What is a Resume?Making Yourself Marketable

What is the Purpose of a Resume?

•Provides a summary of your skills, abilities and accomplishments

•It is a quick advertisement of who you are. It is a "snapshot" of you with the intent of capturing and emphasizing interests and secure you an interview.

•It is not an autobiography.

Current Job Climate• Unemployment rate for California rose 0.1

percentage points in June 2011 to 11.8%.

• The number of unemployed has now grown by

17,912.• There are now 2,133,617 people unemployed in

California alone▫ How might this impact how you design your

resume? Why might your resume be so important?

Unemployment Rate

June 2011

Month/Month

Year/Year

National 9.2% +0.1 -0.3California 11.8% +0.1 -0.6

Beginning Your Resume•Find Your Marketable Skills…

▫Your resume will highlight your most marketable skills in such a way that employers are more likely to call you. What are your most marketable skills? Answer these two following questions:

1. What do you do well?•Is it the job you’re doing now? Your

course work in school? If not, what do you do well? Is it a hobby? Volunteer work? Other?

•List at least 10 items.

2. What skills do you have?•Next to what you are good at, list the

skills you have that allow you to be successful at these.

•List at least 10 items.

What you are good at Skills requiredscrapbooking organizing and

visualizing

Now list your 2-3 most marketable skills

•From your list of skills, choose the 2 or 3 you think will be most attractive to the person reading your resume. Underline these.▫These are your most marketable skills. You’ll

use them later to write your resume.

•This is the most important step in the process of writing your resume. Why? Because if you know what your most marketable skills are, you can highlight your most relevant experience, which will help you find the job that’s best for you.

Prove your case with achievements• Now, what achievements prove the 2-3 most

marketable skills you listed above? Write at least three things you did that you’re proud of and their results.▫ Example:

Marketable skill- dedication Achievement- I received a 4.0 last year because I was

dedicated to my schoolwork and determined to reach the goal I had set out for myself.

▫ Example: Marketable skill- hard worker Achievement- I organized a lawn service over the summer

for the community I live in and worked on their lawns everyday.

Brainstorm..•Education/Training•Work Experience (paid and volunteer)•Honors and Awards•Extra Curricular activities•Three References

Resume Outline•Annotate (take notes) on the resume

outline as we take a closer look at the specific parts of a resume.

Now let’s look at parts of a resume…• The objective

▫ The Objective is the section that contains the career plan statement of the applicant in relation to what the employer or company looks for.

▫ Written as one paragraph with one to three sentences only.

▫ Avoid the word “I”

▫ Begin with a verbal (To obtain, Seeking…)

▫ Introduces the applicant to the employer and is where the applicant can convince the company that he/she is the perfect candidate

Examples• Usually, the objective is made up of two parts: the

position description and your marketable skills that pertain to the position.

▫ To obtain a position in fire restoration business as a Flood and Fire Mitigation Technician working to restore flood and fire damaged homes, where my intelligence, self-motivation, and positive attitude will contribute to an efficient and productive work environment.

▫ Seeking a position as an elementary school teacher where my education and student teaching experience is utilized to provide individualized instruction based on students’ needs and the California State Standards.

Try it for yourself!•Take one of the job listings you found for

homework, look at what the job is asking you to do, and write an objective for that job.

•Raise your hand when you are done and I will come around and check them.

Education Section• List the years you attended a school, the school you

attended and the city where the school is located.

• List in the order of most recent

• Do not include your elementary school

• Typically, people include their GPA although you are not required to do so. ▫ Keep in mind, though, that if you do not put it on your

résumé, potential employers may assume that you omitted it because it was bad. Generally, if you have a 3.0 or lower, you may want to omit your GPA.

Work Experience Section• Details your previous employment information.

• Can be called Work Experience, Work History, Employment History, Employment Experience, Relevant Experience, or whatever else indicates the type of information that is included. ▫For instance, if you have really great volunteer

experience in the field to which you are applying, you may want to title this section Relevant Experience rather than Employment Experience, in order to accurately represent the information.

Detailing the Duties You Performed• You must be not only accurate and concise but also

highlight those duties that are most relevant to the position you are seeking.

• Create a bulleted list of the duties you performed.

• Each bullet must be in parallel form (which means that each item must be grammatically formatted the same).

• Use powerful action verbs to begin each item.

• Each job should have a minimum of three bulleted items with the most relevant duties listed first. ▫ Take some time to really think over what you actually

accomplished for the job, list the specific activities and duties that you were responsible for, and craft exciting and concise bulleted items representing those activities.

Active Words to Use• Communication Skills:• Negotiated price reductions of up to 30% with key

suppliers• Interpreted financial information from the company's

annual report• Translated all relevant company information into three

different languages

• Creative Skills:• Created an interior design layout for a 500 square foot

retail venue• Introduced a new method of navigating through the A

Software Program• Presented a new research project to the managers at

the location

• Helping Skills:• Assisted customers with choosing appropriate

products• Trained new employees in the plant through

demonstration techniques• Volunteered in the nursing home every

weekend to serve the community

• Efficiency Skills:• Eliminated unnecessary cost of each unit of

production• Maximized profits by 15% during the month

of July• Heightened the level of employee moral

through program incentives

Example• Fostered student growth and improved writing

through helping students develop independent writing and reading skills

• Assisted English Learners to provide them with strategies focused on individual writing needs

• Initiated writing workshops focused on building collaboration skills

• Devised interactive activities to teach students writing concepts

• Attended regular collaborative meetings to support professional growth and application of theory

Notice that because you begin with an active verb, you are not writing complete sentences. Therefore, you do not need punctuation.

Notice parallel structure.

More…• Remember that you developed skills in every job.

• Be creative and thoughtful in creating these lists. ▫For example, if you worked at McDonald's, you

learned how to do the following: function efficiently in a team work responsibly in a time-sensitive environment maintain flexibility in duties from shift to shift

▫Hint: As your work experience becomes more relevant to your field, you can drop off the oldest jobs until all of your listed work experience is relevant to your field.

Honors and Awards•This is optional, but if you feel it would be

helpful to share an achievement or award, even if it doesn’t relate directly to your job, do so.

•This builds your character in the eyes of the employer.

Extracurricular Activities• This shows what you are interested in and

dedicated to.

• Don’t list things like:▫Biking ▫Scrapbooking

doesn’t show that you are a part of anything

• Instead, say:▫ 2009-2011 Mountain Biking Team, Colfax High School▫ 2008-2009 Scrapbooking Club, Rocklin Scrapbookers

References• Write “available upon request” here to show

that you have people who can vouch for who you are as a person and your qualified skills.

• Make sure you have thought of three people to be your references and come prepared with their contact information.▫Do not use family members unless you have

worked for them.▫Do not use your high school friends (stick with

adults).▫Choose a variety of people (teacher, employer,

volunteer supervisor, etc.).

The Key is Perfection!•Your resume must be absolutely perfect.

•There can be no grammatical or formatting errors at all. ▫Remember, the employer probably has a lot

of resumes to look through and will discard yours for something as little as a spelling error.

•Have multiple people proofread your resume before handing it out.

More Information?•See Perdue Owl