How to Get a Great Job: Resume-Writing 101

Career

Your resume holds the most prominent place in your job search. It acts as your foot in the door and your handshake; it summarizes your experience and unique qualifications; and is pretty much the single most common step (if not hurdle) in gaining any interview.

While opinions vary on how resumes are used by employers, what they should look like, and the information they should contain, you have to have one—and it should be the best resume you can manage to create!

7 Ways You’ll Use Your Resume

“Your resume is your opportunity to make a first impression.”
— Jill Silman, SPHR, vice-president at Meador Staffing Services and a spokesperson for the Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM)

As part of networking. In a one-on-one follow-up meeting or at an information interview, ask your new contact to critique your resume and your experience. This is an acceptable, discreet way to see if your experience and qualifications are in line with the type of position you’re looking for.
In response to an advertised job opening. Most employers request a copy of your resume as the very first step in choosing a candidate.
As an introduction when no job opening has been advertised. E-mail or hand your resume to a hiring manager.
As the basis for your profile on LinkedIn or for online job applications.
Keep a copy handy to refer to for phone interviews and conversation points during networking events.
Bring multiple copies to job fairs that you attend.
Have at least one copy with you for all in-person interviews.

Chronological vs. Functional Resumes

Question mark There are two main formats for resumes. The chronological resume is the most common, listing your work history in order with your most recent job first. The other format is the functional resume, which contains the same general information and categories as the chronological resume, only re-organized to highlight your strengths—typically in order to downplay your work history (or lack thereof).

The functional resume is best used when:

You are changing careers and your work history doesn’t apply very well to your desired position.
You are a recent graduate, or have limited work experience.
You have long gaps in employment, a widely varied work history, or other work-history issues that may be glaringly obvious in a chronological resume.

You can begin your functional resume with section on “Accomplishments” or “Achievements,” where you list three to five skill areas. If possible, use career skills (such as bookkeeping, computer repair, or project management) instead of personal ones (attention to detail, technically savvy, organized). Each accomplishment or skill can be described succinctly. Note that you still need to include a work history section within your functional resume, but it can be a basic listing of job title, employer, and length of employment.

For Instance…
The job seeker who just lost his job as regional sales manager of a well-known company is going to highlight his work history—particularly that last job. The newly minted college grad is going to highlight her new information technology degree, her student activities and honors in college, etc.—before listing her history of part-time retail jobs.

Regardless of format, all resumes should include

“I don’t think everyone has to follow ‘hard and fast’ resume rules—it’s all relative to the person and their situation.”
— Damone Virgilio, staff development manager at Memphis (Tennessee) Public Library

A letterhead-like heading that includes your name, one phone number and one e-mail address where you can be reached, and possibly your mailing address
Some work history, no matter how brief or relevant
Education history (at minimum, schools attended and degrees or certifications earned—or classwork completed)

Your resume may include

A career objective or similar statement about what type of position you’re seeking
Keywords section (see below)
Educational honors, extracurricular activities
Volunteer work and experience
Professional honors
List of professional memberships
Special skills, software or computer systems mastered, typing speed, etc.

library When you’re ready to write or revise your resume, head straight to your public library to find out what resources they can offer. Ask a reference or business librarian what the library has. In addition to books and possibly Internet-based resources, you may find in-library workshops or classes on resume-writing, or one-on-one resume review from a librarian or volunteer.

Resume Q&A

Q: I have a lot of work history. How long can my resume be?
A: “It depends on the person, the experience, and the job,” says Damone Virgilio, staff development manager at Memphis (Tennessee) Public Library. “If there is a lot of experience, you may get into two pages. But my theory is that if you’re going to two pages, use all of those pages. If you end up with a page and quarter, you need to edit back to a single page.” If your resume is two pages long, keep the most important information on the first page, and make sure the second page includes your name.

Q: Is that true for my electronic resume?
A: When sending your resume in the body of an e-mail or copying its content into an online form, the rule is to “write tight.” Shorten all sections of text to keep everything as brief as possible. You can bring a printout of the full version of your resume along to your first interview!

Q: Do I have to list every single job?
A: Not necessarily. If experience is not relevant to the job(s) you’re applying for, you can leave it out—unless that will leave a suspicious gap in your work history. Space on your resume is valuable, so don’t waste it on a job that doesn’t translate to what you’re looking for now.

