With this in mind, the skilled resume writer must decide which type of accomplishments to highlight: work experience, education, or personal data. This decision generally requires a choice between only the first two considerations. In almost all cases, personal data is de-emphasized altogether. If you are a person with a number of years of successful and related work experience, you should lead off the resume with a section on work experience and follow up with a section on your education.
On the other hand, if you have very little related work experience but a good educational and training foundation for that job, lead off the resume body with an impressive educational and training section and follow up with one on work experience, pulling together any firsthand work experience you may have had.
If you have a few years of unrelated job experience following an education that is also generally unrelated to the work you want, the problem of which to choose as the resume body lead-off section becomes more difficult. The probable choice should be your work experience, for two reasons: first, the work experience is more recent and from that point of view is of greater interest to the readers; second, work experience is proven job performance, while education is only promised job performance. Therefore, unless you can show a fairly close relationship between your earlier education and the job you're seeking, you should probably lead off with work experience.
While specific requirements may differ from job to job, a great number of jobs have many important requirements in common, such as an ability to communicate in writing and in speaking, an ability to get along well with co-workers, an ability to follow orders or directives and to take supervision, and an ability to work within set time limits and toward goals, to name a few.
Lacking just the right "in-field" job experience does not place you at the awful disadvantage you might have suspected, as long as you have other work experience. For any amount of varied work experience, fortunately, helps you to acquire those general work traits just mentioned, as well as others that are helpful to you.
Any kind of work experience displayed in the resume of a young graduating college student speaks very well for that student. This could involve part-time work or internships, in or out of the field, paid or unpaid, and during the summer or after school. Many students who have accumulated hundreds, if not thousands, of work hours at various jobs fail to include such activities in their resumes and, in effect, cheat themselves by omitting very salable credentials. A section that displays all of a person's part-time experience could very well be the deciding factor in job selection. A reader may think, "Norbert has had much more working experience than the other candidates; I just believe that he would be more mature and faster to adapt to this job with our firm.'* A graduating undergraduate or graduate student without any full-time work experience could boost a resume's salability by including a solid section on part-time work. On the other hand, the more full-time, in-field job experience one has, the less important it is to display part-time positions.
Recently-held jobs are of greater interest to employment representatives. For this reason, always first consider listing your jobs in reverse time order, leading off with the most recent one. Such an order demonstrates a progressive succession of job responsibility and authority. If by chance, however, you do not have an upward moving or progressive work record, the presentation of job information in reverse time order may not be recommended for you. For example, you may have a spotty work record with significant time gaps for reasons of unemployment, health, or institutional or therapeutic care. You may also be a 'rabbit," job-hopping here and there with no apparent direction. If you have any of these problems, you would be wise either to list your jobs according to the order of importance, with the most related job at the top, or to use the functional resume pattern, instead. With the first alternative, you should de-emphasize the actual dates of your jobs by placing dates in the middle or closer to the end of an item listing or by giving time spans instead of dates; for example, "two years" instead of 2012-2014.
Hopefully you have a progressive succession of work experience and can therefore use the reverse-time-order arrangement for listing items. Because the recent jobs that are listed at the top of your section are of greater interest to readers, you should try to give more in-depth coverage of job-related responsibilities and accomplishments. More in-depth coverage of recently held jobs re quires more paper space. This use of space is an excellent technique for achieving greater emphasis and highlighting the importance of your most recent accomplishments.
People often minimize the importance of military experience by only showing rank achieved, branch of service, and dates. The really impressive information, such as key responsibilities and achievements, is often omitted. A two-or-more-year military experience can contribute a great deal to a person's development and help build credentials that could be in great demand. If you have been in the military, carefully explore that experience for accomplishments and capabilities that might be impressive resume items.
Whereas a short two-year service in the military can be listed under either experience or education, a longer, five- to thirty-year service could most assuredly be listed under work experience and be considered one of the jobs you've held. Of course, you may be applying for a position with a firm that does work for the military or may be applying for a position that requires military credentials or experience. In such a case, feature your military record by presenting it in its own resume section.
