Professional Resume Makeover - Sandbox Advisors Singapore

Professional resume makeover 2009 edition

Introduction

Job target

Sections of the resume

Contact information

Summary and highlights

Work experience

Education and training

Extra curricular activities

Design elements and formatting

Cover letters

Feedback from recruiters

Your resume is not just an autobiography, it has a specific purpose

The purpose of your resume is not to list everything you did at every job

It is a top-line, highlights document that gives the reader a quick sense of your skills, where you’ve been and where you are going

The resume’s purpose is to get you an interview not a job. Ask yourself – will this information get me the interview?

It should have enough detail to set you apart from other applicants, but be brief enough to establish your potential quickly

The resume also provides a structure for the interview, so include information you want them to ask you about

Companies often spend less than a minute reviewing a resume, so you need quick impact

A junior member of the recruiting team will often use resumes as a screening tool

i.e. Quickly check if you meet certain minimum criteria or reject you

You need to make a quick impact

Critical information must be contained in the first one-third of the first page

What are the different types of resume formats that can be used?

Chronological

Focuses on chronology of your work history

Shows dates of employment, places of employment, and job titles

Reverse chronological order

Directly ties responsibilities and accomplishments to companies and time frames

Functional

Emphasizes your skills, capabilities, and accomplishments

De-emphasizes your job titles, employers and dates of employment

Allows you to prioritize your experience and accomplishments according to their impact and significance, rather than chronology

Combined

Adds sections (specific skills, abilities or accomplishments) for the areas you would like to emphasize at the top of your resume

Includes the traditional Experience section of a chronological resume as well as the skills and accomplishments sections of a functional resume

This format is the most flexible, allowing you to highlight those sections of your resume that are most relevant to your career objective

Introduction

Job target

Contact information

Work experience

Cover letters

Before writing your resume you need specific information about the job that you are targeting

A generic resume used to apply to all jobs is not effective and will end up in the reject pile

You need to show specific ways in which your experience and qualifications meet each job requirement

So ideally you would send a different resume for each job application but practically you can keep a few different versions used for similar types of jobs

All the information in your resume must be tailored for the job/job type you are applying to

So how can you quickly find out what are the requirements for a job?

You need to find out the knowledge, skills, personality traits and other important elements that your target job requires

Look at job postings for your target position on the internet and see what they typically ask for in candidates

Search an occupational database such as O*Net, which is very comprehensive and provides details on all/various elements involved ( http://online.onetcenter.org/find/ )

Introduction

Job target

Contact information

Work experience

Cover letters

What contact information should you include in your resume?

Include whatever professional information/ methods that employers can use to get in touch with you

Name

Permanent address

Phone numbers

Email addresses

Use a professional one rather than something like [email_address]

Pagers/beepers

Voice mail

If there is the possibility of you not being able to answer the phone at times, make sure you have a voicemail facility

Record a professional greeting. Don’t keep a personal sounding one

Make sure you are contactable on all the details provided in the near future before listing them

Introduction

Job target

Contact information

Work experience

Cover letters

Start with a Summary Section which lists your key experience & achievements

Your personal advertisement

Gives the reader a concise overview of your experience, skills & achievements

Make sure you focus on the job, its requirements and your relevant unique selling points

Make it about 3-5 bullet points

The first bullet point of your summary should be a Power Statement

Describes your professional identity in one sentence

Should give the reader a good idea of what you are all about and what to expect from your resume

If the reader does not read any further, he/she should still have an idea of what defines you professionally

Should entice the reader to know more about more and to keep reading

Power Statement examples

Award-winning, highly accomplished Operations Manager with successful track records of consistently increasing revenue and slashing operating costs now seeking a new challenge where my skills and track record can be utilised in the facilities sector

PhD-level leader, change agent, and social activist who has developed broad range of programs and procedures that yielded cost effectiveness and maximum utilisation of resources and accountability

Creative outside-the-box thinker who approaches strategic development with innovative vision, high ethical standards, unsurpassed work ethic, and ability to communicate effectively across management levels and disciplines to build highly effective cross-functional teams

The next few bullets should be about your most relevant skills/characteristics

Provide a few bullet points which highlight the important skills required for the job you are applying to

Include a mix of hard/technical skills and important soft skills

Try to provide proof, in the form of examples and numbers

You might want to include an optional bullet covering things like relocation/ travel preferences and work eligibility

Examples of skills/characteristics bullet points

[I am a] Competent problem-solver who resolved sales and shipping issues by creating internal customer-care system and saved 20 percent shipping; researched and delivered Web conferencing service for sales that saved 30 percent of travel budgets

[I am a] Visionary innovator who partnered with another programmer to create pioneering language-learning software that earned national attention; served as lead analyst for revolutionary legal document generating and tracking product.

