Take a Look at your Resume! Part 2

Alright. Welcome to part two of my resume revamp series!

So right now you should have a list of things you're going to put on your resume. Let's do something with that list! This is the fun part, but it can also be tedious. So be ready.

What we're going to do is take that list of things you wrote down, and make them resume-ready. There are a lot of things to consider, and most of them have to do with how you present the "thing". Let's get it started!

We'll focus on the experience stuff first. Look at what it is you've listed, then think about how it benefited whoever you were working for/with. Instead of just listing the experience, write down in what way you benefited the company or group in order to obtain the experience. And don't be soft with it. Make sure whoever is reading your resume really feels that your experience benefited the company. The way to do that is to word the description strongly. Instead of "led a team of programmers and designers to project completion," you "managed a development team that consistently completed projects on time". Make sure there's no doubt about how you accomplished something when gaining your experience. Numbers are also always a great thing to include.

Here's an example of how I'd revamp an experience blurb:
Before: "Rebuilt a website with a gallery, forums, and marketplace for Loafersoft Solutions"
After: "Developed a portal to facilitate stronger visual representation, community development, and e-commerce for Loafersoft Solutions"

The more creative you can get, the better and stronger your blurb will sound, and the more impressive it will be to the reader. Just make sure if you gave your resume to your grandmother, she'd understand it.

Along with your experience blurb, elaborate on any accomplishments your achieved along the way. If you sold a record amount of t-shirts, or even if your new marketplace for Loafersoft helped them sell a record amount of t-shirts, put it down! And don't forget the dates!

So now that you've got your experience list with blurbs and accomplishments and dates, take a look for holes. If there was a period of time where you weren't working, think of something that filled it. Really think about possibilities like volunteering, continued education, etc. Then accompany those things with a little bit about why there was no prominent work experience, but stay away from sounding like you're apologizing.


Let's get to those skills. First, look through those skills and think of a time where you may have been able to apply it to the experience you've already listed. Go ahead and add it to that experience portion as a relevant skill. Next, try to drop the remaining skills into categories that would be relevant to whatever type of job you'd be using your resume for.

That's all for today. Check back on Friday for the wrap-up!

Take a Look at your Resume! Part 1

I don't know about the rest of you, but OIT has a career fair coming up just around the corner, and that means it's time to revamp your job search tools!

There is one thing that you should always bring to a job/career fair: your general resume. Since we're a couple weeks from our career fair, I figure it's a great time to start looking at resumes and giving them some new mojo. In fact, I'm not the only one, since Career Services is sponsoring a Resume Doctor event all the way through next week! (October 18-22). So let's have a quick look at some things we can do to spiff up our potentially very dusty resumes!

The first step, if you ask me, is to start a new one. You don't want what's already on your resume to impact how much you put on your fresh one. Think about it this way: If you buy a new home, and you just move all your old furniture in, will it fit? Will you need to buy new furniture? And most importantly, will it be comfortable? Well, sure. But think about how much more satisfying it would be to just furnish the new home with brand new objects! Okay, money is an issue. That's why we're making resumes, right? Don't throw away your old resume just yet. We'll have a use for it soon.

Start drafting out this resume just like you did your old one, but apply your most recent experiences, skills and recognition first. Just list them all out. This is your brainstorming phase, so don't judge what you put down just yet.

Next, write down what it is you are making the resume for. Since it's most likely going to be for a job, write down what type of job it is, and if you're tailoring your resume to a job posting, write down all of the key qualifications and requirements for that job. When I'm consulting resumes for my friends, I generally like to draw lines between qualifications/requirements and the experiences/skills that associate with them. Doing this will help you narrow your list of "stuff" down, and keeps out some of the potential "fluff" that could actually hurt your resume. Also, just for good measure, take out any of the "stuff" that you aren't really comfortable doing, or aren't particularly good at. Leaving these things in there may help you land an interview, but chances are your interview will test you on them, and then you may end up looking like a fool.

Rewrite those things down so you have a fresh list of "stuff" to work with. Look at the list of "stuff" and decide whether you have more skills listed or experience listed. This will dictate the type of resume you write, or which will come first in your resume.

While you're doing that, I'll start writing the next part!