Resumes (Harty) pgs. 275-306

*There is no ONE WAY to write a resume or cover letter. The templates should only be used as a guide. You should adjust your resume according to the job.

*Recruiting manager will be the toughest audience because they hear everything, have seen it all, and they all differ.

*In studies conducted, nearly all managers say that they looked at the appearance of the cover letter and application first and just scanning the following:
*written and oral communication skills
*computer skills
*interpersonal skills
*self-reliance and initiative, as demonstrated by the ability to work alone
*a sense of what the world of work demands in terms of dead lines
*specific skills in at least one business or technical area

*Put yourself in the employer’s position and talk to them about their needs rather than your wants.

*A resume is a good way to outline facts, but a cover letter is beneficial because prose can develop analogies that cannot be explained in short phrases.

*Edit, edit, edit. Take out any unnecessary words. Pg. 283

A good pattern to use (but not limited to this):

1. The first paragraph should state who the write is and what he/she wants.
2. The second paragraph, sometime the third, indicates why the writer wrote to the employer and mentions areas f mutual interests, special talents that night be of interest to the employers, or other factors relating to qualifications that could be better described in a letter than in a resume.
3. A final paragraph that suggests a course of action.

*Hard work and attention to detail make for a good letter.

*Don't say that you are willing to learn if someone can teach you. It goes without saying that there will be on-the-job training. You don't need to include that in your resume/cover letter.

*Don’t delegate the job of letter writing. It will sound fake.

*Sometimes a resume is not as beneficial as a cover letter, but still make one because it will help you outline the facts. The value of a resume is frequently more in its preparation than in its use.

*Use double-spacing to emphasize important things and use single-spacing to cut down on emphasizing the less important items or items that you might not want to highlight.

*Beware of misleading headlines. When you use a headline, think about what you are preparing the reader to anticipate. You don’t want to let them down with the following information.

*Ask yourself, “What words will catch the reader’s eye? What words will put the reader off?”

*Prepare your resume for a specific job. The best way to do this is to go through the job description and step by step develop your letter/resume from this.

*The functional resume allows you to develop a different message for each job or type of job you wish to apply for. Different functions can be highlighted, depending on what the job requires, and your specific experiences rearranged under different headings. Put the most relevant information at the top, not by date.

*A curriculum vitae (CV), literally, “course of life” in Latin, is a resume of academic positions. It does not need statement of goals or interest. Unlike the usual resume that focuses on the employer’s needs rather than merit, a CV should heavily highlight the applicant’s merit because faculty is often looking for the prestige that the applicant can bring to the department more so than their teaching ability, etc.

*Suggest using “career interest” rather than “job objective.”

*Try to keep it to one page. Take out any extra fluff and remember that the employer has very little time to scan your resume. Respect their time. However, do not make the resume fit on one page just for the sake of following a rule. An outline needs white space to make it easy to read.

*Get friends, especially ones in the occupation that you are applying for, to critique your resume.

*Get a friend to look at your resume from a few feet away and ask for comments on its appearance.

*Make sure the primary question of the person doing the critique is “What message do I get from this?”