Corporations are there to make money or, in the case of governmental work, provide services. Either way, the only way you can be an integral part in that process is to get the job.

     Example resumes are found at the end of this chapter. We also have provided additional examples, both before and after versions, on our web site. By comparing these you can gain an insight as to what they should look like. They are not copy-protected, so please feel free to select one you like and use the format for your own.

     Regardless of your level (entry to CEO), the same rules apply to anyone. Follow the same rules and you will achieve the same results. We’ve included examples of both levels in the workbook. I use WORD by Microsoft and use their instructions and font styles throughout this document because most people have this program. Many resume writers still like Word Perfect because of the better document control they feel is contained in this program.

Here are a few thoughts on the resumes we write:

Name
At the top and on the left side of the paper is my personal preference. Put your name in bold font and in at least a 14-point type-size.

Address
Under that, in 11-point type size, put your address, phone and email address. If you have one of those obnoxious, “cutesy” email addresses, dump it and get another immediately. There are FREE sites available on the www. Split the address across the page from the phone number so that you take up less space on the page.

Position
In 14-point bold type, put the title of the type of position you are applying for and center it on the page (i.e.: Project Manager, Sales Manager, General Manager, etc.).

Objective
I personally don’t recommend an objective. However, if you feel compelled to put one in your resume, then no more than one to four sentences in length. Preferably one to two lines long. Just remember, even if it is done very well, it makes a neutral contribution. If done wrong, you stand the possibility of eliminating yourself from consideration. Your choice.

Skills Summary
Below the position title, write a three to four (no more) line statement summarizing your skills. See sample resumes.

Key Word
Put in a table. Two or three columns with no more than four rows. Go to your Resume Worksheets and pull out 6-12 key words that do NOT contain the same words used in your skills summary above and insert them into the boxes. If you can’t think of any, use the 4000+ word phrase list.

Educational Achievement
List educational achievements, starting with your highest academic achievement and working backwards. PhD first, MBA second, etc. Each on a separate line. If you are only partially through a Masters Degree, list it.

     Do NOT make it look like you have a degree when you don’t. This will kill you when references and vitals are checked. Don’t list high school if you’ve graduated from college.

Line Formatting: I like a 13-pointt line spacing, with anywhere from a 2-to-9-point space between paragraphs.

Your Title
State your title in the last position you held or in the one you are seeking. I like to put it into bold typeface. Put a 2-6-point space between the line above this section and your title. If you italicize this, please remove the italics for acceptance by scanners used in large corporations and recruiting firms.

Company Name
Put the name of the company in small letters on the first line of the job description.

Title and Years Employed
In CAPITAL LETTERS put your title followed by the years employed there (1986-2000). This is in bold typeface. Remove the bold for the scannable format.

Company Description
Under your title line, put a three to four (no more) line description of the company and include what they make or provide, their size (people or sales or both), and their position in their particular marketplace.

Key Action Verbs, Work Phrases

Exercise 4.2

Action Phrases Exercise

Now list the key points of what you did for that company. Indicate each with an 11 to 12 point bullet. The words and phrases you will use come directly from Exercise 3.5., Resume Worksheets. These will help you form the proper structure and Exercise 4.1 (4000+ words and phrases) will help you if you need alternative words or phrases to avoid repetition!

     For each job you’ve had, begin each statement in the past tense using an action verb (i.e.: implemented, managed, organized, etc). However, if you are still employed, then by all means use the present tense (i.e.: implement, manage, organize, etc.).

Simplicity

Exercise 4.3

Personal Trait Words Exercise

You must keep your resume simple and easy to read. Make sure your job title is easily understandable, don’t use obscure vocabulary and try to pick words that are familiar to a variety of readers. Whenever possible, use bullet points and short phrases that are easily readable and “eye scannable” by any reader.

Overall Form
Use short, action-oriented, high-impact phrases when running out of space on a line. Do not repeat the same action verb. When describing your current position, make sure that you use the current tense and in past positions, the past tense.

