Newsgroups: misc.jobs.misc,ba.jobs.misc,nyc.jobs.misc,sci.research.careers Subject: DRAFT misc.jobs.misc Conventional Wisdom FAQ (1/5 - Resumes) From: dlv@bwalk.dm.com (Dr. Dimitri Vulis) Organization: Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y. Q-1.1 What is the purpose of a resume? A resume is an advertisement that you hope will convince the persons reading it when you are not present to invite you for an interview. A good resume focuses the reader's attention on those aspects of your background which are most relevant to your current career goals; and distinguishes you from hundreds of other candidates, so you are invited for an interview and they are not. A resume does not get you a job, only a chance to come to the interview. If you screw up the interview, the resume won't help. If you don't describe your qualifications on the resume, hoping to tell about them during the interview, you probably won't get an interview. Q-1.2 What is a 'req' and how is it advertised? For someone to be hired, a hiring manager somewhere first has to decide that a position is open and that someone has to be hired. This happens because someone has left (resigned, was fired, promoted, transferred, passed away) or because increased workload necessitates increasing the head count. In most fields, it's extremely unlikely that a manager would first come across an impressive resume and then consider creating a new slot or replacing one of the existing employees. The "hidden" job market (reqs that aren't formally open until the right candidate comes along) is a myth. Once the decision to hire someone is made, the employer writes a "requirement", or "req" for short, which lists the qualifications (skills, education, personal traits) required of and desired in a candidate. A decision is usually made at this time about the pay range. Studies show that many (perhaps most) open reqs are filled through informal networking. Employers ask their friends, who ask their friends, and eventually suitable candidates are found. See Q-4.7 for some hints on how to network. An attempt is made to promote or transfer one of the current employee to fill the new req. Some employers advertise their reqs by placing them in newspapers, on Usenet, etc. Most give their names in the ads. Some place anonymous ads with a P.O.Box number for responses (so-called "blind ads"), to avoid unwanted phone calls and even personal visits from job seekers. A disadvantage of advertising a req is that in addition to qualified candidates, they will be inundated with resumes from unqualified candidates (typically, recent college graduates). Some people "carpet-mail" their resumes in response to every ad, figuring that even though they clearly don't match this req, the advertiser may have other open reqs. On the Internet, indiscriminate e-mailing of resumes wastes everyone's time and borders net-abuse. Job ads also allow competitors to know vacancy information, turn-over rate, position's salary and other information the company may not want revealed. It's estimated that only 10-20% of reqs are advertised directly. Employers interested in hiring entry-level candidates typically send their reqs to the placement offices of reputable colleges, who make them available to their students and alumni. Hundreds of colleges participate in JobTrak, which posts such reqs on WWW (http://www.jobtrak.com, password required). If a college doesn't participate in JobTrak, its placement office probably has plenty of entry-level reqs sent to it anyway. Employers interested in more advanced candidates sometimes send their reqs to selected third party recruiters (see Q-3.3), who in turn advertise in newspapers, on Usenet, etc, and match the reqs with their internal databases of resumes. It's not unusual for several recruiters simultaneously to advertise for the same req. Most blind ads are placed by recruiters. Recruiters who receive the reqs also use networking to find candidates. Some promise a portion of their fee ("finder's fee") for pointing them to the right candidate. Many are willing to co-operate with other recruiters and split their fees. Given a choice between a suitable candidate found through networking and a comparable candidate submitted by a contingency recruiter, most employers would prefer to hire the former to avoid paying a substantial fee (Q-3.5). It's estimated that only 5-10% of jobs are filled through recruiters. Out of a pile of resumes, the employers identify a few candidates to bring in for an interview. After one or more rounds of interviews, a job offer is made to the best candidate. If she declines, the offer is made to the second best candidate. If she also declines, the employer may choose to sweeten the offer to the first candidate, make an offer to the third best candidate, invite more people for interviews, or solicit more resumes. Q-1.3 How do I come up with things to put on my resume? (What's a personal inventory?) There is no single right answer to this question, but some entry-level candidates find it helpful to take an inventory of things that make them proud, and also make them good job candidates. The purpose of this is to make you feel good about yourself as well as help you write a resume. Open a file in your favorite word processor and create these sections: Under "Education", list colleges and graduate schools, exchange programs, off-campus study, etc. List the coursework that distinguishes you from other candidates and is relevant to the work you seek. Recent graduates can