5 Rules for Resumes that Work

1. 5 Rules for Resumes that Work Ugur Akinci, ph.d Associate fellow, STC tcc6.com | writer111@gmail.com

2. The Goal of a Resume is… • To get the job? • To get the interview?

3. The Goal of a Resume is… To get the interview

4. RULE #1 Custom-design for a specific offer

5. RULE #1 CUSTOM-DESIGN each resume for a SPECIFIC OFFER • Send the same generic document to every recruiter or HR manager in a shotgun approach, and you’ll never hear from anybody, ever.

6. RULE #2 Make it easy to scan

7. RULE #2 • Make sure the layout of your resume is EASY TO SCAN, from top to bottom. On the average, the person reading it has 15 seconds to decide whether you are an interesting candidate or not. If they can scan it easily, you have a better chance of avoiding the slush pile.

8. RULE #2 Make it easy to scan http://www.TechnicalCommunicationCenter/Resume.docx

9. RULE #3 Spell out your achievements

10. RULE #3 QUALIFICATIONS vs. ACHIEVEMENTS Include as many facts as possible without neglecting any of your job-specific ACHIEVEMENTS. QUALIFICATIONS (schools, certification, etc.) are NOT as important as ACHIEVEMENTS. • A qualification is a POTENTIAL for high performance. • An achievement is AN ACTUAL TRACK RECORD of high performance. Give them PROOF of high performance by listing all your RELEVANT achievements.

11. MAIN BLOCKS OF A RESUME 1) SIGNATURE BLOCK Just N. Example 123 Main Avenue, New York, NY 10001 (202) 555-1212, myemail@mail.com, www.mywebsite.com PHOTO?

12. MAIN BLOCKS OF A RESUME 2) OBJECTIVE Specify clearly why you are sending this document. Mention the specific job offer to which you are responding. For example: Finding a salaried Second Unit Director position with an independent film production company in New York City.

13. MAIN BLOCKS OF A RESUME 3) RELATED EXPERIENCE • Make sure your description of your ACHIEVEMENTS always starts with an ACTION VERB. • RAISED $3,000 in three weeks… • ORGANIZED Student Youth Council… • TRAVELED to Africa…

14. MAIN BLOCKS OF A RESUME 3) RELATED EXPERIENCE Left-justify the position name and place of work but right-justify the dates for easy scanning.

15. MAIN BLOCKS OF A RESUME 3) RELATED EXPERIENCE List your most recent achievement first and go back in time. Don’t list 20 years of achievement unless your earlier record is highly pertinent. For example, if 20 years ago you were the Vice President of the United States, then you should of course list that (but then again, if you were the V.P. of USA you probably would not need to write your own resume).

16. MAIN BLOCKS OF A RESUME 3) RELATED EXPERIENCE • For example: • Director, Second Unit — June 2007 – CurrentACME Productions, New York, NY • Managed a film crew of 18 in 6 different mid-level indy productions with a total budget of $86 million. • Directed, shot and delivered 18.3 hours of celluloid and digital film, 13% under budget and on time.

17. MAIN BLOCKS OF A RESUME 4) EDUCATION List only those that are either significant and/or relevant. For example, don’t list the Japanese Tea Ceremony Certificate you’ve acquired from your local community college when applying for a job as a film director. But do list your Ph.D. degree even if it was in Anthropology, or if it’s from Harvard University. However, if you are applying as the Manager of a Tea House in Tokyo, then make sure you do list your Tea Ceremony Certificate from East Hartford Community College.

18. MAIN BLOCKS OF A RESUME 4) EDUCATION For example: Bachelor of Arts in Film Directing — June 1996New York University, New York, NY Film Editing Certificate — August 1993Sundance Institute, Santa Fe, NM

19. MAIN BLOCKS OF A RESUME 5) OTHER List any other RELEVANTfeatures of your background that would help you get that job interview. If, for example, you have any awards relevant to the position, list them in your resume. BUT…. If the award has nothing to do with the position you are applying for, then don’t mention it.

20. MAIN BLOCKS OF A RESUME 5) OTHER • For example: • (A good reference because it’s relevant) • Golden Lens Award — April 2006New Heaven Film Directors Guild • (A bad reference because it’s NOT relevant) • Best High School Cricket Coach of the Year 1975New Delhi, India

21. RULE #4 Avoid Cliches

22. 4 Cliches to avoid

23. 4 Cliches to avoid (1) “I am a team-player”

24. 4 Cliches to avoid (1) “I am a team-player” • Yes, but what kind of team you had been on? • What was your role, position? • And what specific actions you undertook to make sure your team would be successful in whatever it was doing?

25. 4 Cliches to avoid (1) “I am a team-player.” A concrete example: • “As Session Facilitator in critical RFP planning meetings, I made sure that the conversations and decisions were recorded correctly. By distributing such meeting minutes to the whole team promptly, I’ve made sure that every team member was kept abreast of the developments. Sharing such accurate meeting information facilitated a better mode of decision making. During the two years I worked at XYZ company, we won three out of four RFP proposals we submitted to the federal government.”

26. 4 Cliches to avoid (2) “I have a strong work-ethic”

27. 4 Cliches to avoid (2) “I have a strong work-ethic” • What does this mean exactly? • What specific actions you undertook and/or which awards/recognitions you have garnered to back up that claim?

28. 4 Cliches to avoid (2) “I have a strong work-ethic.” A concrete example: • “As the day-shift manager, I opened the store promptly at 7:30 each morning, six days a week. Three times a week, I led my sales team in a meeting that assessed progress vis-à-vis corporate goals. I showed up for an important conference to present a critical product launch only 48 hours after I gave birth to my second daughter. During the six years I worked for XYZ corporation, I took no sick-leave and only 4 hours of personal leave for family emergency.”

29. 4 Cliches to avoid (3) “I am a problem-solver”

30. 4 Cliches to avoid (3) “I am a problem-solver” • Really? Which problems have you solved? • And how significant were the problems and the solutions? • What difference did they make for your company or team?

31. 4 Cliches to avoid (3) “I am a problem-solver.” A concrete example: • “When our printing costs exceeded 47% of our allotted printing budget, I developed a simple plan to change the paper and ink stock, on the one hand, and to re-outline our user manuals to reduce the page count, on the other. Such a simple solution reduced our printing costs by 50% within 9 months.”

32. 4 Cliches to avoid (4) “I am a self-starter and a fast-learner”

33. 4 Cliches to avoid (4) “I am a self-starter and a fast-learner.” What did you exactly do to earn that characterization?

34. 4 Cliches to avoid (4) “I am a self-starter and a fast-learner.” A concrete example: • “When I arrived at XYZ Corporation back in 2010, nobody knew how to get rid of the old servers and install new ones. Since I also did not know much about servers, I gathered a team of retired and current SMEs while enrolling in a night-class on server architecture. Within two weeks I gained enough knowledge to ask my consultants to put together a cost-cutting proposal with three options for a new server system. When I left the company four years later, I was in charge of 36 server locations spread across three continents and 8 countries.”

35. RULE #5 Provide specific numbers and concrete details whenever possible

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