Better Resumes for Professional Communicators
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If you're a communicator or writer, your resume should act as a writing sample. This presentation covers modern resume design and content standards for getting an interview in today's world of applicant tracking systems and getting the hiring manager's attention.
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Better Resumes for Professional Communicators
- 1. Better Resumes for Professional Communicators Christina Mayr Resume Renovator christinaemayr@gmail.com
- 2. About Me • Incoming STC President • Technical Writer & Editor at Extreme Networks • Resume Renovator • Cover letter writing • Interview preparation
- 3. Today’s Topics • How to get noticed by hiring managers • What to take off your resume • What to put on your resume • Tweaking your resume during a job search • Design tips for writers
- 4. How to Get Noticed • Engaging cover letter • Easy-to-skim resume • Desired skills apparent • Meets job description • Accomplishments with quantifiable results • Eye-pleasing design • Thoroughly proofread
- 6. Add: LinkedIn Profile or Professional Website
- 9. Remove: Job Duties • Resumes shouldn’t read like a job description. • A duty describes what you did. An accomplishment describes how well you did it.
- 10. Add: Accomplishments • “Planned events” — job duty. • “Raised $100,000 by selling out tickets to a 200- person charity event” — accomplishment.
- 11. How to Write Accomplishments 1. Remove anything that sounds like it came from your job description. 2. Make a list of accomplishments using this list of questions to ask yourself: – What did I do that was above and beyond my normal job duties? – How did I stand out among other employees? – Did I win any awards or accolades? – What new processes did I implement to improve things? – What problems did I solve? – Did I ever consistently meet or exceed goals or quotas? – Did I save the company money? Did I make the company money? – What made me really great at my job?
- 12. 3. Add the numbers. – How many people benefited from your work? – By what percentage did you exceed your target? – How much money did you save or make for the company? – How much time did you save company-wide? 4. Add the benefits. – What was the benefit to your boss or your company? To your end-users? How to Write Accomplishments (cont’d)
- 13. Example Accomplishments • Managed four websites – yawn – Improved company’s four websites in under six months, driving traffic up by 3000% and generating $500 per month in advertising revenue. – wow! • Assisted with Section 508 compatibility projects – what does that mean? – Ensured disabled users could successfully use product by implementing Section 508 requirements. – that’s great!
- 14. Example Accomplishments (cont’d) • Wrote procedures, installation guides, quick references, and other user guides. – isn’t that your job? – Reduced documentation library from 200 to 50 guides by simplifying and reusing procedures. – what a money saver! • Wrote documents for ISO 17025 compliance. – ok… – Generated over $250,000 in additional annual revenue with the successful accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025 standard for five offices. – whoa!
- 15. Remove: Graduation Dates Graduated within the last 2 years? Graduated 2-5 years ago but have little relevant experience? Graduated more than 2 years ago and have some relevant experience? • NOTE: All of the above goes for GPA as well. • Continuing education courses should almost always have a completion date (Month Year).
- 16. Remove: Unrelated Volunteerism • Related volunteering: Uses skills typical in your industry. Shows consistent schedule and long-term dedication. Could be considered a job if it was paid. • Unrelated volunteering: Related to your kids (sports coaching) or pets (shelter work). Maintaining a personal blogs. Planning your (or a friend’s) wedding/shower/vacation. Projects you “volunteered” to do while on the job.
- 17. Other Things to Remove • List of references or “available upon request” • Jobs from your college years (or even earlier!) • Clichés: – Team player – Detail-oriented – Strategic thinker – Results-driven – Strong interpersonal communication skills • Salary History • Reasons for leaving
- 19. Design Tips • Simple, clean lines with ample white space • Two fonts maximum (sans serif for headings genearlly) • One color maximum besides black/gray • Readable when printed in black & white • Bold either the job title or the employer, not both • Styles are used for consistency • Dates right-justified • NO CENTER OR JUSTIFIED TEXT • Line up your bullets! • Your name is the largest font • Avoid underlining, especially with hyperlinks
- 20. Free or Cheap Templates • Etsy (< $15) • Resume websites (many are free) • Avoid MS Word built-in templates: make your own using tables & styles • Avoid designer templates using Illustrator/InDesign/Photoshop
- 21. Before & After Examples