So you need to write a resume, eh? Resume writing tools to get you started.

You’re writing your resume.  That blank paper is staring you in the face, and let’s face it, that blank page is intimidating.  Where do you even start?  If there were only a resume writing tool to assist.  A Ronco “Popiel Pocket Resume Writing Tool” to whip out and make this mess into a real, working resume.  Whether it’s just been a while since you updated your resume or you’re facing the daunting task of writing that first resume, the basics are the same.  As with any project, chip away at it.  Cut that bad boy up into pieces and it’s not so bad.  Just like moving a mountain, start one stone at a time.  This article will focus  on the steps to drafting your first resume, your rough draft, your starting  point.  You won’t have a finished product, that polished show piece, that pearl, but you will have a diamond in the rough.  While you go through this process remember that a resume is an advertisement for an interview.  Your task is to show them why you deserve their consideration, what you bring to the party. Why should you be “that guy”, why not the “other guy”?  Let’s get started.

resume writing tools to help you get started...a free download

Step 1: Gather and organize your information, i.e. search and seizure. (And a handy pdf to assist.)

You might be tempted to plunge past this step, but DON’T DO IT!!!  Spend a little time here and the rest will be much, much easier.  The task here is to look up information you’re missing, gather your facts, get your ducks in a row.  The obvious items are the names and addresses of the schools that you attended.  Did you get a degree or diploma?  What program?  What were the core program courses?  Which electives did you take?  Did you have any outstanding accomplishments, anything that would set you apart from all other graduates (such as Who’s Who Among American High School Students, Deans List, Student Ambassador, honor roll or any other outstanding achievements)?  You’ll need graduation dates or dates of attendance.  While you’re at it, get yourself a copy of your transcripts (even unofficial will do) and it might not be a bad idea to make a note of contact info for how to get your official transcripts.  Another obvious category to gather for is your work experience.  Name of the company, address, work title, supervisors and again with the outstanding achievements.  Did you serve in the military?  If so thank you.  You’ll need branch of service, rank at time of discharge, your DD-214 (discharge papers), document any of the nifty uber expensive equipment you worked on, responsibilities or leadership positions you held during your time in the service.  Maybe not so obvious are the names of any civic or charitable organizations you donate time to or serve on.  Again, name of the organization, position, outstanding achievements, address, supervisors, leadership positions and the like.  Put all this information in a file where it will be safe and accessible.

Next step in this information gathering binge, while you’re gathering, is to round up your references.  Ask these people if they will reference for you.  If they say yes, ask them what they are likely to volunteer about you.  You want  only sterling reports here.  These people will offer your potential employer  insight into why they should hire you and not the other guy.  You’ll want at  least 6 people ready for references.  Group them as professional, educational and personal.  You don’t want to hand over a simple list of your buddies.  If you’re on good terms with your pastor and they are well aquainted with you that would be an outstanding character reference.  The foreman or supervisor from your last place of work who absolutely hated to down size you.  The next door neighbor who knows you’re a good go to person in a pinch.  Your budy at work who understands that you really do give 100% and 8 for 8.  These are the types of people you want to ask.  Get their contact  information, the best means to contact them, not an e-mail address that they never check, not the home phone number if they are never there.  This doesn’t go on the resume, but you want this ready to go for that job interview.  2 pages with 3 each to slide accross the desk to that guy you so desparately want that job from, johnny on the spot.  Also, just prior to that interview you’ll want to touch base with your references and alert them that someone from such and such a company may be calling them to reference for you pertaining to  position x, y or z.  I know it sounds silly, but put some thought into what your contact information will be.  What is the best way to contact you? Again, don’t list your home phone if the best way to contact you is by cell phone.  Put this info in that golden file, too.

This is a challenging process.  It’s not often in our society that we’re encouraged to pump ourselves up.  This is not the time to be modest.  However, neither is this the time to pad your strengths.  If you say you’re good at managing people and you get hired under that assumption and you are truely not a people person, you’re employer will find that out fast.  If you say you have excellent verbal communication skills and can barely talk your way through the interview, it will call into question the truthfulness of everything else on your application or resume.  Then just guess how likely you are to get called for a second interview.

Soft skills: It’s pretty easy to come up with our physical

accomplishments, like how good you are with a spreadsheet or a wrench, but how about your soft skills?  Are you good at organizing?  As in, is your desk at home neat as a pin with all your bills filed?  Are your charasmatic?  Able to get strangers to open up to you in casual conversation?  Are you comfortable in leadership roles?  Are you an outstanding troubleshooter?  Do you have excellent written communication skills?  Are you a calming influence?  Do you work well under pressure?  All these are soft skills that your potential employer needs to know you possess.  Make yourself a list of all these soft skills.