Q: How should I handle gaps in my employment?
A: “If a person lacks education, has gaps in their work history or a number of jobs of very short duration, that doesn’t look good,” says Virgilio. “In these cases, you may focus on the skills you’ve acquired throughout their career. You still have to list past jobs with dates, but if you pack the front of the resume with your core competencies and with measurable evidence of achievement, you switch the focus to what you can do.”

Q: I’ve never worked before. What should I put in my resume?
A: This is a perfect situation to use a functional resume format rather than chronological one. Put the focus on your strengths, knowledge, and intelligence. Start with a statement of what you offer the hiring company, and include the following, if applicable:

Volunteer work. Don’t have any? Get some immediately—preferably something related to your field.
Briefly mention any work experience at all, to show you know how to be responsible and earn a paycheck.
New graduates should definitely highlight any internships they worked.
Extracurricular activities, including sports.

The Skinny on CVs

What if a job posting requires a CV? Typically used for academic or research positions, educational administration jobs, or admission to graduate school, a curriculum vitae—CV for short—is Latin for “the course of (one's) life.” A CV includes much more detail than a resume, and outlines your academic and professional accomplishments.

For more on CVs, visit the Virginia Tech website.

Keywords

The Key to Employers Finding You

key Later in this series you’ll learn about creating multiple versions of your resume—but all versions should include the most crucial component of any job search: keywords.

When your resume is received by a potential employer, it will be scanned—either by a human or a software program—for keywords. If your resume doesn’t include enough keywords, or the right keywords, it won’t even make the first cut.

For Instance…
You’re applying for a position as a payroll clerk. Your resume might be scanned for the following words and phrases:

Payroll
Time keeping
Payroll discrepancies
Verify
Exemptions
Earnings and deductions
Compile
Analyze
Names of software programs or degrees specified in the job posting

One way to ensure the appropriate keywords end up in every version of your resume is to include a specific section just for this purpose. In Job-Hunting Online, 5th ed., Mark Emery Bolles and Richard Nelson Bolles state, “… it has become standard practice to place a line or two at the end of a resume intended for online submission, headed by the term ‘Keywords:’ and followed by a series of words, separated by commas, that are designed solely to trigger the search engine when an employer enters his search terms.”

Part of Virgilio’s job is to help Memphis Public Library patrons create and revise their resumes. He says, “I’ll generally insert a table at the top of the resume and put bullet points of core competencies. This is similar to a keyword section.”

If you’re changing careers, or looking for your first job in your chosen profession, load keywords into a section on “career goals” or “career objective” so that your resume will survive the scan.

Keywords are vital if job seekers are to be found in an online database. … Without a doubt, a resume posted at a career site such as Monster.com will be warehoused in a searchable database. Here, paid subscribers search resumes using keywords. . . . the right keywords will determine whether your resume is ‘lost’ or ‘found.’”
— Susan Britton Whitcomb & Pat Kendall in e-Resumes: Everything You Need to Know about Using Electronic Resumes to Tap into Today’s Job Market

Sources for Keywords

How do you find keywords? Virgilio states, “You definitely want to look at the job posting, and get a hold of the job description if you can—that’s fantastic. Look at the words used and focus on including those words. Also, look at the industry and use the jargon and terms that employers will look for and recognize.”

Another great keywords source is databases available online for free or through your public library’s website: “Databases are very good for finding keywords,” says Barb Vlk, business librarian at Arlington Heights (Illinois) Public Library. “The best is the Occupational Outlook Handbook, published as a free website and in print by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It’s got lots of information under each occupation. Everything there will give you keywords you can use in your resume.”
Vlk’s advice is, “Start making a list of keywords from all these resources. Then beef up your resume every time you apply for a job.”

Further information about resumes is available from these resources:

e-Resumes: Everything You Need to Know about Using Electronic Resumes to Tap into Today’s Job Market
by Susan Britton Whitcomb and Pat Kendall, (2002).

The Guide to Internet Job Searching
by Margaret Dikel and Frances Roehm, (2008).

McGraw-Hill’s Big Red Book of Resumes, (2002).

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Perfect Resume
by Susan Ireland, (2010).

Resume Magic
by Susan Britton Whitcomb, (2010).

Online Resources

The Riley Guide

The Damn Good Resume website

Dummies.com - Resumes

This article is adapted from the book How to Get a Great Job: A Library How-To Handbook by Editors of the American Library Association published by ALA Editions.

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