Polished Resumes
Earn Bigger Bucks!

Is getting the highest possible starting salary worth two or three hours of your time? Employers report that the most polished resumes (with a clean format and results-oriented, employer-focused content) automatically result in higher initial salaries than those that are not. Clearly, this makes taking the time to polish your resume worth every minute! 

To increase your chances of being offered the high-end of the salary scale, use the strategies below to hone any sections of your resume that need extra polish:

1. Review all of Chapter 9, Your Career: How to Make It Happen, 4th Edition
   
   
2. Carefully review all the resume samples and the "Summary of Information” for each resume (pages 137-158). See especially: (1) Figure 9-11, pages 146-147; (2) Figure 9-12, pages 148 and 149; and Figure 9-10, pages 144-145.
   
   
3. Use Keywords
   
   Keywords name applicant qualifications employers are seeking, such as skills, knowledge, certifications, and experience.  Research to determine which ones will fit your targeted employer’s needs.  Use these keywords throughout your resume.  Add a Keywords” section at the top of electronic resumes and include your keywords in the metatags of your web resume.  Review the keyword information on pages 128 through 131 of Your Career: How to Make It Happen.
   
   
4. Write an Employer-Focused Job Objective:
   
   In your job “Objective,” avoid focusing on what you want or on a vague, general objective statement.  Instead, make sure your objective explains specifically what you can do for the employer. Specific skills that match their needs attract employers' attention.
   
   In your hard copy resume, customize the objective to fit the needs of the employer and the position.  This requires researching the employer's job ads, and using their specific job title or description in your job objective.
   
   For a web resume, you can’t customize for every employer, but you should highlight specific skills required for the type of job you are seeking.
   
   REMINDER: Employers often scan resumes and search for the word “Objective,” so always use this word as the first heading on your resume, following your name and contact information.
   
   ACTIVITY: Based on the information above, compare the following "Poor" and the "Good" examples of job objectives, and note specifically what is weak about the poor example and what is strong about the good examples.

5. Tips for Work Experience Summaries
   
   Employers are especially interested in the work experience section of resumes; they are looking for evidence of experience that matches the task requirements of the job they want to fill.  To make a positive impact in this section of your resume, pay attention to these strategies:
   
   
   1. Make experience summaries detail specific. Use industry or job-specific terms rather than generalizations.
      
      
   2. Get employers’ attention by emphasizing results, achievements, and accomplishments whenever possible. (See more tips under the Write Results-Focused Work Experience Summaries section below.)
      
      
   3. Use figures, percentages, and specific action verbs to describe your experience.
      
      
   4. Use action verbs such as, developed, wrote, increased, reduced, devised, programmed, coordinated, engineered, etc.
      
      
   5. Avoid using the phrase, “responsibilities included,” and also avoid using the “ing” forms to describe tasks, as in:  “Responsibilities included researching topics for health education promotion and preparing final written copy.”
      
      Instead, use action verbs and terms that convey the strongest sense of accomplishment:  “Researched topics for health education promotion and wrote monthly articles for publication in school newspaper.”
      
      Notice how the first example above conveys less energy and sense of accomplishment.  This is because verbs (researched and wrote) are stronger than “ing” forms, and the verb “wrote” is stronger than “preparing.”
      
      
   6. Read the "Work Experience" section on page 131 of Your Career: How to Make It Happen.

Emphasize Value You Have Added Emphasize specific examples of any of the following benefits you have offered past employers: Saved money Increased sales or profits Reduced error rate or waste Increased productivity Increased speed of processing Improved image Increased convenience or ease of use Improved customer service procedure NOTE: Review the “Identify Marketable Assets” list on page 128 of your textbook for more ideas.