Accomplishments/Achievements: Make yourself a list of all the times you went above and beyond at work.  Times when you worked above your pay grade and excelled.  Did you catch a mistake that saved your old employer $1,000.00?  Did you develope a spreadsheet that made order fulfillment quicker?  Did you develope a filing system that streamlined the office?  Did you get asked to chair a committee or become a lead worker?  Document these types of things.  Do you carry any certifications?  How about professional affiliations?  Do you posess a special skill, such as you know Peachtree accounting software backwards?  Or, maybe you know how to run an orbital welding machine.  Maybe your lathe work is second to none.  Write it down.

Now you have this file absolutely burgeoning with information about yourself, information that sets you apart from that other guy.   Here’s a kernel of knowledge for you when drafting a resume:  ”The most important information relates to your future performance which is normally determined by assessing your past patterns of performance.”  Or, highlight the information in your past that tells your prospective employer how you plan to perform in the future.

This is where you sequence the categories according to the principle of what’s most important to both you and your potential employer.  You want to hit them with your most important information and your strongest qualifications first.  If you only recently graduated and have little or no relevant work experience, put your education first.  At this stage in your life, this is your most relevant qualification.  Your educational experience tells your potential employer what you have learned, and thus, what knowledge you are bringing to them.  It tells them of your motivation and that you have the capacity to learn and grow, such as in their organization.  If your education is an important qualifying criteria then your sequencing will be : contact information, education, experience, and finally your work history.  If you lack work history, you can convert this category to “areas of effectiveness” or “capabilities”.  However, if you do have several years of work experience that directly supports the objective of this resume, and your education is not an important qualifying criteria, then your sequencing will be: contact information, experience, work history, education.

Make a first, rough draft of your resume by grouping your information into these categories in the sequence that best suits your situation.  Get it down on paper.  This is your start, now you’ll see the benefit of having all that information gathered into one file.   When ordering your work experience and/or education, always go from the most recent first, ending with the job/schooling that was longest ago.

Now is the time to be goal and audience sensitive.  Yes, each position you apply for will require a separate resume.  Keep in mind that you are writing to a potential employer who by definition is a critical stranger with very specific needs.  You are not writing to your mother or your BFF.  Avoid the abreviations you’d use texting, these make you look ignorant.  You are going to play with grown ups now.  This potential employer is not a former teacher that knows you behave poorly because your brilliance allows you to sail through your class work leaving you bored with a need to entertain yourself.  This statement will tell them in a sentence or two whether they should even bother to glance at the rest of your resume.  You have all of 30 seconds, if you are lucky, to get into the stack of resumes that will even be looked at or will you join the pile ready for the shredder?

List time again.  What position are you applying for?  What types of skills do you possess that they need you to have to fulfill this position?  What skills are you bringing with you?  What makes you the best candidate to fill this position above and beyond all the others applying.  In a word, why should they hire you and not the other guy?  This is where those soft skills will work for you.  Your objective is employer-centered.  Not self-centered.  This is not what you want, this is why they want you.  Don’t get oportunistic or delve into wishful thinking.  Discard the objectives that start with wishful thinking such as “A research position with opportunity for career advancement”.  Focus rather on what strenghts you have in relation to an employers needs.  Your format should be “a position/job where I will use my skills/abilities which you posess that will result in these outcomes and benefits.”  Filled out with your fluff this objective might look like this: “A position in data analysis where I can contribute my strength in mathematics, computer programming and deductive reasoning skills which will result in new systems development.”  Or possibly this: “Position as a shift welder foreman where I can contribute my experience in handling personnel, teamwork, communication and the technical aspects of the welding trade to achieve better productivity with attention to weld quality.”  You are emphasizing a specific position in relation to your strongest skills or abilities in relation to the skills that this employer needs or expects from you.  To put it short and sweet, how will hiring you benefit them.  This isn’t about what you want, obviously you want the job.  Keep your focus on them.  Be neither too general nor too specific, it’s a balancing act. All other elements in your resume should provide support for your objective.  Formulated in this manner, your objective becomes the most important element of your resume.  It  gives direction for what should be included or excluded from each section of your resume.  It gives your job search direction and focus.  It also focuses your efforts toward a particular employer and will help you formulate well focused answers to interview questions.  This step is time consuming.  It may take you a few days to come up with a well focused, refined statement.  However, the end result is a resume that will communicate your value and benefit to that potential employer.

