welcome to the art and science of resume

writing during the next one to two hours

you will undergo a series of tutorials
designed to provide you the right resume
writing skills and techniques to achieve
your career goals at the end of this
course you will learn to understand what
hiring managers consider effective in a
resume leverage your audience's reading
patterns to your advantage
avoid common resume pitfalls optimize
readability and search ability for
resume software and scanners apply HRMS
art method of resume writing and finally
learn about effective resume language in
a competitive job market along with the
reach of the Internet hiring managers
commonly receive hundreds of job
applications for a single job opening
from these hundreds of applications just
one candidate is chosen hiring managers
look for any reason to eliminate a
resume from the stack the above is a
quote from a senior HR leader it speaks
to the fact that the relationship with
your employer begins with your
application this is something that I did
not fully appreciate until once in the
field don't underestimate the importance
of a well-written resume make a good
first impression and get that interview
by presenting a well-written resume

in this lesson you will learn the basic

resume formats and characteristics of an
ideal resume that chronological resume
lists your work history from the
earliest to the most recent the reverse
chronological resume is like the
chronological except that it lists your
work history starting with the most
recent and focuses on where and when
your skills were learned it is best
suited for individuals who have stayed
in their field and have shown career
progression it is effective in showing
stability and a strong work history a
functional resume lists your skills and
accomplishments and focuses on
transferable skills instead of listing
specific jobs it is best suited for
individuals who are changing careers
with transferable skills or those who
have experienced an employment gap the
hybrid or a combination resume combines
the best from the chronological and
functional styles by listing job history
combined with skill based headings or
vice versa it is effective to highlight
skills that you have not used recently
or to highlight transferable skills as
well to broaden your job target range

in 2001 chief mental consulting group

and effective resources conducted a
survey of 2000 recruitment consultancies
and 1,000 top companies this survey
aimed at obtaining answers to the
question what makes an effective resume
the survey examined many resume aspects
including ideal Styles length content
and so on the results show that an
overwhelming majority of employers
prefer a reverse chronological resume
while this is true it is important to
recognize situations when other formats
may be more effective for your personal
situation we have successfully helped
many clients in these types of
situations by using specific skill
headings to target employer requirements
for example a skills-based format can be
effective for students with little work
experience individuals making a career
change or homemakers returning to work
after a prolonged employment gap in
another situation we helped a client who
experienced a recent career setback due
to a poor relationship with his manager
for this situation we applied the
traditional chronological format by
listing three previous jobs starting
with the earliest to minimize his recent
demotion
This plays important role in determining one’s ideal resume length: YEARS OF EXPERIENCE

in this next section we will look at the

reading patterns of your audience that
you must consider when writing your
resume a study was conducted by the
Nielsen Norman group on the topic of
reading patterns this study recorded the
eye movements of 232 participants
looking at thousands of web pages the
findings from the eye tracking
visualizations show that viewers often
read web pages in an F shaped pattern to
horizontal stripes followed by a
vertical stripe the three major
implications of these findings are that
viewers won't read your text thoroughly
in a word by word manner in other words
exhaustive reading is rare sure some
people will read more but most won't
second is that the first two paragraphs
must state the most important
information there is some hope that
readers will actually read your resume
and if they do they will probably read
more of the first paragraph than the
second third stark headings and bullet
points with information carrying words
that readers will notice when scanning
down the left side of your content in
the final stem of their F behavior since
more often readers will read the first
two words much more often than the third
word based on these implications the
prime real estate or areas that receive
the most attention would be located in
the top left on the first page this is
not surprising since the English
language is read from left to right top
to bottom we receive resumes from all
over the world and it is interesting to
speculate how resumes would be best
written in languages such as Arabic
Hebrew and Chinese that read from right
to left

although content is most important

Packaging determines how the manager if
you used a content in your resume all
too often we see resumes that have very
little whitespace too much bolding
italics and so on simple as elegant as a
good rule of thumb use simple fonts like
Arial courier and verdana use bolding
and italics sparingly and avoid graphics
or complex tables unless necessary and
remember to maintain that important
whitespace more and why later in the
course

