How to Write an Award-Winning Resume?

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Summary: An award winning resume is one which contains each and every aspect of candidate’s professional journey in a brief manner. You will have to take stand on what is important and what is not so that you can include only relevant things. It should look attractive.

How to Write an Award-Winning Resume?

Experience, skills, education and personal characteristics, drop everything and do so immediately! If you have done this, you should have a list of specific, quantified, validated accomplishments, and SOAR statements (written in the following sequence: Subject, Overview, Action, Result). This information will make writing a resume a much easier task.



Job Objectives-Yes or No

An objective is a target statement that precedes the body of information presented on a resume.

The danger with making a declaration such as this, is that it can oftentimes hamper your job hunting efforts. What happens, for instance, if you are turned down by all of the major accounting firms? Will some other firm be willing to settle for being your ninth, tenth, or eleventh choice? Will they even consider you? Of course, you could print another resume featuring a new objective-one that eliminates any mention of the major firms.

What if you water down your objective a little? Still bad. A generally vague objective such as the following consumes prime space and priceless time.

What busy employer has the time or the patience to wade through this verbal nonsense? Yet, many resume "experts" insist upon the use of such mealy-mouthed objectives!

Consider this: the objective appears at the top of the paper, right under your contact information, occupying prime real estate. If your resume were a newspaper, merchants would willingly pay dearly for the chance to replace the day's headline with their advertisement.

Should You Use an Objective?

Here are a few guidelines. You decide. You should probably use an objective:
 
  • If you are seeking an entry level position-like a recent college graduate.
  • If you are seeking a position not spelled out by the first job title on your resume. For example: If you have been a Sales Representative and would like to move up to a Sales Manager's position you could state:

Other than in these situations, I have difficulty endorsing the use of objectives. Objectives too often make weak, generalized statements such as "a challenging position," "a position utilizing my people skills," or "a position leading to personal and professional growth and advancement." Get to the point! Stop wasting valuable resume space and reading time. If you can't write a specific, targeted objective, don't bother to include one.

Consider this: you can always include an objective statement in the cover letter you write to accompany your resume. The inclusion of an objective in a targeted cover letter not only provides focus, but it also gives you something to say when you could be struggling with finding something to say.

Summaries and Background Statements-Yes or No?

Oftentimes you will find some type of career summary or back ground statement leading into the body of a resume.

I'm sure you can see that this example is not unlike the objective stated on the prior page. Generally, for the very same reason it is a bad idea to use an objective, it is not a good idea to use a career summary.

A career summary similar to this does nothing to make the reader want to continue to read the resume. It often does just the opposite. Resume readers take from ten to twenty seconds to scan a resume. Who could possibly get excited by such a lackluster introduction?

Now, having said that, let's take a look at an appropriate use of a career summary or background statement.

What makes this summary acceptable and the one cited before it unacceptable? Although it has a rather generalized introductory sentence, it goes immediately into what looks like a wealth of experience with vendors on an international level. Anyone engaged in manufacturing, especially automotive manufacturing, would recognize that the continents/countries cited are the global players of note.

It uses current buzz words or phrases... "APICS," "MRP." There's nothing like being on the cutting edge of your industry to catch and maintain an employer's attention. Sometimes a career summary is a good way to immediately tell the reader that you are "with it," or that you have extensive experience in the area in which you hope to land.

In most instances, you will most likely be better off not to include a career or summary statement on your resume. That is my opinion. However, I feel obligated to let you know there are numerous job search consultants who really like to use career summary or background statements.

So, unless you have some very impressive experience directly related to the position you are seeking, you are probably better off not to include a background summary.

Dates

Unless you changed jobs several times in the middle of the year(s) there is really no need to include the months when you began and ended each job. Years will suffice.

If you are on severance you are technically still on the company payroll. So, after the beginning date of your most recent job, print the word "Present." For example:

CONTROLLER    1995-Present

Companies frequently give hiring preference to job seekers who are currently employed, although, given the job market in the last decade, they have become more accustomed to hiring unemployed people.

If you are out of work and no longer on the company payroll, you should cite the year you left the company:

CONTROLLER    1995-97

If you have done a lot of job-hopping or have gaps in your employment record you should consider trying to write a resume that minimizes or eliminates dates. Just realize that employers prefer the standard or chronological resume. They have neither the time nor the inclination to try to read between the lines.

Action Words

The inclusion of appropriate action words or SOAR statements, which you should have compiled prior to beginning your resume, will give life to your presentation. Don't use the same statements or action words over and over again... supervised this... supervised that, and so on. Use expressions such as "supervised," "directed," and "managed."

