You Majored in What? (27 page)

Is there a secret experimental wandering you would love to do, but are concerned that you might not do well in it? If you knew you couldn’t fail, what would you do?
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MY JOB AS A KRACKEL BAR

CREATING IRRESISTIBLE RÉSUMÉS THAT WILL GET YOU THE INTERVIEW

Ken, Barry was looking at your résumé and he agreed with me that eating with chopsticks is not really a special skill.

—
BEE MOVIE (2007)

A popular theory holds that there are four stages to learning:

1. Unconscious incompetence (where you don’t know what you don’t know)

2. Conscious incompetence (you now know what you don’t know and are completely overwhelmed)

3. Conscious competence (you know it but you have to concentrate to do it)

4. Unconscious competence (you know it so well you can do it without thinking)

You probably went through these stages when you first learned to drive a car: remember how easy it looked when you watched your parents drive? And then you got behind the wheel for the first time, and suddenly it seemed as if you had a million things to remember at once? You started driving, but you had to focus intensely on everything. After a while, though, you could drive without thinking about it all, and even talk on a cell phone at the same time.

So why do I bring this up in a chapter about résumés? Because writing a good résumé is one of the hardest tasks you’ll undertake in the job search process, and despite the thousands of books and Web sites dedicated to résumé writing, most college students do not produce a good résumé, at least not the first time out. Most employers can eliminate over 75 percent of their candidates by a brief glance at their résumés. And that’s a tragedy because a well-written résumé can beautifully encapsulate your experiences and serve as the bridge between you and the interview.

Résumés are a form of creative writing and have their own special rules and methods of construction that are different from virtually any other form of writing. So when it comes to résumés you’re probably in that first stage of learning, unconscious incompetence. You are used to writing five-page papers and maybe even used to starting a paper the night before it’s due, so you see this rather bland, innocent-looking one-page document and figure you can do it in an hour or so.

You’ve probably even seen those books that claim you can “write your résumé in an hour” or “overnight.” So you set aside an hour and sit down to write your résumé. Then you glance at your watch and forty-five minutes have flown by and you’re still trying to structure the education section. Poof—you’ve moved into stage two: conscious incompetence.

You suddenly realize that there are all these strange rules about formatting and language structure, and you’re not sure what information to include, much less how to organize it. If you have acquired a lot of experience, how do you cut it back to one page (that is the rule, isn’t it)? Or if you don’t have much experience, how do you make a whole page out of it? Use a size 28 font and list everything from tenth grade on? After an hour of this, like most people in the conscious incompetence stage, you walk away. Frustrated. Because it’s one thing to have the motivation of a fifteen-year-old who wants to drive—that will pull you through any tough stage of conscious incompetence—but you probably don’t have the same sense of urgency about writing a résumé, at least not today. Maybe tomorrow. And then you procrastinate until you discover a great job opportunity, it’s 11:00 p.m., and the deadline to upload your résumé is midnight.

It doesn’t help that so much of the résumé advice out there is conflicting and creates confusion or, dare I say, résumé chaos? For every employer who says “Job objectives are unnecessary” you’ll find another who says “I won’t read a résumé that doesn’t have a job objective.” For every résumé guide that says “The résumé must be one page only” another says “Two-page résumés are fine.” I’ve always told my students to spell everything correctly because spelling errors stop the job search. But I’ve heard employers say, “Oh, I overlook the occasional spelling error on a résumé if the candidate is really qualified.” See what I mean? Chaos. Well, once again, you can relax. Here’s what you need to remember: résumés are evaluated based on opinions, not hard and fast rules. So ultimately every piece of résumé advice comes down to one person’s opinion. Let’s just say that some opinions are more consistent and helpful than others. In this chapter, you’re going to get an opinion based on years of experience and reviewing thousands of résumés: good, bad, and ugly. The opinions expressed will fall well within the bell curve of traditional advice and are endorsed by a majority of employers. If you follow the guidelines presented here, you will produce a résumé that will serve you well in the job search process and place you ahead of a majority of other applicants.

Before we move into the details of résumé writing, here’s one recommendation: don’t try to do it all alone. You will need more than this book to write a great résumé. You should take your résumé to your career center or to someone who is familiar with current résumé styles for suggestions and feedback. Use this book and others to help write your draft, but
always
find other people to assist you. This chapter will give you the key information you need to write your résumé, but it can’t cover résumé writing with the thoroughness of a complete book on the subject. The goal is to make sure you articulate your wanderings in the best possible way, so this chapter will give you key guidelines to make your résumé stand out. Soliciting other opinions is always helpful. Just remember that ultimately it’s your résumé, so when you get conflicting information, go with what you think is right.

With that in mind, though, you still need to write your résumé yourself. Do not pay a service to write it for you and do not copy a résumé verbatim from a book or Web site. You might think you’re saving time and energy by paying someone else to write your résumé, but the work you’ll do answering their questionnaires and filling in your experiences will take almost as long as writing it yourself, and the résumé won’t really be yours. And if you copy some great lines from the sample résumé on your career center’s Web site, you can bet twenty other students did as well, and the employer will catch the similarities in a minute. Even résumés that have been created by special computer résumé-writing programs need editing, if only because a lot of the programs use the same formatting and recommend boilerplate phrases that students like and use, resulting in a formulaic résumé. Employers can spot a formulaic résumé a mile away. In fact, boilerplate formatted résumés that resemble every other résumé get rejected just as quickly as résumés with obvious errors. So use one of those computer programs if you’d like to start your résumé, but edit and adapt your résumé from there on, incorporating your unique background and taking advantage of all the help available.

