Resumes For Dummies Cheat Sheet

Write a strong resume that gets you noticed. The following tips help you work up a great resume that sells your skills instead of ending up in the reject bin.

• Make keywords count. Keywords help employers find out whether you’re a player for the job they’re filling. Industry-specific jargon counts for keywords. For example, “Series 7 licensing for brokers” and “triage” for nurses. Noun phrases indicate qualifications for requirements, such as “word processing,” “supply chain management,” and “product launches.” And every match of your qualifications and experience with a job’s requirements becomes a keyword.

• Get your bearings. Use the web to research an employer before you apply for a job. Start with visiting the company’s website. Move on to sites like Hoover’s and BusinessWire.com. Until you know whom and what you are dealing with, you aren’t prepared to make a compelling case for yourself.

• Use an uncluttered, eye-catching design. If your resume is busy and packed with content, it will cause employers to stop reading and move on to the next candidate. Pay attention to layout and typeface choice, as well as the openness effect of white space. Good type choices include Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri or Helvetica, but there are others as well. If you can use an 11-point font, do so — it’s easier on the eyes. For mobile resumes presented on small screens, consider 11-point to 14-point type.

• Answer the “So what?” question. This question is hidden and lying in ambush in every employer’s mind. Forget about sticking to the old name-your-previous-responsibilities routine. Every single time you mention a duty or accomplishment, pretend someone fires back: So what? Who cares? What does it all mean? Imagining these questions isn’t really pretending — these are employer responses. If you can answer these by describing the challenge you faced, the actions you took, and the results you attained, you’ll have a recipe for success.

• Discuss an upward track record. Without mentioning dollar amounts, style yourself as a winner by mentioning that you received promotions, awards, and bonuses.

• Showcase anything that you did in the top 5 percent of company performance ratings or that received recognition and praise. Employers are impressed with the cream of the crop.

• Don’t apologize on your resume for any weakness that you may observe in your professional self. Until you can do something about it, like get additional education or experience, don’t even think about shortcomings, and they certainly don’t belong on your resume.

• Discuss teamwork in job descriptions, giving specific examples and results. Employers love the word teamwork. They like team building, too. Talk about participating in tough tasks that help focus teams. Speak of trust as being essential to teamwork. Say that you were part of a team that succeeded in reaching a unified goal. The difficulty comes in making clear for which portion of the team’s production you can take a bow. You must separate your contribution from the group’s. If you don’t, you chance being looked upon as one who falsely claims credit for work you didn’t do.

• Give examples of leadership. Even as organizational structures flatten, every team needs a leader — unless you’re headed for a support job where leadership is a liability. In the same vein, vision and drive are desirable characteristics. What did you originate, initiate, spearhead, or propose? What have coworkers praised about you? What suggestions have employers accepted from you?

Protecting personal information is always a good idea, but especially so with digital resumes. When it comes to resumes and the Internet, identity theft is a huge concern. Resumes zing around the world via the Internet and mobile devices, giving thieves and scammers more opportunity than ever to boost your personal information.

The No. 1 way to keep yourself safe? Don’t put your Social Security number on your resumes. Thieves can use your SSN as a free ticket to your bank and credit-card accounts. Resumes in job banks pose unnecessary threats to identity theft when the resumes include Social Security numbers.

Make sure also that you are privacy-sensitive if you decide to post your profile online. Leave out any information not related to your job search.

Finally, resume-blasting your information across the web is risky (and an ineffective way to find a job, to boot). If you decide to go wide and deep, use an anonymous and free e-mail address through a provider such as Yahoo!, AOL, or Gmail. Leave off your street address, and use a mobile phone number for pretty good security.

Career changers and transitioning military personnel sometimes struggle to write resumes that pack an interview-invitation punch. One such resume challenge is to turn your experience into skills that are relevant to new fields. Using understandable terminology helps you overcome that stumbling block.

Always use the language of and address the concerns of the industry where you want to go, not the industry you are leaving behind.

Make sure you also

• Learn the jargon of your intended industry. Use that jargon carefully in your resume. Whatever you write has to be understood by all, including administrative employees who may be the first to screen your document.

• Analyze your interchangeable skills (also called transferable skills) to make your old experience apply to the job you want. A food server, for example, has sales experience (selling restaurant customers on extra menu items). An Army officer has management experience (overseeing soldiers). A teacher has training experience (changing student knowledge levels).

• Consider using a hybrid resume format that takes the best elements of functional experience and pairs it with a standalone work chronology. Although employers much prefer the reverse chronological format because it’s more straightforward, you may need the functional approach to play up skills and become a contender for your new target.

A well-crafted resume contains only the information that proves you’re a qualified candidate. Eliminate resume clutter by removing useless information that potential employers often view as filler and a waste of their time. Here’s a short list of the worst offenders:

• “References available on request.” Listing the actual references on your resume is even worse.

• Your Social Security number or driver’s license number.

• The date your resume was prepared.

• Your company’s telephone number.

• Your high school or grammar school if you’re a college graduate.

• Dates you spent involved in college extracurricular activities.

• Dates you were involved with professional or civic organizations unless using them to fill in gaps or add heft to your claims.

• Names of (human) past employers; put these on your reference sheet with contact information.