How to Determine Your Career Path (Pt 2. How to Build a Solid Resume)

Stop putting off your resume!!!!  This post is for those who need to build a resume and have been procrastinating like mad, or for those of you who already have a resume but want to strengthen it.  If you are not someone who needs either of these things, then I highly doubt you want to read through this post, because it is super long and by the end of it, you will hate me.  However, in the future, when you have to build a resume or prepare a new one for other jobs you are applying to, come back and take a look at this post.  Then I’m pretty sure you will love me for how detailed I get about this subject.  Especially if you are a resume noob, and have no idea where to start.  Then you will probably want to marry me.

For those of you that suffer from chronic ADHD symptoms and can’t make it through this post no matter how hard you try, I have prepared a much shorter (ADHD friendly) consolidated bullet point list here.  It’s not nearly as detailed, but if you get too easily distracted, then the bullet point list might be better for you.  However, if you want someone to really help you through each and every issue, look through this post entirely, and by the end you’ll have a solid resume that you can put in a picture frame and appreciate for the rest of your life.  Kind of like your diploma.

If you suffer from partial ADHD, then my recommendation to you is that you don’t have to do this all in one sitting.  Bookmark this page, and come back to this post later if you need to take a break.  However, don’t put this off too long, or else you’re going to just get lazier, and lazier, and lazier…you know what I mean.  The best way for you to find a job is to get cracking, sit down, and do the necessary work for you to make it happen.

Remember, you have to do a good job selling yourself in any resume. Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter how sexy you are, because companies will not even accept your resume (most of the times) if you add a picture.  They are, by law, unable to consider your picture when determining whether or not you qualify for a job.  As such, you need to make sure that you come off as the most amazing and confident person ever, without them ever really seeing you.  How you write it then, is obviously going to be super important.

The type of resume that I will be focusing on is the typical chronological resume.  This type of resume basically focuses on listing your different job experiences in chronological order, and what type of roles and responsibilities you had while working at the specified location.

First things first, choose a template:  Template 1 | Template 2

Here is an example of a “finished” resume.  Open it up and take a look at it as well to use as a reference point.

Both template 1 and template 2 are valid choices.  However, the first template has a little added “edge” to it.  The second template is much more traditional and “safe”.  Decide for yourself if you want to be more traditional or not.

If neither of the templates are agreeable to you, then Microsoft Word provides a lot of template options already built in.  If you’ve looked through those and you are still unhappy, you can just build your own.  Just follow the basic principle of the resume, and design it however you want.  Don’t get too crazy with the design, however.  You can spice it up a little, but don’t forget, you’re selling yourself, and not the resume. As such, it’s often better to keep the look of your resume simple and sweet (just don’t put a hello kitty sticker on it and expect to get hired), and let your experience, skills, and words do the talking.

Name, Address, Email, and Phone Number for Resume

If you look at either template, both of them have marked in brackets where you’re supposed to write your name, address, email address, and phone number.  Take the time to do that now, and make sure that you get rid of the brackets.  It would look way too tacky if you kept the brackets in.

Anyways, this section of your resume should be pretty straightforward. The only real suggestion I have to make here is that if you have some weird email address like darkstarlegion@hotmail.com, deathbringer@yahoo.com, or iluvbobaandgirls@highschoolemail.com, I strongly recommend you go open a new email account immediately for professional purposes.  You are not applying to a World of Warcraft guild.  You are applying for a professional job, and so therefore you need a professional email. Typically speaking, having some form of your name in your email, such as samuelkim@gmail.com is the most ideal.  I realize, however, that nowadays that’s very difficult to do unless you have a really cool and unique name.  Find something that works for you, but is professional at the same time.  Then go to a trusted email site like www.gmail.com and make an account that your mother would be proud of (if you don’t already have one).

Is the Career Objective for Resume Important?

I’m sure some of you guys are wondering why I didn’t add a “career objective” section on the resume.  My opinion on the career objective is that it has more potential to harm you than benefit you.  Most people have a very difficult time writing an effective and meaningful career objective, and as such, I generally recommend skipping this part of the resume.  If you wanna “stand out”, write an excellent cover letter instead.  I write about the cover letter here.