You now know that it’s going to take more time than you think, so plan for that and give yourself time to rewrite and rework it. Your final résumé will be worth every extra second you put into it. In tight job markets, employers are looking for easy reasons to reject candidates and the résumé is one of the quickest and easiest ways to do that. While the résumé won’t get you the job, it will get you the interview that will get you the job, so your goal is to create a document that is interesting and compelling enough to convince an employer you’re worth meeting. If you’ve already written a résumé, get it out and review it as you go through this chapter. And if you haven’t, well, it’s time to start with that blank piece of paper again. Although this time I recommend you use a blank word processing screen instead of paper.

Before you get started, think back to Chapter 3 and get ready to apply many of the mindsets you developed as you work on the résumé, including analytic, strategic, creative systems, and perhaps most important, the positive mindset and right mind. It’s easy to get bogged down in the résumé-writing process, so keep your focus positive and remember how much you have to offer an employer. You may be tempted to read some of the rules and decide that you’re not going to follow them simply because you don’t want to. Try not to do that. You break the rules and guidelines at your own risk. In some very specific and special situations (such as in highly creative fields) the rules can be broken without consequence, but in general it’s better to follow them. So when you read that your résumé should be one page, don’t think “I’m going to write a three-page résumé to impress employers with how much I’ve done.” Instead, think “I’m going to impress employers by conveying the most relevant information on one page.” When you start to think “I’m going to print my résumé on a brightly colored piece of paper so it will stand out,” think instead “I’m going to print my résumé on standard résumé paper—the content of my résumé will make it stand out.”

While you’re digging up old résumés and your mindset list, get out your Wandering Map as well. Review it for any forgotten strengths or experiences you want to work into your résumé. Is it time to update it and add more experiences? Have you discovered some new themes or threads, or done any experimental wanderings since you wrote your map? Be sure to add the new information to your map and note where it connects with other themes and experiences in your life.

The last section of this chapter breaks down résumé writing into five distinct sections you can complete all at once or one at a time, depending on your schedule. You will be creating a basic résumé that will serve as your template, which you can adjust as needed to fit specific opportunities that come along. First, however, you’re going to learn three secrets that will keep your résumé at the top of the stack.

THREE SECRETS ABOUT AN IRRESISTIBLE RÉSUMÉ

OK, so I’m exaggerating a little. These aren’t necessarily secrets; you’ll read similar advice elsewhere. But they are far and away the three key aspects of résumé writing most ignored by college students and new résumé writers, so they might as well be secrets. Consider these vital elements as mantras to be repeated over and over while you write, critique, and edit your résumé:

1. To whom am I writing and why will they care?

2. Can I picture what I’ve written and can my claims be substantiated?

3. Is every word spelled correctly and is my résumé professional and attractive?

Let’s look at each of these vital elements in detail.

VITAL ELEMENT 1: TO WHOM AM I WRITING AND WHY WILL THEY CARE?

Well, I suspect there’s more to come from Dave Scott. But, in the meantime, “Brought back original crust from the moon” should weigh pretty impressively on your résumé, you know?

—DR. LEE SILVER,
FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON (1998 MINISERIES)

A classic adage in writing is to know your audience and write to them. If you’re writing a book on dogs, you need to know if your primary audience will be veterinarians or first graders. You wouldn’t write to a professor in the same style and language as you would to your best friend, and because a résumé is intended for a potential employer or graduate school admissions panel, you need to put yourself in their mindset and focus on what they are seeking. As you write each section of your résumé, ask yourself “Why am I telling my audience this?” and “What is my reader most interested in?” Constantly consider how you can add value to an employer: “What should this employer know about me?”

Asking these questions will help keep your résumé relevant, giving you a major advantage over other job seekers. The job to which you’re applying becomes your thesis statement, so to speak, and your résumé should support that central point. One way to do this is by using language common to the field (keywords). For example, if you are applying for a human resources job and you have tutored students, you might want to say “trained” students, because the word
training
is commonly used in human resources. Your keywords should be relevant to the field, particularly if your résumé is likely to be scanned. Using keywords is one of the best ways to demonstrate how your experience and education match the requirements of the position. You can find keywords in books about the field you’re interested in. The text for an introduction to an advertising course, for example, will likely contain all the keywords you need for an advertising job.

Have you ever tried to open one of those annoying plastic packages that are vacuum sealed around an electronic device or a pack of batteries? You have to really want what’s inside the package to go to the effort of opening it. Focus on that image when you’re writing your résumé. Are you making it easy for employers to find the information they’re seeking? Or do they have to read through all sorts of text before they can find what they’re looking for? Most recruiters will scan your résumé in less than fifteen seconds, and if they don’t see what they want right away, they’ll probably quit looking.

Part of knowing your audience is anticipating what they will like or dislike. You don’t want to set yourself up to be rejected by presenting your politics, religion, unusual hobbies, or other aspects of your personality if they are not relevant to the employer. Your participation in a particular church’s activities would be relevant in an application to a faith-based social service program; your hobby of playing “World of Warcraft” probably would not. On the other hand, if you’re applying to work for a gaming company they’re going to be much more interested in your knowledge and experience with online gaming than the church you attend. If you’re applying to work with a Republican senator, you might want to list your work with the college Democrats as “managed a campus political organization.” You can use your interview to explain the details if necessary. In the same vein of relevance, résumés are designed to reflect what you’ve done since entering college, so after your sophomore year, do not include high school information unless you are applying to work in a high school.