retention, and ensuring compliance, I might write something like:

Tenured HR Wizard that specializes in disasters, has successfully reduced attrition by over 60% in a high-turn industry, and just got a tattoo of the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993 ,seeks an HR Lady Role with an amazing and respected company that rhymes with Schmerox.

Okay, okay, so that's a little overly colloquial. But I want you to get away from writing in business-speak, because it's forgettable. A good resource to help you do this is Harvard Business Guide to Better Business Writing.  It's inexpensive, a fast read, has a section on resumes (and performance reviews, once you get the job!), and is written in a conversational style.

I'm currently hiring for Sales Reps, and one of the best ones I read recently was something along the lines of:

Driven Business Development Specialist eager to put my love of cold-calling, prospecting, and networking to work for (your company), in order to replicate my success of achieving 100%+ of quota for the past five years.

In one sentence, this person shows me that they GET IT. They know what it takes to be successful, they have experience doing it, and they have a metric to prove it.

SUMMARY
aka Executive Summary or Summary & Skills Profile or Professional Summary

I invite you to consider using a Summary instead of an Objective when applying to specific jobs. Recruiters are looking at LOTS of resumes very quickly, and this is their "cheat sheet" for what you offer. Based on the posting, take the top 4-5 things the company is looking for, and PROVE how you meet those. 

Yes, this means that for every job you apply to, you will need to modify your Summary a bit. But because you're applying to companies where you have connections in a targeted way, and not applying to Every Job Ever (right? RIGHT!?!?), you won't have to modify this 100 times.

Ways to prove it:

• Awards you've won: Earned the Monkey Trainer of 2015 Award for exceptional safety record, superb cymbal playing, and prehensile tail usage.
• Praise you've been given by supervisors, partners, vendors, or others: Recognized by the gods as the "go-to person for resolving gorgon and sea monter-related issues--beheaded Medusa, saved Andromeda from certain death through ingenuity."
• Recognition you've received on reviews: "Strong cross-stitching skills--rated Exceeds Expectations in this area on all performance evaluations since 2010."
• Certifications you've earned: "Certified Pokemon Professor, eligible to organize tournaments, judge trading card games and video games. Jigglypuff is my Spirit Animal." (This is an actual certification you can get, by the way.)
• Classes or training you've taken: "Expert Cat Fur Crafter--coursework included Felting with Fur 202, Feline Sweater Knitting 400, Tabby Tea Towel Tufting 310."
• Results you've achieved--tangible or intangible, you can realistically estimate if needed: "Exported $3B of cocaine to Miami in fiscal year 1989, while minimizing bribes to government officials to less than 3% of operating costs."
• Important Note: if you're going to say that you're an excellent communicator, excel in time management or multi-tasking, or are a team player, you absolutely need some concrete proof of this. EVERYONE thinks they are good at these things, just like EVERYONE thinks that he or she is an above-average driver. The reality is that most people are just okay at these things. If you say you're an excellent communicator, and your resume is a hot mess of business-jargon, generalities, and disorganization, now the Hiring Manager has every right to be worried that you have no self-awareness. Tread carefully.

WORK EXPERIENCE
Now that you've written your Summary with PROOF, you'll be a pro at proving your accomplishments from your prior experience, so do the same thing for each job. Make these job-specific for the position you're applying for. Again, this means you'll be changing these a bit for every job you apply to, because you're being very targeted in your approach and working your network. 

Since that's pretty straightforward, I'm going to cover some situations that come up in the work experience section:

Gap in employment - If it's a looooong gap of several years, you can include a one or two sentence note:

• May 2005- September 2010 Worked as a stay-at-home parent to care for two young children, while expertly managing household budget.
• July 2001- April 2002 Relocated to Hoth for spouse's employment.
• March 2007-December 2009 Took time off to care for an elderly parent.
• August 2009 - May 2013 Returned to school, earned a degree in Underwater Basket Weaving.

And don't worry, I see this one a LOT: 

• February 2008 - June 2009 Pursued employment/career change after layoff. (Thanks, Recession.)

Another Important Note: Yes, you should put the months for all jobs or gaps, or you look like you are hiding something.

Job hopping
If you have one job with short tenure, don't worry about it. If you have LOTS of jobs with short tenure, you can try grouping them together:

Big Box Retail Lackey 

April 2005 - June 2008
Ikea, Walmart, Tar-JAY

• Provided excellent customer service, received Team Member of the Month in May 2006
• Achieved Average Dollar per Sales of $150, above company expectation of $125.
• Reduced shrink by 16% by robustly enforcing bag checks, filing mispick paperwork within 24 hours of truck receipt, and performing off-cycle inventory counts weekly.