If, however, you feel like you need/want a career objective, then by all means include it into your resume.  Just make sure that it is specific, meaningful, and really gives your potential future employer a good description of what you can contribute to the company.  Remember, this section is not about you, it’s about what you can do for your employer.  If people request more information on this section, I’ll provide a separate post covering this in detail.  Do this at your own risk.  Because if it sucks, then don’t be surprised when no one gives you a call back.  In particular, if you write something like, “my career objective is to make lots of money!”, I think you better start looking for other jobs to apply to.

List Your Education Background on Your Resume

On the education bit, list the highest education you have completed or are currently in the process of completing.  For example, if you are a current College Student, list what University you are going to, and don’t bother to list your High School.  For graduates, transfers, or those attending graduate school, list every single college you have attended and are currently attending.  Make sure this is done chronologically.  Once again, if you are not sure what I mean, open the sample finished resume and take a look.

Make sure you put the year you finished school (or write Present if you are still attending) and list the BA, BS, MA, etc. that you received upon completion. If your job requires GPA information (find out for yourself if they do or not), then provide that information and any honors you received while attending school.  For instance, if you graduated with magna cum laude or summa cum laude honors, you should obviously list that because it will help your cause tremendously.

List Professional Experience On Your Resume

This section of your resume is the most important section by a long shot.  If you can do this section well, then you will have a solid resume to give to your potential suitors.  Therefore, make sure you take your time to make it as polished as you possibly can.

Let’s start with the basics.  First of all, follow the bracket guidelines and enter your company name, year you started, and year you completed.  Just like with education, “present” is still an option if you are currently employed.  Then list your position and the city you were employed.

You should list your jobs in reverse-chronological order, with the most recent job you did (or are still doing) on top.  This list of jobs should only include jobs that are relevant to the position that you are seeking.  For instance, if you are applying for a marketing position, don’t list In-N-Out Hamburger Specialist as one of your job listings.  Furthermore, the oldest job you should list is 10 years back, unless you did a job more than 10 years ago that really captures the essence of what your new job will entail.  For instance, if you are applying to a position that requires administration skills, and more than 10 years ago you used to work as the head administrator of some company/office, then that is information you probably want to provide here.

As a rule of thumb, you generally do not want to extend your resume beyond a single page.  Sometimes, if you have a lot of relevant work experience that you believe is imperative for you to list, you can go two pages.  Don’t go beyond two pages, and even if you do two pages make sure that it’s very purposeful.  Your potential future employer has to work a little harder if you provide two pages, so they will be upset if you provided a lot of useless information that could have been omitted in favor of a one page resume.

Typically, four to five relevant jobs should easily cover the span of a page, and should be enough to sell yourself and your experience.  If you are not sure what position you had (IE: there was no specific position name for the job you had), then make something up that captures the essence of what you did.  Make your job sound as amazing as you possibly can without lying.  For instance, if you worked at a tutoring center doing random office work, you may choose to word it as “Administrative Specialist” instead of “Office Worker”.

List Job Responsibilities on Your Resume

Once you have a list of your jobs complete (remember, relevant jobs!), you want to begin listing the responsibilities you had while working at these various jobs.  Once again, you want to make this as relevant as possible.  If you are applying to a marketing position, think about all the qualities you would need to possess to be an effective marketer.  You would obviously need to have great communication skills, you would need to be able to think strategically and analytically, and you would need to be competent with technical equipment.  The roles and responsibilities you list needs to reflect this reality, and show your potential employer how you can provide them with the analytical, communication, and strategic experience/knowledge that they need.

Therefore, you need to use strong descriptive words to help your cause.  Let’s evaluate the completed resume’s job descriptions/roles and responsibilities.  To give you some context, Jane Doe is applying for a part time accounting position.  This is my friend’s resume that I helped construct with her.  Let’s analyze some elements of her job responsibilities.

“Mentee and assistant to lead manager of PwC, experience in auditing and accounting, extensive experience with Excel and Word, attended trainings on teamwork, internship development and management essentials.”

