Part 3: The Art of Resume Writing

Mistakes, poor writing, not enough detail can trash your chances

Patricia Kitchen | Change@work

October 12, 2003

Part 3 of a weekly series helping people with job searches.

One core marketing tool on any job search is your resume. Yet employers harp on how many they receive that are poorly written, designed or proofread -- the ones that get sent directly to trash land.

Don't let yours be one of them. Instead of relying on your sister's dorky boyfriend, check out one of the many resume writing books or career Web sites for help.

Following are the key elements to a chronological resume, one with work experience/employers listed in reverse chronological order. (The other -- functional, organized by skills and accomplishments -- is used mostly by career changers or more senior people, says Joseph Terach, a resume writer with Resume Deli, a resume-writing site. )

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First comes your name and contact information. And this is an excellent time to switch to a more professionally sounding e-mail address if yours is something like cutiepie @xyz.com.

Next, your objective. Some experts say this is a must, others say it's optional. But if you include one, don't waste space with a generic statement, such as: seeking an entry-level position in marketing, where I can hone my skills and advance.

Tell an employer "what you can do for them, not what they will do for you," says Marta Hernando, a labor-service representative with the state Labor Department in Manhattan.

Include some of your characteristics -- hard worker, detail-oriented, team player -- especially if you don't have much work experience. "Employers do place emphasis on personality traits," says Linda Matias, president of CareerStrides, a career services firm in Smithtown and president of the National Resume Writers Association.

Work and/or internship experience. Two big problems here are wishy-washy wording and lack of detail. If Santa Claus were writing a resume, Terach would advise him to replace "managed reindeers" with "increased 2003 global gift distribution 60 percent by hiring, training and managing my eight reindeer to haul a sleigh filled with toys." Get the picture?

Dolores Penafiel, 21, does. A freshman at LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City, she attended Hernando's resume-writing workshop last month and realized she had not included enough specifics from the quality-control processor job she held in her native Ecuador. "I have to put more than the basics," says Penafiel of Woodside, who'll look for a job next year.

Education. If you're about to graduate and have little significant work or internship experience, this comes at the top right after your contact information. But once you have a real job under your belt, education moves below work experience.

That's one of the many things Mark Shohet, 31, a Manhattan equity trader now looking for work, learned from Terach, who also advised him to eliminate his GPA, scholarships received and class rank.

"It's nice for an employer to know I was in the top 10 percent of my class, but it's more important to have more white space," says Shohet, to make the document more appealing to the eye.

[WEB EXTRA: Compare Mark Shohet's original resume, and the revamped version from Resume Deli.]

Personal interests. Here we have some controversy. Resume experts say no, no, no mentioning your interest in stamp collecting or weaving, unless it relates in some way to the job you're seeking. Think strategically, they say. If you're looking to enter a macho profession, you sure could mention you were captain of your college football team.

You can never tell what prospective employers may rule you out for, Matias says. If you say you enjoy sky diving, a potential marketing boss might think that's cool. But a prospective accounting boss may worry you're too much of a risk-taker, not a quality valued in that profession.

Still, some recruiters like to see your interests. Not only do they show you are well-rounded, but they also help with small talk before or after an interview.

A couple of other tips: When e-mailing a resume, follow the recruiters' directions, but in most cases the document should include no special formatting. Do a trial printout at home to see what the resume will look like printed at the receiver's end. Because recruiters receive so many resumes, in the subject line you should include your name, as in: Mary Smith's resume.

And finally, proofread each copy before you send it. You never know when you may have introduced a typo or misspelling -- your resume's one-way ticket to the circular file.

WEB EXTRA: Compare Mark Shohet's original resume, and the revamped version from Resume Deli.