It is common for candidates to have more than one working resume. When applying for a position that requires more of a certain skill set, streamline the resume to reflect the information that is important to the position. This cuts out unnecessary information and prevents a resume from dragging on for pages. The old tale about keeping your resume to one page is no longer the standard. It’s important to make sure all the finer points of the candidate’s background and expertise are covered. However, you should avoid just describing your jobs – instead show accomplishments while in your positions – and use specific numbers to quantify your results.
IT candidates may have a “technical” resume with all the technologies listed and when/where they were used. That same candidate should also have a “functional” resume. Functional resumes are important when the candidate is up for a Team Lead, Project Manager or Director Level position. For IT professionals in most cases it’s not necessary to go back more than 10 years. Let’s face it, the technology world changes so rapidly many of the technologies become outdated or upgraded very quickly! For easier reading, break the technologies down into a description of the environment you were working in, and make that your last bullet point in the text of each position.
Marketing and Sales professionals should have more of a standard resume that is no longer than three pages. For those people who have been in the business for an extended period then more pages could be necessary. An effective resumes is one that is chronological so the HR and hiring managers can easily review the career growth. Some Marketing resumes start with accomplishments first then chronologically list the employment at the end. We have found that a chronological resume works best with an attachment that lists achievements. The achievement attachment should go over with the resume and cover letter, and be packaged to have strong impact. Typically we call this your “bragging rights.” A brag book is typically requested at all face-to-face interviews.
Accounting professionals may have shorter resumes than Technical and Marketing candidates. It’s important to be specific in describing familiarity with specific tax forms, the types and frequency of reporting, the level of contribution to those documents, and any specialty accounting that may have been done. Accounting resumes should also reflect the number of employees or locations covered (in and out of state) since the laws and taxes are different for each state. This will show a greater depth of accounting ability.
A resume should speak from a factual stand point on the ability of the candidate. Hiring officials typically skim resumes for key words so make sure your resume is to the point and that the key words in the job description are represented in the resume body. Don’t assume that the person reading the resume is knowledgeable about your industry or skill set (avoid industry specific acronyms) – those things that are obvious to you may not be obvious to the person reading it; leave no grey area!
Your resume is your chance to sell yourself. It makes a first impression on your behalf and only gives you a minute or two to do the selling. Determine what is important for the position and make sure that information is easily found. i.e., if education is important make sure your education is at the top of the page. If not then put it at the back to close out the resume. For some positions you may want to put a “Career Summary” at the top to outline what the hiring manger may want to see, for example, industries that you have worked in.
In rare cases personal information is important to the culture but this can be imparted in other ways – it is passé to include on your resume.
Remove statements like “References available upon request” - they know!
For positions that HAVE been held use the past tense. If you are currently employed and interviewing then only put the current position in current tense. Avoid using personal pronouns. Steer clear of using terms like “responsible for” or “duties included” – again they know! Cut to the chase!
Cover letters rarely get read but those are important too. Most hiring managers use them as a writing sample if the position requires writing or presentation skills.
PLEASE always use your spell check and have several other people proofread all of your documents for you. The quickest way to invite rejection of your resume (and your viability as a candidate) is to have just one typo. Candidate screening is a process of elimination, so a typo on a resume gives a hiring manager a quick and easy way to eliminate you from consideration – don’t make it so easy for him!