A few things to notice here are how she opened up her job responsibilities with “mentee and assistant”.  Most people would probably have stated “assistant to lead manager”.  However, adding in that “mentee” bit is very helpful because it gives the reader the impression that Jane Doe received a lot of hands on personal training from the “lead manager of PwC”.  Carefully phrased wording like this can really help sell your usefulness to the company.

Then Jane Doe begins to specifically list her experience at PwC so that she can show her potential employers why she is qualified to take on that accounting job.  Notice how she lists here “extensive experience” in Excel and Word.  The reason why Jane Doe chose to highlight those two specific qualities is because any accounting job will require a high competency in Excel and Word.  Therefore, she wanted to make sure that her point got across.  This is a very important selling point because many employers don’t have time to teach you all the basics of how to run their software, especially if you’re applying for a position that isn’t an internship.

Furthermore, adjectives such as “extensive” can be very helpful, especially when they’re true.  You do not want to add that tag if you really don’t have extensive experience, because then when you get the job (if you get the job) your inexperience will show, and it could end up really hurting you.  But if you do have extensive experience, then you should definitely add it (or an adjective like it) to help sell your cause.

Finally, Jane Doe lists elements she received training in, and made sure to specify that she learned about “teamwork, internship development, and management essentials”.  Basically, through that short and simple list, Jane Doe has communicated to the employer that she’s 1. Competent at working with other people (a quality that is important for ANY job), 2. Understands how to train other employees, and 3. Has a basic understanding of management skills.

If I went through each item on her list, I could point out reasons why her wording is powerful and really helps to sell her strengths, but that would make this post longer than it already is.  You should get the idea.  You need to use wording and phrasing that really helps to sell yourself to whatever job you’re applying for.

One final point I want to make is that Jane Doe chose to add her experience as the head coach of a volleyball team.  This may seem pointless, but when you think about it, the fact that she has “developed curriculum” and “worked individually with students” to help them succeed, and gained “tons of leadership and teamwork experience” are all relevant to almost any work environment.  Jane Doe has just effectively communicated that she’s good at working with people (both corporately and individually), is a leader, teacher, and is respected enough to be a head coach.  Think about what makes you such a valuable commodity to the company(ies) you are applying to, and sell yourself in that way.

Lists Skills and Interests on Your Resume

This is where you list any technical skills that you have that can benefit your company.  For instance, in Jane Doe’s resume, you can see that she lists “above average with Microsoft Excel and Word”.  Although this aspect was covered beforehand, she listed it again here for repetition (to emphasize to the potential employer that she really knows her stuff), and because this section is where you’re supposed to list that stuff.  Be honest here, but at the same time, try to make yourself sound as good as you possibly can.  For example, to say “average” is probably not a great thing to say.  Average has somewhat of a negative connotation to it.  You may choose to phrase it as “working and competent knowledge of Microsoft Word and Excel” instead.

Listing your type speed is also very important for your employer to know, but only if you are applying to a job that’s going to require a computer.  There are plenty of ways to find out your type speed, just google it and find out that way.

Another thing you can list here are any languages that you know how to speak, and how good you are at it.  For instance, if you are Asian (or some other ethnic orientation that may not speak English well), letting your employer know that you are “extremely fluent in English” can actually help them know not to be concerned with any potential communication issues.  Furthermore, being “conversational” or fluent in another language can help you get a job because, in most cases, knowing more than one language can be useful in some way.

Finally, your interest section is simply a place where you can connect with people on a level that exists beyond “technical” stuff.  Not only are you a worker, you are a person.  No one wants to work with someone who’s socially awkward or a robot.  People are attracted to people, and especially in a work environment where you have to see each other on a continual basis, being able to connect is very important.  List some things that you love to do.  Jane Doe listed “basketball, volleyball, piano, guitar, and traveling”.  If the person who’s looking at your resume enjoys the same things, that person may immediately develop positive feelings about your resume, and that can definitely help you get the job.

Email Resume to Friends After You Are Finished

After you are done with your resume, send it out to any friends you trust (English Majors would be nice) so that they can look over your resume and correct any grammar/word usage errors.  You are finished!  Congratulations!  If you did everything, you should have a solid resume to send out to all your potential employers!