Company Names

My preference is to set company names in capital letters followed by the city and dates in upper and lower case:

BRAXTON MANUFACTURING, INC., Elysia, IL 1995-Present

You may place the company names before, beside, or after each job title. It is up to you to decide what serves your purpose and what you think looks the best.

Job Titles

I like job titles all caps, bold-faced, and underlined. I know, under lining typesetting is a "no-no," but we're not talking about pleasing your college English professor. We're talking about getting somebody to read your resume. Your future depends on it. So, forget about the rules, except for punctuation and grammar. I happen to like the way that judicious underlining makes job titles stand out.

Let's create a job title format that will invite itself to be read. Here's how a title would look both ways, underlined and not underlined. Take your pick. Choose the style you like best.

Duties and Responsibilities

Think back upon what you did each day on your former or present job(s). What actions did you take? What tools or instruments were involved? Who did you work for or with? What were the results? If you performed above and beyond what was expected of you, turn these actions into accomplishments.

Accomplishments

When you have accomplishments to sell, sell them: increased, eliminated, saved, reduced, exceeded. Use SOAR statements-Subject, Overview, Action and Result. Bullet them to make them stand out. Indent the bulleted statements from both the left and right margins to frame them with a little white space to draw the reader's eye right to them. You may even wish to place "Accomplishments" in bold letters pre ceding them. Use dollars, numbers, and percentages. Show how you can add to the bottom line. There is nothing more important to a resume than specific accomplishments that show specific results,

Education

Education beyond the high school level should be stated. If you did not graduate but completed a few years or courses, simply state the name of the program you were enrolled in, the name of the institution, and the city and state it is in. If your education is ancient history, you might be wise to simply leave out the date(s) when you graduated.

If you participated in career-advancing seminars or workshops, these should also be listed by name, who taught them (if significant), and if of recent vintage, the dates (years only) when you participated. Unless these courses were lengthy, don't include the number of days that they were held. Include both in-house and off-site classes.

Honors and Awards

Be sure to include any special honors and/or awards you have received relative to your employment. State the name of the award and the date received. Remember to include any special employee task force or team you were assigned to or for which you volunteered.

Publications and Patents

You may have authored some articles or reports pertinent to your job objective. Perhaps you were responsible for obtaining a patent or patents. If you have enough of these items you might want to consider adding an addendum to your resume. If you haven't enough to make this addendum impressive, you can always include all of your education followed by your publications or patents.

Affiliations

Do you belong to a professional association? A fraternal or civic organization? Unless it is religiously oriented, you should include it. Be certain to include any offices you might have held or any special committees you chaired or served on.

Volunteer Work

Even if this experience does not relate to your job target, it still presents you in a favorable light. Like work experience, start with your most recent volunteer experience and go back in time-unless an earlier experience is more directly applicable.

Include: volunteer/job title (if any) - organization name - dates of volunteer work-organization    description - volunteer work description - duties and responsibilities (these may be included under volunteer work description) - accomplishments and achievements-special commendations.

Military History

Only include if you were honorably discharged. Specify: branch of service-dates of service-assignments and locations-rank(s)-duties and responsibilities-military schooling.

Hobbies and Interests

Add if applicable to position sought, if you need filler material, or if you believe it will stimulate conversation. (Did you know that George M. Cohan gave preference to male actors for his shows based upon whether they could contribute on the field to his baseball team?)

References and Salary Requirements

Entry level job seekers may wish to include references when mailing a resume. All other job seekers-don't bother. You will be asked for references once the employer is interested in hiring you.

When requesting references, employers want first and foremost to see your business or work references. But, because of fear of what they say being held against them in court, most employers simply refuse to release such information. Save your references for during or after the interview. They could help to build a stronger on-site case for being hired.

Never present salary requirements in a cover letter, a resume, or when responding to a help-wanted ad. It's too easy to eliminate yourself from contention by stating an amount that's too high or too low.

Layout or Appearance

There is no definite, absolute format that dictates how you have to write your resume or what it should look like. You can choose any approach you like. Select a format that best represents your interests. If you attempt to get clever or extremely original, most employers will immediately reject your offering.

An exception to straightforward resumes might be made for those job seekers in the fields of advertising, show business, or public relations. Here, creative thinking is a welcomed commodity and daring to be different can be appreciated.

Finally, leave plenty of white space; let it breathe. Keep it short-one page if at all possible. Never more than two. Have it typeset or print it on a letter quality or laser printer. Don't use more than two type styles, and don't use huge letters, exotic borders, or excessive underlining.
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