also list their school projects here, in lieu of experience. (Indicate the complexity of the projects, such as the number of pages or lines of course code.) Most college graduates don't mention their high school here, except to list singular achievements or achievements that show a pattern. Activities such as raising money for a charitable cause may bring skills to an employer's attention which are not prominently displayed elsewhere on your resume. Also, there is some advantage to indicating a longstanding commitment to an interest, such as journalism, by tracing that interest back to high school. However these belong under "Activities", not "Education". Under "Experience", list all jobs held-full or part time, paid or unpaid. (Presumably, not much, or else you wouldn't be doing this.) Note your responsibilities (such as "purchasing authority") and accomplishments (such as "cut costs"). For supervisory experience, note the number of people you supervised. Under "Activities", list your participation in organized groups, teams, clubs, community involvements, etc. Under "Honors and awards", list scholarships, class standing, special recognition and academic achievements. Explain the meanings of more obscure honors that may not be known to most people. E.g., "Received the Random Q. Hacker Award, granted to only one undergraduate in ten years." If you only have a few academic honors, group them with "Education". Under "Interests", list hobbies, travel experiences, special talents. Under "Other" list everything you left out thus far that you're proud of, such as the knowledge of foreign languages. Some recent college graduates mention the percentage of college cost financed through employment. Now identify the information that may relate to a possible job or show different positive aspects of your personality or strength. These are the items you want to include on your resume. Q-1.4 What are the common formats for resumes? Since you're reading a Usenet FAQ, you'll probably be e-mailing your resume in electronic form. However it's important to have a paper version as well. Many good (and bad) examples of resumes may be found in misc.jobs.resumes. The most common resume format is the U.S. is the reverse chronological one, discussed in Q-1.5. A curriculum vitae is a long version of a chronological resume and is discussion in Q-1.6. Occasionally you will see examples of functional resumes or problem-activity-solution on misc.jobs.resumes. Q-1.5 What is the format of a chronological resume? In the U.S., the recipients of resumes expect to see a tabulation of your education credentials and a record of your job history, the latter in reverse chronological order. Resumes listing accomplishments without dates are likely to get tossed. One disadvantage of this format is that significant experiences in your background will not be highlighted unless they are recent. If only some of your experience is relevant you can divide it into blocks: "Related Experience" and "Additional Experience," or "Industrial Experience" and "Academic Experience". In all formats, put your name, postal address, phone number, and e-mail address on top, center. On a multi-page paper resume, put your name and page number on each subsequent page, in case they get separated. Next, put a brief summary of your qualifications, areas of expertise, strengths, talents, and skills applicable to the kind of work you're seeking. The summary section can be customized for a specific employer. Don't use buzzwords like "self-motivated, goal-oriented, hands-on professional" -- anyone can characterize himself/herself this way. Next, put a section called "Experience" or "Work experience". In this format, positions are listed in reverse chronological order. Experience: Dates Company Title Description of what your duties and accomplishments. Put the (total) dates of service in left hand margin for each company you have worked for. When you have held several jobs at one company, put a parenthesis after each position. Stress your transferable skills and accomplishments over duties and responsibilities. (However, successful performance of duties is in itself an accomplishment.) Relate how your actions saved or made money, saved time, improved production or whatever value it had to the organization. If you had significant contributions or accomplishments, highlight them with bullets. If you've had a lot of short-term positions, list only those in the last 10--15 years that are relevant to the work you seek. If, 20 years before, you were in a totally different industry, summarize. Then list your college and post-graduate education: Education: Dates School Degree, Major Description of classes and skills learned. Titles of master's thesis and doctoral dissertation. List any recent coursework related to the position for which you're applying. Under some circumstances (particularly, a resume for an internship) it's appropriate to give more information about your coursework that may be important to the employer or show a special academic focus that is not obvious from your major. If you've won any academic honors (scholarships, Dean's List, election to honor societies, class standing etc.), list them as well. See Q-1.12 for the discussion of the grade point average. Placing the education before the work experience tells the reader that you consider your education to be more impressive than your work experience (which may be appropriate for a recent graduate). Placing the education after the work experience will