3. Resume Oasis

Or How to Write Resumes that Reach

         

Step 1: Understanding What Resumes Actually Do

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Merlin asked Arthur to consider the following thought experiment:

Let's imagine you own a company, and you are very busy and don't have time to meet with everyone who applies for a job you posted. Okay, probably you would want a screening tool, right? Voila! Here's an idea! Why not have people write out their skills on a piece of paper so you can look it over at your convenience? Employers could then use this piece of paper like puzzle pieces to see if they can match your skills to their needs—employers, after all, are trying to find the best fit. Additionally, the puzzle pieces that do not fit can just be discarded. And thus the first resume was born—also known as a way employers can weed people out in their selection process.

Grim.

But now let's turn this around. Knowing how bad other people’s resumes are, by writing a good one, you will instantly stand out. So how do you write a good one, then?

The most important thing to understand is that resumes are marketing documents, not a life history. They are like a movie trailer trying to get you to go see a movie. You want enough information to entice the employer, but not so much that the employer feels overwhelmed. A good resume is just to get your foot in the door for an interview—that’s all.

So how long should a resume be? No more than 2 pages if you are a corporate executive, doctor, lawyer, or engineer. For everyone else, 1 page. In most cases, your resume should be no longer than 1 page. This makes resume writing extremely difficult, but you will get many more job interviews if you follow this guideline.

REMEMBER, GOOD RESUMES GET YOU JOB INTERVIEWS, NOT JOBS. THEY ARE A TOOL TO GET YOUR FOOT IN THE DOOR. THE JOB INTERVIEW IS WHERE YOU ELABORATE, NOT THE RESUME.

 

Step 2: Understanding the Elements of a Resume

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A resume is a marketing document, a movie trailer that sells why your skills are relevant to the company. However, there are elements that most employers expect to see. The order of the elements listed below is the industry standard for what most employers expect to see. But resumes are very dynamic. Don’t be afraid to rearrange your resume if you think that your education, for example, helps sell you more than your work history. Below is the standard structure for a resume.

 

Standard Structure of a Resume

• Contact Information
• Summary Statement
• Skills
• Work Experience
• Education

 

 

Contact Information

How they get in touch with you. This information must be accurate. Unprofessional emails should not be used, like sexysally@gmail.com. Also, only use one phone number—preferably your cell phone.

 

Summary Statement (also known as Career Profile, Summary of Qualifications, or Profile)

Your 30 Second Commercial goes here. Talk about your length of experience, the Job Title, and any specific relevant skills that the employer would be most interested in seeing. Then take your 3 greatest hits—or the 3 things you are most proud of—from your Work History and put them up here.

 

Skills

Here you add 6 – 9 specific “buzz-words” from the job posting. Using the same words from the job posting will set off light bulbs in the employer’s mind that say—Yes! This is what I’m looking for! Also, if a computer is used to filter through resumes, using these buzzwords will lead to a higher ranked resume. Employers do not even look at low ranked resumes, but having a high ranked resume means you will get an interview.

Relevant Work Experience

In this section you list your last 10 years of employment, starting with your most recent job. Underneath each job you list accomplishments that you are most proud of. Remember, companies hire people to make money, save money, or improve customer service. Talking about how you can do one of those (or all three depending on the job) will really make your resume stand out. An acronym that captures all these points nicely is RAN™.

• Relevance
• Accomplishments
• Numbers

Everything in the Work History should be Relevant to the job posting. Everything. Take a targeted, focused approach. Also, think about what you did that you’re really proud of—Accomplishments. Lastly, use Numbers to justify your accomplishments. Do some quick multiplication. Make educated guesses on how many sales per month and how much the average sale was and how much money you made the company per year. In other words, use 123s, $, and % to talk about your accomplishments.

