Monday, February 27, 2023

Riffing on Resumes, Part 4: Checking

As you periodically review your resume, you will want to look at substance, structure, and style. Let's take these points one at a time.

Substance

Let logic determine whether to add, retain, or delete information. If you are seeking a job in project management for an architectural-engineering firm, it's all right to delete that job from nine years ago when you were a call center operator, especially if your last nine years can highlight your project management skills. 

You have likely heard that your resume should account for every minute of your professional lifeleave no employment gaps. That is such old, played-out news. Employment gaps are okay, as long as what's in the resume shows you to be the powerhouse you are. You can always explain those employment gaps, honestly, of course, during the interview. 

Structure

The same holds true for structure: Use common sense to decide how to lay out your life. Is your employment history stronger than your educational achievements? If yes, start with employment; if no, start with education. Does a single-column or double-column format work? The answer depends on whether one of the formats spills your content over to a single-section second or third page. If yes, go with the briefer format to save a page.

Avoid prose paragraphs. Use bullet points. The game plan is for your reader, the prospective employer, to scan your resume easily. 

Style

Make sure the bullet points all begin consistently. Start bullet points about your past jobs with past tense; for your current job, start them with present tense. 

To show you are a doer, use visual action verbs (wrote, presentmanagelead, create), not softer verbs (understand, reviewknow, ensure, consider). Avoid at all costs being verb beginnings (was responsible for, am aware of), which show little to nothing. Also, keep bullet lists within a group consistent in terms of all actions (diagnosed, supervised, tested) or all accomplishments (achieved, increased, decreased). 

Finally, proofread carefully and have zero tolerance for the slightest flaw. If you are unsure about whether a phrase or word is correct or standard usage, ask an expert whose opinion you value highly. Proper detail, formatting, and style matter so much to your readers.   


Monday, February 20, 2023

Riffing on Resumes, Part 3: Articulating

After planning and formatting your resume, you will start populating it with bullet points explaining your unique credentials, accomplishments, and talents. Here are nine pointers in articulating those features.

1. Create an objective that guides the reader through the resume. Words like self-starter, motivated, and compassionate do nothing to foreshadow the bullet points; words like technician, manager, and presenter do. 

2. Portray yourself honestly by not overstating or understating your qualities and accomplishments. If you are a prolific writer, then what is Joyce Carol Oates? If you are a creative powerhouse, then what is Yo-Yo Ma? Everyone sees through such nonsense. On the other hand, do not undersell yourself. Just let your work, degrees, jobs, and tasks talk for you.

3. Employ industry-specific language. Do not worry about writing critical path method if you are a project manager or integrated development environment if you are a programmer. The people reviewing your resume will know those terms as subject-matter experts themselves.

4. Start bullet points in the employment section with action verbs, not being verbs. Instead of writing was responsible for planning projects and am tasked with creating presentations, write planned projects and create presentations. And make those action verbs as tactile as you can: avoid considered program revisions and ensure quality products in favor of revised programs and effect quality products

5. Show progress from one job to the next. Leave verbs like checkedentered, supported for your first job; follow with supervised, managed, and authorized for the next job; and lead, spearhead, and create for your current job. Of course, remember point 2 above as you do so.

6. Use lists and avoid lengthy paragraphs. For those who dislike bullet points, remember this: No one wants to become enraptured by the narrative style of your resume.

7. Quantify your work experience wherever possible. If you managed a $1.5 million project, say so. If you supervised a help desk of 15 associates, let them know.

8. Prefer achievements to tasks. Consider which is better to start the bullet point: Saved firm $300K in work process efficiencies by redesigning 25,000 sq. ft. office space than Redesigned 25,000 sq. ft. office space resulting in work process efficiencies that led to $300K in savings. Much depends on the recipient of your resume and the job you are seeking.

9. Make every word matter. As a rule, you can drop articles (a and the) and some pronouns (who, which, that)  in a resume, as long as the sentence makes sense. Other words for the resume trashcan are the phrases past experience (experience will do), each employee (employees is better), in a timely manner (timely is concise), on a day-to-day basis (daily is better), and many more to mention here. Be on the lookout for verbiage. 

The way we express ourselves represents who we are, so choose words wisely,

Monday, February 13, 2023

Riffing on Resumes, Part 2: Formatting

Now you've reflected on your career goals, ideal job, interpersonal and technical skills, and developmental opportunities, as discussed in Part 1 of this series. Next, you will want to format your resume. Here are seven general points to consider.

Size

1. Use standard 8½" X 11" (215.9 mm X 279.4 mm) paper. 

2. Limit margins to ½" or larger (no less) at all four sides. 

Font

3. Use a consistent font type. Serif fonts, like Times New Roman, are more readable than sans serif fonts. Once you have decided on the font to use, stick to it throughout the resume. 

4. Use 11- or 12-point size, no more, no less, for readability.

5. Use font style consistently. For instance, use bold just for headings, italics just for job titles and degrees attained, and regular for everything else.

