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Can Your Resume Avoid Black Hole ?
The document provides tips for creating an effective resume, including capturing the reader's attention at the top, showcasing achievements and skills specific to the position, remaining concise and focused, listing results rather than responsibilities, and using keywords. It emphasizes quantifying achievements, telling career stories using the CAR (challenge, action, result) formula, and targeting the resume to the specific job. The document also warns against including irrelevant information and discusses strategies for addressing career gaps or changes in work history.
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Can Your Resume Avoid Black Hole ?
- 1. Rebecca Page rebeccalpage@yahoo.com Resume Can Your
- 2. Marketing Document Promote YOU! — modesty’s not effective approach Intrigue — Capture reader above the fold (top 1/3 of 1st page) Focus — Showcase achievements & skills specific to Sell it ! position sought Don’t tell it.
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- 4. Hiring Managers Receive 50-500 resumes per position Review resume in 5-10 seconds
- 5. Long Line ofApplicants Competition’s Fierce Showcase your personal brand, achievements and value Remain compelling, concise and focused List RESULTS not responsibilities Use keywords & buzzwords
- 6. Start with BlankSlate Type Career Achievements CAR Stories — Challenge, Action, Result Quantify — $, %, # Use in highlights & work experience sections
- 7. Stay on Course Achievements / experience relevant to position sought Not too little / too much information TARGET your job search Mall Corp. needs a technical writer. Courtney’s a software developer. Should she apply?
- 8. Tenicia sums up herobjective and expertise
- 9. Title + Profile Achievements Front and Center
- 10. Define Expertise Add skills under profile Specific to position sought Pull from job description
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- 12. Leadership Achievments Acquisitions: Led team to develop RFP – >$100M Enterprise Pre-D Recording Service to National Reconnaissance Office as SETA at SAIC. Contract Management : Slashed budget from $150M to $105M by improving staffing and technology efficiencies for EPRS as Lead SETA for SDDS programs at General Dynamics.
- 13. Or CAR Statement Challenge: Resolve operational performance—high costs and productivity bottlenecks in travel division. Action : Streamlined processes, realigned key personnel, and re-engineered banking functions by establishing relationship with high-tech bank. Result : Improved customer service while slashing invoicing and collection costs—from 10% to <5% and $5M. Volume grew to $30M, reducing ratio even further.
- 14. So Far —Compelling !
- 15. Career Experience Director of Human Resources and Operations Responsible for restaurant staffing needs and recruitment. Responsible for food concessions — sales and payment system.
- 16. Highlight Results ! Secured a group of motivated general employees who were paid 15% less by law. Cut additional labor costs from 28% to 20%, significantly increasing net profits to investors. Increased concession sales 22% to $2.5M by re-engineering food service stations and fast response payment system.
- 17. Add a Testimonial Pull from performance evaluations or recommendation letters Ben showed initiative as our head nurse. He redesigned our walk-through and time-keeping systems, saving both manhour and billing costs. Philippe Martine, MD Charleston VA Hospital
- 18. What’s Wrong ? Directlyunder Heading EDUCATION MA – Clinical Psychology, Case University, St. Louis, MO 1994 - Successfully managed the demands of working full time while carrying a full time graduate school course load. - Senior thesis project : Organizational behavior—How can Barnes & Noble and Amazon co-exist? - Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society BA – Management, Florida State University, Tallahassee 1990 - Developed Telemedicine System as member of Florida Neurological Institute team - Noles Daily Photography, Editor - Member women’s tennis team
- 19. Education Not TopAppeal Alyssa’s Worked 18 Years Degrees no longer top selling point. Move to the end — unless required in job listing. MA – Clinical Psychology, Case University, St. Louis, MO 1994 - Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society BA – Management, Florida State University, Tallahassee 1990
- 20. And Here? CAREER Software DevelopmentLead 1986-1990 Raytheon Seattle, WA Software Developer 1984-1986 Microsoft Seattle, WA Computer Programmer 1980-1984 IBM Seattle, WA Administrative Assistant 1977-1980 Gulf Oil Fairbanks, AK EDUCATION BS – Computer Science Duke University, Chapel Hill, NC 1976
- 21. Ageism Exists Showonly 10-15 years’ work experience List prior experience without dates or responsibility bullets No dates for college Plus 1st job not relevant to career path
- 22. Is This Relevant? COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT The Salvation Army Serve as mentor for the Team in Training program, which recruits persons to raise funds while preparing as a group for marathon. Led 15 persons to instruct and assist with meeting their fundraising goals. Wharton Civic Association Fundraising Committee – Preparing events for tree planting and playground projects. Held dinner with silent auction and 50-50 raffle. PERSONAL Married with 3 children. Enjoy hiking and reading.
- 23. Don’t Waste Space Showcase your career qualifications Certifications, technical skills, professional memberships, awards & publications All illegal — social affiliations, age, marital / family status, nationality, disabilities & medical conditions
- 24. Career Knocked OffCourse?
- 25. Avoid Gaps Outof work for a while? List courses, volunteer, HONESTY is BEST related temp jobs State why Back to school? Laid off or let go? Place at top or within Contract not renewed work history Company relocated to NY Page 2 not always read Left the workforce? Assisted terminal parent Raised child for 3 years
- 26. Format Strategies Amplewhite space Usual techniques Bold, italics, Modern fonts Arial, Helvetica, Calibri ALL CAPITALS Traditional fonts Bullets Times, Century, Palatino Simple lines Font size 11 / 12 points Minimal use
- 28. Electronic Resume Title& key words Strip Formatting in job posting - bold, italics, underline .txt file extension, - bullets unformatted ASCII - tabs Sans serif font - tables Left justify all text - text boxes - page breaks - page numbers Use symbols to replace bullets or create lines — — —
- 29. E-mailing Resume Follow ad’s instructions Word preferred over pdf (if not .txt) Name ―FullName_Resume.docx‖ Helps recruiter file & find it Subject line, your name & ad’s position Body, paste resume Attach resume & cover letter
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