force the reader to look at your work experience before deciding to disqualify you because of the education. Personal: Anything you have done on your own that you feel is a transferable skill -- HTML programming, e-mail usage, Perl programming, etc. If applicable, list your professional affiliations, languages proficiencies (foreign or computer), publications, etc in separate sections. Try to customize the resume and the cover letter for each company you're applying to. Emphasize products or customers or procedures that the target company is involved with. One way to do this is to first write a longer, all-inclusive resume, then, when you apply, cut on the details of no interest to this particular company. In other countries, resumes sometimes include photographs, date of birth, height, weight, ethnicity, marital status, religion, and handwriting samples; names, ages, and occupations of family members; etc. All this should be left off the resume in the U.S. Q-1.6 What is a curriculum vitae? A curriculum vitae (a.k.a. vita) is a comprehensive biographical statement emphasizing professional qualifications and activities. C.v.'s tend to be low on "hype" and consist mostly of lists: publications, research, grants, honors, awards, presentations, fellowships, consultations, workshops, etc. It is typically much longer than a business resume, and is used primarily by job applicants in fields like academics and consulting; as a supporting document with a grant or contract funding proposal; as part of a periodic review by an employer; as part of application for membership in a professional society or organization; as part of an application to a graduate school; or as a background statement for an introduction at an important convention presentation. Other than publication titles, a c.v. may not give a strong indication of the candidate's expertise. A typical c.v. consists of the following sections: Personal Data Your name, phone number, e-mail address, etc, like on a resume. It's also common to include the month the c.v. was last updated on the first page. Educational Background Employment Experience These two sections follow the format of the reverse chronological resume. Use action verbs and little punctuation. Professional Affiliations and Honors Names of local, state, regional and national professional associations in which you have current membership (in alphabetical order). Length of affiliation is seldom of interest (e.g., "member of X since 1913") Professional Service: Leadership positions you've held in associations at any level: memberships on major committees, task forces, boards; elected offices you've held, etc. Give dates. Membership in professional honorary societies; receipt of competitive assistantships, scholarships, fellowships, etc.; teaching or research awards. Give dates. Publications/Creative Works This section contains: Bibliographic citations of articles, pamphlets, monographs, chapters in books, research reports, etc, that have been published or accepted for publication. Listing works that have only been submitted for publication or are in progress is considered tacky. Keep joint authorship straight. Description of papers presented at conferences: title, name of conference, dates and location. Sometimes this is split into presentation by competition, and presentation by invitation and consulting. Also list workshops and seminars conducted in this category. These may be listed in reverse chronological order to be consistent with the education and experience sections and because your most recent publications are probably more relevant. Recent and Current Research (if applicable): Description of research projects recently conducted or in progress: type of research, purpose, etc. Civic, religious, and service activities Other important items Never ever list essentially the same activity twice in different sections. In contrast, resumes are sales tools. The well written resume is designed to make it abundantly clear what you have a accomplished, and what you can do for a potential employer. When an employer reads a resume, you want to make sure it is written so that they feel a compelling need to call you and find out about your interest in their position. In the business world, people don't have the time to spend trying to figure out what you can do from your multi-page lists of accomplishments. You have to tell them that in a brief resume. Never submit a c.v. instead of a resume, unless specifically asked for one. Once you've interested them enough with your resume, they will probably ask you to fill an "employment application" form that will list all of your past jobs, just like a c.v. Q-1.7 What is a functional resume/combination resume? Unlike the chronological resume, the functional resume ignores historical sequence and stresses skills and abilities regardless of where they were developed and demonstrated. This approach offers you a way to group/cluster your education, experience and activities into significant ability categories that support your job objectives. The functional format may be most useful to career changers and those with many diverse experiences. A drawback is that many employers are suspicious of or confused by this format. The reader of a functional resume is likely to assume that the candidate hasn't has recent work experience or has something to hide. A combination chronological/functional resume blends the directness of a chronological format with the highlighting of skills found in the functional