Resume

There is a wealth of material--print and electronic--on the writing of resumes. Opinions about resumes vary considerably and so do resumes across the various academic fields; a resume of a computer science major might look quite different from one of a marketing major, a music major, and so on. You might want to find some model resumes from your field and/or talk to representatives from your field and tailor your document to the appropriate conventions for you.

However, if you're not so sure about what's done in your field, then I strongly encourage you to follow my lead here and produce a relatively straightforward document according to my simple resume format, which I have posted on BlazeView.

· Do not hand in to me an unrevised resume you have made in the past (in BUSA 2000, for example), and I do not recommend that you use a resume template or wizard of some kind.  Both of these shortcuts waste more time than they save.

· I also do not advise people to use two-columned resumes, although I realize that they're very popular for some reason and are well represented in the textbook. Their formatting often creates more trouble than they're worth, and when employers ask you to copy and paste resumes on websites (many employers do not want you to use attachments), two-column formats are not preserved when copied and pasted. The model on page 263 of the text is a bad example of a two-column resume because it lacks a consistent margin. Do not follow the model on page 263.

The following advice in terms of SCAMP is applicable to most resumes:

• Style: Because so much depends on an applicant's resume--a presentation of the applicant's relevant professional life on paper--the writer must not allow linguistic (as opposed to substantive) weaknesses sabotage his/her purpose. Hence, resumes must be correct.

Resumes are also (generally) formal, factual, and brief in expression. They attempt to convey--especially with the use of vivid verbs--energy, action, and accomplishment. The rule of thumb for resume style is this: Show; don't tell.

Show; don't tell means your language must present what you have done rather than just telling the reader that you are good at doing something. Here's the difference:

• Telling style: Outstanding communication skills and ability to interact with the public
• Showing style: Created public relations documents such as news releases, brochures, and fact sheets

The first example leaves the reader to wonder how the applicant is skilled in communications--it blows smoke; the second example shows how.

Under no conditions is a resume writer to lie. But in the presentation of one's duties at a previous job, for example, a writer must represent the work seriously, professionally, and impressively no matter how trivial or insignificant the writer might regard the duties now. A resume should never be apologetic; mention no negatives. For example, here is an impressive description of the duties of one position:

• Office Assistant: Coordinated preregistration activities, advised students on procedural issues, edited notices and memos, and handled routine office functions.

The writer of this description might have said to herself, "Oh, I was just a work-study student at that job--I didn't do anything important." But she instead had the confidence to describe her experience in dignified and impressive terms that give her the chance of achieving her purpose. Never say things like, "Performed a few . . .," "Although I have not done. . .," "Sometimes assisted . . .," etc. Show what you have done; do not point out what you have not done.

The last example also illustrates a hallmark of resume style: parallelism. If, for example, a writer starts to list duties of a job by using a verb in the past tense, then the past tense verb form ought to introduce each phrase.

Showing rather than telling is especially important if you include a Summary of Qualifications section at the top of the resume.  Too many people write abstract, general summaries that just sound like so much self-promoting fluff: "Confident, poised, competent sales professional. . . . Strongly self-motivated, enthusiastic, and profit oriented. . . . Reliable, hard-working, and honest. . . . Sharp, innovative, quick learner, etc., blah, blah." These kinds of summaries are awful.  If you write a summary, focus on facts: how much did you sell in terms of number of dollars?  How much did profits rise while you were manager?  How many presentations did you create for how many meetings?  What are the facts that prove you are so dependable, honest, and fantastically successful?

• Chunking: In general, resumes must be balanced top to bottom (they must fill out at least one page), left to right. Your name and the major sections must stand out with bold print and horizontal white space. Items within the sections can be made to stand out with vertical white space (indents, columns) and bullets.

The parts of a resume are dictated by the needs of the applicant's reader; chunk the resume into the kind of information the reader needs to know:

• contact information (postal address, telephone and/or fax numbers, e-mail address, homepage, etc.)
• job objective (optional): position in X requiring A, B, and C skills
• summary of qualifications (optional) (brief list of most important skills and achievements that show you are a good candidate for the job, such as facts from work experiences, awards, projects completed, etc.: "show; don't tell" is very important here, as I stressed above)
• education (degree, date of degree, school, city, state, overall GPA or GPA in major)
• skills of various kinds: (for example, computer, language, communication)
• relevant coursework (use titles of courses, not numbers)
• relevant experience (paid work, volunteer work, academic projects that gave you experience in an area, or unpaid positions in organizations that gave you important experience)
• other work experience (such as food industry work and so on)
• organizational affiliations, activities, and so on.

