RESUME WRITING

RESUME WRITING

Example of a chronological resume

June 2006 to present
Chief Accountant / Financial Analyst. AZ Corporation

• Prepare accounting reports for wholesale giftware importer (Rs75 million annual sales)
• Audit financial transactions with suppliers in 12 Latin American countries
• Created a computerized model to adjust account for fluctuations in currency exchange rates.
• Negotiated joint-venture agreements with major suppliers in Mexico and Colombia
• Implemented electronic funds transfer for vendor disbursements, improving cash flow and eliminating payables clerk position.

The Functional Resume

A functional resume emphasizes a list of skills and accomplishments, identifying employers and academic experience in subordinate sections. This pattern stresses individual areas of competence, so it’s useful for people who are just entering the job market, want to redirect their careers, or have little continuous career-related experience.
 
Advantages
(1) without having to read through job descriptions, employers can see what you can do for them,
(2) you can emphasize earlier job experience,
(3) you can de-emphasize any lack of career progress or lengthy unemployment.

Example of the Functional Resume

Relevant Skills
 
Personal Selling/Retailing
• Led house wares department in employee sales for spring 2006.
• Created end-cap and shelf displays for special housewares promotions.
• Sold the most benefit tickets during college fund-raising drive for local community centre
 
Public Interaction
• Commended by housewares manager for resolving customer complaints amicably
• Was captain college xi and participated in many University Fixtures
Managing
• Training part-time housewares employees in cash register operation and customer service
• Reworked housewares employee schedules as assistant manager
• Organized summer activities for children 6-12 years old for city of Karachi – including reading programs, sports activities, etc.

The Combination Resume

A combination resume includes the best features of the chronological and functional approaches. Nevertheless, it is not commonly used, and it has two major disadvantages:

(1) it tends to be longer, and
(2) it can be repetitious if you have to list your accomplishments and skills in both the functional                         section and the chronological job descriptions.

Example of such a resume

Naeem Ahmad
122-Mall Road Lahore
(042) 5858585
Objective
To obtain a position as a special events coordinator that will utilize my skills and experience
 
Skills and capabilities
• Plan and coordinate large-scale public events
• Develop community support for concerts, festivals, and the arts
• Manage publicity for major events
• Coordinate activities of diverse community groups
• Establish and maintain financial controls for public events
• Negotiate contracts with performers, carpenters, electricians, and suppliers.

Special Event Experience
• Arranged 2001’s week-long Arts and Entertainment Festival for the  Public Library, involving performances by 25 musicians, dancers, actors, magicians, and artists
• Supervised the 2000 PTA Spring Carnival, an all-day festival with game booths, live bands, contests, and food service that raised Rs. 70,000 for the PTA
• Organized the 1999 Provincial convention for 80 members of the Lahore  Women club, which extended over a three-day period and required arrangement for hotels, meals, speakers, and special tours
• Served as chairperson for the 1998 Children’s complex Show, a luncheon for 400 that raised Rs.50,000  for orphans and privileged children.
Education
• Bachelor of Arts, Psychology, APV College, Lahore.

Employment History
• First National Bank of Pakistan 1988 to 1990, personnel counselor/campus recruiter; scheduled and conducted interview with graduating MBA students on 18  campuses; managed orientation program for recruits hired for bank’s management trainee staff
• ABC University 1996-1998, part-time research assistant for Professor Hassan (Science Department)

Compose your resume to impress
Write your resume using a simple and direct style. Use short, crisp phrases instead of whole sentences, and focus on what your reader needs to know. Avoid using the word I instead, start your phrases with impressive action verbs such as these:



Accomplished coordinated initiated participated set up
Achieved created installed performed        simplified
Administered demonstrated introduced planned sparked
Approved developed investigated presented        streamlined
Arranged directed joined propose           strengthen
Assisted established launched raised          succeeded
Assumed explored maintained recommended   supervised
Budgeted forecasted managed reduced        systematized
Chaired generated motivated reorganized targeted
Changed identified operated resolved trained
Complied implemented organized saved        transformed
Completed improved oversaw served

Avoid Weak Statements
Don't say: Responsible for developing a new branch
Say: Developed a new branch
Don't say: I was in charge of customer complaints
Say: Handled all customer complaints
Don't say:      I won a cash prize of 100,000 for openings the most new customer accounts in my department
Say:                   Generated the highest number of new customer accounts in my department and awarded a prize of 100.000

Use active statement that show results

In addition to listing your accomplishments, include your name and address, academic credentials, employment history, activities and achievement, and relevant personal data.

Name and address
Name: an employer needs to know
Who you are
Where you can be reached: phone number/ e-email address contact information at school and at home both, cell phone no etc. No need to include the word resume. Just make sure the reader can tell in an instant who you are and how to communicate with you.

