Thread: Resume/Interview Tips

What a great Idea. I too agree that the only place you can find something awesome like this is on TPP!

Below is a very good article that I came across that helped a co-worker of mine polish up their resume when they were looking to move to New Mexico.

Hope it can help others.
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44 Resume Writing Tips



Having a solid and effective resume can greatly improve your chances of landing that dream job. That is beyond discussion. How does one make sure that his resume is top notch and bullet proof, however? There are several websites with tips around the web, but most bring just a handful of them. We wanted to put them all together in a single place, and that is what you will find below: 44 resume writing tips.

1. Know the purpose of your resume

Some people write a resume as if the purpose of the document was to land a job. As a result they end up with a really long and boring piece that makes them look like desperate job hunters. The objective of your resume is to land an interview, and the interview will land you the job (hopefully!).

2. Back up your qualities and strengths

Instead of creating a long (and boring) list with all your qualities (e.g., disciplined, creative, problem solver) try to connect them with real life and work experiences. In other words, you need to back these qualities and strengths up, else it will appear that you are just trying to inflate things.

3. Make sure to use the right keywords

Most companies (even smaller ones) are already using digital databases to search for candidates. This means that the HR department will run search queries based on specific keywords. Guess what, if your resume doesn’t have the keywords related to the job you are applying for, you will be out even before the game starts.

These keywords will usually be nouns. Check the job description and related job ads for a clue on what the employer might be looking for. You can read more about resume keywords on the article Tapping the Power of Keywords to Enhance Your Resume’s Effectiveness.

4. Use effective titles

Like it or not, employers will usually make a judgment about your resume in 5 seconds. Under this time frame the most important aspect will be the titles that you listed on the resume, so make sure they grab the attention. Try to be as descriptive as possible, giving the employer a good idea about the nature of your past work experiences. For example:

Bad title: Accounting
Good title: Management of A/R and A/P and Recordkeeping

5. Proofread it twice

It would be difficult to emphasize the importance of proofreading your resume. One small typo and your chances of getting hired could slip. Proofreading it once is not enough, so do it twice, three times or as many as necessary. If you don’t know how to proofread effectively, here are 8 tips that you can use.

6. Use bullet points

No employer will have the time (or patience) to read long paragraphs of text. Make sure, therefore, to use bullet points and short sentences to describe your experiences, educational background and professional objectives.

7. Where are you going?

Including professional goals can help you by giving employers an idea of where you are going, and how you want to arrive there. You don’t need to have a special section devoted to your professional objectives, but overall the resume must communicate it. The question of whether or not to highlight your career objectives on the resume is a polemic one among HR managers, so go with your feeling. If you decide to list them, make sure they are not generic.

8. Put the most important information first

This point is valid both to the overall order of your resume, as well as to the individual sections. Most of the times your previous work experience will be the most important part of the resume, so put it at the top. When describing your experiences or skills, list the most important ones first.

9. Attention to the typography

First of all make sure that your fonts are big enough. The smaller you should go is 11 points, but 12 is probably safer. Do not use capital letters all over the place, remember that your goal is to communicate a message as fast and as clearly as possible. Arial and Times are good choices.

10. Do not include “no kidding” information

There are many people that like to include statements like “Available for interview” or “References available upon request.” If you are sending a resume to a company, it should be a given that you are available for an interview and that you will provide references if requested. Just avoid items that will make the employer think “no kidding!”

11. Explain the benefits of your skills

Merely stating that you can do something will not catch the attention of the employer. If you manage to explain how it will benefit his company, and to connect it to tangible results, then you will greatly improve your chances.

12. Avoid negativity

Do not include information that might sound negative in the eyes of the employer. This is valid both to your resume and to interviews. You don’t need to include, for instance, things that you hated about your last company.

13. Achievements instead of responsibilities

Resumes that include a long list of “responsibilities included…” are plain boring, and not efficient in selling yourself. Instead of listing responsibilities, therefore, describe your professional achievements.

14. No pictures

Sure, we know that you are good looking, but unless you are applying for a job where the physical traits are very important (e.g., modeling, acting and so on), and unless the employer specifically requested it, you should avoid attaching your picture to the resume.