We’ve talked about what types of information to gather for including in your resume.  We’ve even delved into the exhaustive and critical element of the Objective, but what should you avoid at all costs?  What mistakes make you look like an amature?   What errors will assist in making your resume the first into the recycle bin rather than the pile of the applicants who deserve a closer look?

• Resume. You might think that’s a reasonable header for this grandious work of art.  Not.  Of coarse it’s a resume.  They should be able to tell that by looking at it.  Delete this line and use the space for something more important, like Your Name in nice bold letters.
• A pic.  Unless the position asks for it, such as an acting or modeling  job, don’t attach a photo.   Don’t volunteer information during the job application process, just answer the questions.  Some of that irrelevant information is actually illegal for a potential employer to elicit from candidates in a job search.
• The present date. Don’t date your resume.  This goes on your cover letter, not your resume.
• Race, religion, sex, political affiliation. Unless some of this information is bona fide occupational qualifications, leave it off the resume, it contradicts anti-discrimination and Equal Employment Opportunity laws.
• Salary, either your history or requirements. Never include salary expectations on a resume.  If  forced to submit this information in an initial screening stage, do so in your cover letter.  Salary is usually negotiable and the question usually arrises at the end of the interview, not as an opener.  They need the chance to assess you and you want the chance to demonstrate your skills.
• References. You might think putting “available upon request” is common place or that by volunteering them you are being helpful.  However, it is assumed by the employer that if they ask for references, that you will supply them.  You don’t need to say so, use this space for something much more worth while.  It is a great idea to take them with you, even if you are just dropping off a resume and do not expect to interview.  Some times a candidate gets lucky and can land an interview on the spot.  Be ready.  Dress to impress.  It is acceptable to offer your interviewer a copy of your resume and to ask if they would like to see your references.  The same goes for offering your transcripts if applicable.  It shows you are prepared and organized.
• Negative information.  Just so you can never say you were never told.  Employment gaps, medical or mental problems, criminal records, divorces, termination, conflicting interests…there is absolutely no reason for you to volunteer this information on your resume.  If you insist on sticking “please don’t hire me” on your resume, this is about as plain english as it gets.  Save the tree, save the paper, save the ink and save the planet…most importantly, save your prospective employer their time.  There is no quicker way to get eliminated from consideration than to include negative information.  Remember that your resume is putting your best foot forward, representing the very best self you have.  If the human resources people are interested in learning about your negatives, they’ll ask in an interview.  This being said, always be ready with a prepared response in a positive manner.  An adept interviewer will be able to answer these negative searching questions with a positive anecdote.  (Another killer is “tell me about a time that you failed.”  Be prepared for these.)
• Responsible for…Save yourself the grief and omit this as a phrase on your resume.  Rather brainstorm action words and discriptive, powerful words that convey your strengths and achievements.  Droning on line after line “responsible for this.  Responsible for that.” will loose their interest quickly.  Remember, descriptive action words, people.

Remember, they can’t offer you the job if they can’t get in touch with you.    Avoid going too formal such as John David Doe and avoid nick names.  If you prefer to go by your middle name, then indicate that: J. David Doe, or just David Doe.  Using your middle initial is ok too: John D. Doe.  If you have a title, put that directly after your last name: J. David Doe, J.D. or John D. Doe Ph.D., but never use Mr. or Mrs. or Ms.  Follow your name with your full address (state abreviation is ok) and the telephone you can be reached at reliably.  Don’t clutter this important contact information section with information such as age, marital status, sex, etc.  It’s irrelevant and could be a negative on your resume, that whole E.E.O.C. and anti-discrimination thing again.   An email address is a good addition.  Make it something professional, like your name: jddoe@emailnet.net  rather than Jagermeister25@emailnet.net.

These steps should get you through the preparation process and through your rough draft.  Rough draft in hand you are ready to start refining and polishing.  You’re not there yet, but you are well on your way to that polished resume that shouts with authority “hire me, this is why I’m so much better than the other guy.”  Remember, don’t be “that guy”, be the polished, professional job applicant that brings a whole bag of skills to the employer.  Here’s a nice little resume writing tool from the “Found: more useful resume writing tools“ post.  This is a nice little resume worksheet that puts into a pdf form a worksheet for helping you gather this information into one place.  A great little resume writing tool, and as a bonus it even has a page listing those action words I talked about.  It’s not Ronco, but it is a great resume writing tool, and if you wanted to fold it, it would fit into your pocket.  So, there you go.

Happy search, siezure and drafting!

Material drawn from Dynamite Resumes: 101 Great Examples & Tips for Success!

Ronald L. Krannich & Caryl Rae Krannich, Ph.Ds.