in this next section we will share with

you a simple and easy to use technique
that we have developed to teach our
clients to improve their resumes an
effective technique to use when writing
resumes is the art technique art is an
acronym developed by hrm as an
effective tool to help our clients write
better resumes art stands for action
result and tailor the art method is an
effective resume writing technique since
it gives you an easy-to-use framework to
ensure the vital components are
addressed to use this technique simply
ensure your resume covers each of the
art components

the first component of the art method is

the action verb recall that one of the
implications of the F shape reading
pattern is to start subheads paragraphs
and bullet points with information
carrying words in resume writing a
descriptive action verb is often this
information carrying word again this is
because readers will scan down the left
side of your content in the final stem
of their F behavior and will notice
these information carrying words
remember your audience will read the
first two words on a line much more
often than the words that follow them
starting your bullet subheads and
sentences with a descriptive action verb
with the correct tense will enable you
to quickly capture your reader's
attention having a good list of action
verbs is essential we have provided a
sample of action verbs specifically for
resumes for you at the end of the course

the next component of the art method is

result all too often we see job
descriptions disguised as resumes by
this I mean resumes that describe to the
reader what the applicant does but not
the results of what they do employers
pay for results there is nothing more
effective than demonstrating your
results achievements and accomplishments
in your resume when you look carefully
at your own resume does it describe the
results you have achieved
change a job activity into a result ask
yourself what is the result or outcome
of completing this task what does a
successful result look like how is the
success measured or quantified in this
example we will illustrate turning a job
activity or work function of responsible
for selling widgets into a tangible
result in this case the outcome or
result of selling these widgets was
achieving top sales among staff another
way success could have been measured was
by meeting or exceeding weekly sales
targets did you notice the specific
numbers quoted in the above results it
is always good practice to quantify your
results achieved where possible with
specific numbers the result is the most
often forgotten component and resumes
remember our saying don't tell me what
you do tell me the results of what you
do in this example we will demonstrate
how you can make a seemingly non
tangible work activity into a tangible
result in this case providing customer
service successfully the outcome was a
satisfied customer measured through
client feedback another outcome is a
successful resolution of customer
complaints measured by customer
retention rates that is a rate at which
an irate customer is dissuaded from
leaving to a competitor regardless of
how you measured success your successful
results will be something you can
elaborate on in your interview again did
you notice the specific numbers quoted
in the above results

the last component of art is tailor

where possible tailor your resume to
meet the requirements in the job posting
if applicable use the same wording
tailoring your resume and incorporating
job requirements will ensure your resume
has the greatest chance of being
shortlisted while customizing your
resume and incorporating wording
contained in the job posting is
important be sure it is truthful lying
on your resume will cause the employer
to question your credibility and limit
your future opportunities reference
checks are common and hiring managers
and recruiters can be a small circle and
they can all remember a certain resume
that misrepresented there is no
coincidence that certain candidates are
always sought after while others are
bypassed
the first component of the art method is
action here we are looking for
information-sharing words or action
verbs down the left side of your resume
taking a look down the left side of
John's resume we see a few areas that
can be improved
John commits a common mistake using the
phrase responsible for using a powerful
action verb with impactful descriptors
or better to capture the reader's
attention later we will show you how we
transformed John's resume into more
action oriented language

the result here we are looking for a

clear description of the results of your
work activities employers pay for
results so quantify your successful
results where possible this is a classic
example of a resume that reads more like
a job description John describes what he
does but not the results of what he does
here are a few examples where the
results can be described better John
explains that he is responsible for
managing the payrolls but the question
here is what is the result of his
management
how does he measure the successful
results of his management by asking
these kinds of questions you will be
able to transform your resume from a
description of activities to a
demonstration of results here is another
example of John describing a work
activity and not focusing on the results
in this example John indicates that he
performs an audit reporting activity to
ensure data was clean and consistent the
question to ask here is what is the
successful result of this work activity
later we will show you how we've changed
this and other statements to be more
results focused