15. Use numbers

This tip is a complement to the 13th one. If you are going to describe your past professional achievements, it would be a good idea to make them as solid as possible. Numbers are your friends here. Don’t merely mention that you increased the annual revenues of your division, say that you increased them by $100,000, by 78%, and so on.

16. One resume for each employer

One of the most common mistakes that people make is to create a standard resume and send it to all the job openings that they can find. Sure it will save you time, but it will also greatly decrease the chances of landing an interview (so in reality it could even represent a waste of time). Tailor your resume for each employer. The same point applies to your cover letters.

17. Identify the problems of the employer

A good starting point to tailor your resume for a specific employer is to identify what possible problems he might have at hand. Try to understand the market of the company you are applying for a job, and identify what kind of difficulties they might be going through. After that illustrate on your resume how you and your skills would help to solve those problems.

18. Avoid age discrimination

It is illegal to discriminate people because of their age, but some employers do these considerations nonetheless. Why risk the trouble? Unless specifically requested, do not include your age on your resume.

19. You don’t need to list all your work experiences

If you have job experiences that you are not proud of, or that are not relevant to the current opportunity, you should just omit them. Mentioning that you used to sell hamburgers when you were 17 is probably not going to help you land that executive position.

20. Go with what you got

If you never had any real working experience, just include your summer jobs or volunteer work. If you don’t have a degree yet, mention the title and the estimated date for completion. As long as those points are relevant to the job in question, it does not matter if they are official or not.

21. Sell your fish

Remember that you are trying to sell yourself. As long as you don’t go over the edge, all the marketing efforts that you can put in your resume (in its content, design, delivery method and so on) will give you an advantage over the other candidates.

22. Don’t include irrelevant information

Irrelevant information such as political affiliation, religion and sexual preference will not help you. In fact it might even hurt your chances of landing an interview. Just skip it.

23. Use Mr. and Ms. if appropriate

If you have a gender neutral name like Alex or Ryan make sure to include the Mr. or Ms. prefix, so that employers will not get confused about your gender.

24. No lies, please

Seems like a no brainer, but you would be amused to discover the amount of people that lie in their resumes. Even small lies should be avoided. Apart from being wrong, most HR departments do background checks these days, and if you are buster it might ruin your credibility for good.

25. Keep the salary in mind

The image you will create with your resume must match the salary and responsibility level that you are aiming for.

26. Analyze job ads

You will find plenty of useful information on job ads. Analyze no only the ad that you will be applying for, but also those from companies on the same segment or offering related positions. You should be able to identify what profile they are looking for and how the information should be presented.

27. Get someone else to review your resume

Even if you think you resume is looking kinky, it would be a good idea to get a second and third opinion about it. We usually become blind to our own mistakes or way of reasoning, so another people will be in a good position to evaluate the overall quality of your resume and make appropriate suggestions.

28. One or two pages

The ideal length for a resume is a polemic subject. Most employers and recruiting specialists, however, say that it should contain one or two pages at maximum. Just keep in mind that, provided all the necessary information is there, the shorter your resume, the better.

29. Use action verbs

A very common advice to job seekers is to use action verbs. But what are they? Action verbs are basically verbs that will get noticed more easily, and that will clearly communicate what your experience or achievement were. Examples include managed, coached, enforced and planned. Here you can find a complete list of action verbs divided by skill category.

30. Use a good printer

If you are going to use a paper version of your resume, make sure to use a decent printer. Laser printers usually get the job done. Plain white paper is the preferred one as well.

31. No hobbies

Unless you are 100% sure that some of your hobbies will support you candidacy, avoid mentioning them. I know you are proud of your swimming team, but share it with your friends and not with potential employers.

32. Update your resume regularly

It is a good idea to update your resume on a regular basis. Add all the new information that you think is relevant, as well as courses, training programs and other academic qualifications that you might receive along the way. This is the best way to keep track of everything and to make sure that you will not end up sending an obsolete document to the employer.

33. Mention who you worked with

If you have reported or worked with someone that is well known in your industry, it could be a good idea to mention it on the resume. The same thing applies to presidents and CEOs. If you reported to or worked directly with highly ranked executives, add it to the resume.

