Resume Guru
Make your resume a success story.
Over at Lifehacker, there’s a discussion of inappropriate-yet-common interview questions compiled from readers’ experiences. They’re grouped into several types:
The useful takeaways: tactics for responding to these questions and steering the interview back to your qualifications for the job.
My contributions to a Reddit discussion on how a student can build a resume without work experience:
I’ll second what others have said about volunteer/intern/pro bono/community work. “Experience” isn’t just what you’re paid for.
The bachelor’s degree is probably your most valuable asset right now. Some things to consider to get the greatest ROI for your resume:
1) Relevant specialization or minor?
2) Honors or awards, either showing general excellence or, even better, something relating to your target job? Cum laude, academic honors, merit scholarships?
3) Relevant course titles. Your transcript can be a rich source of keywords.
4) Project work. Did you produce an undergraduate thesis/capstone project/senior project? If a team project, what role did you play on the team? Did you have a specialty others relied on? Did you lead or assist others in their roles?
5) Original research/publications. Did you author or curate resources relating to your field?
6) Student leadership. Did you belong to any relevant clubs/organizations? Within those, any committees? Were you elected or appointed to any leadership positions?
7) Teaching others. Were you a TA or peer mentor? With what program or subject? Can you show you made a difference (metrics in student performance or a testimonial quote from those you worked with)?
8) Study abroad experience? Immersion experience in other languages/cultures/subjects?
9) Did you work while a student? Can you show that you maintained strong academic performance while working XX hours/week to finance education? This can prove your work ethic and organization–never bad qualities.
10) Professional associations and activities. Were you a student member of a national or regional association?
I’m convinced that most of the people calling for infographic resumes are the people selling infographic resumes. Not employers.
Here’s an article describing several cases against littering your resume with charts and graphs–and if you’re going to anyway, how to do it right. Protip: don’t eat the crayons.
Lots of resume advice focuses on avoiding mistakes, but that’s only part of the equation–not even the most important part.
You don’t stand out merely by avoiding mistakes. You must also make the most of your accomplishments. This is a lot more complex than running spellcheck, and it’s absolutely crucial to demonstrating why someone should hire you.
Today I found one of the rare articles that shows ways to present often-overlooked accomplishments: 10 Things That Aren’t On Your Resume (But Should Be) by Mark S. Babbitt (@MarkSBabbitt).
Mark suggests nine categories to consider other than professional experience:
There’s a lot of potential in these categories, especially for people lacking traditional experience (students, recent graduates, career changers, returning to work).
One key with all of these: don’t just list that you know something, or that you showed up at a conference. That’s the bare minimum. Go beyond that by showing what you did with the knowledge or experience. Show how you improved something. Show your math–meaning the relevant metrics.
Also, I disagree with the author’s recommendation to omit relevant coursework from degrees. Especially if a candidate accomplished something meaningful to employers as part of a class. That’s squarely in the wheelhouse of demonstrating accomplishment, and has the side effect of raising the return on investment for a degree that cost years, effort, and tens of thousands of dollars. Relevant experience + relevant keywords + burnishing an existing asset = an easy win. Not something to be discarded.
Great article on sources of information about prospective employers, including company websites, social media accounts (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, other feeds), Glassdoor, and a few others.
I would add:
What other sources can you suggest to qualify a prospective employer?
From The Daily Muse, an excellent tip for keeping track of your accomplishments: create a “brag” folder in your email inbox.
Every time a client sings your praises, a colleague gushes over your contributions to the latest team project, or your boss asks you to take on a new responsibility, go ahead and drag that email on over to the folder.
Even if every compliment or activity isn’t necessarily resume-worthy, scrolling through a folder full of flattering messages may get your gears turning on other achievements. Plus, knowing there’s one place to look makes the entire process feel much less daunting.
In addition to collecting email kudos, I’d recommend a similar folder for any documentation (digital or paper) of your performance. I’m thinking of:
Many of my military clients have what they call “I Love Me binders” containing their official evaluations, training records, award narratives, etc. These are an indispensable resource for resume writing—and a career management habit civilians would be wise to emulate.
What else would you save to keep score in your job?
(hat tip to Lifehacker for pointing me to the original article)