the third component of the art method is

tailor
here you want to customize your resume
to fit the target job
the job posting is a great source of
information and keywords
if the job posting that you're working
with is sparse or you're submitting an
unsolicited application
a great way to find this information is
to look at websites
sites like the national occupational
classification website
contains all the core skills traits
and abilities for any position another
good source of information
is online job boards like monster or
career builder
these sites contain virtually every job
posting
that you can use to tailor your resume
accordingly
recall john's target job is to move
laterally
to manage another department or
vertically to become a second level
manager
how well do you think he has tailored
his resume despite john's experience
leading a team you will see very little
reference
to the traditional management functions
like creating and executing departmental
plans
performance management hire fire and
discipline
and so on you will also see very little
reference to
management competencies like strategic
thinking communication
resolving conflict and so on later
we'll show you how we've addressed these
issues

now that we have completed applying each

of the art components to John's resume
here are a few additional items that we
typically complete to improve resumes
that come to us that we would like to
share with you the first is to
neutralize your weaknesses here you want
to identify and mitigate potential
weaknesses within your resume in
reviewing John's resume we identified a
potential weakness in his earlier work
experience during this time his
experience is characterized by short
tenures with many different employers
although John explained that the work
performed during this time was temporary
in nature and in fact he was going
through a temp agency however without
this knowledge an employer could
interpret this as a lack of employee
commitment later we will show you how we
addressed this potential weakness

another valuable exercise to consider

when you have completed the art method
is to exploit your personal strengths
here you want to identify and exploit
your unique strengths in John's case he
demonstrated an excellent career
progression with a large well known
employer later we will show you how we
exploited this unique strengths

now let's look at john's resume

having applied the art method to make
improvements
the first component is action
if you scan the top half and down the
left side of john's resume
you will notice the first one or two
words
of each paragraph bullet and sentence
now contains information caring words
powerful action verbs with impactful
descriptors quickly provide the reader
important information and promote
further reading

now let's look at how we've applied the

taylor
component to improve john's resume if
you recall earlier
there was very little mention of the
traditional competencies and functions
associated with management jobs if you
take a quick look at john's resume now
you will see the content has been
tailored to speak to john's
target jobs in this case you will see
wording that relates to the traditional
management functions
you will see reference to conducting
performance reviews
developing department plans and so on
by doing this we have improved the
searchability
and recognition of john's resume by both
hiring managers
and recruitment softwares most
importantly
we've made it more clear to the hiring
manager that john
is the right one to hire

now let's take a look at what we've done

to neutralize the weaknesses contained
in Jon's resume if you recall earlier in
our preliminary review we identified a
potential weakness in Jon's resume in
his earlier work experience this part of
the resume was characterized with
several different employers for short
periods of time the concern here is an
employer could interpret this as a lack
of focus and commitment what we've done
here is to retitle his work experience
during this time to temporary work
experience again other titles could
include project work contract work
depending on which is more applicable to
you and if you really wanted to you
could reposition this experience as a
broad exposure to various industries the
main idea here is to reel able and
reposition your your weakness so that it
is not perceived negatively so for
example if your weakness is that you've
just come out of school recently and
that little experience you can retitle
and reposition this to the employer to
your advantage
put your education and GPA up front if
those credentials are strong you can
show the employer that you bring current
education and fresh ideas to the job

since every piece of information on your

resume
competes with each other for the
reader's attention
it is worthwhile to eliminate irrelevant
information
in john's earlier work experience we
have eliminated the bullets
that previously existed since most of
this information
is not relevant to his target job as a
department
or second level manager the other reason
to eliminate this information
is that it is quite dated in fact
we advised john to exclude this
information
unless it was relevant to the job
application
for example if he was applying to a data
research company
then he may want to include some
previous experience
but keep in mind that some of this
information
goes back as far as 1986
in terms of how far you want to go back
in your resume
a good rule of thumb is 10 to 12 years

so is resume writing an art or science

or perhaps a little of both when it
comes to resume writing there are no
hard and fast rules but rather
guidelines when deciding on resume
length style and format consider the
survey findings presented the reading
patterns of your audience as well as
your industry and personal situation
apply the art method to ensure you
include the most important resume
components by doing so your resume will
be as unique as the person who created
it