Watermarks
You would be amazed at the number of people who don’t check the watermarks on the paper. By placing the paper incorrectly into the printer the document is produced with the watermark upside down. Old fogeys like me look at this and might conclude that you are careless. Why would I want to hire a careless person?

Sending
I would recommend using a 9” x 12” envelope rather than a regular letter envelope. In this way, your resume arrives unfolded, easily scannable and clear. Another small consideration for not being eliminated.

Inaccuracies
Whatever you do, friends, get the spelling right. If you haven’t shown the courtesy and attention to detail sufficiently enough to spell correctly in your resume, you will most likely be eliminated up front!

     These are not the characteristics they have identified when they say they want a problem-solver and good communicator who can get the job done. You may very well be able to get the job done, but at what level of performance and what level of quality? Enough said. Find at least three other people to critique and proof your resume and cover letters before they are sent.

     Don’t use a telephone number that has been disconnected. Don’t use false information or dates in your resume. They can be grounds for termination. They may not terminate you now, but the first storm that comes along, it becomes a convenient excuse to overlook your severance package. They save money and you lose!

     Don’t use acronyms unless your targeted reader is in your field, will completely be comfortable with them and no one else will be seeing the resume who doesn’t understand the terms. Engineers, software and hardware applicants should appropriately put them in a section that is designated as “technical competencies.” Safer this way.

Termination Reasons
Are you kidding? I spoke with an applicant the other day who presented a long diatribe about her termination.

There are many reasons not to tell, but the main one is that you don’t have to. Read the unit on interviewing and learn how to answer this question.

Patents
You might list them at the beginning of the resume or at the end under an accomplishments section. They should be written in such a way as to stand out, but not dominate, the section into which they are placed.

Other Points to Consider
Be concise. Use no more than two or three lines for each point. One is best; two is OK; three if necessary; and four if you absolutely must. You’d better have moved Mount Everest if you use four. Try to use no more than eight items per job. If you have more, great, but some of them can be combined to make the items shorter on the page.

     I like to put numbers first in the sentence wherever possible. However, using numbers first in every sentence is boring and looks contrived. Mix it up.

     People read numbers first. A number will cause the resume reader to stop and think. This is what you want to achieve. You want them to stop and consider why it is they should hire you! How much, how many, by what degree, how much ahead of schedule, etc., is what is needed here. Remember, the reader is giving you less than 20 seconds in the first visual resume scan.

If you don’t have something to catch their eye, you’re dead in the water.

     In your Resume Worksheets forms, you used action phrases describing how you handled certain tasks. Review these and see if there are any you can use in developing the sentences used in your resume.

     NEVER repeat one! There are enough for you to choose from without doing this. Any good college writing instructor will tell you never repeat a word in the same paragraph unless it is impossible not to do so. I’m telling you never to repeat one, period!

     Moreover, don’t repeat one in the entire document, unless there is no alternative. The reader wants to view as many facets of your work initiative as possible.

     The more you repeat, the fewer facets you present. If you appear the same as the 50-1000+ other applicants, why should they hire you? If you want to see more phrases and ideas, go to the public library and see if they use a software program called “Job Scribe.” This program contains over 3,000 job descriptions and surely you can find matching phrases in these that parallel your job or at least portions of it.

     My colleague, Wendy Enelow, a nationally recognized expert on resume writing, has a number of books available and I urge you to review these and purchase one that fits your needs. You may feel free to contact Wendy anytime at wendyenelow@cminstitute.com.

     You may also go to public agencies, recruiters and as many other sources as possible to secure job descriptions. All is fair in the job-securing war, so use every source available to you. Remember the number two rule from Fred’s Rules: Good Enough, Never Is!

References
Do not put the phrase, “excellent references available upon request,” at the bottom of the resume. It goes without saying that you will list good references anyway.

However, you must prepare your list. No less than 3, no more than 5. No personal, only business-related. See my interview in Chapter 6.

