Resume Tips Include
Resume Check List
Why you’re not getting enough interviews
How Hiring Manager determines if you’re qualified
Offer withdrawn because of false information on resume – See the last page.
Typos – Does your resume say you are careless?
A resume should focus on what you’ve done (accomplishments)
The ideal I.T. Resume
How to make a good impression
Do’s and Don’ts
Improve your resume – shorter resumes get more interviews
Education and Certifications
Standard Word Resume – with work history, not non-standard, not boxes, not image, not password, not with tables, not with columns, not read-only, not PDF, not HTML
Why WORD is the best resume format.
Word resume (.doc) is the best resume to get you an interview. Most companies ATS (Applicant Tracking System) can search Word but not PDF.
Not getting enough interviews – Here’s why!
* Hundreds many times thousands of resumes are received for each open position.
* 3-7 are selected for a phone interview.
* 2-3 for a face to face interview
* Your resume is the most important piece of information for your job search. This is the first example of your work the hiring manager will see. It must be perfect.
* Get more interviews by replacing Responsible for with Accomplishments and identifying the skills used to achieve those.
Here’s how
* A duty describes what you did and an accomplishment describes how well you did it.
* Add the Benefit.
Professional Achievements Ideas
* Revenue or sales you increased for the company.
* Money you saved for the company.
* Time you saved for the company.
* Problems you identified and solved.
* Ideas or innovations you introduced.
* Procedures or systems you developed, implemented or optimized.
* Special projects you worked on.
* Industry awards you won (i.e., Best Digital Marketing Campaign Award)
* Work-related awards you won (i.e., Employee of The Month or Year)
* Promotions to higher positions you got in your job
* Additional training you completed and professional certifications you received
* Funding, grants, or scholarships you received
* Popular publications, reports, or presentations you (co) authored
* Blogging and influencing on social media
* Media coverage you gained for the company
* Other accomplishments such as volunteering or achievements in sports
Your work experience is the most important part of your resume. This is where the hiring manager will look to see if you’ve been doing what they need.
Current and recent jobs
5 – 7 bullet point with a focus on your relevant experience for the position
Begin every bullet point with an action word.
E.g. Designed Debugged, Implemented, Improved, Led, Negotiated, Reduced, Supervised, Trained, etc
MORE POWER WORDS. Start off sentences with these words and make them a bold font.
Ability Accelerated Accomplished
Achieved Administered Advised
Analyzed Capable Coded
Compared Completed Conceived
Conceptualized Consolidated Consulted
Converted Coordinated Created
Decreased Designed Debugged
Developed Edited Eliminated
Established Evaluated Expanded
Generated Guided Implemented
Improved Increased Installed
Instructed Justified Lead
Led Maintained Managed
Modified Monitored Motivated
Negotiated Organized Planned
Presented Programmed Recommended
Reduced Reorganized Replaced
Researched Responsible Saved
Scheduled Selected Solved
Supervised Taught Tested
Trained Updated
HOW TO GET THE INTERVIEW – BEFORE YOU SEND YOUR RESUME
If you want to get an interview, customize your resume for each job
* If you’ve successfully done the description or project and have the skills (applications, software, etc) required, make sure it DETAILS your experience with ALL of the requirements (in your own words), under your work history.
* Look at your current and recent jobs, does it show the required skills you have? If not, no interview
* Adding a few lines of your related experience can get you an interview. The more the better, don’t lie.
* Adding your Challenges, Achievements, Deliverables, and Industries under each job will increase your chances for an interview
* Be sure you put on your resume, things you actually know and have worked on, and can explain in detail.
Hiring Managers Resume Complaint
They don’t show what the person’s role really is. Wants to see under work history more of a narrative (more descriptive)
Please review your work history’s current and recent jobs and see if you can improve on what your role is.
Here’s how to improve what your role is – What to include under current and recent jobs
Replace Responsible for with Accomplishments
Add your Accomplishments, Problems, and how you solved them, Challenges, and Deliverables under each job will increase your chances for an interview
* Include how you saved the company time and money
* Suggested a process or procedure that improved performance or some other benefit
* Evaluated and recommended
* Found a problem no one else could fine
Always include the benefit(s) for what you did
* Spelling Errors, Typos, and Poor Grammar
* Too Long, Longer than 4-5 pages. Gives too many details (bullets) for jobs that are more than 5 years old.
