Resume Writing - Advanced Checklist

Earlier I posted a Basic Checklist for resumes, so I felt it was time to develop a more advanced list of items to consider when developing your resume. But don’t consider a checklist the end-all for guiding you through the resume writing process. I’m assuming you already have a decent resume to start with. If not, many of my prior postings can help you through the design and development, but there are also some very good books on the topic.
Still, a checklist is always beneficial as a final review before you begin the distribution of your resume, thus the purpose of the following list. If something in the list is relevant to an article I wrote on the topic, I’ve provided you a link to that posting.

• Does your resume look clean, use a standard (not fancy) font with a with a modest font size, and have clearly labeled sections? Hold it at arm’s length — does it look attractive or does it look confusing or plain?
• If your resume takes two pages, do you have your name & contact information on the 2^nd page (usually the last line of the page or in the footer)? Also, are the page breaks in logical locations, minimizing confusion when the recruiter turns the page?
• Is it absolutely clear to the average reader what your career objective is? This might be in the job titles you’ve held, in the objective line, or in your professional summary at the top of your resume. (No “generic” or “old-style” objectives should be used.)
• Is your resume targeted to a single career, industry, or job? You don’t want an historical reflection document or a one-size-fits-all that doesn’t fit anything well. Remember that recruiters are not looking for a jack-of-all-trades for their very specific positions.
• Does your career summary highlight only the roles you have performed in the past 8-10 (no more than 15) years? Make sure that 70% of your career summary highlights are drawn from your most recent jobs and the text in your career history section supports the statements in your summary. (When writing the summary, remember the simple concept that nothing existed before cell phones and web browsers…so don’t mention it!)
• Does your resume have an outdated look? Don’t underline anything. Don’t put colons after headers. Don’t use the words “duties” or “responsibilities” or “assigned tasks”. Don’t say “references available upon request”. Don’t list the dates of jobs down the left margin – put them on the right edge. Don’t list the day (“dd”) on dates, use just “mm/yyyy”.
• Is there too much or too little white-space on your resume? Keep margins about 1 inch (no less than 0.75 inch) all around. Leave a blank line between resume sections.
• Don’t put personal information on your resume — no hobbies, no bank accounts, no children, no spouse, no certification/permit numbers, no religions, no politics, no age, no health, no home-ownership, no sports, no non-professional links, etc. Stick with business details and only list other activities if they relate directly to your career or job search (i.e. Toastmasters, professional organizations, civic-minded groups, or advanced studies).
• Read the job description — read your summary — read the job description again — everything in your summary should point to something in the job description. If it doesn’t match, consider removing it. It should be as close to a 100% match as possible.
• Action verbs! Use a wide variety of action verbs…and it’s usually best to start the sentence with them (while avoiding the use of the pronoun “I”). Grab a list from Boston College’s career site.
• Degrees generally go at the end of your job history unless you don’t have a job history (new college grad) or you are changing your career to match your new degree.
• Do you have enough (but not too many) industry terms and buzzwords sprinkled throughout your resume? There are lists everywhere, but here’s a good set from TheLadders.com.
• Do you provide evidence of your skills using a STAR or CAR statement? Don’t say “An experienced leader.”, instead allow an example to support your statement, such as: “Applying leadership skills by…”
• Is everything in your resume carrying a positive tone? There is NO need to have anything negative in a resume.
• Make your resume easy to read. Use the Readability Statistics setting in your word processor (under the Grammar options in Word) as a way of determining if your text “grade level” can be brought down to 12^th grade readability or less.

Bottom Line: Develop the best resume you can. Then using this check list and the prior basic checklist, refine your resume. Remember that any checklist is only a way to “tweak” an already well-written resume. If you’re having problems developing a real solid resume, look at the book list on this site or consider finding a moderate-priced resume writer to revise or even author your resume.

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Resume Writing - Basic Checklist

As a resume reviewer I don’t usually get to start with a “blank sheet”, I’m instead put in the position of critiquing an existing resume—one that the job seeker has often worked diligently on for days or weeks or months. Sometimes the resume is so pitiful I can’t bring myself to mark everything that’s wrong with it…it could discourage them beyond the point of getting them to fix their resume.

While I need to recognize and commend the efforts that the job seekers have put into writing and formatting their resumes, I still need to guide them to writing better ones. For the really bad situations it’s easier for me to just put a resume “checklist” in their hand. So after I’ve marked a few key items on the resume, I flip it over and start writing a “resume essentials” checklist that they need to implement. While the list I write for them might vary depending on what I see wrong with their resume, I usually draw my remarks from a small set of core essentials that every resume should address.

So, here’s my “Basic Checklist” for guidance I give for writing a resume:

• Plan to write 2 resumes to start with. First a “journal” resume of your entire life with everything that you’ve ever done all the way back to High School jobs. Second, from that first resume draw only the points relevant to your current job search and create a “job” resume…this is the one you hand out.
• Avoid the Functional resume format unless you really need to use it. Focus instead on a Chronological or even a Hybrid (1/2 functional & 1/2 chronological) resume.
• Use Times New Roman at either 11 or 12 font size. Your contact info and section headers can be a larger font, but all the rest of the text is the same size.
• If you choose to use an Objective line, make it engaging. Something like “Certified Project Manager with 10 years of experience leading IT integration projects looking to lead a small IT project team.”
• Try to get your resume to fit on 1 page… if it’s 2 pages, that’s OK. But no more, unless you have professional credentials (author, professor, etc.) and need the next pages for listing your publications or other works.
• Across the top put your name (First and Last only), address (at least City, State, & Zip), phone number (cell is preferable), and e-mail (one specifically for the job hunt) in any reasonable, clear layout of your contact info.
• Stick with 1 inch margins (or very close). White space is needed between the main sections of the resume…so put a blank line between major sections.
• Use “generic” job titles if your current company-specific job title is not fully descriptive. For example, be a “Sr. Java Programmer” rather than a “Technology Specialist III”.
• Pick one date format and stick with it! I suggest using either a “12/2009” format or a “December 2009” format. Yes, you can list only years if you choose to (I do on my resume), but be aware it sometimes raises questions.
• List your college degrees, the university name and year obtained, starting from most recent degree and put these at the end of the resume, just past your work history. (If you’re a new graduate and don’t have a work history relative to your desired industry, then these go at the top of the resume just below your contact information.)
• Industry recognized certificates or current certifications should be listed behind your degrees. Professional organizations where you are a leader (not just a member) relative to your job search should also be listed here.
• Keyword or Skills section with about 6-10 words/phrases that lists both soft skills (Leadership, Sales & Marketing, etc.) as well as significant industry terms that might be relevant (Published Author, Certified Project Manager). I usually put this brief section just before work history, but after the Career Summary.
• Leave off the obvious, such as “References Available Upon Request”. Statements like this just clutter the resume–of course they’re available. Don’t put your references on your resume–bring a nicely printed reference page (with your contact info at the top) with you to the interview.

And there are a few items that might fit your specific needs:

• If you have a unique first name, consider using a simple, safe nick-name. A acquaintance of mine goes by “Don” on his resume…his real first name, “Donagh”, of Irish descent, causes issues. This is also useful for interviewing so the interviewer or recruiter isn’t stumbling over your name.
• If your first and/or last name is not a common name in the U.S. (in other words it sounds “foreign”), consider a section at the end of your resume after your Education that says “Citizenship: U.S. Citizen – born in U.S.” or something similar. This helps to keep your challenging name from eliminating you from selection (which does happen).
• Degree info should not be misleading…Saying “MBA, Georgetown U., 2008-2009” might be your way of saying you attended the program during those years, and you didn’t graduate…but that’s not how it’s perceived. You should state something like “MBA courses, Georgetown U., 2008-2009” or “MBA, Georgetown U., 2008-2009 (in progress)”

And make absolutely sure that:

• Everything is accurate, truthful, and honest. Resumes do tend to “exaggerate” a bit, for instance saying “led” rather than “co-led”, but the truth is that you did lead, so this is OK.
• Make sure that there are NO typos, NO format errors, NO grammar issues, NO lies.

I can’t possibly cover all the tips and hints in a single post, so this is just a ‘basic’ list. There are a LOT of good articles and books out there that cover these checklist ideas. You can see an-up-to-date resume book list at by clicking on The Books link. Also, cruise the web for current (within the last 5 years) articles on the Internet, such as this one about resume blunders I found on CNN.com. And feel free to post a comment here if you’ve found a real good checklist article.

Bottom Line: It’s the little things in the resume that gets the goat of a recruiter. Your resume’s “look” and basic info shouldn’t set them off. Start with these basic resume tips and you should have something that at least passes their “first glance” test. See my Advanced Checklist article for more ideas.

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Resume Writing – STAR Statements (part 2)

I was reading through a stack of resumes for a lecture I was leading and noticed that most of the sentences were describing the actions taken by the people, but seldom included the setup or the conclusion. It was like reading a bunch of job descriptions: “Run computer backups” or “Sell new and used cars on weekends”. These sentences didn’t give a sense of need, importance, success, or quality…the resumes were full of unsubstantiated statements such as “energetic leader specializing in team building” or “drove a fork lift in a large warehouse.” I found myself asking out loud, “So what?” or “To what end?”

In a prior post I’ve already explained the STAR method for developing strong statements for the resume, so let me provide a brief review and some examples:

Situation – The situation or setting; the background for context
Task – Tasks or tactics used to approach or assess the challenge
Action – Activities or actions used to effect the change
Result – The outcome, a sense of scale, the quantifiable benefit

Now writing STAR statements isn’t that hard once you’ve had some practice, but people sometimes find it a difficult concept to grasp. Maybe an example or two might be what you need to be able to move from concept to implementation. So here’s a couple of sample STARs to help get started…

A weak resume statement:

“A successful builder of high-performance teams that can address challenging client situations“

You have just “bragged” on yourself without a context, without an example, and without any sense of scale or success. I, as an interviewer or recruiter, would tend to doubt your statement. So next, let’s take that same brag and convert it into a STAR statement…

A strong (STAR) resume statement:

“Assigned as a new project leader to a client that was previously dissatisfied with our firm’s services, rebuilt the project team with talented programmers, rewrote the application to the customer’s satisfaction, resulting in an extension of the contract.”

To help isolate the parts of the STAR statement, consider what I just wrote and apply it to the four steps of STAR:

Situation: assigned to a dissatisfied customer
Task: to solve a technical issue (program) and a client issue
Action: pulled together a good team to solve the technical issue
Result: achieved customer satisfaction and got a contract extension

Now, that’s a much stronger statement and I, as the interviewer or recruiter, would say to myself, “He’s a builder of high-performance teams and can handle challenging clients.” The STAR statement allowed me to make that assessment of you without your bragging!