Technical Training
At the end of the resume, list specific technical training. This is not to be confused with education, so don’t mix the two. List any computer languages, courses, programs, or seminars in which you have received licenses, accreditation or been credentialed.

     Finally, if you have room, you may list other internships, volunteer activities, and organizations to which you belong or in which you participate. Other awards are shown here as well.

ASCII-TEXT Resumes
You must have an ASCII-text version of your resume in your arsenal. The purpose of a text resume is to submit it to a reader or enter it into a database for scanning and sort purposes, nothing more. What is a plain text or ASCII resume? See the example at the end of this chapter. Plain text or ASCII is a very simple form of text that almost all computers can read and understand. ASCII is not limited to platform - that is, both PCs and Macs can read ASCII or plain text. A plain-text resume contains no italics, underlining, bold, hollow bullets or any type of formatting. Choose plain text or ASCII when…

• You email a resume to an employer.
• You post on online employment sites and databases.
• You send a resume to a corporate Web site.
• A contact asks you to email a resume.
• A job advertisement lists an email address.

     It is easily copied by a recruiter or company into their databases. Scanners cannot recognize bold, italics, and the other “look nice” forms of Microsoft Word, so the text version is required.

     Here are the basics of developing an ASCII text resume:

• After you have created your resume in Word, save it using the dropdown at the bottom of the “save as” screen “Save as Type.”
  Drop down to “Text” and assign the file a name, NAME RESUME-TEXT (or whatever file name you choose) and then close the file.
• Pull up the file you just saved and you should see that it is in text format and all your beautiful WORD work is destroyed.
• Set the right-hand margins at no more than 68 characters wide.
• Make a hard return when reaching 68 characters.
• In place of Word bullets, use an asterisk (*) or the equals (=) sign.
• Watch your spacing between paragraphs.
• Don’t use ALL CAPS at any time.
• Save the file as Word-TEXT.
• Now, you have a document you can copy onto your email response along with your cover letter specific to that position.

     The recruiter or company will find it so much easier to lift the text into their programs for scanning. Always attach your pretty word version to the email. Tell them in your email that you have attached a Word version (6 or 7.0 whatever version you have) and that if they can’t open it, please email you and let you know immediately.

     You may want to attach a Word version of both the resume and cover letter, but remember, the reader may have a different set-up from you and things might be missed in the translation.

     Most word processing software programs allow you to easily convert your formatted resume to an ASCII or plain-text resume. If you want to make sure that everything in your ASCII resume looks good and has the correct spacing, etc., just paste it into an email and send it to yourself.

     Sign up, fill in the data and post your resume. Follow the directions and paste your resume into the database. You can quickly see what you need to correct.

Scannable Resumes
A scannable resume is a paper resume that employers can scan electronically into a computer database. Scannable resumes are basic, simple resumes without any special formatting.

     A good scannable resume should not contain boldface, underlining, hollow bullets, Italics, fancy fonts or tabbed columns.

     Use black text printed by a laser printer on plain white paper. Use 12-point type.

     Be sure to leave white space around paragraphs and a minimum of ½ inch of white space on the top, bottom and each side. Be sure to use page numbers.

     Lastly, folding your resume before you submit it can also cause scanning problems. So, it is best to snail mail your unstapled resume in a flat envelope.

     A formatted resume, as you may have come to realize, is a resume with all the pretty stuff in it. Formatting gives personality to your resume. Along with your plain-text resume, plan on mailing a formatted resume to the prospective employer along with a short cover letter.

     The key words are really important when your resume is scanned. Many employers are putting scanned resumes into their databases and these are sorted by key words and then associated with your name. When a manager gives a job description to HR at the company, the first thing they do is access their computers and enter in the key words for that job. Bingo, your name is associated with those and that is why you should always incorporate key words into your resume. Key Words examples: C++, sales, finance and a thousand others. The point here is that your key words should try to be specific to your industry.