* Objectives or Meaningless Introductions
* Leaves off Objective. if you want to use objective and you’re a hands-on manager who is open to an Analyst, Programmer, DBA, or other non-management positions, make sure your objective includes these titles, not just management titles.
* You will only be considered for titles you list that’s why it’s better to leave off an objective.
If you’re a hands-on manager and open to non-management positions
You should have two resumes.
One for non-management positions that indicate you’re interested in hands-on non-management positions and focuses on all your hands-on tasks under your current and recent jobs.
A current title should include your manager’s title and a title that best describes what you do. E.g. BI Manager / Architect
A second resume for management positions that focus on management skills.
Please send me at least a few bullets indicating your related experience for the required skills. The more the better chance for an interview
How Hiring Manager determines if you’re qualified
The first place they look at is your current and then-recent jobs. Make sure your work history (recent jobs) shows your current experience for EACH of the requirements that you have.
YOUR RESUME
* This is an example of your organizational, presentation, writing, and reading comprehension skills.
* Typos will stop you from getting interviews because it is the first example of your work an employer will see. It must be perfect.
TYPO’s: 1,000 managers surveyed said, they wouldn’t interview an applicant with 1 typo on their resume.
If there’s a mistake on something as important as your cover letter or resume, it’s assumed you’ll make mistakes on the job.
MAKE A GOOD FIRST IMPRESSION
TYPOS will stop you from getting an interview.
In Word look for Red and Green lines. (Red = possible spelling error and Green = possible grammar error).
Have two friends or relatives whose first language is English read your resume line by line.
Send me a corrected copy with an updated resume – typos corrected in the subject line.
Install Grammarly for Windows free. Works with Word and Outlook 2019 on up, online and supports integration with multiple applications and websites.
Will show you all the problems with your Word resume and suggest corrections.
Follow this link to download the app.
Ask ChatGPT or other AI program to check you resume for typos and errors or how to make it better.
Your resume will get you an interview or not – How to make sure it gets you the interview. Does your resume say you are careless?
Please go over your resume line by line and correct all typos and words on top of each other.
Typos, grammatical and spelling mistakes, poor word choices, and punctuation errors send a message that you are careless
Don’t put something on your resume that someone else in your group did. This will come out during the interview and that will be the end of the interview and your reputation will be questionable.
Make sure your recent work history includes the skills this job requires if you have them and major accomplishments
Resume Mistakes – Managers Comments
Are you senior level? – The resume does not appear to come across as a senior. – I have seen so many profiles with statements like “Configured Planning Strategies and assigned MRP Group to Strategy Group”.
These are low-level tasks that are not worth talking about.
Before sending your resume, remove all low-level tasks. Replace responsible for with major accomplishments. This will get you more interviews.
COMMON RESUME MISTAKES – Check your resume for these mistakes:
A space before a comma or period. It should be a space after a comma or period, not before. E.g. AR, AP, GL, FA. E.g. Word. Next word.
To find these problems use Ctl F and search for space comma ( ,) or space period ( .) or open or close parenthesis ( ).
It should be a space before and after a parenthesis. E.g. word (words) word
E.g. Oracle Accounts Receivable(AR) incorrect. Oracle Accounts Receivable (AR) correct
2 spaces between words, should be one.
Words like Oracle or Unix without a capital first letter. (oracle, unix)
PL SQL in small letters (pl sql or Pl SQL)
Employers prefer a Chronological Resume (Reverse order. Most recent first)
Education, Skill list (software, applications, hardware), and Industries towards the top of your resume, before work history.
To improve your resume and get more interviews include:
* Bullet format under your work history describing each project and your accomplishments.
* Your top 5-10 accomplishments for your current position. Your 4-7 accomplishments for your next position and less and less for older positions. 20–30 bullets is too many.
- Mention how you saved the company time and or money
- Found and fixed a problem no one else could find
- Been promoted
- Indicate what you can offer a prospective employer. Use the CAR method to help you recall your achievements: Challenges, Actions, and Results.
- Instead of Responsibilities included, replace it with Accomplishments using Problem Action Results.
Problem Action Results are
* First you state the problem that existed.