Let’s do another one…

Weak: ”Updated an old database application using Java and SQL“

Strong: “Inherited an extensive database application written with legacy code, assessed the viability of enhancing the data access and converting the program to a web application, converted the program from COBOL and DB2 to Java and MySQL, resulting in a 8-fold improvement in speed and completed on time and under budget.“

Situation: an old database and program needing an update
Task: convert to current technology and preserve the data
Action: migrated DB2 data to SQL; reprogrammed COBOL to Java
Results: with improved performance, on schedule, and saved money

Yes, both of these samples were a bit wordy. No, you don’t need to be as wordy with your STAR statements. But these longer examples helped expose how a STAR is assembled (by you) and disassembled (by the recruiter).

How many lines in your resume should be written in the STAR format? As many as you can, but at least one per unique task listed on your resume. No, not all bullets or sentences in a resume need to be STAR format, as the resume can start sounding a bit “dense”, so mix in a few variations…some statements can be just TAR (no “S”) or any number of other variations, such as STA, SAR, RATS, RTA, or even TA. But once you realize the benefit of a STAR statement, then you’ll NEVER want a sentence or bullet that just lists the task (“T”) or the action (“A”) again.

Bottom Line: Rely heavily on the STAR method of describing the successes of your career. The story that the STAR statement spins is often memorable, puts your work in context and highlights the benefits of your efforts. Mix in a few TAR, RATS, SAR, STA, and AR statements to keep the writing from getting too dense, but err on the side of lots of STARs. Recruiters and hiring managers prefer to read success stories…not a list of duties.

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Resume Writing - STAR Statements (part 1)

“Your resume is bland, boring, and meaningless.” He seemed a bit shocked that I would say that to his face. “It has no content, no personality, and no potential.” He finally spoke up and started to defend his work, but I cut him off and said, “Ah! Now we can get it fixed…I needed you to get passionate about it first!”

Yes, I was a bit tough on the young man, but sometimes it takes getting a person’s complete attention before he’ll agree to really rethink his resume. It was nicely formatted and had the basic structure and content, but it was lacking excitement and details. He had been defending lines like “Helped write a department training manual” and “Ran the nightly computer backup programs” -– urgh! It sounded like a job description rather than a resume of personal success! He needed to get past his modesty and develop a resume, not an obituary.

To get this fellow’s resume on track I decided to show him the STAR model. Now there are several variations on STAR (CAR with the ‘challenge’ or PAR with the ‘problem’), where some people like to merge the “S” and “T” parts, but here’s the one I like that keeps them separate:

• S = Situations – It can also mean Setting. Give just enough background to make sure the reader knows the environment, the high-level problem, or the purpose for the needed action. ‘S’ also stands for Simple — keep the sentences, the terms, and grammar simple. (Some use ‘C’ for Challenge here.)
• T = Tasks/Tactics – Tell me the task you faced in a clear enough way so that I can easily understand what you were trying to accomplish or what you succeeded in doing. This can sometimes be considered as the goal of the tasks. Use terms that the average reader will understand, staying away from lingo and overly-technical terms. (Oh, ‘T’ also stands for Truth.)
• A = Actions – I don’t want to just know the situation and the task, but give me some action or an accomplishment. Your task and setting might be to develop training for a major client suffering from out-dated materials, so detail the actions you took or the accomplishment reached. This might include things like the amount of time, the number of pages, or the type of customer you dealt with. (‘A’ also means Accomplishment, where it’s clear what you succeeded in doing.)
• R = Results – Just because you took a Situation and performed a Task to Accomplish a goal, doesn’t mean you’re finished. Tell us the Results so we know how it all came out. Sometimes ‘R’ means Rating or Ranking your results. Was the client happy? Did your efforts close the deal? Is the software still in production? What level of profit did you achieve? This is the part that most people leave off and what most recruiters want to see. (I like to call this ‘Scale’, but that doesn’t start with ‘R’.)

Partly because many of us have been taught to be modest in public, we tend to write modest resumes. But you need to look at your resume not as a “journal of activities”, but rather a “marketing document of your talents”.

Think of TV commercials that advance the benefits and strengths of their products. How often have you seen a commercial selling a truck and it talks about horsepower, towing capacity or payload. They are clear, enticing, dynamic, and targeted– exactly what your resume needs…clear situations, enticing tasks, dynamic actions, and targeted results.

Bottom Line: Avoid the “job description” type of resume. Think S.T.A.R. when writing each and every line. Tell us a story in each sentence. Don’t exaggerate, but be proud and even a little boastful of your past work. This is a marketing document – sell me! See my more recent STAR Part 2 posting.

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30-Second Elevator (Networking) Pitch – 102

In my prior posting on how to create a 30-second elevator pitch, I focused on getting you started with a basic 5-step template. The template is really designed for people with little-to-no networking skills who are merely looking for the next opportunity in their current career or industry. Its primary goal is to be easy to develop, easy to memorize, and easy to tailor.

But the starter elevator pitch template is not for everyone. For example, career changers and college graduates don’t need to focus as much on the past as on the possibilities. Also, as you get more experience, you will want to find a way to make your networking pitch have a value statement or to develop a “hook” phrase to capture attention. I’ll leave those and other discussions for my next post on networking — this post will focus on 30-second pitches for people making a significant career change or people looking for the first job right out of college.

