Resumes Dos and Don'ts guide line for getting contacted

keenon

As I have posted to other threads concerning resume critique. I have decided to create a general post concerning resumes. These are general things I have used, told and seen with great responses:

1. Make sure that the text in the body of resume is at min 10 points but no larger than 12 points- arial or new times roman.

2. Use bolding for each company and title that you worked for
ex.
JOHN DOE TECHNOLOGY
Widget Admin

3. DO NOT USE an OBJECTIVE on the resume at all- reason being as it creates you having to reedit the resume for any job applied for and is very limiting.. it is far better to use a SUMMARY statement to give a brief into to what you have been doing -- the resume body will complete this.
ex.
Experienced IT professional with 3 years of Widget administration. Blah, blah, you get the idea.

4. Certifications- when you have a couple (1-2) its ok to but the vendor stamp/emblem on there cisco, comptia, ect.. but when you have a few (3-5) its far better to list them under a seperate heading
CERTIFICATIONS
you still want to do this listing even if you have 1

5. word repetition- be very careful using the same word consistanly on resume this can bad.. at best try to use a different word or sentences from job duties to job duties.
ex. insured the proper installation of network gear
performed equipment installs to company guidelines

6. Make the resume pleasing to the eye and easy to read.. alot of resumes get overlooked due to this. try to make the layout and flow of the resume simple and easy to read not to you but to someone that doesn't have a clue as to what you do.

7. NEVER put references on the resume or references available upon request.. if they want them they will ask for them

8. It's ok if your resume flows into 2 or 3 pages as long as its concise.. at min keep 5-6 employers especially if a part of the same lineage try to use the longer term gigs also...
Not any 1 to 2 week deals and be sure to list if it was a contract and the term of the contract and state if it was completed successful to the term.

9. Be sure to list your up to date email address( this would be one that you check often) and professional address
ex. [email]keenon.example@???.com[/email]

and not

[email]hotbody@???.com[/email]

Also home and cell phone number (with no crazy ring tones and messages).. and no work numbers.

10. This is just a side piece if a job posting is out there and you have 3 out of 5 things they are looking, for apply for it.

Any addtional info I will add as questions arrise. If any of the info helps you start generating more possible employer contacts please post.

NEWLY ADDED
11. Qualiifcations- in certain cases this may be good but for a technical resume its deemed very bad.

why- your describing something to someone reading your resume and from it they will have to decypher your skills to see if your a good fit for the opening.

instead- use a skills listing be very clear about it
ex. familiar with configuring cisco routers
helping build windows server
Cisco router models (800, 1600, 1700... u get the idea
MS Server Products

these are possible but look at the job description to get a more better idea

12. hobbies- this is something that if they want to know they'll ask in the interview omit it from your resume

13. interview follow ups-

many have opinions on this but from my own experience i have learned

not to send a thank you letter/email until a few days afterwards-- reason they may have more interview to complete and you don't want to seem too needy. .besides if you send it in a few days it joggs their memory and if you had a good/great interview it only adds to them keeping you in the top
3 candidates as well

if calling follow the same rule, if their busy keep it short
" i wanted to thank you for your time speaking to me on ??? and i hope to hear from you again" to that effect and get off the phone don't ask for a call back and don't call back- unless they ask you to get the time and keep it.. when calling back remind them of it " i was giving you a call back in reference to ....."
if they're not busy keep it short as well but if they want to discuss it further do so.. ask any questions that you have left over

I have another post which i'm throwing recruitment emails that i have received from my own resume that aren't interesting to me.. so i must be doing something right



thx web

sharptech

The problem I have w/ the summery is for me-

It would make my resume more than 1 page long and that is frowned upon (unless you have so much experience and different companies you worked for)- however that is not my case - that is why I have a short objective statement.

My cover letter explains what a summery would and a lot more.

Other than that great points!

keenon

having a resume "bleed" over a page is fine..
for someone that has 2 -3 years of experience if not alot of job advancements or 30+ days contract work 1 page is doable i would suggest changing the layout of the resume(headings, font sizing, even spacing lines or text barriers) before removing content

sharptech

Yeah thats what I was trying to say- 2 pages is fine- w/ the experience- my resume is in another thread that I posted- you could see how mine would be better for one page.

keenon

yep, remove the circuit city.. as it is unrelated to the current field your working in.. and remember summary.. if even only 2 lines thats better than any objective that you will have re-analyze to figure how to make it fit as you post for jobs. also doesn't put you into 1 certain job class/field as the job you may be applying for is more broader than what the objective states your looking for

sharptech

What should I put instead of Circuit City?