6. Write Results-Focused Work Experience Summaries:
   
   Employers are most attracted to applicants who demonstrate how they made themselves valuable to past employers.  This requires that you describe the tasks you have performed (using action verbs) and that you include accomplishment statements.  The guidelines below will help you write strong results-focused summaries:
   
   
   1. Consider your daily duties in previous jobs. 
      
      
   2. Then recall examples of results or achievements in areas of your job that you did especially well.
      
      
   3. Write these examples down and polish them to use as evidence of the benefits you have offered former employers—these are your accomplishment- or results-focused work summaries.
      
      
   4. Whenever possible, quantify these with numbers or percentages; and use action verbs and specific, industry terminology.
      
      
   5. Because employers want to hire people with good customer service skills, emphasizing examples of this ability are also effective. Experience in telemarketing is a good example. 
      
      “Developed strong customer service skills in telemarketing position. Earned recognition for exemplary skill in dealing with difficult contacts.”
      
      Have you developed good customer service skills?  Write out specific examples you could cite in your resume. 
      
      

   ACTIVITY: Compare the "Poor" and "Good" examples below.  In the “Good” example, circle the terms that are more industry- and job-specific as well as any accomplishment statements.

SEE EXAMPLE: Check out the "Work Experience" sections of this resume: Sample 1

7. Limited work experience?
   
   If your working experience is limited, you can still give examples of achievements such as being completely dependable:  “Always arrived on time; achieved a perfect attendance record.” Employers value such basic achievements because they are also indicators of initiative and future potential. If you went the extra mile in any way in your jobs, document it. 
   
   If you have had a paid internship or cooperative education experience, always include it under the Work Experience section of your resume. If you have had no paid work experience, you can document such internships and related organizational or volunteer experience under the heading, Related Experience).
   
   If your work experience is not in a field related to your current job target or if it is at lower level, you should still include statements that summarize any results or accomplishments you achieved.  Employers are impressed with statements that demonstrate initiative, even in early, less sophisticated jobs or activities.  If you received recognition for “going the extra mile” in such cases, get creative and work up a statement demonstrating this.   As your work experience and responsibilities grow, you can develop more sophisticated examples.

8. More educational experience than work experience?
   
   Including a section with the heading Related Qualifications, Related Skills, Related Capabilities, or even a creative heading such as Hands-on Experience is recommended in all resumes. Such a section is essential if you have more educational than actual work experience.  In this section, highlight industry-specific skills, knowledge, and extensive hands-on applications you have completed in the classroom.  Review the sample resumes in Chapter 9 for examples of this section.  Note that it is typically placed directly under the job objective at the top of the resume.

SEE EXAMPLE: See the “Knowledge and Skills” section of this resume: Sample 2

9. Proofread Your Resume for Correctness and Clarity
   
   Employers are not impressed with spelling, grammatical, or punctuation errors—even one can relegate your resume to the reject pile. Spell-checkers don’t catch all errors—it’s up to you!
   
   Get help from your support members (friends, family, others).  Ask people who have good writing and grammar skills to help you with the final polishing of your resume.  Check every word.  Have your helpers read your resume out loud.  This is often a good way to detect awkward or incorrect content. Remember—the better your resume, the better the starting salary offer.

IMPORTANT REMINDER: No Self-Photos, Except… Do not to include your photograph in standard business resumes (hard copy or web resume). Employers want to avoid the possibility of discrimination lawsuits and many will not accept or consider resumes with self-photos. Exception: A self-photo may be appropriate for such positions as modeling or performing. Research your industry and target employer to determine the preference.

Your Career Action:

1. Review the resume you have prepared as part of your assignments for Chapter 9.
2. To boost your chances of getting the highest starting salary possible, revise any sections of your resume that need polishing, based on the information presented in this activity. Read the following resume Critique Questions about your resume. Circle “Y” if your answer is yes and “No” for negative responses. If you circle “No” for any of them, these are your target areas for improvement.  Go the extra mile on this activity to earn the best possible salary offer.

Need Some Action Verbs to Power-up Your Resume?

Take a look at our sample list of Action Verbs.

 

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