Be careful to omit personal items that cannot help you and those that can actually hurt your image. Two items that should generally be omitted from your resume are "reason for leaving a job" and "salary history and goal."
Unless you have a reason for leaving a job that enhances your image or explains some very unusual circumstances, leave this type of discussion for the interview; in fact, it may never be brought up at all. You certainly would not disclose in a resume that you were fired or that you left because you could not get along with your boss. This would reflect poorly on you. Other possible reasons for leaving may be "to seek greater responsibility or to make more money." Such reasons are overused and trite, and it is better to save that resume space for something of greater interest.
If at all possible, do not include salary history in either resume or application letter. Revealing your salary history in your resume or application letter may be interpreted as a preoccupation with salary concerns—and that is bad. Also, knowledge of your salary history before there is an opportunity to examine your achievements and capabilities may give the interviewer a false impression of your true value. For example, you may have a low salary record, one showing irregular increases or even a no-growth pattern. Then, too, your salary record may be so high that the employment representative can never hope to meet your demands.
With regard to salary history, sell your performance, achievements, and company contributions first. This is a much more accurate measure of your financial worth to a company. Do not give the employer the opportunity to screen you out of the competition before the interview for reasons of a low, high, or irregular salary record.
Also try to avoid any discussion of desired salary within the resume or application letter. If a company's classified ad tells you to include salary sought, do not respond directly with a dollar figure. The figure you include might be higher than the firm is willing to pay or lower than it was expecting to pay. Either way, you could disqualify yourself on this point alone. The same rule applies during the early part of your initial interview with a firm. When asked to tell your desired salary in resumes and letters of application, on application blanks, or in the early phase of the initial interview, try to avoid doing so by hedging the request. First, "turn on" the employment representative with your capabilities; then you will be in a much better position to receive a better salary offer.
You can successfully avoid committing yourself prematurely to a figure by statements such as: ''can be determined only after knowing more about the specifics of the job and the economics of the area," "a salary commensurate with the nature of the job and my qualifications and experience," "reserve salary discussion for interview if you are interested in my credentials," or "at the going rate for someone with my qualifications." If you are asked to disclose your salary history on an application blank, you may consider this comment: "To be discussed during interview if interested."
Personnel agencies may require full disclosure of your salary history. In this case, you may cooperate fully by giving this information. They should not use your salary record against you, especially if they will make a commission off of your first year's salary. When dealing directly with a firm doing the hiring, however, your goal is to sell your capabilities and avoid initiating salary discussion. After or near the end of your interview the employment representative may mention a salary figure; that is certainly more appropriate—to get the employment representative to initiate the offer. You may be surprised and receive a salary offer higher than you expected. That is sometimes the prize of selling capability first and delaying salary discussion until later.
So that you can react quickly and intelligently to a possible salary offer, do prior research and be informed about the going salary ranges in the job you're seeking. If an offer is lower than you are willing to accept, don't be ashamed to tell the interviewer. Remember: if you've impressed the interviewer enough to receive a salary offer, that offer could be increased to satisfy you and acquire your services.
You can vary the amount of information presented about each job you've held. Generally, attempt to provide more accomplishments in more recent jobs and fewer accomplishments in earlier jobs. Of course, the time span in which you've held a particular job should have a direct bearing on its coverage in the resume. Each listing should, however, contain at least the following elements: (1) title of position—an actual job title or a more accurate description of the job performed, (2) name of organization, (3) location, and (4] dates of employment. According to the order of importance, lead off each job item with the job title. This element helps the reader to quickly understand the job held. An exception to this is when your job titles are less impressive than the companies you've worked for. In this case, you can lead off items with the names of the firms instead.
By implementing the tips and examples above, you can write a resume that will most effectively and accurately represent why you, above everyone else, are the best candidate for the job.