Here is what I came up w/ for a summery statement: Let me know what you think

Professional IT technician with excellent desktop support skills. Proficient in troubleshooting hardware and software configurations

keenon

Professional IT technician with X years of experience in (customer or you can use user, or nothing at all) desktop support . Proficient in troubleshooting multiple vendor hardware and software configurations in production environments.

sharptech

Sounds great- thanks a lot!

keenon

and as you add more skills just add those in at some point you'll have to rewrite it but its a great start

sharptech

Yes- I have been re-working it and have great support from many on the site- thanks again!

hhisgett

/me busy "correcting" resume......thanks for this! Very good points and very reasonable explanations.

bump

Thank you keenon. Your post is very helpful.

I am trying to switch from customer technical support to desktop support for a corporate environment, thinking it will give me more interaction with people and system, as well as career advancement. I have spent over 20 hours on my resume. It is way better than what I started, but after reading your post, I will put in more hours.

The layout and flow is very difficult to achieve. Any suggestions?

keenon

bump wrote:

The layout and flow is very difficult to achieve. Any suggestions?

when i had to rewrite my resume many years ago it took me about a week the flow itself is kinda up to you but you have to think as in your someone else reading it trying to see if you would be a fit. . if you get my explaination of this.. once you have found what you think works best ask for opinions of others to gain more insight for the flows minor details that may have been missed.

i have created and rewritten resumes ( IT related and non-IT) for a few people all have great results i don't use a "fit all resume" i let them flow naturally but i do strictly ahere to the principles i laid out in the main post

bump

Thanks a lot keenon. It is easier said than done, like writing a novel. But I must get this part done.

Sie

Just a small point to add,

Make sure you only use positive words + wording within your resume / cv when describing experience, things you have dealt with it.
(Basic common sense) But will put them in postive thinking mood rather than negative.

To make it more confusing I cannot think of an example at the mo....

(Hmm starting to think i shouldnt write anything let alone CV's as i keep confuising myself! )

keenon

heres what i think this means

say nothing bad of your current or past positions ( resume or interview)

i used to work for a company and the owner was an A$$ and cheap..
i used to keep the company up only with "slight of hand" aka flying by seat of pants or skating thin ice.. they refused to fund any of the IT needs
i had to threaten to quit to get a raise they had promised and documented when i first started after 3 months. it was a nearly 9 when i got it

but to say this on my resume i don't put
"helped company survive on shoestring budget due to cheap boss"

i use
"maintained IT department under budget"
" receiptant of 3 raises"

creativity is key

Sie

Yes Keenon thats it in a nutshell.

Have to make what ever you have done or plan to do sound like the best thing since sliced bread. Guess thats what i was getting at, without an example i was lost

keenon

thx J


now anymore resume related help please ask

borumas

Good points there, I just killed my objective statement on my old resume and changed it to a summary. I was wondering do you recomend putting certs and education above your job experience, I had my certs and education at the bottom but then again my resume is about 5 years old and I'm just recently updating it. Thanks again for the great info.

keenon

i prefer the education and cert before professional experience..

borumas

i prefer the education and cert before professional experience..

I guess that makes some sense, gives them a background of your education level then go into the actual job experiences, thanks. I went ahead and changed it that way on my resume and it does seem to "flow" better that way.

ms_visio

Eight Résumé Editing Tips

By Jennifer Anthony, Resume Expert

Depending on how it's written, your résumé can make or break your job search. A professional, well-written résumé can have employers banging down your door; but a sloppy, mistake-laden résumé can turn off a hiring manager in a split second.

Proofreading is a must. Neglect doing it and you could send out a résumé with simple mistakes that could have been avoided. Before you send yours to an employer, follow this checklist to ensure it is the highest-quality representation of yourself.

1. Grammar and spelling -- Use the grammar and spell check function in Microsoft Word. When you are finished with that, print out your résumé and read the document word for word. Spell check won't know that you meant to enter "manager" when you actually typed "manger."

2. Capitalization -- Use a manual such as the "Gregg Reference Manual" or "Strunk and White's Elements of Style" if you do not know capitalization rules. The most common capitalization errors are with job titles. You capitalize a person's job title only when it precedes his or her name. (Example: President Peters) You do not capitalize a job title when it comes after the name as a description. (Example: Mr. Peters, the president of XYZ Corporation...)

3. Punctuation -- Check for proper and consistent use of punctuation. Again, if you are unsure, refer to a reference manual. If you don't own one, there are many accessible for free online.

4. Run-on sentences -- Check to make sure you do not have run-ons: They are difficult to read and comprehend. A run-on sentence is defined as two or more sentences that have been joined together without a conjunction or the correct punctuation. (Example: I produced strategies for growth management and market contraction and identified profitable acquisition and diversification opportunities and facilitated negotiations for sale of software division to Fortune 500 company.)