 

 

Other Work Experience

Okay, so we know now that the resume should focus on what is RELEVANT to the job posting. But suppose the relevant jobs are interspersed with irrelevant jobs. Should we just cut the irrelevant jobs? The answer is “No!” Rather, create another section, called Other Work Experience, and dump any irrelevant jobs that fill in “time gaps” into this section. That way, we can focus on what is relevant while also preventing any time gaps in our resume that would raise red flags in the employer’s mind. Also, if you have been unemployed for longer than 6 months, you can put in volunteer work, education, or other activities in this section to eliminate large time gaps. For example, if you have been taking care of the children, you can put “Home Manager” in this section, and put your household name as the employer. In this section, all we put is the Job Title, Company Name, and Dates. Nothing else. That way, we can save space and focus on what matters—Relevant Work Experience.

Education

In this section you can discuss, like the Work Experience, anything in your studies that directly applies to the job posting. Keep in mind that Work Experience generally holds more value to employers than education—so always focus on Work Experience rather than Education if given the choice. Also, only list your GPA if it is 3.5 and above. The format for how you should write your degree and education goes like so:

Type of Degree, School, Date Graduated

If you believe that you might suffer from age discrimination because of an older graduation date, you can choose to leave the date off.

Optional Sections

• Volunteer Work
• Training and Certifications
• Fellowships
• Awards
• Extracurricular Activities
• Publications

Really anything goes—as long as it is directly related to the job posting. If you have been unemployed for more than 6 months, you can use these sections as well to fill in any time gaps. Anyway, onward!

 

Step 3: Turning a Job Posting into a Resume

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Arthur came back to the camp just in time to see Voltaire the vulture drop a letter from the sky, then fly off into the morning sunrise. Merlin opened the letter and showed it to Arthur—it was an official job posting for the dragon slaying position, delivered by carrion mail.

DragonSlayers.com Job Posting

 

 

Arthur's Resume, First Draft

 

Merlin explained that the job posting was necessary to write an effective resume. Arthur, very excited, went online and visited the company website for more information.  

He then got to work on the resume and came back 20 minutes later, looking very pleased and holding a freshly printed resume in his hoof.

 

Arthur was grinning triumphantly as he showed Merlin the resume. But Merlin, giving the resume one look, said, “No, no, no! This will not do at all, Arthur,” and crumpled the resume into a ball. Arthur watched in horror as Merlin threw the crumpled resume into the air, which ignited as Merlin waved his staff. “Hey!” exclaimed Arthur. “I worked hard on that!” Merlin smiled, reached into his robe, and revealed a beautiful new resume on high-quality papyrus. “Wow,” said Arthur. “How did you do that?” “It’s very simple, my boy,” smiled Merlin. “I call it Merlin Magic, a new word processing program I conjured that writes resumes automatically.” Merlin laughed. “Just kidding, just kidding. Anyone can do this, Arthur. Really. In fact, if you go to our Facebook page, you can download a FREE resume writing toolkit that will guide you through the process of writing a resume from scratch. That aside, though, let me teach you 3 principles that I used to improve yours.

 

 

 

 

Arthur's Resume, Final Draft

 

They are, in fact, the 3 most important principles of resume writing: RAN™.

• Relevance
• Accomplishments
• Numbers

The #1 principle is Relevance. You need a job posting before you can write a resume. Once you have one, make sure that everything in the resume relates to the job posting. Anything that isn’t relevant should be cut.

The #2 principle is Accomplishments. Duties are average. It doesn’t get someone excited to meet you. For example, rather than saying you were king, you need to explain WHY you were such a splendid king. There are bad kings and good kings after all, right? Talk about results.

The #3 principle is that you need to quantify your Accomplishments with Numbers. Don’t just say you slew dragons; talk about how many you slew and how much better you were compared to the competition. Use the word “approximately” if you don’t know exactly. In short, use $, %, and 123s as much as you can. Don’t spell out numbers like your 5th grade teacher taught you. Use actual 123s. They stand out.

 

 

 

 

Well, that’s really all there is to it. To get started, go ahead and go to our Facebook page, download the free content, and secure your next interview.

 

         

    

 

 

 

 

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