Resume Writing

96 flashcards by MentisLibrary

Sections and order, achievement bullets with real numbers, applicant tracking systems and keywords, formatting and length, tailoring to a posting, gaps and career changes, cover letters, and the final proofread.

What is a resume actually for?
Getting an interview, not describing your career. It is a marketing document aimed at one specific job, not an autobiography.
What is reverse chronological order and why is it the default?
Listing your most recent role first and working backwards. It is the format recruiters and applicant tracking systems expect.
What is a functional resume and when is it a bad idea?
A format organized by skill groups rather than by job. Recruiters associate it with hiding gaps or thin experience, and most tracking systems parse it badly.
What is a combination or hybrid resume?
Reverse chronological work history with a short skills or highlights block at the top that groups your strongest qualifications.
What sections does a standard resume have, in order?
Contact information, a short summary or headline, work experience, education, and skills. Optional sections follow: projects, certifications, publications, volunteer work.
What belongs in the contact block?
Name, phone, professional email, city and state or region, and a link to a professional profile or portfolio. A full street address is no longer expected.
What is a resume headline?
A single line under your name naming the role you are targeting and your strongest qualification.
What makes a good resume summary?
Two or three lines stating your role, years of relevant experience, your two strongest specialties, and one quantified achievement.
What is the difference between a summary and an objective?
A summary states what you offer. An objective states what you want. Objectives are largely obsolete except for career changers and new graduates who need to explain the pivot.
How much space should each job get?
In proportion to its relevance and recency. Recent and relevant roles get four to six bullets; older or unrelated roles get one or two lines, or a single grouped line.
How far back should work history go?
Usually ten to fifteen years of detail. Earlier roles can be summarized in one line or dropped if they do not support the application.
How should education be listed once you have work experience?
Below experience, as one or two lines per degree: degree, field, institution, and graduation year. Coursework and activities come off once you have a few years of work.
When should you include your grade point average?
Only as a student or a recent graduate, and only if it is strong, usually 3.5 or above on a 4.0 scale. Remove it once you have professional experience.
What is a skills section for, and what should not go in it?
A scannable list of concrete, verifiable tools, languages, methods and certifications. Soft skills such as team player and hard working belong in evidence, not in a list.
Should you rate your own skill levels with bars or stars?
No. Self assigned ratings are unverifiable, take up space, and often do not survive parsing.
When should a resume include a projects section?
When you are a student, a career changer, or applying for technical work where what you built matters more than where you worked.
How should certifications be listed?
Name, issuing body and date, with expiry if it matters. Put the section high on the page if the certification is a hard requirement for the job.
How long should a resume be?
One page for students and early career, one to two pages for most professionals, and longer only for academic, federal and some scientific applications.
Is the one page rule real?
It applies to students and early career candidates. Insisting on it after ten years of experience forces you to cut evidence and shrink type past readability.
Which fonts and sizes should a resume use?
A standard, widely available font at 10 to 12 point for body text, with names and headings a few points larger. Consistency matters more than which font you choose.
What margins and white space should a resume have?
Margins of about half an inch to one inch, with blank space between sections. A dense wall of text does not get read.
PDF or Word document?
Follow the posting. If nothing is specified, send a PDF exported from your document rather than scanned or printed, because it preserves layout and most modern systems parse it.
How should you name your resume file?
Your name, the word resume, and optionally the role, joined by hyphens.
Should a resume include a photo?
In the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, no. Photos invite bias claims and many employers discard resumes containing them. Some European and Asian markets still expect one.
Should you write the resume in first person?
No pronouns at all. Bullets start with a verb and drop the subject.
What tense should bullets use?
Past tense for previous roles and completed work. Present tense for what you currently do, mixed with past tense for finished projects within the current role.
What is the standard shape of a strong resume bullet?
An action verb, the specific thing you did, and the result, with a number wherever a number exists.
What is the XYZ bullet formula?
Accomplished X as measured by Y by doing Z. It was popularized by Laszlo Bock, formerly head of people operations at Google, as a way to force a measurable result into every line.
How do you rewrite a duty as an achievement?
Ask what changed because you did it, then lead with that change.
Why is responsible for a weak bullet opener?
It describes an assignment, not an accomplishment, and it can be true of someone who did the work badly.