Resume, cover letter

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WorkOne Résumé Workshop

Rationale: Welcome to the “WorkOne Résumé Workshop.” This presentation is designed to introduce the basic concepts of developing effective résumés for working class jobs. This presentation is ideal for résumés workshops at WorkOne or other employment organizations.

This presentation may be supplemented with the following OWL resources:

- Community Writing and Education Station (CWEST) Job Search Resources: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/engagement/34/

Directions: Each slide is activated by a single mouse click, unless otherwise noted in bold at the bottom of each notes page

Writer and Designer: H. Allen Brizee and the kind, generous participants of the CWEST-LARA/WorkOne research project.

Contributors: Jaclyn Wells, Jeff Bacha, Norman Houseman

Revising Author:

Developed with resources courtesy of the Purdue University Writing Lab, Purdue University, the Lafayette Adult Resource Academy (LARA), and WorkOne

Overview

This presentation will cover
Résumé basics
Résumé research
Résumé sections
Résumé design
Résumé samples and exercise

Click mouse to advance slide.

Résumé Basics

What is a résumé?
A document that shows your education, job history
May also include experiences related to job you want

Why do I need a résumé?
Employers use résumés to
See who can do a job
Read about your past jobs
Decide which applicant will be interviewed

Though many employers require job applications, more and more companies want applicants to submit résumés. Even if the specific job you want doesn’t require a résumé, it’s good to have one just in case.

Résumé Basics

What is the goal/purpose of my résumé?
To get an interview!

General guidelines:
Length: Limit resume to one typed page
Font: Arial for heading, Times New Roman for body text, between 10-12 point font
Paper: Use 8 1/2” x 11” 20 lb paper, white, light cream, or grey

-An employer only has about 10-15 seconds to look at your résumé. When you are done with your résumé, a good exercise is to have someone else study your résumé for 10 seconds and then repeat back what he or she remembers.

-Be as concise as possible in stating information in each section of your résumé.

-No strange colors or images

Résumé Basics

What should my résumé contain?
Your contact information
An objective statement
Education experience
Work experience
Skills and qualifications

In order to help the employer locate important information quickly, organize your résumé into five - seven distinct sections. As stated above, employers spend 10-15 seconds at first looking at résumés, so if they can’t find the information they want quickly, they may put aside your résumé and never return to it.

Résumé Basics

References (some employers will ask for these separately)
Optional sections: professional affiliations, other experience (volunteer work)

Not all employers will ask you to provide references with your résumé, so you should probably prepare two résumés, one with references and one without. You might also want to prepare a separate references sheet. The professional affiliations and volunteer sections can be very important depending on what type of work you do. For example, electricians usually belong to unions and/or other accredited organizations. Listing these types of organizations will show your connection to your profession and may help you get an interview. In addition, for many people out of work, volunteering can be a good way to stay busy, prove responsibility, and network with people who may know someone looking for employees.

Résumé Research

Getting started
Before you write your résumé:
Make five lists that include
Where you went to school or received training, including location, time/credits, classes completed
Where you have worked, including location, time, responsibilities, skills learned
Skills, qualifications
References, including all contact information
Professional affiliations: trade organizations, unions…
If you are missing any information, you have some research to do…

For the résumé exercise later, we will be preparing these lists. So please begin thinking about this information now. If you don’t know some of this information, begin thinking about where you might look to find it.

Résumé Research

Getting started
Before you write your résumé:
Conduct some research on the company, job:
Company name, contact information, description
Job title (job number if applicable), requirements
Contact person (person to whom you address letter)
Application requirements (does company require a résumé, application, cover letter, list of references?)
If you have some missing information, you have some research to do…
Also, it’s better to tailor résumés to a specific job, company because it shows you have researched position, organization

Doing preliminary research helps writers tailor their résumés for the job they are applying for, and writers should do as much preliminary research as possible about the companies to which they are writing and the jobs for which they are applying. Applicants should conduct research whenever possible, especially for top choices.

Job applicants should look at the vocabulary of job ads, especially the vocabulary of the ad to which they are responding. There are many job bank sites on the World Wide Web and browsing through some of the postings at these sites will help applicants understand how to discuss their experiences and skills on their résumés.

Résumé Sections

To help employers find information, résumés are organized into sections:
Contact information – phone number (home, cell), mailing address, email address
Objective – the name of the company and the job you want

Education – elementary, high school, college, technical school, certifications, vocational or trade school

Résumé Sections

Work history – jobs you have held (the order of the work history and education can be reversed depending on your situation)

Summary of qualifications – list of skills that apply to the job you want

Résumé Sections

You may also add optional sections:
Professional affiliations – trade groups, unions, or other labor organizations

Other experiences – volunteer work or hobbies that relate to the job you want

Résumé Sections

Sample contact information and objective sections:

Michael includes his contact information and tailors his objective to the job he wants. Note that this objective is clear and concise.