[I am a] Technical guru who provided direct support for successful million-dollar negotiation with major print vendor and completed many successful major conversions from mainframe to mini-computer systems.

[I am a] Strong communicator who was voted best specification writer - with least number of re-writes - by programmers and their managers.

Notice the structure that is used : [Adjective] [noun] [connecting words] [phrase describing skill/strength/expertise] [supported by quote, example, numbers]

What can your Summary section contain? (1/2)

Title/functional area/level of your current position and/or position you seek.

Number of years of experience (which, for age-discrimination reasons, should not exceed 15-20; "15+" is a good guideline for mature workers).

Industry you're in or seeking to be in.

Core competencies/areas of expertise/strengths/specialization for that field.

Highlights of representative accomplishments, especially used to demonstrate skills and competencies you've used throughout your career.

Top business, leadership, craft-related skills, both "hard skills" and "soft skills" (such as communication, interpersonal, teamwork). Many employers, however, believe soft skills can be substantiated only in an interview, so if you include soft skills, provide examples to substantiate them.

"Value-added" information: Skills/accomplishments/experience that add to your value because they are not necessarily expected of someone with your background (e.g., operations manager with deep knowledge of IT).

Any advanced degrees, certifications, or licenses that are integral to the type of job you seek.

What can your Summary section contain? (2/2)

Language and international business skills, if relevant.

Technical/computer skills, instead of burying them at the bottom of your resume (Exception: IT professionals, who should place IT skills in a separate section).

Personality/management style: Open a little window into your personality with your Summary/Profile (for example, you might mention your sense of humour).

Possibly affiliations if integral to the job, otherwise in a separate section.

Any extremely prestigious colleges, employers, or clients.

Keywords/buzzwords from ads or job postings you're responding to

Quantification whenever possible, using numbers for, e.g., revenue generated, size of accounts, typical budgets, money saved, etc.

Positive quotes/testimonials from supervisors, clients, taken from memos, letters, or performance evaluations. Awards you've earned, such as Employee of the Month and President's Club, can also be listed in the Summary/Profile section to give them more up-front attention than if they were listed in their own section.

We suggest leaving Summary Section till the end, since you will have all required information

Introduction

Job target

Contact information

Work experience

Cover letters

Whether experience or education goes first depends on your situation

List the most relevant information first

If you are a college student with limited work experience then typically education goes first

If you are a seasoned professional, then typically experience goes first

When to use the chronological resume format?

It is effective for individuals who:

Have a steady record of employment in an industry or functional area

Want to stay in the same line of work

It is not recommended when:

You are changing careers, or have changed employers frequently

You want to de-emphasise age

You have been absent from the job market

Recruiters and hiring managers typically prefer chronological format

When to use the functional resume format?

Can be useful if you:

Are making a career transition

Want to return to a professional area you worked in earlier in your career

Want to disguise a previous career path

Have large time gaps in your CV and/or

Have extensive accomplishments in volunteer work or hobbies

Lack work experience

Recruiters & hiring managers are sometimes wary of this format because they think you are hiding something

You need to present it very well if you use it

Consider using the title ‘Work Experience’ for your work history section

That way you can include non-paid work also and not only paid employment

This includes volunteer work, internships, sports-team participation, and class projects

If you have limited work experience, show skills gained in other areas

Internships

Summer jobs

Campus jobs (work-study)

Entrepreneurial/self-employed jobs

Temporary work

Volunteer Work: school, church, club, not-for-profit organizations

Research papers/projects

Certification courses

Campus activity positions

Fraternity/sorority/social club positions

Extracurricular or sports leadership positions

How should positions be listed under your Work Experience section?

Job title

Job subheadings should include name of company, city/country (Do NOT include street addresses, names of supervisors, contact telephone numbers, or other extraneous data)

Dates of employment

Company description (optional)

Bulleted list of key accomplishments

It might be useful to provide a description of past companies/departments

Company:

Products and services offered

Annual turnover, profit and so on

Department:

Purpose and objectives

Especially useful if the company is not large and/or commonly known

Be very brief. The resume should be mainly about you and not the company

Consider including the important responsibilities for each of your roles but be brief

Number of people managed

Size of budget

Number/size of client accounts

Industries you were responsible for

One bullet point

Use achievement statements to show what you accomplished in each of your roles

These will form the majority of bullets points for each of your positions

In Action-Benefit format

Start with strong action verbs e.g. developed, managed, introduced

Quantify and/or qualify statements when possible

Avoid personal pronouns( ‘I’ or ‘me’)

Use present tense verbs for current job, and past tense for previous jobs

Start by making a list of your important achievements during your career

Start with your most recent position & move back in time

If you have many years of experience, go back around 10-15 years

Aim for at least 5-6 achievements for each job you have held

The stories do not have to be ground breaking, just something that you are proud of and/or something that helped your team/department meet its objectives

Raised xyz amount of money for my local charity

Performed in the top quartile in my company

Increased sales for xyz product in my region

Doubled customer service scores

Got a promotion in short timeframe

Made 2-3 important operational improvements

Raised satisfaction scores for my team

Examples

Here are some areas important to employers, to help you think about your achievements

Think of a time when you saved/made money for your company. How did you do it?