Career Objective or Summary of Qualification
Experts disagree about the need to state a career objective. Such a statement only limits you as a candidate (especially for a variety of openings).  Employers will try to categorize you anyway, so you might as well make sure they attach the right label.
Remember, your goal is to generate interest immediately. If you decide to state your objective, make it effective by being as specific as possible about what you want:
Examples of Career Objective or Summary of Qualification
A marketing position in a growing company requiring international education
Summary of qualifications: ten years of experience in international banking with track record.
The career objective or summary may be the only section read fully by the employer, so if you include either one, make it strong, concise, and convincing.

Education
If you are still in school, education is probably your strongest selling point. Present your educational background in depth, choosing facts that support your “theme”. Give heading such as “Education”, “Professional College Training”, or “Academic Preparation" starting with most recently attended, List the name and location of each one, the term of your enrollment (in months and years), your major and minor fields of study, significant skills and abilities you’ve developed in your course work, and the degrees or certificates you’ve earned.

Indicate incomplete education. Include any training qualifying you for the job and any scholarship, award that you have won. Also tell them whether the training was sponsored by business or government.
Include any relevant seminars or worship you’ve attended, as well as the certificates or other documents you’ve receive. Listing your grades depends on the job you want and the quality of your grades. Remember education is usually given less emphasis if you’ve worked in your chosen field for a year or more.

Work Experience, Skills & Accomplishments

List the education section, the work-experience section
Do the following.
• Focus on your overall theme.
• Show relationship between your previous responsibilities and your target field.
• Call attention to skills you’ve developed and your progression from jobs of lesser to greater responsibility.

• Describing your work experience,
• List your jobs in chronological order,
• Include any part-time, even if unrelated to your current career objective. It shows your ability to get and hold a job – an important qualification in itself. If you have worked your way through school, say so. Employers interpret this as a sign of character.

Before or after each job listing, state your functional title, such as ‘salesperson’. Don’t try to make your role seem more important by glamorizing your job title.

The work experience section lists the entire related job you’ve had:

• Name and location of employer
• What the organization does (if not clear from its name)
• Your functional title
• How long you worked
• Your duties and responsibilities
• Your significant achievements or contributions.

For example,
Developed a new filing system that reduced paperwork by 50 percent. Include miscellaneous facts that are related to your career objective:

• Command of other languages
• Computer expertise
• Date you can start working
 
You may put “References available upon request” at the end of your resume, but doing so is not necessary. The availability of references is usually assumed. Don’t include actual names of references. List your references on a separate paper and take them to your interview.

Activities and Achievements
• Describe any volunteer activities that demonstrate your abilities.
• List any project that requires leadership, organization, teamwork, and cooperation.
• Emphasize career-related activities such as “member of the Student Marketing Association.”
• List skills you learned in these activities, and explain how these skills are related to the job you’re applying for.
• Include speaking/writing/tutoring experience/participation in athletics/creative projects/ fundraising/community-service activities in academic or professional organizations.
• Non-paid activities may provide evidence of work-related skills.

Resume Deception
One in four resumes has a lie in it. The most frequent forms of deception include the following:

• Claiming nonexistent educational credits.
• Inflating grade-point averages.
• Stretching dates of employment to cover gaps.
• Claiming to be self-employed
• Claiming to have worked for companies that are out of business
• Omitting jobs that might cause embarrassment.
• Exaggerating expertise or experience
Personal Data
Leave personal interest off your resume-unless including them enhances the employer’s understanding of why you would be the best candidate for the job.

Experts also recommend excluding salary information, reasons for leaving jobs, names, of previous employer, etc

Revise your Resume
The keys to writing a successful resume adopt the “you” attitude and focus on your audience. Think about what the prospective employer's need, and then tailor your resume accordingly.

 The “perfect” resume responds to the reader’s needs and preferences and avoids some common faults. The following a list of common fault.

Too long: The resume is not concise, relevant, and to the point.
To short or sketchy: The resume does not give enough information for a proper evaluation of the application
Hard to read: A lack of “write space” and of deceives such as indentions and boldfacing makes the reader’s job more difficult.
Wordy: Descriptions are verbose, with numerous words used for what could be said more simply.
Too slick: The resume appears to have been written by someone other than the applicant, which raises the question of whether the qualifications have been exaggerated.
Amateurish: The applicant appears to have little understanding of the business world or of a particular industry, as revealed by including the wrong information or presenting it awkwardly.
Poorly reproduced:  The print is faint and difficult to read.
Misspelled and ungrammatical throughout: Recruiters conclude that candidates who make spelling and grammar mistakes lack good verbal skills, which are important on the job.