format. The combination resume is helpful in communicating skills for individuals whose experiences are limited, widely varied, or not clearly related to their job objective. Q-1.8 What is a problem-action-solution resume? TK Q-1.9 What about resumes that can be e-mailed? It's best to e-mail straight ASCII resumes. Lines should not exceed 80 characters. Sections should be separated by blank lines. Even if a recipient has the facilities to print out Postscript or (La)TeX resumes, resumes in these formats cannot be easily put into a text database for a subsequent keyword search. Q-1.10 What about paper resumes and optical character readers? Whenever you submit a resume by fax or paper mail, you can be certain that someone will scan your c.v. into a database and later do a keyword search. The optical character recognition (OCR) technology is ubiquitous. To skip scanning, many prefer to receive resumes by e-mail. Some hints for paper resumes: Avoid unusually colored or odd-sized paper. Use white non-textured paper only. Off-white or beige paper increases the number of OCR errors; other colors or textures may interfere even with photocopying, when your potential employer makes copies to pass around to others in the hiring process. Be careful of your copy quality. Let your resume stand out in other ways. Use 8.5"x11" paper (US; A4 in Europe). To a human being anything looks better on bond paper. Don't staple multi-page resumes, or staple anything (business cards) to resumes. If you want to avoid folding the resume, mail it in an 8 1/2" x 11" envelope. Creases may interfere with scanning, but this is much less of a problem than, say, small fonts. Unusual fonts, underlining, italics, script, and graphics (clip art, shaded backgrounds, leader dots, black rules/bars, boxes) don't scan well. Stick to Courier or Times Roman. Emphasize headers sparingly using a boldface font. Leave wide margins and a lot of white space. Two-sided (duplex) resumes are inconvenient. Don't highlight items with color markers. Small fonts don't scan or fax well. Use 12pt or larger. Sans-serif fonts (such as Helvetica) give fewer errors than serif fonts (like Times Roman). Do not use a dot-matrix printer (doesn't scan or fax well). If the resume is produced by a laser printer or a xerocopier, be very wary of stray toner marks that look sloppy to humans and confuse scanners. Load fresh toner/drum if you must. Q-1.11 Do I mention a "career objective" on my resume? Some resume screeners like resumes with targeted job objectives because they make it easier to toss the resume if if no req matches the narrow objective. There may be opportunities which you qualify for and would be interested in, but which you reject by putting a narrowly focused objective on the resume. For example, a programmer who states that her objective is to write programs under Unix may not be considered for a development position under WNT, even though she may be qualified and interested. A broader objective, such as "A position to make use of my people skills or training in data processing", tells almost nothing, but may exclude you from consideration for a very interesting opportunity that doesn't require "people skills". Most job seekers are better off without a "career objective" on a resume. Unless you have a very clear idea of what you are seeking from a particular employer (which might be a case if you are responding to a very specific advertisement), it's better to explain your interests in a cover letter or during the interview -- after the employers express their interest in you. Some posters feel that stating a career objective conveys a sense of direction on your part. Such a statement does not have to be limiting if it is worded in an open-ended, but not vague, fashion. In this case, the objective briefly describes your primary functional goal (type of work desired), your primary organizational goal (type of place where you want to work), and may contain a phrase about a particular interest area or short or long term professional goals. Try to answer the question: "What would you like to be doing in the next few years?" Never mention a specific job title. Q-1.12 Do I mention a grade point average on my resume? Most recent graduates with impressive grade point averages (GPA) mention this fact on their resumes. Thus, omitting the GPA suggests that it may be low. Some employers are very interested in your grades, and will ask, while others are not interested. If your overall GPA is really unimpressive, you may prefer to mention a subset of it on your resume, such as the GPA in the major, or the GPA during the senior year, or the GPA over the last four semester, if one of these figures was higher than your overall GPA (mention how you arrived at the figure). Likewise, if your recent SAT, GRE, etc scores were unusually high, mention this fact on your resume. Generally, the SAT, GRE, GPA, and other numbers are of little interest after about 5 years. Q-1.13 How long should a resume be? Note: for a resume is distributed in electronic form, a 'page' is roughly 60 lines of text. Unless you're a recent graduate, it's probably impossible to adequately describe your capabilities in one page, but even one page may be enough to grab the reader's attention. Do not sacrifice margins and white space to keep your resume to one page, when two pages may be more readable. Two or three pages is probably the most common if any elaboration of experience or accomplishments is to be done. It's better to have two to four