How To Write Your Resume And Why You Do It That Way

First of all, there is no standard format for a resume. If you paid for a book of 1001 resume samples you may find one that you can clone to produce a halfway decent looking document, but remember that you and a few thousand other people own that book. If plagiarizing someone else’s resume is the best that you can do, then you may expect to be lumped with the other copycats in the discard pile. Online templates are often free, but reliance on filling blank fields on a form restricts your thinking. Many of them use oddball fonts that may be aesthetically pleasing to humans but confuse the hell out of a company ATS. If the light is dawning that there may be another reason why the one-size-fits-all resume may not be such a good idea, you are about to burst out of the fog of blind trust and into the sunshine of sensibility. Start believing that there is no magic sauce, the perfect format is a myth, and be committed to doing the heavy lifting of making it work. There is only one firm rule about resume writing: You must think!

You have probably heard the term “Curriculum Vitae” or CV for short in reference to an academic or scientific resume. Loosely translated from Latin, this means “The course of my life.” Put on your author’s hat because in writing a resume you have become an autobiographer. Beginning the thought process involves deciding on the story you want to tell. Whether you are starting from scratch, starting over, or restarting a job search it is never a good idea to just edit the last resume as it will cover up things that were hidden in prior edits. This is like painting over wallpaper… it may look good for a while but truly starting from scratch means doing the hard work to get better results. Taking inventory of everything about your life, skills, and accomplishments help to build the story. (Click here for a detailed how-to list)

There are really only four parts of a resume that communicate your story to somebody that may want to talk to you in more detail.

1. Starting from the top! Don’t be squeamish about revealing your contact information. Name, address, phone number, and email address are minimum requirements. You can get cute or devious about hiding this data, but understand that it comes with a risk of getting the resume lost in the process. As a recruiter, if I love what I see I can probably find you anyway. If you are competing with hundreds of others on a level playing field it may just be easier to call somebody else. If you sent it to a company ATS database you are invisible without contact info.
2. Introductory remarks come next. Please don’t label this as your “Objective” because that term usually means that something sappy or crappy will follow. This really should not matter, but it is usually not worth the risk to send it to an objective objector. It can be called a Summary or anything else, but help the reader get a quick look at what you bring to the table. This is also the best place to tailor the story to relate to the job specs. There is evidence that cover letters may never be read, so this short, one paragraph piece of the resume is a substitute for a cover letter. It is your elevator pitch that makes someone want to read more.
3. Tell them what they want to hear. It’s OK to label this paragraph Work History even though that is also a misnomer. Most people that read resumes want to see a chronological format here, but the most important things to relate is your work history, skills, and accomplishments as it relates to your current status and application. Accomplishments are tasks completed successfully and will usually have some measure of performance that can be reported. Don’t make up bogus numbers just to have a measurement.
4. How did you get this smart? Relevant education comes at the bottom unless it is the resume of a recent graduate with little or no work experience. The key word is “relevant” because a class on how to operate a ten-key adding machine 10 years ago is a waste of space. Anything leading to a degree or certification is significant as well as specialized courses that prove a skill not in evidence elsewhere. If you have an Associates or Bachelors degree or higher leave off the high school information.
5. Wait… there are five things on this list of four? Many templates will offer a troubling place to add “other information” here and it is probably going to be fluff, filler, or fake. You should never have to talk about hobbies, marital status, religious, or political matters. Telling the reader that “references will be provided on request” is stupid… would you really say no? If there is a legitimate need to say something else, first try to put it in the body of the resume. If it doesn’t fit there, make sure that it is not just a waste of space before adding it.

A resume is a living document. Don’t kill it by overfeeding, insure it is not starved for pertinent information, and never allow it to go into situations where it will be injured. It is your story.

 
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