Resume Building
You've figured out the secret to job hunting: where you want to work, what you want to do, and what you want to create. Now it's time to write that killer resume to make your dream a reality. Here at JobsBlog, we've shared our best resume tips for years so check out a few of our favorite posts to get started. But be sure read through our archives and keep following us for the latest and greatest in resume building technology!
What a recruiter looks for in an initial resume review
When I do initial resume reviews, there are certain things I'm focusing on in each section. I’d like to share with you what I look for (and don’t look for) in the resume during this quick scan. Of course, keep in mind that every recruiter is different and what I look for in a resume might be different from what other recruiters look for.
- Target job title: I love Monster because I don’t even have to open the resume, I can view the target job title from the candidate’s profile. This can also be seen in the objective statement at the top of the resume. I look to see that the role the candidate is interested in is one that I am recruiting for.
- Technologies: This is very important. If you have experience with a technology, list it. I don’t like viewing resumes that are only about “keywords” and trust me, hiring managers hate it. However, so I can pull your resume in my search results, make sure you have technologies / programming languages you’ve used (ex. OWL, schema, distributed, data mining, IR) listed in the projects on your resume. This also helps me see how long you’ve used a technology and when it was last used.
- Company names: I’m not looking for anything really specific in terms of company names, but it gives me an idea of the size and type of the project the candidate might have worked on. Was it a small scale banking project which 3 team members completed in a month or was it a high transaction number, large user base online service project with a team of 50 that took over a year to complete? Both types of projects are great, but it gives me an idea of the level and type of experience the candidate might have.
- Dates of employment: I look to see if there are any gaps in the resume. I don’t mind those as long as it’s documented what took place during that time (ex. maternity leave, took care of family member, pursued a higher degree, etc). I also see how long the candidate was at each company. Are they a job hopper? Have they had longevity with a company or for a specific project? Have they experienced the entire lifecycle of a product?
- Responsibilities: I look to see what specific pieces they took ownership of and how much they contributed to the projects. When I view a resume that talks all about a project, but it never mentions what the candidate actually did for the project, I wonder if they had a very minor piece.
- Education: I look to see the highest/most recent degree received and what major it was in. Yes, I do look at all degrees, but I zoom in on the last degree received because generally the candidate would have pursued their current interest for that degree. If someone just received their MBA, they are probably looking more towards program management over development. If they had a Bachelors in Computer Science but received their Masters in Biology, they might be looking to go the Biotech route.
Well, that’s about it. Nothing too out of the ordinary, but now you know what I really look for. How many of you are off to make some quick changes to your resume? ;)
The Art of the Resume: How to make a lifetime impression in just 40 seconds…
I’ve been asked recently by some candidates what recruiters ACTUALLY look for when screening a resume. I have worked on both sides of the fence: I spent several years working at the Career Center University Washington
Let me first say that every recruiter is different; I can only tell you what I look for. Hopefully some of these tips will help you better understand how your experience and skills can translate into getting that highly desired contact from a recruiter.
1. Keep a constant log of what you do: This may sound silly, but trust me; it’s hard to keep track of everything that you have done in school when it’s occurring in real time. I have always kept a word document of great things I have done ... i.e. an ongoing list of projects, classes, ideas, deliverables, etc that I have been a part of. This way, when you are looking for ideas, you have a running tab of things that you have worked on. It’s hard to think of things when you are stressed looking for a job; this way you have it all in one place. For instance, when I worked at Expedia on our referral program, I wrote a paragraph about what I did, who it affected, and what the results were. Then when I was looking for a job that required that kind of experience, I was able to stick in a great bullet point in my resume that matched what they were looking for (it also helps on job interview questions. look to this list before any interview and you will easily be able to look back on all you accomplished).
2. Results: Everyone has bullet points on their resume (i.e. “Created new programming tool for current team) … but what many people forget is the results of this. Try something like “Created new programming tool for team THAT RESULTED IN"… and say what happened from it. Think more about how you impacted your environments and less about just the basic facts of what you did. Your resume should be about accomplishments and not just a laundry list that reads like a job description.
