Assuming you have decided you are ready for a Career Jump Start, we move to the next step in the process, and really this piece is the cornerstone of so much to come. Not only driving how to obtain job interviews, but also a great source for identifying accomplishments, and also for gleaning which jobs we liked the most, and why. I am talking about a résumé. Sometimes referred to as a job résumé. Because a résumé is key in obtaining an interview, and can also be used to drive, and refine the job search process, it is the cornerstone, and the most important action step once we have decided we are ready for a Career Jump Start – we are ready to do what we need to do to acquire the next best job. Another reason I place the deliverable of a résumé toward the front in a Career Jump Start is because it takes time to write a perfect one. A rough draft can be produced in a day or two. But to create the best product will most likely take several revisions, usually over couple weeks. For this reason, I place this deliverable up front.
If we are smart, we always have a current résumé. Always. Even if you are not in the process of a Career Jump Start, seek new employment, or new position within your organization it is wise to keep your résumé current. The reason behind this is that there are moving parts in life out of our control. We cannot control world economy. We cannot control our company taking a new direction and leaving us behind. Likewise, we cannot control office politics. We cannot control downsizing, and we cannot control out sourcing. So, moving forward, even after completing a Career Jump Start, always keep a current résumé. But whether you have a current résumé or not, it is helpful to give some background about the job résumé before we start creating one, or updating one.
RESUME DEFINED: Simply put, a résumé is (ideally) a one to two-page document that highlights your education, skills, and job history. I should stop and make a point here, that if you are mid or late career, you can easily have more than 2, or 3 pages or more in your résumé. In fact, you may be wondering how you can possibly squeeze your work history into just 2 pages. The solution to limiting résumé length is given in a general guideline to limit your job history. Some recommend only listing your last 10 years of work history, and I have also seen a guideline to limit to the last 15 years of your job history. Depending on your job history, and what position you are applying for will determine if you limit to the last 10 years, or the last 15 years. But my suggestion is to not go back further than 15 years in your job history section.
FORMATS: Next it helps to understand résumé formats. There are three basic types of résumé forms: 1) Functional and 2) Chronological 3) Combined. Functional pulls out skills, and experience regardless of where these skills were learned, or practiced (paid employment, volunteer). The Functional résumé captures experience, and skills based on logical groupings based on skill/experience. Chronological lists jobs in historical order. The convention is to list the current or last position first, at the top. Combined résumé is a mix of both Chronological, and Functional. The Combined résumé highlights skills, experience, but still lists jobs at a high level to make it easy to trace work history. Whatever the format, ideally your résumé s/b one to two pages. For a more detail on the three formats see…
http://www.simplyhired.com/blog/jobsearch/resumes/3-main-types-resumes/
There are many ways to write a bad résumé, and a few ways to write a good, or great one. Below is a list of guidelines that we can be considered universal, or put another way, generally agreed on suggestions on résumé best practices:
UNIVERSAL RESUME GUIDELINES:
RESUME SUGGESTIONS:
As you move forward in your Career Jump Start, a well written, well thought through résumé is the most powerful tool in your toolbox. It is the cornerstone in your Career Jump Start. The primary purpose of a résumé is to get you a job interview. It is key to getting a job interview, but can also be sourced to build a personal pitch, or brand, and can even be used to give direction to your job search and career. More on those topics will come in future segments. In a résumé put your best foot forward, be sure you have accurate contact information, and make your job history, and education easy to understand, and you have a good foundation for a great résumé – one critical key to get job interviews. Plan to spend some time to develop the best résumé. A rough draft can be produced in a day or two. But to produce the best product it will take several revisions – so plan on spending a couple weeks on this task. You are laying the cornerstone of your Career Jump Start. Your time and effort here is the foundation for your successful Career Jump Start.
Author: Brian Kail, MBA, CPC is a Career Coach, and Business Mentor. For more information see AscendProCoach.com
If we are smart, we always have a current résumé. Always. Even if you are not in the process of a Career Jump Start, seek new employment, or new position within your organization it is wise to keep your résumé current. The reason behind this is that there are moving parts in life out of our control. We cannot control world economy. We cannot control our company taking a new direction and leaving us behind. Likewise, we cannot control office politics. We cannot control downsizing, and we cannot control out sourcing. So, moving forward, even after completing a Career Jump Start, always keep a current résumé. But whether you have a current résumé or not, it is helpful to give some background about the job résumé before we start creating one, or updating one.
RESUME DEFINED: Simply put, a résumé is (ideally) a one to two-page document that highlights your education, skills, and job history. I should stop and make a point here, that if you are mid or late career, you can easily have more than 2, or 3 pages or more in your résumé. In fact, you may be wondering how you can possibly squeeze your work history into just 2 pages. The solution to limiting résumé length is given in a general guideline to limit your job history. Some recommend only listing your last 10 years of work history, and I have also seen a guideline to limit to the last 15 years of your job history. Depending on your job history, and what position you are applying for will determine if you limit to the last 10 years, or the last 15 years. But my suggestion is to not go back further than 15 years in your job history section.
