Resumés

Résumés

    Why do you need a résumé? What good does it do? Why should you take the time to learn anything about it? After all, your (looks, talent, charm, daddy, etc.) will land you any job you want. Right? Not necessarily.

   A résumé is an extension of who you are and what you want to become. You get the opportunity to emphasize your strong points, in some instances changing how you feel about yourself. You can reframe your situation by a deft choice of wording or skill placement and get the job, interview or salary offer you want. This is not an invitation to lie, but an invitation to interpret the facts to promote yourself in the best fashion. Think of it as self-P.R.

   PRNewswire indicates the most desirable applicant qualities in the 2000 workplace include the following in-demand skills:

Willingness to share information and ideas.
Commitment to teamwork.
Responsiveness to change.
Ability to work under pressure.
Sense of ownership of work and ideas.
Willingness to take calculated risks, without fear of consequences.
Multicultural experience and/or ability to speak multiple languages.
Ability to communicate clearly and honestly with peers, managers, customers.
Understanding of business strategy and how you create shareholder value.
Commitment to continuous learning, skill development.

Don't merely list your jobs and expect employers to wade through your information, deciding from their view which of your experiences are relevant; emphasize what you want them to see. Research their company to show you know their needs. Show how your skills fill those needs so they immediately recognize the benefits of hiring you. Control the eye path by using effective headers. Promote your skills early. If you're not getting results, change your résumé.

Yana Parker's "Damn Good Resumes"' 24 Hot Tips offers some great quick tips, including:

using a job objective, which shows a sense of direction - boil it down to five or six words (a skill you should have learned in this class. ;)
remove "responsibilities included," replaced by "PAR" statements. PAR stands for Problem-Action-Results; i.e., state the problem at your job, describe your solution, and emphasize the beneficial results.
clean your résumé by listing seasonal jobs very simply, such as "Spring 1996" or "Summer 1996" rather than 6/96 to 9/96. (The word "Spring" can be in very tiny letters, say 8-point in size.)

The Web opens opportunities previously unavailable to the job-seeker. HTML lets you put up one résumé which multiple recruiters and potential employers can view (saving a few trees!), but be sure to view it in several different browsers as it may look horrible on someone else's computer. Don't include links to your home page unless it supplements the résumé in some fashion, e.g. work examples. Otherwise, it's better to let people get to know that part of you AFTER you've gotten the job or an interview.

E-mail can help you get your foot in the door as many businesses and recruiters publish their e-mail addresses. You might even send your résumé via e-mail as it can be there instantaneously. However, if you want to send your resume via e-mail, don't send it as an attachment unless asked to do so. Why?

It makes them work, which they may not be motivated to do
They may not have a compatible computer platform or software
They may be afraid of viruses.

Instead, make it easy for a potential employer to assess your qualifications by including the résumé in the body of your e-mail, preferably in ASCII text (good ole plain text). This allows them to immediately view it, send it to others to process, or directly print from the e-mail. If you'd like to see a sample, check out my vita, CollegeGrad.com and Resume-Resource.com. If you really want to spend some money, you can get great insights through Yana Parker's Damn Good Résumés or Regina Pontow's ProvenResumes.com.

If you don't understand something in this Web note, please e-mail Dr. Sitton.