The College Pitch

In general, the 30-second pitch is a brief introduction of a working professional that centers around their work history and their developed industry skills. With a college graduate, having little or no work experience, we must take a different approach. The strategy here is to connect your degree or studies to the needs of the people you are talking with and to target the future, not your past.

For the new college graduate, the best approach to start with is to always have the other people introduce themselves first! Allowing them to go first gives you a chance to see if they are in a field or industry that might be of interest to you in your job search. This way you can talk about their work and show enthusiasm about what they do, which is a real plus for your networking — people usually like to talk about themselves, so play it up. Then, when it’s your turn to give your networking pitch, you have context for your introduction.

So, what does a college grad’s elevator pitch sound like? It’s similar to the template networking pitch mentioned in the prior post. You have five basic steps: 1 – Your name; 2 – Your degree or field of study (optionally your school); 3 – Your targeted industry or firm; 4 – A statement of passion for the work/industry; and 5 – A request for a contact. It goes something like this:

“Hi, my name is Bob. I’m a recent college graduate {from “name of college” if it’s well known} with a degree in {field of study or degree title}. I am looking to start my career in the {choice 1} industry or {choice 2} industry. These industries fascinate me because I see the potential of using my newly acquired skills in {mention degree or field of study} to develop relevant products and services. You spoke of {firm name} which is a leader in this industry. Would you know someone at {firm name} that I could talk to? I’d like to hear more about {firm name} to better understand how my {field of study} talents would be a fit in that industry.”

College Notes:

• Unless your college is very well known (MIT, Notre Dame, Yale, etc.), leave it out for now. Make sure your degree title is relevant to the conversation, or just use a field of study so the listener can grasp it — for example, saying you studied “Computer Science” is better than saying you have a “Bachelors degree in New Media and Human-Computer Interactions”.
• Listen to the speakers and pick up on the name of any firms or industries they just mentioned and use them in your pitch.
• This is not the time to talk about courses or your education, just refer to it as a “newly acquired knowledge” or “research skills” to let them know you are talented and open to learning (but don’t say you’re “open to learning” — that’s a weak phrase).
• Don’t talk about the part-time jobs you might have held while in school, as these can be distractions. Unless these are directly related to your job search (maybe a co-op position or a summer job in an industry-related firm), then save this info for later discussions.
• Make sure to ask for a connection to someone that can give you more information — see if you can work your way to a phone call, a cup of coffee, or a lunch-time meeting with them.

The Career Changer

This pitch is a little tougher. Unlike the college graduate who probably has a very limited career, you may have 5-50 years of real work experience behind you. In most cases a career-changer is making a radical change, say from a computer programmer to a nurse, or from being a retired sales executive to a part-time tax return preparer. The challenge for you is to keep the conversation focused on your goals, not your past. So you must deflect questions about your past during the networking meetings (remember your past is a detraction at this moment) and keep things focused on your goal.

“Hi my name is Bob. I’m making a career change to the nursing profession. I realized a while ago that I had a strong passion for helping and educating people about their health, so I felt drawn to this field. I’ve recently started taking nursing courses, so I’m determined to move into this industry. But the opportunities are so broad – such as emergency room, doctor’s office, or geriatric nursing roles. I was hoping you could connect me with a friend or business acquaintance in the health care industry so I can begin to narrow down my preferences as I continue my studies.”

Changer Notes:

• Remember, this is about developing contacts in your field of choice, not in your prior industry, so don’t even mention your old job or career.
• A career changer must be driven “to” a new opportunity, not “away” from one. The phrasing of your network pitch is positive, forward-moving, and targeted. You can’t say “Well, I was thinking about maybe possibly changing my career to something somewhat different or about the same…”. The networking pitch is developed after you decide your direction, not while you’re pondering a change.
• Help the listener envision you in the new role. Research the job/industry sufficiently so you can be knowledgeable enough to project yourself into the role with enthusiasm.
• It’s all about getting more information. You aren’t looking for a job during this conversation, you’re asking for contacts in the industry so you can understand the various jobs, opportunities, and responsibilities.

Bottom Line: Start with the basic 30-second network pitch and tailor it to your needs. Career changers and fresh college graduates are examples of people that shouldn’t talk about their past (work experience or courses studied) in their 30-second pitch. Your decision to move to a specific industry/role should have already been made–your networking time spent with others is not the time to explore career choices. Try to avoid talking about any roles (work or courses) other than the role/industry you are targeting, as this can confuse the other people to the point that they forget what you are actively pursuing. And remember to show enthusiasm in your elevator pitch about your new career of choice!

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30-Second Elevator (Networking) Pitch - 101

The 30-second elevator speech, also known as a networking pitch or a 30-second intro or a personal commercial, is a brief statement that you use to introduce yourself to another person in an attempt to establish a relationship beyond the 30 seconds. That’s it! Get the person you’re talking with to ask you for more information or further details. It’s nothing really more complicated than that.

Let’s assume that you’ll be in a variety of situations where an introduction would be useful. You meet a new client – an old schoolmate – a peer at a professional meeting – a distant relative – a potential employer – and in each situation you will need to answer the basic “Who are you and what do you do?” question. What you want is a brief social and professional introduction of you – a “who I am” sound bite.

