Whew, where to start? There’s probably a couple of MILLION places out there that have recommendations on how to do the resume. One page, three pages, bullet lists, detailed lists, etc, etc, yadda, yadda!!

The short answer is to create the resume that gets you in the door. Pure and simple. It’s easy to say, not so easy to do.

The resume is designed to be your calling card to the HR department or hiring manager that you want to have hire you. It has to be brief enough to not put them to sleep, but wordy enough to make it through multiple layers of filters (both electronic and human) before it GETS to that person. There are other sites that go into GREAT detail with different strategies for resumes, so this article is going to talk about what’s worked for me.

Start With the Basics

If you haven’t created a resume before, there’s no time like the present.

1. List What You’ve Done – Think back and list out everything you’ve done professionally (paid or not) as far back as you can remember. (This is just a preliminary stage, it won’t ALL go on your resume). Be specific as possible, with dates, addresses, and manager’s names if you can remember them. This is fodder for the heart of your resume.

2. List What Skills and Knowledge You’ve Used On-The-Job – If you learned RPG III, list it, If you can yodel (professional level only) list it. Again, this is a preliminary list. If you’ve done it, PUT IT DOWN.

3. List People that will Recommend You Favorably – Emphasis on the Favorably. If there’s any doubt in your mind, drop them from the list. You don’t want to be torpedoed by someone you THOUGHT would say nice things about you. You not only won’t get the interview, you won’t know WHY you didn’t get the interview. Asking why (sometimes recommended by job experts) will usually get you some bogus ‘you didn’t fit the criteria’ answer, even if you have all 25 technologies they’re looking for. Better safe than sorry.

Now that you have this information, it’s time to start forming something of worth.

Separating the Wheat from the Chaff

Everyone has jobs that they didn’t do so well in, or periods of their lives where things "didn’t go quite right". EMPLOYERS DON’T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT THOSE TIMES. Put marks next to questionable jobs, jobs with ‘incidents’ you might not want to include and any other information that doesn’t present you in the best light. Remember, this isn’t about deception, this is about presenting an image that will get you the next step. The resume only gets you the interview, not the job.

Next, put marks against the skills or technologies that you DON’T want to use in the future. If it appears on the resume, someone SOMEWHERE will want you to do it. If you don’t want to, you’d better not emphasize it. Putting down that you have 7 years of Visual Basic programming will likely get you ANOTHER Visual Basic programming job (Brr!).

Finally, mark anything that might not look ‘professional’ on the resume. Acting as President of the local Society for Creative Anachronism club might indicate that you have leadership potential, or it might just single you out as super-geek. For the professional resume, leave it out.

Formatting the Remains

Again, there’s about a bazillion ways to format the resume, so I’m going with a standard format I’ve always used, with a few don’ts thrown in.

Header – There should ALWAYS be a header. It’s a good place to list contact information (phone as well as e-mail).

• DO put JohnDoe@somegoodemailprovider.com
• DON’T put JdGoodSub354835@weirdunheardofsite.com

E-mail addresses reflect on your character, like it or not. Find or create one somewhere that looks reputable.

Mission Statement – Short, short, SHORT!! (if at all). Mission statements are filler pieces to separate headers from content. They generally don’t get read.

Executive Summary – This section should be a bullet-pointed list or lists that cover your past highlights (Savings of X Millions, Invented Y product, Saved Z babies from fires, etc.) and your technical skills (Hardware, software, project management, other ’soft skills’ that you have).

The idea is to have a short list (normally only a half page or so) of neat things for them to read over, to entice them to slog through the rest of the resume. You’ve got probably about 10-15 seconds to keep their attention before your resume joins the ‘discard’ pile. Make it good!

Education/Certifications – (Only if they are relevant and impressive. Otherwise, shift them to the end of the resume. A Bachelors or above is impressive, an Associates degree or ’some college’ is not.

Chronological listing of Positions Held – This should be a fairly complete list of all the jobs you’ve had over about the last 10 years or so. The key is to have a continuous series of employment if possible. If there’s a significant amount of time between jobs (more than a month or so) it’s good to put in what you were doing (sabbatical for school, traveling, illness, etc).

References – Always ON REQUEST (only). Don’t volunteer more than you need to at the initial stage. If they need references, they’ll ask. That’s why you listed them earlier, in preparation.

Remember, the resume is supposed to represent you. Writing your resume is like going on a date. Everyone burps and scratches, but you don’t want your date to realize that, it throws off the mystique. You can never make up a bad ‘first impression’ no matter what. Get it right, get it straight, and you’ll Get the Interview.

Do you have pointers on resumes you’d like to share, we’d love to hear them.

Tomorrow – "The Interview"