pages, than to omit important information about yourself because it didn't fit. If your resume doesn't fit on three or four pages, create a separate long version that you can provide after you've captured their interest with a shorter version. Q-1.14 What are some common resume tips? A resume should be visually attractive and easy to read, whether it's presented on paper or on a computer screen. Use even and wide margins, spacing between major headings, and clearly identifiable sections. Avoid large blocks of text (i.e., paragraphs over 6 or 7 lines). Use bullets to break them up into logical sub-blocks. Be brief. Leave out data not relevant to your obtaining an interview. Remember that the screeners have many resumes and applications to look through. A needlessly wordy resume will waste their time and may make them stop reading before they find the juicy parts. Use the minimum number of words necessary to convey your meaning (except when adding possible search keywords). Avoid unnecessary phrases, such as "Duties included ...". Start each description with action words (see Q-1.15 for suggestions). Omit personal pronouns. Use parallel grammatical structures and consistent verb tenses. Use past tense (never imperative) to describe a completed job and a present tense to describe continuing work. E.g., "Wrote documentation" (but not any more) and "Writing documentation" (still) are better than either "I wrote documentation" or "Write documentation". Be honest. There is a difference between making the most of your experience and exaggerating or falsifying it. A falsified resume can be easily spotted by an employer and if it doesn't prevent you from getting the job, it can cost you the job later on. Spelling and grammar must be perfect. Avoid using words repeatedly. Proofread the resume and have another literate person proofread it. Skip titles like "resume" or "curriculum vitae". Most employers know what resumes look like. The only exception is the header "CONFIDENTIAL RESUME" which should be placed on every page if your job search is confidential. Don't put detailed career objectives, salary expectations, or reasons for leaving jobs on the resumes. You can explain these in interviews, if you get them. Omit personal data, such as marital status. You never know what prejudices people have. (But see Q-1.16) Omit hobbies and outside interests (except competitive sports). Q-1.15 What are some helpful "action words"? accelerated accomplished achieved acquired acted adapted administered advertised advised advocated aided analyzed anticipated appointed appraised arbitrated arranged assembled assessed assisted attained audited authorized bolstered briefed budgeted built calculated caused chaired chose circulated classified coached collected communicated compensated compiled completed conceived conducted confronted constructed consulted contracted controlled coordinated corrected corresponded counseled created critiqued defined delegated demonstrated designed determined developed devised directed dispensed displayed distributed drafted edited educated elected eliminated enlisted entertained established estimated evaluated examined executed exhibited expanded expedited explained familiarized financed fostered found generated guided handled helped hired identified implemented improved included incorporated increased influenced informed initiated inspected installed instructed integrated interpreted interviewed invented investigated kept launched led lectured listened located maintained managed marketed measured mediated monitored motivated negotiated observed operated organized originated participated performed persuaded pinpointed placed planned predicted prepared prevailed printed processed produced programmed projected promoted proposed protected proved provided publicized published purchased qualified raised recommended reconciled recorded recruited rectified reduced re-evaluated referred rehabilitated reinforced reorganized repaired reported represented researched responded reviewed revised saved scored scheduled selected served set up sketched solicited sold solved spoke sponsored streamlined structured summarized supervised supported taught trained translated updated used wrote Q-1.16 How do I indicate on the resume that I'm a member of a group that is sometimes discriminated against? Today, many candidates choose to indicate their membership in a group, figuring that if a potential employer has a problem with group members, they shouldn't waste each other's time. An unobtrusive way to advertise is to mention one's membership in student or professional organizations. Some posters feel that jobseekers should never indicate race/religion/sexual orientation/ethnicity on a resume, because it might get it tossed -- better nothing, than something that makes you a target. Others feel that unless the candidate is desperate, s/he would not want to deal with an employer who would discriminate if he knew. In the U.S. most companies supply candidates with special forms to indicate their race/sex/ethnicity for affirdmative action purposes. Q-1.17 What are some common cover letter tips? Do include a cover letter, even one paragraph, whenever you submit your resume by e-mail, fax, or postal mail, to explain why you are submitting it. Simply state why you are writing, name the type of position and, if you have heard about a vacancy, mention how you heard about it (in certain affirmative- action situations, not stating that you saw the position advertised may preclude