If you have a personal computer and are comfortable with it, this information can be readily input directly into a spreadsheet, or if your word processing has a table function (Word Perfect 5.1 has a dandy one), use that to start collecting your information. This information is the raw material from which you will be able to construct any kind of resume you need. You will want to keep this file or the worksheets you prepare and add to your categories as you think of information. When you do begin to write your actual resume, you'll find that much of the writing is already done. You'll mostly edit, cut and paste, or otherwise clean up the information you've already written.
Step 1. List all of the jobs you've had in the first column, one per page. If you have to make more pages, do so. Include beginning and ending dates for each, the names of your immediate superiors and the location. If you're not sure of the dates, look them up. Employment dates are one of the few legally verifiable bits of information human resources departments can check, so you'd better get them right.
Step 2. List the duties and responsibilities for each of those positions in the second column. What were your functions? Take as much space as you need so that you can go back and include other duties and responsibilities as you think of them. Write mini-job descriptions in this column. Don't attempt to polish. This is a working document, so jot down the information as you think of it. It will be easier later on if you list each duty and responsibility separately, instead of grouping them in one description.
Step 3. Describe what you accomplished. How did you solve problems; what were your sales successes; how did you save the company money; what did you do on that job that set you apart from what somebody else might have done? List each accomplishment separately, even though individual accomplishments were sometimes a part of a larger project. Line up the accomplishments next to the related duty or responsibility which legitimized your accomplishment.
Step 4. List the results of each accomplishment. What did it actually do for your company? Results should generally be quantifiable, unless it was an absolute, or the first time something was done. Express results in terms of time saved; money saved or earned; product or services sold; or improvement of some kind. Results should be concrete, not abstract. Use numbers, percentages, actual dollars, not vague terms such as "improved company profitability." If you actually did improve company profitability, state how much or by what percentage. For each accomplishment you listed in Step 3, you should write a matching result in this step.
When you've completed the initial part of this task, write down the colleges and universities you attended, in reverse chronological order, by date of attendance. Indicate the degrees you received. If part of your professional competence was learned in short courses and seminars, list those, too. (You'll seldom list all of these on a resume, but you might want to mention them in a cover letter if they were essential to performance on the jobs for which you were applying.)
On another page, note memberships or affiliations with professional organizations and associations. Include any licenses you may hold. Also note any offices you held, and the dates.
If you've published or received any honors, list these on another sheet or two of paper. (Some prolific writers may need several pages for this.) List any patents you have been granted. (You may have to do some real personal research to organize all this, complete with dates, journals in which published, patent numbers, etc.)
Don't spend time gathering information on your social or personal life. Most of this information comes under the heading of "illegal" information, and shouldn't be used in a resume. However, if you have some specific skills or accomplishments that might be of value to an employer, you might want to list those: for instance, any languages you speak or write, if you were an officer in a community organization of interest to the business community such as the chamber of commerce or the United Way.
You now have the raw materials you'll need to write your resume. Suggestion: if you have collected them in a computer file, print out the information and keep it in a notebook. Ditto, if you were hand-writing on paper. These are the resources you'll use to write your stand-alone resumes, cover letters and tailored letter resumes.
What about Ages and Dates?
The 1975 Age Discrimination Employment Act did away with the requirement that job applicants give their birthdates and/or ages on job applications and in interviews. (Check the list of illegal questions in the Interview HI chapter for a fuller explanation.) You absolutely do not include your age or birth date on a resume. You don't include the dates you attended or graduated from high school or college-which also tell your age. (You will have to provide this information after you have been hired, for insurance purposes, but not before.) Don't even go back to the beginning of your employment career to list every job you ever held. For most older job seekers, showing the last 15 to 20 years of employment is plenty. Those were the years, anyway, when you most likely accomplished the tasks you want to stress on your resume.
The breadth and depth of your accomplishments is one argument against using a functional resume. Detailing all of the functions you've mastered can reveal your general age because no one could have done that much without living and working quite a few years!