I’ve seen and heard hundreds of variations on the elevator pitch in the courses I lead or at networking meetings (both social and professional) that I attend. They range from great to pitiful, from informative to painfully boring. And since your professional future can depend on how well you present yourself in those few seconds, you must know how to do it effectively. So, if you’re new to this networking thing, I suggest you start out with a basic pitch that, once you master it, you can easily tailor it to any situation at hand. Let’s cover the 5 key elements of a basic, standard pitch:

1. Your Name: Keep it Simple! State your first name only. A nick-name is fine, but avoid using distracting names like “Princess” or “The Hammer”. Save your last name until asked for, as it only complicates or lengthens the introduction. A simple phrase like “Hi, my name is Bob” is all that’s needed here.

2. Your Title: Give me a sense of what you are or what task you currently perform. Use generic descriptions, avoiding industry terms and overly descriptive definitions. Do not use your company “title” and don’t mention your company name at this time (remember, this is your pitch, not your firm’s pitch). This is very brief and should usually be between four to eight words. Something like “I am a Project Manager” or “I sell used cars” or “I am a nurse at a local hospital”.

3. Your Role: This expands on your title above, to give a bit of depth but to also explain your job simply enough such that a 4th grader can understand what you do. This might be a clarification of your title: “I manage web programmers and coordinate testing of their programs” or “My nursing specialties are dealing with emergency room patients and also some cardiac-care patients.” You can add another sentence if needed, but remember to stay away from jargon and keep it brief.

Note: It’s up to this point in your introduction that you want anybody to be able to effectively repeat your name, your title, and your role such that they could introduce you to someone else effectively without anything more than listening to your first three steps.

4. Your Passion: You now need to start to build some enthusiasm. Tell me why you like what you’re doing or tell me some exciting actions that you’ve performed directly related to your role. This is one or two sentences that get me excited about you and that we can talk about in more detail over the next few minutes. This is a bit tough, but you need to show me some passion…focus on it! “I enjoy being a school teacher because I get to make a real impact on children's lives. I get excited when their eyes light up once they’ve grasped a new concept or when they tell me that the topic I’m teaching them makes sense.” Make me believe you are passionate about your job.

5. The “Talk With Me” Statement: This is where you stretch your introduction into the objective of the meeting. If you were dating, you’d mention the type of dating relationship you might want, “I’m looking for a girl-friend that likes hiking, jogging, and tennis, but also enjoys a quiet evening watching movies at home.” In the career search, you do something similar, “I’m looking for a new opportunity, to maybe practice nursing in a doctor’s office or at a different hospital. Do you know of any nurses or doctors that I could talk to about their experiences?” Remember, this is about engaging in a conversation, but also checking to see if there’s a potential benefit with this new relationship. This “talk with me” statement is the difficult piece, because you are striving to bring a potential contact into your network that you can use throughout your career. The same “talk with me” statement might not be beneficial with all people in all settings, so you need to try out a few variations on this step.

Networking Framework

Networking is about growing a collection of friends, business acquaintances, and other resources that can help you grow professionally (and socially) by sharing your experiences and backgrounds. Networking is not a means to put someone on the spot — the networking pitch is never a “do you have a job for me” or a “when can I come by for an interview” conversation. It’s about laying the groundwork for further discussions, possible relationships, and fostering a 2-way communication channel.

Whether you use your elevator pitch as a personal networking tool, a professional networking tool, or even an ice-breaker when meeting new people, you need to practice it until it sounds natural — just like you having a casual conversation. Focus on getting the first four steps clear and repeatable. Then develop a few variations on step five so you can use the 30-second pitch in a variety of situations.

Now it’s important to know that this is just the first step in building a basic networking pitch. There are many more topics that I’ll write about over the next few posts. For example, a person that’s changing careers would have a different intro. Also, a student that has recently graduated will have a different presentation. But for most of you that are staying in your current career, use this as a “template” for your 30-second networking story!

Bottom Line: The 30-second pitch is about developing a relationship that you can use at a later date. While there are many variations, a simple 5-step intro works as a great way to develop a solid starter pitch. These steps are: 1 – First Name, 2 – Simple Title, 3 – Role Description, 4 – Passion Statement, and 5- a Conversation Growth statement or question. Keep it simple enough for a 3rd grade student to understand what you do and rehearse it until it is smooth, natural, and informative.

Update: Continue on to my next 30-Second Pitch 102 posting

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Above the Fold - Work History

The last topic that we’re covering in the “Above the Fold” discussion is your job history. Ideally the prior sections on your resume (Contact Info, Objective Statement, and Career Summary) have been brief enough to get you close to the middle of the page, but not past it. If you’re already past the middle of the page, then you might want to consider compressing or reducing the earlier items, because it’s important to get at least part of your current (or most recent) job details to start above the fold.

But let’s back up a second. What type of resume formats are we looking at? To start with, we should focus on a classical chronological resume. This is where you list your title, your firm, the dates, and maybe the location of the job, followed by a paragraph or several bullets of accomplishments, successes and tasks in reverse chronological order. The work history section might look something like this:

Relevant Work History

Most Recent Title Dates
Most Recent Firm Location
(A 1-line description if the firm is not well know nor easily Googled)

An introductory paragraph of 2-4 sentences used as a “setting” that describes the business, your involvement, and your role all laced with strong keywords (nouns and verbs) to spin the “story” of your job in the mind of the reviewer. The purpose of this paragraph is to set the stage for the following accomplishment bullets.

