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There are basically two trains of thought when it comes to a resume. One says to keep it short and sweet and another says to load it up with all of the information that you can. I feel that the best way is to keep it short and sweet. One page is great, two if needed and three at the very most. If you are submitting a resume with an application, the application will have room for all that the employer wants to know about you. Your resume can be thought of as your "sales pitch" Hitting the highlights and giving enough information to make an employer want to know more. There are a lot of employers that don't even care to see a resume, they just want the application. There is nothing wrong with submitting the resume as well though, simply because something on it may stand out and make you look better.
Don't give too much personal information
Look at the resume as a brief synopsis of your life's work and education. Do not put personal information such as your age, date of birth, social security numbers, marital status, race, religion, height, weight, hair color or anything else along these lines. An employer typically doesn't care that you have a spouse and 139 children. They want to know what you can do to fit into the position that you are being considered for. Additionally, It may even be illegal for the employer to ask these kinds of things. Some people have included a social security number. That is a huge no-no. You have no clue who is looking at your resume and this can easily open the door to identity theft. Years ago, it was common to see resumes that had an applicants marital status and how many children they had. Some would list things like:
Married to the former for Jane Doe for 12 years
Three children, Luke age 3, Molly age 2, and Ray age 8 months.
You only have a few pages and need to look at every line as precious. Some may argue that showing that you have been married for so many years shows dedication and reliability. I agree that it might since I have been married forever and a day, but as an employer I don't care about these things. I want to know what kind of a person you are as far as your work abilities, desires and ethics. The last thing that you want to do would be to eliminate the important stuff on a resume to add the irrelevant personal information. All I want as far as your personal information on a resume is your name and how can I reach you? Phone, cell phone, email address and mailing address is sufficient.
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Keep your resume hard hitting, but short and sweet
Your goal here is not to blow the employers socks off. The goal of a resume is to highlight the positive to the point that the employer wants to see a full application and ultimately wants to sit you down for the all important interview. By hard hitting, I mean one good point after another. How do you do that? I have always taught the idea of role reversal. You are now an employer, or a human relations specialist in charge of hiring. What would a resume look like to impress you? What kind of information would it have and equally important, how would you say it? The employer is a person like you and I. They are no better than anyone else, but they do have the power to make your life better or to let you keep on rolling on as you are. Why would they want to make your life better? Because you can show that you can make their life better as well as be an asset to the company. Your resume should be brief. Again, I cannot express enough, make it about information that pertains to your experience and education that has to do with the job. To note on a resume that your hobbies include weightlifting, gardening or stamp collecting does nothing but waste space on things that I, as an employer, don't want to know about or even care about when I am looking to hire a new employee. Once you get the job, we can talk about these things on a personal level. For now, I want to know how you are a good fit for my company. If I am going to provide you with an income, benefits and a retirement plan, why are you my best choice?
Let's layout a resume
First of all, you do not have to put "resume of" and then your name and contact information. Everyone knows that it is a resume. I would recommend making you name larger and then the contact information below it, followed by your objective, education, certifications (if applicable), area of proficiency (job related only), professional preparation (again, if applicable) Related work experience and finally, related volunteer experience.
Try to keep your resume to as few pages as possible. One is best, two is ok, three is not really recommended but may be necessary, especially if you are older (like myself) and have 5-6 companies that need to be under the relevant work experience. The main point is to keep your resume as brief as possible. Remember, your resume is just a sales pitch. The application is the complete offer and the interview is the demonstration. While they are all important steps to getting a job, they are also more important as you move through the process.
You can find sources on the internet that will disagree with my philosophy when it comes to resumes but I think that these ideas are now pretty much the norm for a proper resume.
Also remember that if you are applying for a job, it may be a good idea to leave a copy of your resume on a disk. That way if someone else needs a copy, they can just print it out. It wasn't too long ago that a company gave the job to a prospective employee just because the applicant left a disk. The HR assistant responsible for filing the position forgot their reading glasses and had to pick an employee from a pool of 5 qualified applicants that had been interviewed. Why was the one leaving the disk chosen? The worker could only see the one that was pulled up on a disk and the letter size changed. Not the best or fairest way to reward someone with a job, but it does happen. No...it wasn't me. This occurred back before I needed my reading glasses.
