Writing your resume to sell your story

Writing an effective resume is a skill that can be hard to learn, but it is something that is extremely important to learn and practice when you are looking to find a new job. Your resume gives a potential employer an image of who you are and tells a story of your past experiences and what kind of employee you would be if they hired you. Therefore, it is very important that your resume accurately describes you and highlights your strengths. In order to make sure that your resume represents you in the best way possible, it is important to consider both its format and its content.

Format

1. Layout

There are three main resume layouts that you can use: chronological, which focuses on your past work experience; functional, which focuses on your skills; and combination, which balances both past work experience and skills. Pick a layout that is best suited to your particular experience and job goals.

You should use a chronological resume layout if you have a lot of past work experience that is relevant to the job that you are applying for; for example, if you are applying for a job in a field that you have worked in for several years, or if you are applying for the same type of position that you have worked in before. With this layout, you will list your past work experience in a reverse chronological order (starting with either your current or most recent position and ending with your least recent) and include details about the duties you fulfilled and the accomplishments you achieved while working in that position.

You should use a functional resume layout if you do not have a lot of work experience that is relevant to the job you are applying for. For example, you might be changing careers or just starting out your career due to just finishing school or due to previous family obligations. With a functional layout, you will provide details about your skills and qualifications, which can include skills learned or developed in past jobs, but can also include skills learned through volunteering, community engagement, school, or family duties.

A combination resume layout includes details about both your past work experience and any relevant skills. You should use this layout if you have some relevant experience and you want to strengthen your resume by including a summary of relevant skills.

2. Formatting

Make sure that you use an appropriate professional font, such as Times New Roman, Arial, or Helvetica, and an appropriate font size, between 10 and 12. Use regular margins, avoid using stylized layouts with lots of different boxes and columns, and use a bold or italic font to separate different sections. You should also use bullet points when listing details about work history, skills, or education, and limit the length of your resume to one or two pages. Formatting your resume in a simple manner will make sure that it looks professional, is easily readable and appealing to hiring managers, and is easy to scan, which is important because many companies use applicant tracking systems (ATS), software that automatically scans for information in submitted resumes and job applications.

3. The “F-zone”

According to studies done with eye-tracking software, people generally tend to scan for information in an F-shaped pattern, where they focus on information found at the top of a page and then move on to scanning down the information on the left side of the page. (Diaz 434-37) Since hiring managers often do not fully read every single resume they read, instead scanning resumes and making decisions fairly quickly, you should use this “F-zone” to your advantage by including your most important information at the top and along the left side of your resume. For example, provide your most recent relevant experience or skills at the very beginning of your resume, and include key words at the beginning of your detailed bullet points to attract the attention of the hiring manager.

Content

1. Tailoring your resume

It is important that you customize your resume for the job that you are applying for, as highlighting the ways that you are uniquely qualified for a specific position will allow hiring managers to clearly see how you would be a good fit. A good way to tailor your resume to a specific position is to first thoroughly read the job posting to understand the particular skills or experience that a company is looking for, so that you could emphasize these particular skills in the descriptions of your past work experience. You should also look for key words in the job posting that you could include in your resume. Using the same vocabulary in your resume that is present in the job posting will allow ATS software to identify that you are a potential candidate and will help pass your resume through to the next step of the hiring process. Once your resume is in front of a hiring manager, a resume customized to focus on the specific skills that are needed for that position will be more likely to persuade them that you are the ideal candidate for the job.

Tailoring a resume to each job you apply to may seem like a lot of work, but you do not have to rewrite the entire thing every single time. Instead, you should write one base resume and then make slight adjustments based on what skills a particular company is looking for or what key words are used in the job posting. You could add or delete bullet points in order to better reflect what the position requires and emphasize different aspects of your previous experience or skills, or even just change individual words in order to better match the language used in the job posting.

2. Writing effective bullet points

The bullet points that provide details relating to your skills and qualifications and past experience are extremely important, as they make up the majority of your resume and provide employers with specific examples of how you are qualified for a position. Bullet points should include descriptive verbs used in an active voice, such as “organized,” “led,” or “designed” and should not include personal pronouns. For example, write “led weekly meetings” instead of “I led weekly meetings.” As well, try to include key words within the first few words of your bullet points so that they are within the “F-zone.”

Additionally, try to frame your bullet points as accomplishments. Of course, you should include any major accomplishments you achieved in your past positions, such as awards or completing big projects, but details about regular duties will be more impactful to potential employers if you frame them as being accomplishments. To do this, you can use the Problem – Action – Result (P.A.R.) framework to think about your experience. (Wellesley Career Education) First, think about what problem, project, or task you were entrusted to deal with. Then, think about the specific actions you took in order to complete the task or resolve the problem. Finally, reflect on the specific result and outcome of the actions you took. For example, instead of just saying I “cleaned the counters” at my past restaurant job, I could say “cleaned counters using sanitizer to ensure a high food safety standard.” In this way, I am not only including the task I was instructed to complete (cleaning counters); I am also including specific actions (using sanitizer) and results (ensuring a high food safety standard).

Overall, it is important to be as specific as possible. For example, if you are proficient in a certain computer software, make sure you mention it by name. Use numbers whenever you can. For example, if you were a manager in a previous position, include the number of other employees that you were overseeing. If you improved sales or closed an important deal, make sure that you include specific amounts or statistics. This will help potential employers get a more vivid picture of how you will benefit their company and will make you a better candidate.

To summarize, learning to write an effective resume is extremely important because the image and story that it presents determines whether you are a viable candidate. By making sure that the format and content are well-suited for the position you are applying for, you can set yourself up for success and ensure that hiring managers will want to call you in for an interview.

Written by: Monika Pitonak

Sources:

Diaz, Charlsye Smith. “Updating Best Practices: Applying On-Screen Reading Strategies to Resume Writing.” Business Communication Quarterly, vol. 76, no. 4, 2013, pp. 427-45, doi:10.1177/1080569913501860. Accessed 17 Oct. 2021.

“How to Make a Resume (With Examples).” Indeed, 24 June 2021, www.indeed.com/career- advice/resumes-cover-letters/how-to-make-a-resume-with-examples. Accessed 17 Oct. 2021.

“How to Write an Effective Resume.” Coursera, 14 Sep. 2020, blog.coursera.org/how-to-write-an- effective-resume/. Accessed 17 Oct. 2021.

“How to Write Effective Resume Bullets.” Wellesley Career Education, www.wellesley.edu/careereducation/resources/how-write-effective-resume-bullets. Accessed 17 Oct. 2021.

Ortiz, Lilia. “5 steps to writing an effective resume.” University of Phoenix, 19 May 2021, www.phoenix.edu/blog/how-to-write-an-effective-resume.html. Accessed 17 Oct. 2021.