Phoenix Group International

Description

Preparing Your Resume Your resume is one of the most important tools in your career search strategy. It is often the first image of you that employers will see. It serves as a marketing device for your job candidacy. You should take great care in preparing your resume, paying attention not only to the content but also to formats, grammar, and spelling. The goal of a resume is to stress the strengths and accomplishments that set you apart from others seeking similar employment opportunities, and to get you that first interview. It is recommended by most recruiters and career services offices that your resume be only one page. For those of you with multiple years of experience, this may be difficult. You must remember to delete anything from your resume that is not relevant to the position you are seeking. When describing your job responsibilities, highlight the most important accomplishments and skills. It is quality, not quantity that employers will notice. Suggested Sections Career Objective - This section is optional. Only use a career objective when you can state precisely the type of job you are seeking and the specific skills you can bring to this position. It tells employers that you know exactly what you want. Otherwise, leave the objective off your resume and use the cover letter to customize your contact with each employer. An exception to this rule regards changing careers when it is unclear from your resume the field you wish to move into. It is still important for you to state precisely the career you are seeking and how you can contribute to this new field. Professional Summary/Profile- This section provides an opportunity for an experienced candidate to express personal and professional characteristics that he/she offers to a company. These highlights can appear in a short paragraph or bulleted form, and can be changed depending on the company, position description, and your career goals. It gives the reader a quick list of criteria that establishes a "fit" for the position. Education - List post-secondary schools in reverse chronological order. Include the school, the city and state in which each school is located, the degree you earned or will be earning, the year the degree was/will be finished, your major and minor areas of study, and your grade point averages. Use comments to clarify or highlight relevant educational information. Other education, such as company-sponsored schools, study abroad, military schools, and seminars may also be included. Experience - Be sure your information is in the present tense if you are currently employed and past tense if you are no longer with your last employer. In reverse chronological order, list the jobs you have held describing your responsibilities and accomplishments. Include the company name, the city and state, the position title(s), and the dates you were employed in that capacity. Use action words to illustrate what you did and your personal attributes, emphasizing teamwork, responsibility level, analytical ability, creativity, problem analysis, problem solving, and accomplishments (a list of action words is attached to give you some ideas). Use quantitative and concrete illustrations of results and contributions (e.g., sales, percentage increases, people managed, promotions, etc.) You can list military experience in this section, or create a separate section for Military Experience. Activities/Honors/Skills/Publications - You can arrange these sections the way that best emphasizes your attributes. In this section(s) you should include membership in student organizations, scholarships and other academic honors and awards, community-related activities or awards, volunteer activities, membership in professional organizations, and publications in journals or newspapers. You may also want to list skills that distinguish you from other students, such as a unique computer skill or fluency in non-native languages. The information in this section should be relevant to the position you are seeking. References - We recommend you create a separate page for your references that can be included depending on the application situation. Make sure the people you list are aware they have been included and are able to give you favorable recommendations. It is not necessary to put "References Available on Request;" employers know you have references and will ask for them when you become a finalist for the position. It is up to you to decide how to structure the order of the various sections. Some choose to put education at the top, and others want to emphasize work experience by placing this section at the top. Whatever you choose, remember to make your resume reader-friendly. If the reader has to search for the information they are seeking, your resume is ineffective. The ultimate goal is to market yourself in the most positive light. The Important Five Your resume should not only give the reader an idea of your job skills and responsibilities, but should give them a feeling of how much you have accomplished and your value to the company and the position. There are at least five areas you should consider when describing your contributions: Analytical Ability, Intellect, Leadership Potential, Communication Skills, and Achievements/Accomplishments/Results. Phrase your job responsibilities and duties as accomplishments in a results-oriented manner. It is the key to making a resume the best it can be. Use numbers, percentages, dollar signs, and before-after comparisons to quantify your results. Good: Responsible for the daily operations of plant Better: Management of plant operations led to a 20% increase in productivity; the 2nd highest in plant history Good: Supervised team of 20 programmers on project Better: Supervised 20 programmers on project that finished early and under budget Good: Decreased customer complaints by 10% Better: Implemented a customer service program that decreased customer complaints by 10%; a decrease of 5% more than during any of the previous 24 months The Electronic Resume Before you begin sending resumes electronically or through the Internet, you must first find out the format the employer can and will accept your resume. Many employers are hesitant to open attachments because of possible computer viruses. There is also the headache of equipment or software incompatibility - for example, having to convert MAC documents to PC documents and vice versa. Read the job posting carefully to determine the format the employer would like to receive your resume or send a preliminary e-mail asking them. E-Mailing Your Resume If the employer will accept attachments, the body of your e-mail should be your cover letter, and you should send your resume in an attached MS Word file (the most universal format). If the employer will not accept attachments, you must paste the resume into the body of your e-mail. When you have finished your cover letter and "signed" your name, you should insert one or two spaces and indicate the start of your resume with [begin resume] or "BEGIN RESUME." After the last line of your resume, you should indicated the end with [end resume] or "END RESUME." Regardless of whether you send your resume as an attachment or as part of the body of the e-mail, you should send it as a plain-text document, in what is also called DOS or ASCII file. You will need to create a "scannable resume" which will serve your purpose, whether or not the company utilizes document scanning technology. Your cover letter and resume should not be sent to the employer as separate messages; they should go as one unified e-mail message. Sometimes you will be asked to submit your scannable resume by mail or fax (although faxed resumes are more difficult to read). You may also be asked to submit your resume to an employer's website directly. The Scannable Resume Many companies are now using document scanning technology so they can eliminate the process of passing your paper resume around to different offices. This technology allows the company to scan your resume into a database that is available to all managers who might be seeking new employees. It also allows the employer to enter key words into the search engine of the database in order to view only those resumes that meet specific requirements. The first thing you need to accept when creating a scannable resume is the fact that it will not be a creative, "attractive" document. It is plain, yet functional. The company will greatly appreciate a readable, content quality resume over a resume filled with fancy type that isn't scannable into their system. The content of your scannable resume should be the same as your word-processed resume - highlight your skills, accomplishments, education, honors, and work experience. As opposed to the traditional resume though, it must be formatted in plain text, without any fancy type or graphics. Formatting Tips for the Scannable Resume *All text should be left-justified; name, address, titles, etc. *Eliminate all bullets, graphics, bolding, italics, underlining, highlighting, and tabs *If you must use "bullets," use asterisks (*), pluses(+), or dashes(-) *Avoid page or section borders and boxes *Do not use any columns or tables in your resume *Be sure all text lines contain fewer than 65 characters *Use all capital letters in section headings instead of bolding *Use a standard type size and font - Courier or Times New Roman; 11 or 12 points *Once it is saved, check your scannable resume for spacing or margin problems and stray characters *Do not use colored or textured paper if you are mailing a scannable resume *If mailing the resume, send in a flat envelope without folding. Do not staple multiple pages Many companies will list the specific guidelines for submitting resumes to them through the mail, web, or e-mail. For best success with each particular company, you should closely adhere to these guidelines. Key Words in a Scannable Resume Think about the skills and requirements of the job and determine what key words an employer might be seeking in a resume. As opposed to the traditional resume where we focus on action verbs, the scannable resume must focus on key nouns and phrases that might be used as search terms. Use terms and familiar industry acronyms. If you are applying for an accounting position, you will need "certified public accountant" as well as "CPA" on your resume. It is wise to use both the abbreviation and write out the skill, task, etc. (i.e. CAD and computer-assisted design). You might consider adding a "key skills" section to your resume that will allow you to use more of the words, phrases and jargon with which employers are more familiar. Action Words

Products & services

Similar companies nearby