I also know of applications and resumes being lost but the disks were not. To save embarrassment those were the first and as it turned out, only applicants processed. Of course, they had to fill out new applications when they came for their interviews since the application format had been "changed". You know who you are. :-) Seriously, these things do happen and more than one person has been hired by going the extra mile and leaving a disk with their resume.
Use positive keywords on your resume
As human beings, there is more to us than meets the eye. Why do restaurants use the colors that they do? Why do TV commercials use the tactics that they do? Because, through years of testing and study, researchers have learned that these things can actually have an effect on our appetite, memory and desires. You may never buy anything from Billy Mays and his sales pitches. To you, he may be annoying and drive you nuts but his product promotions work. The advertisers pay him big bucks to grace our TV screens because his happy, bubbling tone makes a lot of people want to buy his product offerings. Why is McDonalds famous for their red and yellow colors? Could it be that it has a subtle effect on our mood and appetite? Some researchers believe so. Positive keywords can have the same effect. They show leadership, ability, desire and even passion. Using positive words on a resume can actually keep a prospective employer reading down the rest of a page. Let's look at one example of the effect that positive keywords have on a resume. These are both based on the same applicant for the same position.
Work history:
Joe's Donut shop
Manager of operations
I was the manager of the shop for twelve years. Did all management functions.
as opposed to:
Joes Donut Shop
Manager of operations
- Managed 34 employees
- Trained all new hires
- Responsible for P&E
- Performed bookkeeping functions
Which looks better on a resume? Using action keywords like trained, responsible for and performed are all positive action keywords and can add to the professionalism of your resume as well as keep the reader (possible employer) interested. More positive keywords are attended, created, administered, chaperoned, recorded, designed, assisted, prepared, organized, taught, and planned. There are a lot more but you can get the idea. You will get out of your resume exactly what you put into it.
Check here for a partial list of action keywords. The list is not all inclusive but will give you a good idea of what you are after. You may want to print the list out.
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Cater your resume to the job
Remember to cater your resume to the job that you are seeking. If you have experience in two fields or more but only one applies, make sure you highlight the field that is most pertinent to the job. It isn't uncommon to have three or even more different resumes on hand so that you can have one that best shows your talents in different areas that would be valuable information to a prospective employer.
What about references on a resume?
There are two trains of thought on putting references on your resume. The first feels that it is just more verbiage that the employer will probably not be interested in at the resume level of the application and hiring process. A lot of companies will not even check with your references until you give them permission. The references usually will be requested on the application. The second train of thought is that it takes practically no effort to put down references on your resume so why not make them available. This groups feels that you need to put down the references so it doesn't look like you are afraid to do so. Personally, I didn't care to see references on a resume but I guess it couldn't hurt. On the other hand, if you are going to list references and have the room, why stop with three? I would put as many as you can fit or even make an extra page with references. You want your resume to stand out, right?
Make your resume stand out
You want your resume to stand out. How can we do that? How about adding a brief section for testimonials? Short one liners of what other professionals have said about you. I would recommend that you use only what you have in writing and not what someone verbally said about you. I had a few prospective employees that used testimonials and when we checked with the person that allegedly said it, the person didn't even remember the applicant, let alone remember saying what they supposedly said. Like a college professional from 5 years ago telling a student that
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the applicant, let alone remember saying what they supposedly said. Like a college professional from 5 years ago telling a student that they are doing a great job and that the professor "had never seen work done so well in all of their years of teaching". It may have been said but let's face it, people forget. If it can't be verified, it never happened. Not that someone would lie, but can an employer believe everyone that wants a job? I can tell you from experience, the answer is no. The same goes for references. Try to have back proof up in writing and use fresh references or at the least, verify that you can still use the references that you had. It is kind of embarrassing when you use a reference that gave your permission 8 years ago and she is now deceased but you are still using her as a reference. These situations and many more have occurred over my years of hiring. What does that tell the employer? that you didn't go the extra mile and maybe you are not thorough enough for the job at hand. Spend a little time to make your resume glow as well as be up to date and accurate.
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How to build a great resume. Resume Tips and Pointers