• The strongest, most relevant accomplishment (using the STAR method), with supporting numbers if at all possible – your references should be aware of and supportive of this action.
• At least two or three more bullets with other relevant accomplishments (still using the STAR approach, or maybe just TAR or AR). Make sure it’s different enough from the prior bullet to not sound redundant

Next Most Recent Title Dates
Next Most Recent Firm Location

An introductory paragraph of 2-4 sentences used as a “setting” that describes this next business similar to what you did above.

• As above, this first bullet is a strong STAR statement of accomplishments or success.
• Ditto….ditto….ditto…

If everything works properly on this first page, your title, your firm, the first paragraph, and at least the first bullet of this first job will appear “above the fold”. This is the stuff we want the reviewers to always see – enough to convince them that you have the talent and skills they are most interested in so they’ll continue to read the rest of the resume. For Functional or Hybrid resumes it’s a bit different. You might have an extended “Relevant Experience” section again with probably a mix of paragraphs and bullets…but I’ll cover that in more detail in a later post.

Personally, since the world has changed and a resume is more about you and your talents than it is about your firms, I think you need to set that tone early. Notice, in the example above, that your title came before your company name. This is because in this day and time, you are being hired based on your skills and your roles with only a moderate interest in your current or former firms. Remember that everything above the fold is about ME (the recruiter or hiring manager)…how I can contact you, which of your skills can benefit me, and how your former roles and actions can best be integrated into my firm. This is the story that needs to jump off the top half of the first page of a resume.

Bottom Line: Get your most recent work history to be present “above the fold” on page 1 of your resume. With today’s recruiters and managers merely glancing at resumes, these documents must contain what these reviewers want to see on the top half of the first page (what’s normally seen of a document on a PC screen at full width). I’ll detail how to do this with hybrid and functional resumes later.

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Above the Fold (maybe) - Education

Where to place your degree on your resume and how much information you need to share about it gets many answers from many different resume writers. There are some general guidelines that most people are aware of, but some of the finer nuances of the placement and details about the degree is not known and sometimes the lack of this knowledge can hurt your chance for getting a job interview or offer. Traditionally the Education section follows your work history, but there are exceptions. So let’s look at the 3 major options and the many variations you need to consider.

1 – Recent graduate with little or no work experience.

Your degree is your biggest selling point. You’re a new graduate, so make sure you lead with this information as the very first item after the Objective statement (if you’re using one). For undergraduates you should show any GPA above about 3.4 (just 2 digits):

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Little City College, Little City, June 2009

– Specialty in finance; Dean’s List; GPA 3.8

2 – Recent degree for an experienced worker

As proud as you are about getting that new degree (whether an undergraduate or a even a doctorate), the information should go at the end of your resume immediately after your work experience. We don’t list the GPAs of graduate degrees, so you also drop the GPA of your undergraduate and the months the degrees were earned. Remember, this is a “plus” to your work experience, so those smaller details aren’t as important as for those seeking their first job:

EDUCATION

Master of Science (MS) in Information Technology, Large City University, Large City, 2009

Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Little City College, Little City, 2005

3 – Career Changer in mid or late career

So you’ve been working in retail, but now want to be a rocket scientist. With little or no experience in that field, but a recent degree relevant to your new target career, this needs to be up-top. You probably want a Summary Statement or strong Objective Line that indicates your desire to switch careers and/or industries. Then put your degree info directly in front of your work history:

EDUCATION

Doctor of Aerospace Engineering (PhD), Major City University, Major City, 2009

Master of Science (MS) in Information Technology, Large City University, Large City, 2003

Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Little City College, Little City, 2000

Here are some miscellaneous rules:

– If your degree is over 20 years old, consider dropping the year you graduated:

Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Little City College, Little City

– If you were granted an honorary degree, make it clear…that’s very different from an earned degree:

Honorary Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology, Major City University, Major City, granted 2009

– If your degree is from another country, list the equivalent degree type below it:

Bachelor of Engineering (BE), Foreign City College, Foreign City, Other Country, June 2001

(Equivalent to Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) in This Country)

– If your degree (e.g. BA in Art Appreciation) isn’t relevant to your career pursuit, just list the degree type:

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Little City College, Little City, June 2001

– If you attended college, didn’t get a degree, and are no longer enrolled, indicate the dates attended:

Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Little City College, Little City, attended 2001-2003

– If enrolled and currently attending college, but not yet graduated, indicate planned graduation date:

Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Little City College, Little City, expected graduation June 2010

– If you’ve completed the coursework on an advanced degree and are still working on your dissertation or thesis, this needs to be indicated:

Doctor of Education (Ph.D. Candidate), Major City University, Major City, courses completed June 2009

A noted exception to this resume advice is if you are a college professor or are pursuing other higher-education work (researcher, etc.) and not looking to be employed in the corporate world, you will probably be writing a CV (Curriculum Vitæ), so this advice is not for you.

Bottom Line: A recent graduate with little work experience or a career changer with a new degree will have the Education section Above the Fold. Everyone else will have the Education section after the Work Experience section. List your degrees top-down with the highest level degree first. Don’t mislead or lie…the news is full of people that exaggerated their degrees to get hired and then later got fired (and sometimes sued).

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Above the Fold - Summary Statement (part 2)

In a prior post I wrote about the Summary statement, but a few e-mails lead me to write an update to that posting…specifically a “drill-down” on what it might look like.

To be honest, this is a section that can have a wide variety of writing styles and can even be a creative section where you can take chances if prior versions of your resume aren’t getting the results you want. It could be a paragraph or bullets or even a combination of these. It can focus on past (relevant) successes or it can pontificate about how you can apply your skills or make changes. Remember…the summary statement is a sales pitch!