Have you ever displayed good interpersonal and/or leadership skills?

Was there an action you took that increased productivity or saved time for your company? When? Where? How?

What events, activities or projects have you planned and implemented from beginning to end? How did you organise it and what was the result?

Have you ever seen how something was being done and worked out a better way to do it? What was the old way? What/how did you change it? Results?

Were you ever involved with any significant team projects or activities? What was your role? How did you and the team work to solve a problem? Results?

Have you ever come up with a new idea for your company? Where did the idea come from? How did it help?

Have you ever recruited people for your company? How did you go about it? What were the results?

Did you ever have occasion to speak/communicate in public? For what reason? How did you prepare yourself? How are your communication skills in general?

Did you ever use writing skills in your job? What was the purpose? What were the results?

Do you have an example of where you have exceeded customer expectations? What was the situation? What did you do? What feedback did you gain?

Think of a time when you were called on to be flexible or adapt to a new situation. How did you handle it? What were the results?

Have you been involved in jobs/tasks which require good analytical and quantitative skills? What were your responsibilities and how complex were the issues? What results did you achieve?

Then for each job select 2-3 of the most important achievements Select based on how the great the achievement is and also based on which achievements display the job requirements you identified earlier

Then convert your top achievements into Action-Benefit statements

Action-Benefit statements use your accomplishments and experience to demonstrate the positive impact you can have on a company's bottom line and to show how well you fit the job requirements

An Action-Benefit statement consists of :

Action: A job responsibility or specific action that you took when faced with a situation, problem or opportunity that enabled you to achieve a positive result

Benefit: The positive result or benefit to the organization, such as an increase in revenue, a reduction in costs, streamlined processes or systems, or improved morale.

Quantify and/or Qualify in order to make Action-Benefit statements most effective

Quantify Action-Benefit Statements

Before: Supervised a large staff of retail employees covering multiple territories. Effectively managed business unit P&L and consistently grew profits.

After: Ten years experience managing 15 employers across multiple territories. Effectively managed P&L of $10 million business unit. Consistently generated 30-35% gross profit.

Alternatively, when you are "qualifying" accomplishments, consider describing the process, depicting the environment and including the personal characteristics that a future employer would consider valuable

Before: Increased sales through cold-calling, follow-up and account management.

After: Consistently grew revenue and profits in a rapidly changing environment through aggressive cold-calling, persistent follow-up, and relationship-focused account management.

Start your action statements with action verbs

To project pro-activeness and a strong can-do attitude

Here are some examples of achievement statements

Developed a more integrated working relationship with the American parent company leading to significant economies of scale

Introduced a computerised Credit Control and Debt Collection system. This reduced debtor days from 55 to 44 within 6 months from introduction

Cut inventory levels by SGD 1mn over 2 years by introducing new inventory control procedures, at the same time improving stock availability by 10%

Ensured IS09001 quality standards were met or exceeded and conducted regular quality audits leading to enhanced efficiencies which saved the company SGD 0.5mn

Learnt new graphics package and used this to improve presentations for sales force. Feedback suggested this was well received by clients and contributed to the company achieving a 20% increase in sales in my area

Devised and implemented a new sales training programme which resulted in a 37% increase in new business

Together with the Marketing Manager, designed and produced the company's quarterly catalogue

Fostered good relationships with new suppliers. Negotiated and improved terms and quality of supply, which reduced manufacturing costs by 60%

Developed a new system for generating sales leads which was adopted throughout the group, resulting in a 30% improvement in sales performance with the same number of sales executives

Introduction

Job target

Contact information

Work experience

Cover letters

Only include relevant education and training

Do not overload with dates, schools, colleges, certifications and so on

Only state what is relevant for the status of the job you are seeking

List courses in order of significance

List the name of your degree first, then institution/location, graduation date and if relevant major/minors

Include any specialist training undertaken which may be appropriate to your next appointment, together with membership of professional bodies

Unless you graduated recently there is no need to include high school and other education before university

Provide grades only if they are good

Introduction

Job target

Contact information

Work experience

Cover letters

Do not state all your personal interests and extracurricular activities

Only those which are relevant or might serve as a comfortable topic for discussion at interview

Think about which of your interests can be used to demonstrate qualities of leadership, fitness, intellectual capacity, etc.