Boastful: The overconfident tone makes the reader wonder whether the application’s self-evaluation is real.
Dishonest: The applicant claims to have expertise or work experience or work experience that he or she does not possess.
Gimmicky: The words, structure, decoration, or material used in the resume depart so far from the usual as to make the resume ineffective.

Produce your Traditional Resume
With less than a minute to make a good impression, your resume needs to look sharp and grab a recruiter’s interest in the first few lines. A typical recruiter devotes 45 seconds to each resume before tossing it into either the “maybe” or the “reject” pile.

Try to keep your resume to one page. If you have a great deal of experience and are applying for a higher-level position, you may need to prepare a somewhat longer resume. The important thing is to have enough space to present a persuasive, but accurate, portrait of your skills and accomplishments.

Approach for Writing Resume

A. Organizational approach
1. Use the chronological approach unless you have a weak employment history
2. Use the functional approach if you are new to the job market, want to redirect your career, or have gaps in your employment history.
3. Use the combined approach to maximize the advantages of both chronological and functional resumes, but only when neither of the other two formats will work.

B. Format and Style

1. Use short noun phrases and action verbs, not whole sentences.
2. Use facts, not opinions.
3. Adopt a “you” attitude.
4. Omit personal pronouns (especially I)
5. Omit the date of preparation, desired salary, and work schedule.
6. Use parallelism when listing multiple items.
7. Use positive language and simple words.
8. Use white space, quality paper, and quality printing.

C. Opening

1. Include contact information (name, address).
2. Include a career objective or a skills summary if desired.
3. Make your career objective specific and interesting
4. Prepare two separate resumes if you can perform two unrelated types of work.
5. In a skills summary, present your strongest qualifications first.

D. Education

1. List the name and location of every postsecondary school you’ve attended (with dates, and with degrees/certificates obtained).
2. Indicate your college major (and minor).
3. Indicate numerical scale (4.0 or 5.0) if you include your grade-point average.
4. List other experiences (seminars, workshops), with dates and certificates obtained.

E. Work experience, skills, and accomplishments

1. List all relevant work experience (paid employment, volunteer work, internships).
2. List full-time and part-time jobs.
3. Provide name and location of each employer (with dates of employment)
4. List job title and describe responsibilities.
5. Note on-the-job accomplishments and skills; quantify them whenever possible.

F. Activities and achievements

1. List all relevant offices and leadership positions.
2. List projects you have undertaken.
3. Show abilities such as writing or speaking, and list publications and community services.
4. List other information, such as your proficiency in language other than English.
5. Mention ability to operate special equipment, including technical, computer, and software skills.



G. Personal Data

1. Omit personal details that might be seen as negative or used to discriminate against you.
2. Leave personal interest off unless they are relevant to the position being sought.
3. List a reference only with permission to do so.
4. Balance Common Language with Current Jargon
Another way to maximize hits on your resume is to use words that potential employers will understand (for example, use keyboard, not input device). Also, use abbreviations sparingly (except for common ones such as BA or MBA.

Submitting Scanable Resume

When submitting your resume by email, don’t attach it as a separate document. Most human resources departments won’t accept attached files. Instead, paste your resume into the body of your email message. Whenever you know a reference number or a job ad number, include it in your e-mail subject line.

Proofread your resume

Once your resume is complete, update it continuously, as already mentioned, employment is becoming much more flexible these days, so it’s likely you’ll want to change employers.
Examine the following resume and write a critique of it.
Naeem Ahmed
5687 Crosswoods Road, Lahore
Home: (042) 987-0086 Office: (042) 549-6624
• I have been staff accountant/financial analyst at AZ Corporation in Islamabad from March 1999  present.
• I have negotiated with major suppliers.
• I speak both English and Urdu fluently, and I was recently encouraged to implement and electronic funds transfer for vendor disbursements.
• In my current position, I am responsible for preparing accounting reports.
• In have audited financial transaction.
• I have also been involved in the design of a computerized model to adjust accounts for fluctuations in currency exchange rates.
• I am skilled in the use of Excel, Access, HTML, and Visual Basic.

Was staff accountant with ABC of Agricultural Chemicals in Quetta, (October 1995 to March 1999).
• While with ABC Quetta, I was responsible for budgeting and billing.  
• I am responsible for credit-processing functions.
• I was also responsible for auditing the travel and entertainment expenses for the sales department.
• I launched an online computer system to automate all accounting functions.
• Also during this time, I was able to travel extensively in the country and abroad.
• I have my Master of Business Administration with emphasis on international business, which I learned attending Punjab University in Lahore.
• Bachelor of Business Administration, Accounting (1990-1993), earned while attending College, Lahore.