But the e-mails I received asked for an example of a summary statement rather than just the guidance from the prior post. So, as an example, here’s a summary statement from a resume I recently reviewed (with key elements changed for privacy). Let’s use it as a jumping-off point for you to craft your summary:

“Over 10 years of experience analyzing network security challenges for a variety of private and government clients. An industry-recognized expert in cyber-security with several publications and co-author of a best-selling security strategy book. Holding 3 IT industry certifications and a Masters degree in IT Security, directed 3 major virus investigations for Fortune 20 firms, and a sought-after network security consultant with the U.S. military. A seasoned manager and executive leading diversely talented teams of up to 200 employees and annual service budgets of over $85 million.”

It was a relatively good summary, so let’s critique the above paragraph:

1. Always start with a concise sentence that complements your objective statement if you’ve used one. Jump straight to the task, role, talent or compassion you have—in this case it’s ”network security”, so something related to this topic should now be evident in at least 50% of all remaining sentences on the first page of this resume. Oh, and even if you have 20 or 30 years experience, it’s usually best to just say “over 10 years of experience” so you aren’t “aging” yourself out of an interview!
2. The first sentence stated the “what”, the second sentence should be the “to what extent”. Build on the first sentence by detailing your strongest career aspects relevant to the opening sentence. In the example, stating “industry-recognized” is a strong approach, but with something this bold, it will need to be supported with some details later in the resume. Any “tangible” evidence of your expertise, such as publications or speaking events , are a great way of polishing the “expert” concept. It won’t always be something as high-profile as being a published author, but bring your strongest evidence to bear at this point.
3. For roles where your expertise and not just your experience is key, further clarifying your qualifications brings a strong message. Industry or academic certifications can give the reader a sense of your qualifications, but make sure they’re relevant to the objective and not a distraction. If it’s about experience, bring in some “measurable” successes to the summary – while this can definitely be a revenue number, other things that can be “counted” will work as well.
4. The last sentence can either bring in a complementary skill or can further clarify the primary skill. Be careful not to wander too far from your primary objective — if you bring up your next talent, it’s essential that your reader stills sees you as focused and targeted in this resume. In this example the management and the security skills can complement each other, so this new skill is complementary.

So be careful! The “Career Summary” is not a summary about you and your career, it’s about a summary of your experience from your career that is targeted and focused on the objectives of your resume. I’ve seen too many resume summary statements that just had 4-5 bullets or sentences that were a collection of random skills or assorted successes, and while these might be interesting, they won’t help the reader envision you in one of their positions.

After you’ve written the summary, have a friend read your statement and then read the job description of the job you’re applying for…if they don’t see the relevance of each and every sentence, you need to rewrite it.

Bottom Line: The resume summary statement needs to be a short, strong section that pulls key successes from your career and states them in a way that leaves the reader with a vision of how your talents can be directly applied to the job you are targeting. Don’t end up with a jumble of disconnected phrases or sentences that, while entertaining, leaves the recruiter asking “so what does this person do and how well is it done”?

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Above the Fold - Summary Statement

In an earlier couple of postings I mentioned that many recruiters and interviewers only look at the top half of the first page—commonly called “above the fold”. Those postings covered the first two elements generally found on resumes: Contact information and Objective statements. But those are just the “warm up” – the real focus of the recruiter is the first sizable, easily-read “summary” of your talents.

The Summary is where you get to give your first sales pitch. This is the section that piques the interest of the reader and gives the first solid presentation of your desires, talents, and worth. Every sentence or bullet in the summary can (and should) stand on its own and provide the recruiter with a solid, action-packed insight of your strengths. Descriptive text, strong use of keywords and action verbs, and a brief to-the-point “pitch” is what’s needed here.

The Format

The Summary should generally be a paragraph format, allowing easy reading or scanning for the reviewer. It should be in the same font size as all the other text portions of your resume. It should be about 3-5 sentences, but no more than 7 lines on the page. Optionally you can have 2-3 strong sentences with 3-4 bullets that have detailed information or extensive numbers that would be difficult reading in a paragraph form.

The Words

This is a bit tricky…you want sentences and phrases that are strong with keywords and action verbs, but also easy to read. The grammar needs to be simple and proper without sentences that only make sense when reading it through a second or third time. The “grade level” of the vocabulary should be targeted at the job, but not above that of any potential decision makers that might be reading the resume.

The Story

The summary is in essence the 30-60 second sales pitch that you might give verbally. When you are sitting on the other side of the interview table and the interviewer asks, “So, tell me about yourself”, your brief introduction should essentially be a variation on the Summary section of your resume. This way you can drive home, in both verbal and written forms, your key strengths, your successes, your talents, and your great fit for the job.

The Showcase

The summary is the visionary portion of your resume. This is where you can select the very best of your past career to help the reader envision you fulfilling not just the job, but the role that they need filled. You should look at this section as a way to project yourself into the firm, into the future, into the successes that the job requires, such that the recruiter envisions you as the best candidate for the job.

The Caution

Your summary, if not well constructed, might turn out to be redundant of parts of your Work History section. While you’ll definitely draw summary points from your past, they should be future-focused. This summary section isn’t just about detailing specifics of your past work, but more about tying in your talents and successes in relation to the job that you are applying for. For example, make a direct reference of how your success in a past role is similar to a quality or key role in the job description.

