Posted by:
Deputy Director George Moriarty, Department of Workforce Development
One of the most important steps in the job search process is building a resume, yet many job seekers have a difficult time with this step. I asked Mark Houlihan at The Career Place, the one-stop career center in Woburn, if he had any advice to help people get started. Mark works with job seekers to help them with their job search and is especially good at critiquing resumes, here is what he had to say:
"You have to remember that every customer is different; therefore, every resume will be different. Here are some tips that I give to everyone who comes into the Career Center seeking assistance:
1. Start off with a “SUMMARY OF QUALIICATIONS”, because employers only take about 10 seconds to look at a resume, so you really want to capture their attention at the top of the page. This section should include skills as well as qualifications. Try and tailor this section to the particular position.
2. Under the “EXPERIENCE” part of the resume, use bullets in describing what you did for the company. Bullets are eye-catchy. If it is in a paragraph format it is less likely to be looked at because employers don't have time to read through a paragraph to find something that they may need. So bullets are important.
3. Employers are only interested in fairly current experiences, so only go back 10-15 years in your work history. If you have earlier relevant experience, put that under a different category call “PRIOR EXPERIENCE”. No dates are necessary under this category; however, you want to be brief in this section.
4. This should be common sense, but it's not. Every bullet point should be in the past tense if you're not still working there.
5. Unless the “EDUCATION” part of your resume is very current, you shouldn't have dates. Don't forget to include relevant training and workshops that might be outside the scope of your formal education.
6. Civic engagement. Don't forget to include relevant volunteer experiences or community involvement. It may end up highlighting an area of interest.
7. It may also be useful to include other skills, such as artistic or public speaking if you deem it relevant to the opportunity you are pursuing.
Mark's advice is great and should help many people get started in the process. As Mark mentioned, every person is different, so different resume styles fit some job seekers and positions better than others. Another great idea is to look at a problem resume to identify problems you want to avoid. There was a terrific article in the Boston Globe Magazine this past weekend by Elizabeth Gehrman which has a host of other excellent ideas for individuals engaged in the job search process. I would love to hear ideas from other individuals out there on ways to make a resume great, or things that you know do not work.