Elizabeth doesn’t have an email address but does include her phone number. She also tailors her objective

Key Concept: It is very important that employers be able to reach the applicant at the address(es) and phone number(s) listed in the heading. If applicants are going through a time of transition and will be moving, they should make it clear on the résumé where they will be on any given day. During transitional times, it is a good idea to include a permanent address where someone will always know the applicant’s whereabouts and can locate them.

Tips:

-Don’t use a nickname

-A phone number is especially important because many employers contact applicants by phone

-Remember that any number you give out has the possibility of being called, change voice mails to be more professional or warn roommates of possible calls

Key Concept: The facilitator should emphasize that the objective statement is sometimes considered the hardest part of the résumé. Try to tailor the objective to match the job and company. If this isn’t possible, then the applicant may want to consider omitting the objective statement.

Résumé Sections

Sample education and work history sections:

Jeremy includes the dates he worked at his previous jobs as well as the locations

Jeremy includes the type of education he received at a local adult basic education center, a GED.

Key Concept: The education section can be first on the résumé after the objective statement. However, if you are creating a skills-based résumé, then your skills or even job history section might come after the objective. Education sections should contain any schools the applicant has attended along with any training and/or certification the applicant has obtained. The applicant’s major, minors, date of graduation, and relevant educational classes should also be included.

The jobs that are included in the applicant’s résumé should support the jobs they are looking for. If you are applying for a teaching job, you don’t need to include a cooking job in the work experience list unless you want to emphasize certain skills that are valuable to teaching in the cooking job, like patience and working with others.

Jobs should be listed in either reverse chronological order or in order of importance. Anytime anything quantitative can be included, you should include the information so employers have a better way of measuring your skills. For example, it’s much better to say “Trained fifteen employees and increased sales by 15%” than to say “Trained employees and improved sales.”

This section can also contain computer skills, language skills, courses or projects taken. If the student decides to add computer skills, Microsoft Office is not needed since most college students know how to use Microsoft Office.

The facilitator should emphasize that the tutor make sure the student has which campus the student attends, and also the scale of the GPA. A 3.0 out of 5.0 looks a lot worse than a 3.0 on a 4.0 scale!

A lot of students have questions on how low is too low for GPAs. Usually if a student has below a 3.0, it shouldn’t be included. If the student’s major GPA is higher than the overall GPA, that can be used instead. The student can carry out the GPA to two decimal points (3.55), but that is the maximum.

Résumé Sections

Sample education and work history sections:

Rosa includes some of her responsibilities from her previous jobs

The facilitator should make sure that the workshop attendees know to include the position, location, dates, and a brief description of each job. Each description should be parallel, and each job should be written out in the same manner as the previous job.

Activity: The facilitator can have attendees can break into groups and write job descriptions collaboratively. Then the entire group can discuss their job descriptions.

Résumé Sections

Sample of other experiences and summary of qualifications sections:

She also lists one of her most valuable qualifications first: her ability to speak Spanish and English

Rosa lists volunteer work she did while she was not working at a paying job

Key Concept: Although most applicants usually just list their actual paid jobs in the work experience section, the facilitator can also stress to the attendees that if they were involved in volunteerism or another activity, these can be included in the experience section. Instead of calling the section the traditional “Work Experience”, the applicant could call the section “Experience” and put the activity in so that it stands out more. For this example, the applicant likes to help the community. She has done a lot of work with volunteering to assist people in need, so she puts this in the other experiences section before her summary of skills.

Action Verb List

Handout
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/543/02/
Action phrases will help clarify your message:
Before: Planned activities
After: Planned arts and crafts activities for preschool aged children

Key Concept: The facilitator should remind the attendees that if the they are having trouble thinking of words, there is an action verb list on the Purdue OWL they can use to look up different verbs for the job descriptions if they have Internet access.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/543/02/

Key Concept: Using action phrases helps writers clarify their message. Writers should try to look at their qualifications as a professional would and use concrete words to describe their experiences.

Example: Consider the example above. Is it more persuasive to say “swept the floor and cleaned tables” or “created a positive and healthy atmosphere in the restaurant?”

Activity: The facilitator might relate several poorly written or understated phrases and ask for ways to make the phrases stronger. Some examples of phrases that need to be rewritten are:

Before: Answered the phone and related messages

After: Took orders and verified their correctness with customers

Before: Planned activities

After: Planned arts and crafts activities for preschool aged children

Before: Made change

After: Handled large sums of money, balanced the cash drawer

Before: Talked to customers

After: Giving quality customer service while promoting the sale of products

Résumé Sections

Sample professional affiliations section

Since his affiliations are so important to Karl’s profession, he lists the organizations he belongs to right after his Objective section

You may adjust the order of your résumé sections depending on the job you want

Remember!

The rest of your résumé should be set up according to how much the remainder of your information has to do with the job and the company. Additional activities, clubs, awards, volunteer experience, can also be helpful if there is extra white space. The additional sections can be set up as shown or also more like the work experience section.