Bottom Line: This is the key section that appears “above the fold”. This is where you tell your story about how you are the ideal candidate for this position. Be bold, be positive, and be focused. This is not a job history section or collection of assorted interesting facts – this is the best (and often last) chance to impress the reader so they continue to read your resume or make that call for an interview!

Recent Update: See the more recent resume Summary section Part 2 posting for more details on writing a summary statement.

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Above the Fold - Objective Statement

In a prior posting I indicated that many recruiters only look at the top half of the first page—commonly called “above the fold”. This is where your resume can make or break you with each recruiter. Last time I wrote about your contact information (your name, phone number, etc.), so as I keep working down the page of a resume, the next item I’ll cover is the Objective statement.

Let me start off by saying that this topic is highly contested among resume writers and reviewers…it can easily start a fist-fight between two otherwise sane professionals. Some people say to never use it while others say to always use it, and there aren’t many fence sitters on this issue. So let’s get to the easy answers first.

Who “should” use it?

• College graduate looking for your first job (You probably have no real work history and I don’t want to have to figure out what it is you want to do with your life, so you better tell me.)

• Career changer not wanting a job in your old career (Since you aren’t selling your “old” self, you must tell me what your “new” self is all about so I can find the “new” you nestled in amongst all your “old” work history.)

• Anybody applying for a “specific” job (If you want only that job, or one very similar in title, then tell me what it is you want.)

Who “shouldn’t” use it?

• (sounds of crickets in the background)

Hmm. I must be one of those people that think you should always have an Objective statement. Well, let me clarify.

The Objective line is no longer this lame “I’m looking for a satisfying career where I can learn new skills on your dime and work comfortably until I retire” statement, it’s now a strong “These are the skills I can bring to bear on your specific business issues so your firm can excel” statement. For example:

Old-Objective: Seeking a mid-level Project Manager position in a medium-size firm where I can develop my skills to their fullest. (Wrong! It’s all about you wanting something.)

New-Objective: Certified Project Manager with 10 years of experience directing IT integration projects looking to lead a small IT project team. (Better! It’s about your talent being specifically applied.)

Consider that the recruiter has carefully reviewed the requirements of his job posting and is now looking for a match…and you just helped make that match in the very first sentence the recruiter read on your resume! It’s a power statement that says “Look no further, I’m exactly what you are looking for!” This is where the right objective line scores big!

But, what you didn’t see before I wrote the new objective is that I went to the specific job posting and figured out that the position required 8+ years of experience, preferred a certified PM, and the candidate would be leading a 2-man project team for a single client that was integrating new software. Then I crafted a 1-line, impactful objective statement connecting my skills with the job needs.

Oh. Does that mean you must create a new objective line for each job you apply for? Yes…you can’t afford not to!

Bottom Line: The objective line is your 1-sentence sales pitch for a particular job—make it a strong “can do” statement. No generic statements allowed here! That’s why so many others tell you to get rid of it since it adds no value unless it truly connects your resume to the job that you’re applying for.

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Above the Fold - Contact Information

I’ve heard it from almost every recruiter I talk to, “I only read the top half of the first page…if I’m not impressed by it, I’ll toss the resume and go to the next one.” Or more recently, “I need just a quick glance…if the resume is ugly, I don’t even read it; if it’s not ugly, it has 10 seconds to impress me.” Brutal! Cold! But that’s the way it is with many recruiters that have to shuffle through 100s of resumes to find the 3 or 4 people they want to interview for a single position.

What do you need to have on your resume “above the fold” on the first page to keep it from being tossed? I’ll highlight each of the 4 key sections (Contact, Objective, Summary, and Current Job) in separate posts. Let’s start with Contact information:

Across the top of the page are the obligatory contact information details. The specific way these items are placed on the page doesn’t seem to affect recruiters much. I prefer this info to be centered, but left or right justified both look fine – just make it clear, attractive and easy to read. I like to make the font of these items to be a point or two larger than the text of the resume (14 is good) with your name using a larger, bolded font (16 or 18 is good).

• Name: First and Last name only — save your full, formal name for job applications. If you have a “normal” nick name that you go by, such as “Bill” or “Liz”, (not “Dog” or “Meatball”) then you may use it on the resume. In fact, if you have a rather challenging first name, like a man I know with the Irish name “Donagh”, it’s a lot simpler for him to just go by “Don”.

• Address: In these days of identity theft some people are choosing to not put their street address on a resume. That’s probably OK since most recruiters prefer to contact you by phone or e-mail. Just make sure to list your city and state so they know if you’re a local or not.

• E-mail: Get an e-mail address specifically for your job hunt (from Yahoo, Google, or other places) and check it daily. Pick a professional username with your last name embedded in it, such as Smith_B@gmail.com.

• Phone: List your cell phone. This is the phone that you are most likely to answer and make sure you have a professional message on your voicemail. Always answer the phone politely for all caller IDs you don’t recognize!

That’s it. Keep it clean. If you have a really sharp, dynamic web site, then you can add a url to your contact info if you want to…but I personally think this should go on a cover letter.

Quick note. If you have a multi-page resume, make sure your name and phone number are at the top or bottom of each additional page, just in case the pages get separated.

Bottom Line: Above the fold you have contact info, objective line, summary, and probably your current job info. The contact details needs to be clear & minimal with at least 2 ways you can be reached. We’ll get to the other above-the-fold items in a later post.

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