| Present
yourself on your resume with just the facts, albeit that
you show them in your best light. It should highlight
your accomplishments and skills in a factual manner. The
organization of your resume shows your ability to think
and write in a clear and concise manner. It should be
well organized and clearly state the points you wish to
build your future career on. Remember the person reading
it first may be non-technical. Therefore the use of big
technical terms may be inappropriate. If you do use a
technical term make sure that it is used correctly or
you will blow your whole image. Most people reading your
resume can tell when you are just bragging for the sake
of attempting to make yourself look important or have
filled it with big words and long-winded phrases to make
yourself look important. What you did may be impressive
but using overly impressive words to describe the achievement
is ill advised.
Make
your resume readable and if well written, the hiring
authority or I can read it once and understand how you
see yourself and how you think you will be of value
to the position you are seeking. We read literally thousands
of resumes a year and we are savvy to the embellishments
people add to their resumes hoping to improve their
marketability, but often these exaggerations are what
causes your resume to be passed over. Reading once should
tell your suitability for the position, it is only the
doubtful ones that cause us to reread them, and then
only if we have insufficient candidates on the first
go around. In this day and age the delete button makes
it very easy to erase your efforts and change your chances.
If
you do not take the time to individually tailor your
resume, it looks as if you have little care for yourself
and then how can you have any care for anyone else,
you whipped out a resume in about 10 minutes, your written
skills are too poor to allow you to make complicated
ideas understandable or the only way to make your accomplishments
appear to be good is to use all the big words you know.
It
is an everyday occurrence that we see resumes that are
either so vague, the grammar is so poor or that the
true level of achievement so embellished that we just
put them aside. There is no time to call, invite in
or coach the person on how to fix it. Is your resume
one of those? If in doubt:
- Hire a resume or stenographic service,
- Seek out a resource person at the library,
- Perhaps ask your child's teacher,
- Seek the assistance of the local literary council
or,
- A neighbor who is in school and would be thrilled
to be asked.
The
key is that you find the help.
Make
sure you are completing your thoughts and sentences.
Do not assume that someone reading your resume will
have your same vocabulary; so be very clear in your
meanings. Read your resume aloud and read every word
on the page, not what you think you wrote. It is one
of the best methods of editing one's own work.
I
suggest that as you read this article you have your
resume handy and objectively read it to see if you have
been as clear in your descriptions as your thought you
were. Close doesn't count in resumes; close costs you
the perfect job. Have you quantified your accomplishments
wherever possible? If you do this, it is very easy for
the reader to see how you can give them a return on
their investment. Yes, they invested in you and that
is how they look at it too. So be specific. When you
are talking about how much money you made or saved your
past employers give it to them in specific amounts -
dollars, or percentages. It does not work just saying
that you saved the company money, tell the reader how
and how much you made or saved them saved. It may not
have been direct money, as in an immediate or direct
payback; it could have been productivity improvement
that has a long-term cumulative payback. Have fresh
eyes critique your work it will save embarrassments.
Your
resume is the first tangible thing the reader has of
yours. It must stand on its own and make a good impression.
A
final note, make sure you have spelled the hiring authority
or the consultant's name correctly.
Article
reprinted with permission of Copyright ©McIntyre
Management Resources
|
"RESUMES - Just the Facts"