FORMATS: Next it helps to understand résumé formats. There are three basic types of résumé forms: 1) Functional and 2) Chronological 3) Combined. Functional pulls out skills, and experience regardless of where these skills were learned, or practiced (paid employment, volunteer). The Functional résumé captures experience, and skills based on logical groupings based on skill/experience. Chronological lists jobs in historical order. The convention is to list the current or last position first, at the top. Combined résumé is a mix of both Chronological, and Functional. The Combined résumé highlights skills, experience, but still lists jobs at a high level to make it easy to trace work history. Whatever the format, ideally your résumé s/b one to two pages. For a more detail on the three formats see…
http://www.simplyhired.com/blog/jobsearch/resumes/3-main-types-resumes/
There are many ways to write a bad résumé, and a few ways to write a good, or great one. Below is a list of guidelines that we can be considered universal, or put another way, generally agreed on suggestions on résumé best practices:
UNIVERSAL RESUME GUIDELINES:
- List your Name, and contact information at the top. (Traditional format is to list your home address as well – although this seems to be changing.)
- Length should be one to two pages.
- Don’t embed a picture or “selfie”
- Put your best foot forward, but DON’T LIE
- Include dates of employment.
- For electronic form use a file format that can be easily opened/scanned by common software (JohnSmith.doc, or JohnSmith.docx)
- As mentioned earlier, list only your last 15 years of work history at most.
RESUME SUGGESTIONS:
- Unless there is a very special situation, such as applying to a temp, or contract agency, don’t do a Functional résumé. Overwhelmingly, recruiters, and managers don’t like them. In all my work in Careers, I have only found one recruiter that actually prefers the functional format. Excluding this one recruiter (who recruits for a Temp/Contracting firm) I have not met a recruiter, or HR person that likes Functional format.
- After your name and contact information, list the strongest section of the résumé first. If you are just out of college, and your actual job experience is weak, education might be your strongest selling point. In short, lead off with your “A” game.
- Don’t list hobbies. (However, this may come up in the interview. Be prepared to discuss hobbies, and recreation, and address the general question “What do you do in your spare time?” But leave keep off your résumé.)
- Don’t list your pets (sad but true). Too personal, and not appropriate for a résumé.
- Don’t list your church or religious affiliation. If you have volunteer experience with your church, synagogue, or mosque, list as “Non-Profit Organization” or “Not-for-Profit Charitable Organization”.
- If you have worked with technology/software, even as a user, (Excel, Visio, SharePoint, etc.) list these out, but put into a “Skills” or “Competencies” section. Avoid getting into little-known acronyms, or little known systems in the body of the job history/job details section. Listing “help built gyzmo-morphying synchronizing sub system” may have meaning to you – but it will make your résumé harder to scan by recruiters.
- My preference in format is Combined résumé, but weighted heavily on the Chronological. You need to make your job history obvious to the reader, not obscure it.
- Do use marketable keywords (Scrum, LEAN, Product Owner, Six Sigma, etc.). All but very small companies have software to scan résumés. You want your résumé to press the right buttons. If your résumé makes the cut, the recruiter has about 20 seconds to scan your résumé manually and make a decision to contact you for interview or pass you over.
- Do list your education. (Unless there are over-riding reasons not to – a Career Coach, or Career Counselor can help here.) Call out your education in a separate section. If your education is very strong (MBA, Master of Software Development) list it at the top. You want to list your strong suit first!
- Do use bullet points to highlight strong aspects of your job experience. These may include: Accomplishments, Successes, Delivery of Critical projects. These are all great candidates for bullet points. People with little time, like recruiters, and hiring managers, will skip much of the résumé, but will most likely skim the bullet points. Do not list more than 7 bullet points per section, and no fewer than three.
As you move forward in your Career Jump Start, a well written, well thought through résumé is the most powerful tool in your toolbox. It is the cornerstone in your Career Jump Start. The primary purpose of a résumé is to get you a job interview. It is key to getting a job interview, but can also be sourced to build a personal pitch, or brand, and can even be used to give direction to your job search and career. More on those topics will come in future segments. In a résumé put your best foot forward, be sure you have accurate contact information, and make your job history, and education easy to understand, and you have a good foundation for a great résumé – one critical key to get job interviews. Plan to spend some time to develop the best résumé. A rough draft can be produced in a day or two. But to produce the best product it will take several revisions – so plan on spending a couple weeks on this task. You are laying the cornerstone of your Career Jump Start. Your time and effort here is the foundation for your successful Career Jump Start.
Author: Brian Kail, MBA, CPC is a Career Coach, and Business Mentor. For more information see AscendProCoach.com
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