3. Consider your audience: I like to tell students to have several different copies of resumes that correlate to the jobs that they are looking for. You shouldn’t just have one general resume if you have a million different types of experience. The best resumes are those that aren’t five pages. Maybe you have done a lot; maybe you are a PhD and have published 20 different articles … If the job you are applying for doesn’t care, then it’s okay to leave some things out. If you are applying for an IT job and a dev job, then you should have two different resumes that can highlight your experience for each. Whatever gets your point across is always a safe bet.
4. Proofing by a stranger: When I was working for the MBA program, I heard a statistic … when applying for a job, you should assume that each person who looks at your resume looks at it for an average of 40 seconds … Although I can tell you that I do look at resumes longer, sometimes it’s that first look that really decides someone’s fate. A great way to help you understand how the overall message of your resume reads is by finding a stranger ... find someone in one of your classes or in your department that doesn’t know you. Ask them if they would look at your resume for 40 seconds; then have them flip the paper over and write down the top 3 things they learned about you. This is a great indicator of what others see when they look at your resume. If they say something like, “Where you went to school, your major, and your first job title,” that’s great! If someone can’t get over some bizarre fact or typo in your resume, it’s a safe assumption that recruiters will notice the same thing.
5. Don’t write checks that you can’t cash: We have all been in a situation where we need to make ourselves feel more important than we actually were ... a document such as a resume is not the place to do this… make sure that what you put on your resume can be questioned. The worst feeling that a candidate can experience is having to back track on their resume. Let’s say you wrote on your resume that you were the Program Manager for a release during an internship and that you managed all of the other interns during the summer. If you are in an interview and someone asks you your role and you have to say, “well, I never really managed but I was the lead,” then say it, and state how you made the project better. Don’t make up facts; the truth is more impressive because you can confidently speak about it. It’s better to build yourself up in an interview when questioned than have the rug pulled out from under you while caught up in a story.
Well, those are my 5 cents; I hope they shed some light in resume writing. If you have any other questions, I am open to helping you out. I love seeing people able to not only achieve their potential and greatness but also write about it on a resume, with great results.
Resumes and accomplishments: what, how, and why
you should list a little of both your job-related accomplishments and your major accomplishments. And good for you for knowing that “accomplishments” are the key here, not just a listing of prior job responsibilities.
I suggest starting with a general, one-size-fits-all resume that will serve as your "template." On this resume, list all the educational, professional, extracurricular, etc, accomplishments that you might want to mention if you were applying for a new job, regardless of what that job actually is. Personally, I update this master document about every 3 months to make sure I’m recording new accomplishments – and even dropping ones that just don’t measure up any longer.
Once you have your master resume, you can use this document to craft specialized resumes for a specific job, a discipline, an industry, or a company. This might mean trimming or deleting some accomplishments that don’t relate at all or don’t help your cause. It will also probably mean re-ordering some accomplishments to put the most relevant ones first or second under prior roles.
Finally, be sure to include a summary statement to the beginning of your resume where you can highlight the most relevant, important, and impressive info right up front.
Head on over to one of my former blogs to watch a screencast that Zoe (the other co-founder of JobsBlog) and I produced a couple years ago to talk about accomplishments on a resume... and the big What, How, and Why. Part 1 and Part 2. (I’m a geek; I know.)
Customizing your resume to fit a job description
rewriting your resume to match the job description word for word is a good idea. I do think reviewing your resume to make sure that it addresses the responsibilities of a job description is a good idea.
A resume is something very personal. First and foremost it is important that your resume reflects accurate information about your experience. We see some resumes that have every technical skill and acronym known to mankind listed! This is frustrating for recruiters and managers to see, because it's hard for us to figure out your focus.
We don’t necessarily expect that a candidate will be a completely perfect fit for a specific job. Most hiring managers and recruiters I have worked with like to see the following:
- A Summary / Skills section listing things you have done
- An Experience section that speaks in detail how you might have gained the skills listed in your summary. For example, if you have C++ experience it is important to show in the body of your resume where you used this skill or gained this experience. Just listing something like this and not backing it up in your experience is not helpful to us in matching your skills to the job being filled.
- Telling a story with your resume – what did you do personally, what were you responsible for on an overall project, how many products / services have you shipped, etc…
That type of resume is much more likely to get attention than a resume that's just a rewrite of the job description!