you from consideration). If you were referred by a person, mention their name. Next, detail what you could contribute to the company and how your qualifications could benefit the firm. Even if the recipient doesn't read the cover letter, not sending one is considered rude. Most recipients of a cover letter is read after the resume and only if the resume was interesting. The cover letter should include relevant information not obvious in the resume and try to answer the questions that you expect to be raised by your resume, which might be asked in the first interview (see Q-2.6). For example, if it's clear from your resume that you were educated in another country, you can expect someone to ask whether you're authorised to work in this country. You can answer that in the cover letter before you are asked. Other questions often addressed in the cover letter are the pay rate you expect, your willingness to travel or relocate, why you wish to work for this specific company, how hiring you would benefit this particular company, and why you are better than the other candidates applying for the position. Even if you're not sure, try to talk about the company's products or services in the cover letter. In some fields it's appropriate to include your list of references in the cover letter. E.g., if you've submitted a curriculum vitae to apply for a teaching position, you might write: "The following persons have written letters of recommendation on my behalf..." and list the names, titles, departments, institutional addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of those individuals. Never use saluations like "To whom it may concern," or "Gentlemen," or "Dear Sir or Madam." If you know the name of a person who'll read it, use the name. "Dear Hiring Manager" is acceptable. Q-1.18 What happens to my resume when I submit it to personnel or a recruiter? Most large companies have human resources specialists (h.r., formerly known as personnel) whose job is to help hiring managers fill their reqs by screening out unsuitable candidates. On the Internet, many companies advertise special e-mail addresses for the submission of resumes, usually 'jobs@company.domain' or 'resumes@recruiter.domain'. When you submit a resume, an attempt is made to match it with the current open reqs (internal reqs in case of h.r.; multiple clients' reqs in case of a recruiter). In the past, your resume sat in in a stack of hundreds of resumes that was being mindlessly screened by a non-technical junior h.r. person with a list of buzzwords to look for. Today most companies, even small ones, enter all submitted resumes into a "resume management system" database (see Q-1.8) and search it with computer programs, which look for buzzwords and rank resumes by the number of "hits". Many of these resumes are submitted by unqualified candidates who apply for every position just in case. E-mail or mail-merge make such carpet-mailing easy. Some of the people in that pile of resumes are probably as good as you technically. Only a a few resumes will be picked from the pile and chosen for an interview (h.r.) or for possible submission to clients (recruiter). Even if it takes a minute for a person to look at a resume and reject it, these minutes add up to hours when the the task is to extract one or two qualified resumes from hundreds of randomly submitted unqualified ones. That's why hiring managers object to having to look at unscreened resumes. If the screener doesn't find an active requirement for the job title (your most recent job title, not the desired one) and the skills that you have on your resume, but your credentials are good, they will keep your resume on file (in paper or electronic form) for a while (typically 6 to 18 months) and review it periodically to see if it matches any newly arrived reqs. If the screener doesn't see a match between your resume and one of their reqs, there's nothing they can do for you. That's why, if you're responding to an ad that mentions an internal req number, be sure to indicate that, or the screener may not realize that there is a match. (Of course, your resume may match their other reqs as well.) To increase the chances of keyword matching, use as many buzz words as are applicable to your skills. E.g., a computer program searching for 'finance' won't find 'financial', so both should be used. Instead of just saying "worked in all aspects of X", list those aspects in parens, just in case the screener (computer or human) is searching for these keywords. Membership in professional organizations (IEEE, ACM, AMS, SIAM...) is one of the "buzzwords" that hit keyword searches. Q-1.19 How can I bypass h.r. and get my resume directly to the hiring manager? A typical company has procedures to stop you and your resume from bothering the hiring manager. Secretaries are instructed to intercept all unsolicited resumes coming by mail or fax and send them to personnel for "logging in." E-mailing unsolicited resumes to people who you think might have a job for you is rude and borders net-abuse. Some recipients might be so annoyed that they'll complain about your e-mail to your internet provider. If you have any contacts within your target company, you can ask a friend to hand-carry your resume to the hiring manager and recommend you. An inside referral always has an edge on a total outsider if the manager probably knows and trusts your acquaintance. However, once you do succeed in getting your resume through, the recipient may view it as an unwelcome intrusion.