Write Effective Resumes And Cover Letters

It's Your Move

Marge Watters

• Publisher: Collins
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9781443415514
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Careers

Finding the work you want can be a daunting challenge. The rules have changed, the playing field has been rearranged and the players are unpredictable. Those who play smart will learn a lot about themselves and the dynamic environment of the workplace.

Playing smart includes having a résumé that gives the reader a picture of you doing your best work. It needs to be filled with accomplishment statements that include quantified evidence of what you have done. Key words must pop; a profile statement needs to make your sales pitch; and every detail has to be perfect. It's an arduous task, but with the help of this special edition of It's Your Move you can do it. Once you've written your résumé, always send it out with a well-crafted and targeted cover letter. Take the time to do this important step in the career transition process with care, and you're on your way to finding the employment opportunity that suits you best.

Write an Effective Résumé and Convincing Cover Letters

The quality of the result is proportionate
to the quality of the effort.

Having a well-thought-out and carefully prepared résumé paired with a tailored cover letter is essential for responding to interesting opportunities. A good résumé presents your experience and qualifications clearly and concisely to a potential employer, and helps to persuade them that you have unique value. A convincing cover letter addresses a specific employment opportunity and demonstrates that your past experience and personal style meet the job requirements. The amount of planning, energy and strategic thinking that you invest in developing your résumé and cover letters is important to your ultimate success.

Effective Résumés

Before you begin your résumé, take some time to think back over your career and identify the roles and tasks that you enjoyed the most and gave you the greatest sense of pride. Recall the stories or accomplishments that demonstrate the best that you have to offer to a future employer. From these, list and describe the skills you would like to use in your next employment opportunity, the kinds of roles you would find interesting and where you believe your talents could be well used. Now you are ready to carry on with writing your résumé.

Rule number one is to write it yourself! There are any number of services that will take this task off your hands, but crafting your résumé enables you to become totally comfortable with the points you want to discuss in your interviews and the ways in which you want to express them. Find someone to offer suggestions and reliable feedback, but make the content your own. You know yourself best and you will do the best job of reflecting and emphasizing the most important aspects of your background, achievements and employment interests.

Tip: One of the primary benefits of creating a résumé is what you learn in the process of writing it. Spending time reviewing your career and developing your accomplishment statements are the best ways to put your experience at the top of your mind so that you can readily talk about your achievements, skills and strengths in an interview or networking situation.

There are many pitfalls in writing a résumé. Use the following guidelines to direct your approach to the process.

GUIDELINES FOR WRITING YOUR RÉSUMÉ

• Don’t expect to be able to dash off your résumé in an hour or two. Putting together a good résumé takes time, often days. You want the quality of your résumé to be top-notch.

• If you have an old résumé, it is often a good idea to get a fresh start by beginning again. You can use your previous résumé as a reference.

• Create a résumé that truly reflects your expertise and strengths. It may be sufficient to address a number of your targets when accompanied by a well-written cover letter that focuses on specific market characteristics or position requirements.

• You may need to write different versions of your résumé, aimed at different targets. However, it is wise to minimize the number of résumés you have.

• More than roles and responsibilities, your résumé must talk about your accomplishments. Write about problems and issues you have addressed, actions you have taken and outcomes you have achieved.

• Quantify the results of your accomplishments wherever possible. A compelling case is created with data such as “achieved savings of $2 million annually” or “decreased staff turnover from 20% to 12%.”

• Every statement that you make on your résumé must be factual and true. Your résumé forms part of the basis for a legal agreement and a good-faith relationship with your employer. If false representations are made, the consequences could be very embarrassing and costly to your career.

• Employers might be looking through hundreds of résumés for each of their advertised or posted positions. Yours must spark interest quickly. Your key skills, experience and style must come through in a clear and concise way.

• Limit the length of your résumé to two pages, three at the most. In a few employment sectors such as IT, science, medicine or university teaching, longer and more detailed résumés are expected. If you have written articles, had works published, completed significant transactions or made professional presentations, list these on a separate page.

• Appearance is important. Pay attention to the format and layout along with spelling and grammar. Use high-quality paper and a laser-quality printer.

• Don’t be fooled into thinking that good appearance will make up for poor content.

• Proofread your résumé carefully and ask at least two other people to proofread it for you.

• Remember that your résumé is not your most important marketing tool—you are! Your résumé will help you get an interview and provide documentation to support what you say in the interview, but hiring decisions are based on personal interactions and the chemistry established between you and the people you meet.

As you begin to write, there are several formatting decisions that need to be made. The first involves the arrangement of your data, and the second, font and spacing. The best advice is to keep it simple.

Format the Résumé

Chronological Format

The chronological résumé is the accepted standard for organizing your information. This format describes your work experience in reverse chronological order, with the most recent job listed first. It emphasizes the names of employers, dates, job titles and primary responsibilities along with your key accomplishments. It displays your employment history sequentially and, where you have a record of increasing responsibilities and promotions with no major employment gaps, this is clearly an advantage.

Executive search and human resources professionals have a strong preference for chronological résumés. They are used to reading them, and they can find what they’re looking for fairly quickly.

Functional/Chronological Format

An alternative to the chronological format is a combination functional/chronological résumé, which is organized according to the key areas of your work experience. For example:

• Business Development

• Property Management

• Change Management

• Governance

• Operations

• Customer Service

The chronological section of this combination format either precedes or follows the functional section and outlines the traditional information,...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• What You Need to Know Before You Start
• Write an Effective Résumé and Convincing Cover Letters
• Appendix—Résumé Samples
• More from It’s Your Move
• About the Author
• Copyright
• About the Publisher