Be brief and accurate

Introduction

Job target

Contact information

Work experience

Cover letters

Pay attention to layout and format also. Here are the key design elements

Not necessary to stick to one page. Use 1-2 pages to present all relevant information properly

Use italics if needed but don’t overdo it

Do not use more than two font type/sizes, avoid CAPS & minimise underlining

Use font size 10-12 not smaller

Do not justify the text. A ragged right edge is much easier to read

Ensure margins have enough space for employer comments & use lots of white space so key points are easy to see

Check and check again to make sure there are no silly mistakes

You simply CANNOT afford to have any of the following in your resume:

Typing errors

Spelling mistakes

Incorrect information

Negative information

Simple formatting glitches

Introduction

Job target

Contact information

Work experience

Cover letters

Each time you submit a resume for a published opening, you should include a cover letter

Primary role of cover letter is to get recipient to read resume

50% of sales literature, so can be just as important as CV (typically hiring managers pay more attention to it than recruiters)

Can be sent via email or paper form

A cover letter should

Specifically state what job you are applying for and where you saw the notice

Be addressed to a specific person in the company (since personalisation gets better results and it also allows you to follow-up)

Highlight key achievements as they relate to the job

Be less than one page in length

Tell the reader what to do next (call me, wait for my call, read the enclosure, visit my blog or online portfolio, etc.)

A structure for a cover letter Name and job role of person you are writing to Company name Address Dear [name of person] Opening paragraph: State why you are writing, identify the position for which you would like to be considered, and indicate how you heard of the position. (If you are sending a letter of interest which is not in response to a specific job opening, simply indicate the type of work you are seeking). Be specific. Middle paragraph(s): Your goal here is to show how you can be useful to this particular organisation. Describe what strengths you have to offer this employer by showing the relationship between your skills and experience and the vacancy. You can also describe your previous achievements and how they relate to the vacancy and to identify three reasons why you should be called for interview. Refer the reader to your enclosed CV for additional information (You can divide this section into a couple of smaller paragraphs rather than have one large dense paragraph). Closing paragraph: End your letter by clarifying what will happen next and how they can most easily reach you. Yours sincerely, [XYZ]

Introduction

Job target

Contact information

Work experience

Cover letters

From the horses mouth - What are the first things recruiters look for in a resume?

“ It has to do with whether the person has progressive career development along the way. Is there career growth, what type of projects and assignments did they handle. Will they fit the job they are applying for”

“ Appearance – should be sharp, readable, easy to skim, clean and no gaps”

“ If the content tells me quickly – “What makes this person stand out”

“ Does the candidate match the title, functional area and industry for the job in questions. It might be directly or peripherally, i.e. a related industry or function but should not be too far off. Then I will look for some sort of continuity in the resume”

“ What I look for is a summary of qualifications or key skills. I then look to see if there has been a progression in terms of taking on responsibility. I also like to see resumes that are customised to the job – what results and responsibilities do they have which are relevant for the job.”

“ I like to see a chronological resume. It just follows progression better and is easier to use”

“ Is there a basic match between the candidate and the job specification. The candidate doesn’t have to meet all criteria exactly but some basic things like language requirement must be met. People often ignore even such a basic requirement and apply anyway”

From the horses mouth - What are some of the resume pet peeves for recruiters? (1/2)

“ The functional resume. From a recruiters perspective we are typically trained to throw out the functional resume. Its just more work because we then need to look for an explain the gaps. If you using functional its needs to be presented very well”

“ The functional resume is fine but I like the chronological resume. It clearly shows me dates, data/facts, numbers, progression and results in proper order”

“ Spelling mistakes and other grammatical errors”

Too much information, provided in paragraph format which I can’t decipher. I just won’t waste my time with it. I want”

“ Not enough white space on the resume”

“ Listing too many hobbies. Bragging too much, mentioning salary expectations, too much or too little information”

“ Not telling me anything about the company. I don’t know what ABC company on their resume does”

From the horses mouth - What are some of the resume pet peeves for recruiters? (2/2)

“ Just listing a bunch of accomplishments without any results or context.” For example – “Implemented an ERP system”

“ Attaching a cover letter without showing any knowledge of the company they are applying for and why they are a good fit for the job”

“ I want a cover letter. No cover letter -> no interview”

“ Not providing a link between what you state in your cover letter & what is included in your resume”

“ I like to see resumes customised to the company/job”

“ Generic resumes are of little value, as compared to a resumes which provide information targeted to the job”

Professional Resume Makeover - Sandbox Advisors Singapore

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