* Then you describe what you did about it.
* Then you point out the beneficial results.
E.g. Transformed a disorganized, inefficient warehouse into a smooth-running operation by totally redesigning the layout; this saved the company thousands of dollars in recovered stock.
Mention on every project what you did to improve performance and / or save the company money.
Use the ones where you saved the company hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars or something else that will impress.
Have you received awards or job well-done letters? Anything else that will make you be the one they will want? This will help me get you interviews.
Your Unique Selling Proposition
* Indicate what you can offer a prospective employer. Use the CAR (Challenge, Action, and Result) method to help you recall your achievements:
* If you can determine your Unique Selling Proposition (top 3- 5 selling points) and build it into a dynamic paragraph, you will have a real advantage of getting the job.
If your title doesn’t reflect your work
Put your title and the title that reflects your work. E.g. Programmer Analyst / Project Leader
Explain during the interview what your official title was / is.
HOW TO SHORTEN YOUR RESUME
Work History
On 1 line Title From and To Dates Co Name Industry
Highlight your title only
It’s a good idea to mention what each of your employers does or their industry. Potential employers consider the same industry a plus.
Only go into details for the last 4-5 years. Then indicate your previous Job Titles, From and To Dates, Company Names, Industry, and that detailed experiences are available upon request.
E.g.
Detail experience for these is available upon request.
PROJECT MANAGER 12/18 – 6/20 Web Designers
PROGRAMMER ANALYST 10/90 – 11/18 Disney – Entertainment / Movie Studio
PROGRAMMER 1/82 – 9/90 Bob’s Mfg Company / Manufacturing
DO NOT USE:
* Wide margins
* Icons that take several lines
* 18-inch size font
* Work History twice
* A lot of blank lines. Don’t take 6 lines for a title, from and to dates, and company name when it will fit on 1 line.
E.G. Title From and To Dates Co Name Industry
Don’t indicate environment if you already mentioned it in your job description
* If you want to mention it at the end of your job description limit it to 1 or 2 lines
E.g. C#, Java, PL SQL, SQL Server, Oracle, Windows, NT, ASP, VB Script, JavaScript
* References available, interest, hobbies, race, religion, false information (a degree you don’t have), or your picture.
This takes too many lines for every job. Put this once towards the top of your resume.
Environment:
COMPUTER RELATED SKILLS, CERTIFICATIONS, AWARDS. This should be on your resume towards the top before job history. Please add if necessary. It’s very important you have all technologies in demand that you know, on your resume. Let me know if any of these are redundant.
Awards or Job well-done letter: Certification(s): Languages: Scripting Languages: Databases: Operating Systems: Hardware: Software Packages: Software Tools: Development Methods: Development Tools: Internet / Intranet Technologies: Middlewares: Reporting Tools: Data Warehousing: OLAP Tools: ETL Tools: Data Transformation Tools: Data / Process Modeling Tools: Automated Data and System Design Tools: Version Control Tools: GUIs: Security: Methodologies: Management Tools: Compliance: Internet & Intranet: ERP: CRM: Supply Chain: EDI: Business Intelligence: Document Imaging: Application Packages: Financial Applications: Manufacturing Applications: Web Applications: Client Server Applications: Other Applications: Mission-critical enterprise systems: Enterprise systems: Backup Utilities: Platforms: Web Server: Web Application Server: Protocol: Testing Tools: Project Management Tools: Supervise:(maximum number of people, their titles, types of projects/applications, largest budget, etc) Industries:
Poor formatting – boxes, templates, tables, use of header and footers, etc.
Font Choice – poor font choice or style (Arial black or bold for the whole resume).
Font size is too small or too big (E.g. Arial 8, Times New Roman 10, etc.). Arial 10, Calibri 12 are good sizes.
Functional Resumes as opposed to writing a Chronological Resume
* Paragraphs – Long Paragraphs instead of Bullet-points.
* Resumes sent as PDF, ZIP files, faxed, web page resumes, or mailed. Resumes not sent as a WORD attachment.
* Too many bullets under each job. The older the jobs the fewer bullets points. Don’t double-space bullet points.
* Resume in all capital letters.
* Doesn’t sound like he’s hands-on.