34. No scattered information

Your resume must have a clear focus. If would cause a negative impression if you mentioned that one year you were studying drama, and the next you were working as an accountant. Make sure that all the information you will include will work towards a unified image. Employers like decided people.

35. Make the design flow with white space

Do not jam your resume with text. Sure we said that you should make your resume as short and concise as possible, but that refers to the overall amount of information and not to how much text you can pack in a single sheet of paper. White space between the words, lines and paragraphs can improve the legibility of your resume.

36. Lists all your positions

If you have worked a long time for the same company (over 10 years) it could be a good idea to list all the different positions and roles that you had during this time separately. You probably had different responsibilities and developed different skills on each role, so the employer will like to know it.

37. No jargon or slang

It should be common sense, but believe me, it is not. Slang should never be present in a resume. As for technical jargon, do not assume that the employer will know what you are talking about. Even if you are sending your resume to a company in the same segment, the person who will read it for the first time might not have any technical expertise.

38. Careful with sample resume templates

There are many websites that offer free resume templates. While they can help you to get an idea of what you are looking for, do not just copy and paste one of the most used ones. You certainly don’t want to look just like any other candidate, do you?

39. Create an email proof formatting

It is very likely that you will end up sending your resume via email to most companies. Apart from having a Word document ready to go as an attachment, you should also have a text version of your resume that does not look disfigured in the body of the email or in online forms. Attachments might get blocked by spam filters, and many people just prefer having the resume on the body of the email itself.

40. Remove your older work experiences

If you have been working for 20 years or more, there is no need to have 2 pages of your resume listing all your work experiences, starting with the job at the local coffee shop at the age of 17! Most experts agree that the last 15 years of your career are enough.

41. No fancy design details

Do not use a colored background, fancy fonts or images on your resume. Sure, you might think that the little flowers will cheer up the document, but other people might just throw it away at the sight.

42. No pronouns

You resume should not contain the pronouns “I” or “me.” That is how we normally structure sentences, but since your resume is a document about your person, using these pronouns is actually redundant.

43. Don’t forget the basics

The first thing on your resume should be your name. It should be bold and with a larger font than the rest of the text. Make sure that your contact details are clearly listed. Secondly, both the name and contact details should be included on all the pages of the resume (if you have more than one).

44. Consider getting professional help

If you are having a hard time to create your resume, or if you are receiving no response whatsoever from companies, you could consider hiring a professional resume writing service. There are both local and online options are available, and usually the investment will be worth the money.

Daniel Scocco on May 19, 2008
http://www.dailywritingtips.com/resume-writing-tips/

Everyone can use this, sounds like a sticky to me. Feel free to add to this in posts, if enough people think its a good tip, we'll chuck it on the list.

Less fluff, more fact.

I review resumes for college interns and the occasional entry level analyst and I can't tell you some of the ridiculous descriptions of "Cashier" or "Waiter/Server" i read.

If you are a cashier, we know you handle money, deliver good customer service - please don't try to somehow make that job sound uber important when we both know it isnt.

Stick to the facts and essential job functions of your jobs leading to the one you are applying for now.

work in your level or position at TTP.  Do you start a clan? Work in the application of the code of conduct. Admin a server? Enforce the teamplay/communication. Hell I did and I found myself with a guaranteed transfer to Cornell.

NOTE: Lots of other things went into that other application.  For all you know they may also need someone who is tech/web savvy.

Originally Posted by rock_lobster

Concerning the waiter/server comment, for those people who only have restaurant experience and are looking for a position pertaining to their career (let's say accounting or marketing)...what advice would you give them when listing their job experience?

Before I worked for any offices, the only experience I had was serving people at restaurants, amongst other non office jobs, and I found that it was very difficult to make a job experience section on my resume, because it looked so "unimportant".

If you're just breaking into your job field for the first time (whether as an intern or post-graduation), any perspective employer won't necessarily expect you to have relevant work experience. Just list the jobs you've held and place more focus on the things that are relevant (major, GPA). They will take into consideration that this is your first job in industry. Your job history will more be a testament to your work ethic than experience.

