RESUME WRITING: TIPS AND STRATEGIES TO WRITING THE PERFECT RESUME

David Lucey – Manager, Recruiting

St. John’s Prep, ’87/Boston College, ’91

20 years of recruiting experience

15 years of corporate recruiting

Over 1k hires, 3k interviews, 75k resumes reviewed

Introduction

Industry Hiring Stats

900 New Hires at Facebook in 2010

250,000 Resumes sent to Facebook in 2010

6,000 75,000 Resumes received by Google in

one week (2/21/11 – 2/28/11)

Estimated Google hires in 2011

Resume realities

15% of all US hires in 2011 were processed through Taleo’s applicant/resume

tracking system

The average corporate recruiter will view your resume for 15 seconds

upon initial review

Resume realities (cont’d)

Self-marketing tool

Personal ad

Showcase of job skills

One of the most important documents you’ll ever write

A Resume is a…

Target your resume to the job you are applying to. Don’t make it one size fits all

Use “active” rather than “passive” language (results vs. duties)

Be concise! Doesn’t need to be life story

Tell the truth and be accurate with dates

General tips

Chronological: Presents information on jobs and education in reverse chronological order

Functional/skills summary: Highlights skills, experience and abilities as opposed to focusing on dates

Most employers want a chronological resume

Resume formats & styles

Heading: Name/Address/Phone number/email address (no “unique” emails)

Objective/summary: Tailor to the job you are applying

Education: List schools in reverse chronological order. Include college major/minor and GPA (if above 3.0 and less than 5 years out of school

Resume format

Experience: Company name, location, dates of employment & title. List accomplishments and skills utilized. Internships, even non-paid, should only be listed in less than 3 years out of college.

Additional sections: Honors and awards Technical skills

Professional memberships (non-political)

Resume format (cont’d)

Try and use 1 inch margins on all sides and use 10-12pt font (don’t get creative with style or color)

Ideal resume length should be 1-2 pages

Center name in bold at top in largest font used

Avoid excessive use of capitalization and bold or italics

Resume layout

Resume example

Typos and Grammatical Errors

Don’t include reasons for leaving a job

No need for a photo

Don’t list references

No personal/family details needed

Resume Mistakes

Brief and in 3 parts:

Introduction (why are you applying?) Body (why are you a match?)

Closing (can I have a meeting/interview?)

No need to include as attachment if emailing.

ATS systems don’t search on cover letters

Recruiters looking more for reasons to disqualify

Cover letters

Questions?