List separate items in these sections in reverse chronological order.

Although most readers expect to see familiar sections in resumes, such as education and work experience, the writer is the one who decides how his/her resume is chunked. There is no one resume format the applicant is following. If, for example, a resume writer wanted to highlight leadership skills, a section could be entitled Leadership Experience, which combines the usual experience section with a skill an employer might be looking for. Build your resume to suit yourself and to attract eyes looking for particular kinds of skills and experiences.  If you have relevant work experience, create a head like Sales Experience or Bookkeeping Experience: just what the reader wants to see. These heads are better than a general head like “Relevant Experience.”

• Audience: The audience for your resume is someone who is going to hire you or be involved in the hiring process; the audience wants to know what you can do for the organization, not what the organization can do for you (the JFK rule of resumes). Your resume must answer the question, "How could this applicant benefit our organization?"

So consider carefully the kinds of skills that an organization needs a person to possess in a given position and then make those skills stand out on your resume. If a position requires strong computer skills, for example, create a separate section for hardware and software with which you are familiar. If a position requires strong communication skills, then make sure you list all duties you have performed that involving writing, presenting, selling, working with the public, and so on.

Job objective statements must be written with special attention to the audience. Job objectives should focus on the requirements or demands of the job that the applicant thinks he/she can meet, not on the type of organization that the applicant would like to work for.

Avoid me-centered objectives such as this: "Position in a progressive, dynamic firm that rewards hard work and provides opportunities for rapid advancement to the upper levels of management." That kind of objective tells an organization what you want it to do for you. Instead, use audience-centered statements: "Position in marketing/sales that demands strong communication and computer skills." The resume can then bring out the applicant's communication and computer skills.

• Message: Today's job market is increasingly competitive; sometimes hundreds of people apply for the same job. This competition means that certain parts of your message are more important today than others have been in the past. In general, the resume writer wants to stress the employment-related skills, achievements, awards/honors, responsibilities, duties, and actions that make him/her a good candidate. Content having to do with personal background, high school, interests, and hobbies is generally inappropriate on a resume today. Note the part about high school: it's over.

All the basics of an applicant's education, experience, and affiliations must not be forgotten: full name of university and place, date of graduation, full and correct name of degree, employing company names and city/state location, dates of employment, dates of involvement in organizations, and sometimes the location of organizations. If, for example, you are a student in business, then you're working on a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), not a Bachelor of Arts (BA) or something else. Make sure you present degree title correctly, such as

Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing, May 2011

You may capitalize the major, considering it part of your degree title, and I suggest that you just list the future date of your graduation without any word like “anticipated.”

Two-year college degrees can be listed beneath the bachelor’s degree (see my simple resume format). You are not obligated to list previous degrees, and I wouldn’t list attendance at some previous school if you didn’t get a degree.

In terms of length, everyone needs to fill out a page, as I have said. If you go on to a second page, I usually suggest that you fill out a good portion of that as well or else you end up with a lot of white space. It’s possible you could fill out a second page with the names and contact information of three or four references.

• Purpose: The resume's purpose is to gain a job applicant an interview for a certain kind of job in a certain kind of organization. A resume is written with a kind of position in mind, for example, a position in human resources. The same resume is usually sent out for many jobs of the same kind. The application/cover letter, in contrast, is written for a particular job at a particular organization. The resume is meant to present the applicant as a good prospective teacher, salesperson, social worker, and so on. So don't put specific company names in job objectives.

If a job applicant chooses to employ a job objective at the top of a resume, then I suggest the objective be a plain, relatively specific description of the type of position desired (again, do not name any specific organization you want to join), plus skills required by the position:  "Position in X requiring strong computer networking, written communication, and presentation skills."

The objective should never be me-oriented; do not tell the reader of your resume how his/her organization should be to fit your desires: "A challenging position in a large, progressive, forward-looking firm that rewards hard work and promotes from within the organization." Here the writer tells the reader what the reader can do for the writer.  The writer should tell the reader what the applicant is interested in doing for the reader. Me-oriented job objectives make the resume writer sound conceited.  Figure out in your interview if an organization is what you want it to be.

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