I would also agree that nobody wants to, or will for that matter, read a two paragraph story about your experience as a whatever. Tell where you worked, what your title was, and if necessary list any major duties that may no be typical. If you were a waiter you probably would not want to mention that you delivered food from the kitchen to the table, since that is obvious, but would want to mention that you were responsible for training new staff, if applicable, because this is not something that every waiter would do.

Rock & other service industry veterans.

I am totally with you. The only non-food-service job I had before graduating college was as a shift manager at a Blockbuster Video.

Entry level jobs are just that, entry level. They don't necessarily expect you to have tons of relevant experience just yet. I will say, though, that filling your extra curricular time with unpaid internships or volunteer work will help build up a resume so it is able to more easily overcome a college career as a bartender at Chilis.

I worked at Chilis, Applebees, Steak & Ale, two hotel bars and a video store and managed alright.

Stress how those jobs prepared you to deal successfully with a multitude of personality types. If you were a good server then you learned how to think on your feet, come up with creative solutions to problems, honed your personality so as to be able to accommodate all kinds of different people. If you are going out for a sales job, then talk about how your tenure as a server caused you to effectively sell yourself, your services, and the establishment you worked for each and every time a new customer sat down in your section and while the subject matter of that job and whatever job you are pursuing may differ, you will be able to utilize those skills to the benefit of whoever hires you.

Booyah, touchdown - then you spike the ball, make out with the prom queen and drink a beer because your ass is HIRED!

Unless I'm doing the interview then I smell your BS for what it is and smack you down to size and start questioning your GPA.

Originally Posted by Muqtar SGT_Clintok

This isn't an article, but more real world observations from the hiring side of things.

I manage nine network engineers directly, and work within a team of 40 engineers, Tier IV IT support for the military. Over the past year I have taken on the the role of technical screener/interviewer for people being hired.

Here are some things that sink people time after time when interviewing.

* If you cannot discuss or answer questions on the subject, take it off your resume.
When I interview people, I usually am pulled away from my job. I don't have a long time to digest and pour through resumes. I read through experience listed and look for what people advertise on their resume. When I see specific skills mentioned, It draws attention to the subject. If you cannot go into details on a skill, it is going to show. The analogy I frequently use is that when people claim they know how to swim, the first place we are going to visit is the pool.

* If you do not know the answer to a question, admit it. Do not try to improvise on technical subjects.
When people are asked questions that they do not know and try to answer anyways with something other than knowledge, it is a huge mark against them. The interviewer may not make a huge issue out it, but you just struck out. I would rather see someone tell me flat out, I do not know the answer to that because I haven't worked with it up to this point. In most cases, a serious interview is going to consist of someone who knows the answers to the questions they are going to ask and wont be fooled.

* Try to focus on what you have been doing within the past year or two.
I rarely pay any attention to the information about the jobs you held beyond the past 6 years. Technology moves quickly, and (at least in my case) people understand that skills go stale after you have been busy doing other things. If you can find a way to steer the interview in the direction of what you are freshly familiar with, you will be better off. One of the most successful people I have interviewed to date stopped me and flatly said " I may not be able to answer all the questions on technologies you are interested in, because I don't work here yet. Could I give you a chance to see what I know about where I currently work?" He then whiteboarded the overview of his current network, and it showed that he knew his job in a different environment.

* Try to avoid power phrases and jargon. Be real.
Some phrases that make me laugh when I hear them.
I am a team player (sorry TTP)
I think outside the box
My biggest weakness is that I work too hard

A couple of questions to break the ice and probe familiarity:

Binary - What does a 32 bit IP address mean in your own words

CIDR - Explain to me what 192.168.101.128/25 means. How many networks, and how many hosts.

DHCP - Describe the service path of a DHCP request. What is a DHCP relay agent, or helper address and why is it necessary.

DNS - Name a few of the different types of DNS records and describe their function. Name a few of the different zone types and describe their differences.

TCP/IP - Describe the difference between TCP and UDP.

NAT - Describe Network Address Translation and how it works.

What is the difference between layer 2 and layer 3 of the OSI model.

What protocol does "ping" use.

Explain the difference between Forests, domains, and OUs in Active Directory.

Can you publish software using Group Policy

What are the three scopes and two types of groups in an Exchange enabled Active directory environment. What are the differences.