6. Use only one color, black, especially since your interviewer might print a copy your resume in black only. 

Layout

7. Use either one- or two-column format. From the no-cheat image, you can see the advantage and disadvantage of each format: You gain more space with a single column, but you offer easier scanning with a double column.



Monday, February 06, 2023

Riffing on Resumes, Part 1: Planning

I have written at least a post a week, over a thousand on this blog, for more than 18 years without saying much about resumes. Strange, considering I have consulted well over a thousand jobseekers during the past 27 years of my writing consulting practice. They were accountants, administrators, architects, artists, auditors, business analysts, clerics, designers, doctors, educators, electricians, engineers, executives, financial planners, information technology specialists, lawyers, mechanics, nurses, restaurant workers, salespeople, scientists, students, supervisors, technicians, and uniformed personnel (corrections, firefighting, military, parks, police, sanitation). I suppose it's time to correct this omission from WORDS ON THE LINE with a 21-part series on the resume and its related messages. 

Note: If you just want a job, read somewhere else. This series is not for those who say, "When I go home after a workday, I completely forget my job." I have always felt that such a statement comes from people who aren't honest even with themselves. But if you want to cultivate a rewarding career, read this series.

Let's start by planning a resume. Take an inventory of yourself at this point in your career. Your ability to answer these self-assessment questions with a yes along with an honest, direct, and, ultimately, extemporaneous reason for your answer will go a long way in shaping your resume.

1. Do I have a career goal? If you do not, stop reading here and get one. If you do, write it down and explain how it ties into the rest of your life.

2. Do I know the industry and organizations that can help me achieve my career goal? It's possible you have a terrific answer to question 1 but lack career experience to answer this question to your own satisfaction—and I assume you have high standards in these matters. If you answer no, do some research. If you answer yes know which organizations you want to apply to, look for appropriate job openings, and move on to question 3.  

3. What are my interpersonal strengths? Notice that this question comes before the one about technical strengths. Your ability to communicate respectfully, honestly, coherently, and helpfully to peers, managers, subordinates, customers, vendors, and other stakeholders easily trumps your technical knowledge and skills. I won't argue this point if you disagree. I have seen professional rewards granted to the excellent communicators over the technicians too many times to be convinced I am wrong.  

4. What are my technical strengths? I do not mean to minimize the importance of answering this vital question. Your job calls for certain skills, whether they are clinical, computational, linguistic, mechanical, technological, or a whole host of other abilities. Do not discount them. Even though interpersonal skills come first, the employer will ask first about the technical skills.

5. What interpersonal skills do I most want to develop? This question is helpful not because you want to brag about your weaknesses during a job interview. Answering it after answering question 3 helps you see how you can best develop that skill. Say you answered to question 3, "I make people around me feel comfortable," and you answer to question 5, "I am terrified of public speaking and I know the job I want requires it." With your ability to make people around you comfortable, you might (most likely will) gravitate toward those who are the best at public speaking and learn from them. They will be honored that such a cool person like you wants their help, and they will gladly give it. 

6. What technical skills do I most want to develop? Sometimes I get a brilliant answer to this question (no kidding): "I want to develop the very skills that are my strength." I love that answer because the person is telling me that even experts must sharpen their skills. This is why master musician rehearse every day and physicians take periodic licensing examinations. On the other hand, the more common answer to this question, understandably so, is something like the example in question 5. You might say, "I have outstanding skills with my hands (practical) but I'm not so hot at talking the talk (theoretical)." This was the very statement I made before deciding to go for a doctorate. I knew I was right about a lot of issues related to my field, but I couldn't explain the precedents that supported my positions. In the same way, a plumber may say he has excellent dexterity, instillation techniques, and knowledge of hydronics but lacks that same level of competency in reading blueprints, which is costing him to lose independent commercial jobs. Chances are he'll use his approach that helped him master hydronics to learning blueprints.  

7. What professional accomplishment has given me the greatest satisfaction? Answering this question is so important in putting you in the right mindset to tackle the job application process. Your answer might be, "I held a fulltime job as a server in a fast-paced restaurant at night while attaining a real estate agent license within six months during the day." You should be impressed. Remember that achievement as you confront all the other mountains ahead that you will need to scale. 

8. When have I shown a great sense of responsibility on the job? Even if your answer to this question helps you complete only 10 percent of your resume, it will help you manage 90 percent of the interview questions with confidence, candor, and class.  

9. When have I effectively collaborated to achieve an excellent common result? It is true that some jobs may seem like solo ones. But how, for instance, can a doctor cure a patient's high cholesterol levels without the patient's agreeing to follow through on her prescriptions? How can an IT help desk maven aid users without educating them to deal with some of their technical incompetencies so that they do not call her for every little issue?  

10. What do my answers to questions 1 through 9 say about me as a professional? Answering this question wins you the prize. Responding well to this question will get you started on crafting a great resume and application message.