The Conference Coach™

Carolyn Bradfield

Throughout my career, I have had the opportunity to look at hundreds, and maybe thousands, of resumes. In general, I find that the majority are an absolute mess. They are generally too long, too wordy, and not specific. In order to get a job in this economy, you need to really step up your resume game and pay attention to both form and substance.

Give yourself a proper introduction
Since most resumes are sent via email, make sure to use an email address that is business appropriate. Resumes from email addresses such as billythebanger@aol.com or hot4u@hotmail.com are going to get sent to the trash. I suggest you get a gmail account and use your first name, middle initial and last name as your email address. Keep it professional.

Send an introductory email that is specific to the job you are seeking. Don’t start it with “Dear Sir.” (A lot of us that read these are not “sirs”) Just open the email with a powerful first paragraph – no more than 2 sentences. Here’s a sample:

“Attached is my resume in response to your posting for an Office Manager on Craig’s List. My experience in customer service and office administration gives me the perfect blend of background and skill set to make me an ideal candidate for this position.”

Use Good Form
Make sure to deliver your resume as a Word document. Everyone will be able to open your file. Formatting is critical. Don’t go cute on the font – use something standard like Arial or Times New Roman. Pay attention to the margins, spacing, and bolding of categories, company names, etc. Center your name and contact information up top and make sure to include your email and cell phone.

All resumes should have the following 3 categories in this order: Summary or Objective/ Experience/ Education. Most of us generally do not care that you love to hike or like to read. We all know that you will provide us references. When you list your experience, give us the company name, job title, dates. Include a one-line description to let us know what this company does. Don’t assume we know that. No more than 2 pages, even if you have worked for years. We don’t really care to know lots of details about a job you had 20 years ago.

Objective
It’s important to summarize what type of job you are looking for and why you are qualified to hold that position. Many people have varied experience in their background that may make it hard for the reader to figure out what you really want to do. Remember, this is the first thing someone will read, so make it well thought out and powerful. And here’s a little hint — your objective can change depending on who you send the resume to.

Results, Not Activity
Most of us don’t care what tasks and activities you did, but we do care about the tangible results. For example, it is weak to say that “Responsible for securing new business.” We want to know some examples and the resulting revenue.

Avoid phrases such as “responsible for”, “participated in”, “worked with a group to…” Use active verbs such as: developed, delivered, produced, secured, sold, created.

Use bullet points to call out activities that are important. If you did 10 things in an organization, don’t list them all, just the ones that are significant and that you can quantify. Remember that the more detail you give about a specific job, the more we will weight how important that job was to you. Don’t give me 7 bullet points about your first job and 2 about the 4th job you had.

Pick an Editor
Find someone who is in a position to hire and have him or her edit your resume. Do not get your feelings hurt when you get direct feedback. Your resume is often the only document that a hiring company will see before they decide whether to engage with you or not. Don’t hire a resume writer. You put down the details and then have someone edit what you did. There are plenty of people who can do this.

Whether you are looking for a job or not, compile your resume and get it in shape. You never know when an opportunity will come along or when your company will downsize. Form counts. Substance counts.

Carolyn Bradfield is the CEO of Copper Conferencing, a provider of easy-to-use audio conferencing and web conferencing communication tools.  You can try Copper’s affordable web and audio conferencing services — and get a discount for using our nationwide Local Dial-In network. Just sign up now.