The Résumé 101 Continued......

The Résumé 101. Cont…..

Late last year I was at Heathrow Airport just outside of London following a quick trip to visit family. As always I spent a fair amount of time shopping for items you can’t find in Canada – mostly food items (love the Fish and Chip Shop Curry Sauce). The ticket agent asked me to place my bag on the scale. Most airlines now are fairly strict when it comes to luggage weight, citing fuel costs (read cash grab!)

I thought I would be okay but the excess bottles of curry sauce clearly tipped me over the 20kg maximum allowed. I had a choice to remove certain items and give them to my aunt who was dropping me off but I knew that in a few weeks I’d be looking for something to dip my fries into. Out came the wallet and I paid the additional charge for excess baggage.

What does this have to do with résumé writing? Curry sauce – applying for a job?? A résumé is like your luggage. You have to carefully think about what you are including in it. Is it all necessary or are you wasting valuable space with unnecessary information?

The jury is out as to how long a résumé should be. Some believe it should be no more than one page in length while others feel 2 – 3 pages is acceptable. I believe that a two pages résumé is adequate.

Last week I suggested that a résumé is your first and only opportunity to make a significant and lasting impression. Your résumé will be what gets you (hopefully) to the interview stage. What is put in it needs to grab the attention of the reader and make them want to get to know you a little better. Thinking of your résumé like your luggage will help you trim down unnecessary and often irrelevant information leaving only space for what you really want the reader to know about you. Remember too that a hiring manager may have to review dozens of résumés for just one vacant position so you want to make sure you are detailing just the relevant and pertinent details about your experience.

Many résumés today contain an opening section entitled ‘Objective.’ This is far too frequently followed by 3-4 lines saying something along the lines of “Getting a job in your company where I can develop my skills.” Clearly sending your résumé to the company is an indication you are putting yourself forward as a candidate and the usual ‘Objective’ statement can perhaps be better served by a few bullet points highlighting significant or noteworthy accomplishments.

The work history you want to include in your résumé will depend on how much experience you have and how many jobs you have held. If you have been in the workforce for a number of years, a part-time job 15 or 20 years ago many not grab the reader’s attention as much as specific accomplishments from your previous or current employment. Focus on what will make the biggest impact.

Including volunteer experience shows that you are a well rounded person with a belief that it is important to give back to the community in some way. Including the 40 hours of required High School volunteer community service hours from 20 years ago might be considered a bit of a stretch. Unless there is recent and ongoing volunteer efforts to include you may again be better served focussing on current accomplishments.

Hiring managers will invariably always ask you for references to provide testimonials relating to your experience and ability to perform the job you are applying for. Most résumés today end with the line, ‘References provided upon request.’ If you do include this line be sure to have the references (either letters of full contact details) ready to provide immediately upon request. You’d be surprised by the number of applicants who after stating this do not in fact have the names of previous employers for the hiring manager to contact. Assuming that you will be asked for the names of past employers as a standard step in the hiring process perhaps replace this line with another detail about yourself instead such as a Linkedin address. What is Linkedin? We will be covering this shortly and why you might want to subscribe to this relatively new social networking community.

There is a lot more to cover in what makes a good résumé and over the next few weeks we will be drilling down into this subject a little more. In the meantime remember that a résumé is like your luggage. Space counts. It is valuable real estate and you want to ensure that every inch of it provides return on your résumé writing investment. Consider the job you are applying for and repeatedly ask if it speaks to the skill-sets the hiring manager is looking for.