One thing I can't solve for you is if you change jobs more frequently than every two years. You need to find somewhere and stay there for a bit, and you need to show commitment elsewhere on your resume--memberships in professional societies, volunteering (more on that in a minute), certifications, degrees.

Promotions
Yay--this is awesome! Again, make it easy for the Recruiter & Hiring Manager by listing these all together by putting your employer first, then your roles with years (months aren't needed here), then your key accomplishments:

Federal Government 
Vice President of United States 1989 - 1993
Senator from Indiana 1981 - 1989
Member of the House, Indiana's 4th District 1977-1981

• Spelled potato incorrectly, resulting in nation-wide media coverage and increased exposure for Republican Party.
• Deemed "No Jack Kennedy" by Vice Presidential Candidate Peer.
• Inadvertently avoided massacre in Guyana.
• Defeated three time incumbent by 8% to become youngest member of the House from Indiana.

Seeking a Career Change or Moving
This has to go in your Objective or Summary AND in your Cover Letter. "New resident to the DC Metro Area seeks..." "As a recent transplant to Dantooine due to the closure of Starkiller Base, I'm ready to put my skills as a semi-Sith to work..."

Avoiding Age Discrimination
You don't need to go back to every job you had since 1965. Chances are that your experience from that time is out-of-date anyway. Remember all those people that helped with the Y2K changeover? That was only 16 years ago, and already no one cares. You can solve this with a section called:

Additional Experience
Extensive customer service experience at Woolworth's, DeLorean, Montgomery Ward, Pets.com, TWA, Enron, and MCI. Select accomplishments and dates of service available upon request.

One Final Note on Accomplishments
For the love of God, don't put that you "attended meetings." You literally just told me that you can sit in a chair for a long period of time. Is that what you want to communicate about your abilities as a prospective employee?

Okay, Another Final Note on Accomplishments

"But I don't have any awards, results, certifications, promotions, recognition, etc!"  Then you need to do two things:

1) Write some SMART goals to achieve these things (Google it)

2) Get a mentor--pronto.

EDUCATION
Refrain from adding the years of your degree(s), unless you're a recent grad. Age discrimination is A Thing. Also, no one cares about your GPA from 1975. If you are a recent grad, feel free to put relevant coursework and your GPA (only if it is good!!), since you won't have as much experience. 

VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE
Recruiters and Hiring Managers LOVE candidates with volunteer experience, especially if it is long term--it shows passion, dedication, and a willingness to go the proverbial extra mile. Again, this is another opportunity to PROVE your contributions and show tenure:

Volunteer, Longears Donkey Shelter 

2001-present

• Implemented and managed "Donkey of the Day" social media postings for adoptable donkeys, resulting in 30% increase in rehoming of asses.
• Organized Community Donkey Day to increase visits to the shelter, resulting in one day donations of $3,000.

OTHER?
If you have something human interest-y that will make you memorable, this is the place to put it. For example, if you won Jeopardy!, that goes here. Champion of your kickball league? Sure! It shows you're competitive. Do you knit scarves for the homeless? Awesome! Go ahead and show off your altruistic side. What this isn't good for is a litany of your interests--this isn't a dating ad. No one cares that you enjoy long walks on the beach and getting caught in the rain.

STYLE

• Use a Sans Serif font--Arial or Calibri are good if you have no idea what this is. Times New Roman is old and busted.
• Mind your e-mail address. The Oatmeal did a hilarious cartoon about this.  Having your own domain shows you're technologically with it, as does a gmail account. (By the way, I can tell your age and technology proficiency by your e-mail, even when you don't put your birth year in it.) Yahoo, Verizon, or Comcast are safe-ish bets. If you have a Hotmail or AOL account, it's time to forward that to a new gmail account you set up. Also, do I need to tell you that this isn't the place for your cutesy or clever e-mail? I STILL remember "Sourstrawberry87@whatever.com" from many years ago--she was born in 1987, and was a sarcastic red head. Also, no one cares that you're CadensMommy2009. In fact, Caden's Mommy, they might decide that you'll call out a lot to take care of your sick 7 year old. (I'm not saying it's right, but I am saying it's a thing.)
• Consider using a resume template. I like these.
• Don't put References Available Upon Request. I know. If I want them, I'll request them.
• Keep it to two pages. I don't care if you're the President of the Universe, your resume should only be two pages. Yes, really. If it's anything more than that, I assume you can't communicate. (The longest I've ever seen as 13 pages.)

That's it (for now) e'rybody!  We'll delve in to Cover Letters, Job Searching, Interviewing, and more in later posts.  I hope this was helpful!