These extras should be something that you could either discuss with your prospective employer in an interview or that have given you valuable experience or skills.

Résumé Design

Why is design important?
Employers rate your professionalism based on how your résumé looks
Use:

- Plenty of space

- Headings

- Bullet lists

To ensure that you will make it past the initial 10-15 second screening, you should design your résumé in such a way that employers can read and understand the document quickly and easily. One way to do this is to conform to the conventional format of a résumé, since employers know how résumés work and where to locate certain information. In addition, you should keep certain design principles in mind that will increase your chances of getting your resume into the "keep" pile. Some of these design principles include using plenty of space, using headings, and using bullet lists. Designing your résumé can be a challenge and requires you to take a closer look at how readers read.

Résumé Design

Use the four-section (quadrant) method:

When reading résumés, people move in a Z pattern

So, your most important information should follow the Z pattern: 1, 2, 3, 4

Readers typically read from left to right and from top to bottom when information is "balanced" (about an equal amount of text and white space) on the page. Being able to anticipate the reader's response to a résumé in this way will allow you to manipulate information according to the quadrant test. First, divide your résumé into four quadrants (you can fold your paper into fours), as seen in the example above. Then sketch a Z over the quadrants to simulate how people will read your résumé.
Each one of your quadrants should have an equal amount of text and white space (empty space where there is no text). When your page is balanced, the reader will typically read anything in quadrant 1 first. So, you should put your most important information — anything you want the employer to see first — in this quadrant.

Résumé Samples

Chronological Résumé

Combination Résumé

Here are two examples of résumés, one chronological and the other combination, that show good document design.

Résumé Samples

Skills-Based Résumé

References Section

Sans-serif font

Serif font

Arial

Times New Roman

By manipulating the fonts used in your résumé, you can create a hierarchy of information. In general, fonts are divided into two categories: serif and sans-serif. Serifs are the short stems on the ends of the strokes of a letter, as in T of the Times New Roman font. Sans-serif fonts are fonts without stems — sans means without.

Résumé Tips

What do I do about any time I was not working?
Short breaks in work experience shouldn’t hurt your chances
Be ready to talk about what you did:
Volunteerism
Faith-based activities
Family-related responsibilities

Short times in between jobs or work experience should not hurt applicants’ chances of getting an interview. But you should be prepared to talk about those breaks when you meet with the employer. If you were not working for pay but volunteered doing something in the community, talk about that experience to show you were busy doing something.

More Résumé Tips

What should I do if I have been incarcerated?
Be honest
Talk about what you did while you were serving your sentence:
GED
Vocational training
Faith-based activities
Consider composing a skills-based résumé that focuses on what you can do now rather than explaining entire work history

If attendees have been incarcerated, tell them be honest with the employer and to talk about what they did while they were serving their sentence that may contribute to their job skills. For example, many prison systems offer General Education Development (GED) programs so inmates can receive the equivalent of a high school diploma. Prison systems also offer vocational training in carpentry, plumbing, electronics, auto mechanics, etc. If attendees have received vocational training in prison, suggest that they talk about this in their interview.

People reentering the work force from prison may want to write a skills-based résumé. Skills-based résumés focus on what you can do now rather than explaining an entire work history.

More Résumé Tips

What should I do if I am transitioning from

military to civilian life?

Help your civilian employer understand what you did in the military by “translating” terms:

Military terms: Received and stored bulk and package petroleum, oils, and lubricants products. Issued and dispensed bulk fuels and water from storage and distribution facilities to using units. Selected and submitted samples of petroleum, oils, and lubricants to laboratory for testing. Performed petroleum and water accounting duties (from Army Pamphlet 611-21).

Civilian terms: Coordinated and distributed petroleum products and monitored quality control systems.

It is important to create your résumé in a way that employers will understand. Creating an effective résumé for your civilian life means you will have to use language people outside the military can understand. For example, in the experience section of your résumé you will need to do some “translating” between military terms and civilian terms:

If you remember specific details and achievements related to your responsibilities in the military, you should include them:

Coordinated and distributed $1 million in petroleum products per month and monitored quality control systems to ensure a 99.3% average delivery rate.

Résumé Exercise

Exercise
Make five lists that include

Where you went to school or received training, including location, time/credits, classes completed

Where you have worked, including location, time, responsibilities, skills learned

Skills, qualifications

References, including all contact information

Professional affiliations: trade organizations, unions…

If you are missing any information, you have some research to do…

Résumé Help

Access hundreds of résumé resources at the Community Writing and Education Station (CWEST):
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/engagement/

Visit your local WorkOne office. To find locations, use this Website:
http://www.in.gov/dwd/WorkOne/

If you don’t have Internet access from home, remember you can access these resources from libraries or WorkOne offices, print out the resources and take them home.

The End

Thank you, and good luck!