* Doesn’t have the hardcore experience, just superficial
* Sounds like he assisted with the work. His focus wasn’t on what we need.
* Too many blank lines between jobs and others
Missing important software, education or certifications on the resume
* Too Duty Oriented – A resume that reads like a job description and fails to explain what the job seeker’s accomplishments were and how they did so.
* Dates not included or inaccurate dates.
* Gaps in employment (4 months between jobs). Fill in the gaps with what you were doing.
* Contact Info – none or inaccurate contact info, unprofessional email address. No last name.
* Personal Info included not relevant to the job. E.g. Hobbies
* Employer names not included and / or not telling what industry or product candidate worked on
* Lying, misleading (especially in terms of education, dates, and inflated titles)
* Pictures, Graphics, or URL links no one will call up
* Not easy to follow summary
* Resumes written as the 1st or 3rd Person
* Burying important info in the resume
OFFER WITHDRAWN because of false information on resume
Indicated on resume had a BS degree
Signed a legal document indicating had a BS degree
Background check indicated no degree and work history dates weren’t even close. Ironically the job didn’t require a degree
CEO at Yahoo was fired for saying he had a degree he didn’t have
Since all companies do background checks these days, make sure your resume is accurate.
The Ideal I.T. Resume – Comments from an IT Director
* My resume is a year-round process and trying to encapsulate 20+ years of experience in two pages seems ridiculous. I’ve settled in on four pages as my maximum.
* I’m constantly tweaking it for the skills and experience which exemplify me and what work I would like to do.
* Before I submit my resume formally it will be modified yet again so it is targeted for the job announcement.
* I’m a fan of simple and direct. Perhaps that’s my military experience speaking, but it’s effective. As someone who sits on many hiring committees, I’m a fan of someone who can quickly capture my attention and highlight their skills for the position.
* This is what I try to incorporate into my own resume. Most importantly, the resume should focus on results…what have YOU done
RESUME CHECK-LIST – To get more interviews and stand out from the rest
Get more interviews by taking 5- 10 minutes now and improve your resume with these tips
* Please send standard WORD resume with work history, not non-standard, not image, not boxes, not password, not read-only, not PDF, not HTML.
Word is the number one resume format. If you want to include PDF that’s fine, but send Word also so we don’t have to ask for it.
Non-Standard – If I can’t add lines (my letterhead and notes) to the top of your resume without messing up the format, then this is a non-standard resume and I can’t use it.
* Resume in boxes, sometimes if I add my letterhead and 10+ lines of notes the format gets all messed up and looks really bad.
* Offer withdrawn because of false information on resume
* Resume must include from and to dates for your work history and must show your current job even if you’ve only been there a short time.
* Shorter resumes get more interviews – How to shorten your resume
* Accomplishments rather than responsible for will get you more interviews
Including a Cover Letter will make a good first impression
* A cover letter will distinguish you from the 75% of applicants who don’t include a cover letter with their resume.
What to include
* A paragraph summary of why you’re qualified. Mention all the related experience you have related to the job requirements.
* Bullets format is easier to read
* Keep it short. 1/2 page
* Start off with my xx years of experience as a (Title) make me an excellent match for your xxxxx position listed on xxxx.
* This is an opportunity to point out how you can help the company. This is about the company and not you.
* Mention as many keywords in the ad as possible in your cover letter and add them to your resume if not already there
* You need to impress them that you will fill the void and solve their problems immediately.
* Don’t use words like “I think”, use “I know”.
* Use points from your resume that are relevant
* If you will relocate if required
* You need to customize each cover letter. Don’t send in a generic cover letter
* Typo’s – This will stop you from getting an interview. ‘
For Recruiters – send a cover letter or put it on top of your resume
* I prefer full-time employee but will consider contract or contract to hire
* base salary or hourly rate considered – for an employee position, asking for a 10% increase is usually safe
* why are you available
* what you would be interested in (titles of jobs)
* if you will relocate if you have more than a 1-hour commute
* make sure you have contact info on your cover letter and resume. Full name, phone number, and email address.
* the top 3 things you want with your next job
* how do you have the right to work in the U.S.? (US Citizen, H1, TN1, EAD, other)
* other information that will help me find you your ideal job
Watch what you say online
Racist, repulsive, or political could cost you an interview.