5. Consistency -- You must be consistent with your number usage (dates, money, numbers), plurals and abbreviations. For example, don't list one date as "8/2004" and then list another as "3/15/2004." Also, be aware of listing software consistently (abbreviation use). MS Word and Microsoft Outlook are both correct, but not consistent when used in the same document.

6. Education section -- When you have a degree, list only the year that you obtained your degree. When you list your dates, (i.e.: 9/1998 to 1/2002) many résumé-scanning systems will not recognize that you obtained a degree, only that you attended college for a period of time.

7. Ampersands -- Ampersands (&) generally do not belong on a résumé. There are a few exceptions. One exception is a well-known company name (AT&T). Another exception is well-known industry terms (P&L). Overuse of the ampersand indicates laziness when repeatedly substituting it for "and."

8. Hyperlinks -- Sometimes, your e-mail and Web addresses may be automatically hyperlinked when typing your résumé and will need to be deactivated. The reason is that many spam filters treat links of any kind as potential junk mail. You don't want your résumé destined for the recycle bin before it's even read.

To deactivate hyperlinks in MS Word, highlight the link, go to the "Insert" drop down menu, scroll down to and click "Hyperlink", and on the lower left-hand side of this screen there should be a little button that says "Remove link." When you find it, give it a little click and, voila, the hyperlink is gone. Or, just highlight the link, right click on it and scroll down to "remove link" to deactivate the link.

keenon

here are a few more additional thoughts:

1) keep your resume as current as possible.. letting your resume get "dusty" can be a extremely bad thing

try to keep up at least within 30 - 45 days rotations if not adding anything you may find things that you can better explain/detail

2) keep job site profile/resume current as well..

i've made this mistake several times and can tell that i have done this when after updating my profile/info produces a new flow of emails and calls for new gigs for the next few weeks

3) if receiving a call .. always entertain the caller, hear them out but be clear about the bottom line $$$ as your in business for you and their in business for them

snokerpoker

good advice here, thanks everyone

Arturasj

All this advice sounds great, but how would you go about describing the very similar jobs. For example say that you at your third job which is exactly the same as the previous two. How can you describe them all without repeating yourself? What if at your first job you’ve done X, Y and Z tasks, as well as at the other two…

keenon

I've done it for 2 jobs back to back.. being that i was a contractor then got converted over to a permanent employee..

1. Describe current duties and projects

2. If nothing has changed reword the job duties/description to say the same thing but differently..

ex. I ate a hamburger for lunch today.
Today for lunch I had a hambuger.

Arturasj

Thanks for that I will try. At the moment I’ve got all of the important duties listed under the current position and some very few and unimportant under the previous. Another challenge that I had was a promotion which was only for the reason to top up my salary, where the most of the duties were the same. Then my title was changed from IT Technician to the Senior ICT Officer. At the time I received some Phone calls from the people that saw my CV and they were asking why I have left my previous job. How would you go around the promotion, without showing it as a new job also without repeating yourself?

keenon

i got promoted twice while working for the same company.. a few added job duties from what i was currently doing ( which was all the same) I actually listed mine

current position<< in bold
(promoted from this and promoted from that) << in grey

current position duties, followed by the stuff i was doing anyway..


hope that helps

Arturasj

current position<< in bold
(promoted from this and promoted from that) << in grey

Great idea thanks.

fernandobravo69

Hi everyone. It's great to have this kind of info available here. I'm new here as you might have guessed. I have a few questions about writing my resume. I just got my A+ certification and I'm very exciting about it since I like to work with computers. The only problem is that I've never had a job involving computers. I'm currently a restaurant manager but I've also worked as a bartender, construction worker and auto mechanic. How would I go about writing my resume without having a lot of experience as a tech? Any suggestions? Thanks.

garv221

keenon wrote:

3. DO NOT USE an OBJECTIVE on the resume at all- reason being as it creates you having to reedit the resume for any job applied for and is very limiting.. it is far better to use a SUMMARY statement to give a brief into to what you have been doing -- the resume body will complete this.
ex.
Experienced IT professional with 3 years of Widget administration. Blah, blah, you get the idea.


NEWLY ADDED
11. Qualiifcations- in certain cases this may be good but for a technical resume its deemed very bad.

I think an objective is the single tackiest thing people add to a resume. Its like a bad pickup line. I tend to see the same ones from resume to resume. It reminds me of a highschool student applying for a summer job at the lumber yard.

I agree putting qualifications on a resume cuts yourself short. I cannot possibly list every qualification I have. If a required qualification is not listed the interviewer might assume you do not posses that skill, it will leave them thinking "Ah they have all this Cisco experience but nothing with PIX's? We need PIX experience"

In my opinion a resume if anything should be broad and not specific leaving the reviewer curious for more information which leads to an interview. Let your experience and education speak for itself.

Like Keenon said No email addresses like " Tripping_On_Acid@hotmail.com" I have seen so many dumb email returns like this.