14 Questions To Ask when preparing your resume.
1. Did you help to increase sales, productivity, efficiency, etc.? What was the percentage or dollar contribution? How did you do this? Did you have a unique approach or different results from others?
2. Did you save money for the company? What were the circumstances? How much more ($, %) than others? How were your results compared to others?
3. Did you institute any new systems or changes? What was the situation that led to the change? Who approved? Why was this system selected over others? Did it compete with others? What happened as a result?
4. Did you identify any problem that had been overlooked? What was the problem? What was the solution? Why was it overlooked?
5. Were you ever promoted? Why were you promoted? How long between promotions? Did you do something outstanding? How much more responsibility? Did you get to manage people? How many? Were you promoted by more than one party? Were you given significant salary increases or raises?
6. Did you train anyone? Did you develop training technique? Compare your results to others? Is your technique being used by others? Why is that?
7. Did you suggest any new programs? What were they about? What were the results? Did they increase efficiency or sales? Were they published or presented at any industry seminars?
8. Did you help to establish any new goals or objectives for your company? Did you convince management that they should adopt these goals or objectives? Why were they adopted.
9. Did you change the nature or scope of your job? Why or how did you redefine your position? Have others with similar positions had their positions redefined because of you? Were there responsibility changes because of this? What were they?
10. Did you ever undertake a project that was not part of your responsibility because you liked the problem? This is proof of job interest as well as the ability to take initiative.
11. Did you ever do anything to lighten your job or make it easier? (This could result in increased profits or productivity.)
12. What special problems were you hired for or brought in to solve? What did you do? How did you do it? What were the results?
13. Show any areas where you were creative (i.e., solutions, products, applications, markets, accounts, etc.)
14. What would you say would be the most important qualities for the position you seek? Put yourself in the shoes of your prospective boss. Describe six qualities and look for examples you have for each of them. How do you stack up?
Recommendations
1. Put full name, address, phone numbers, and e-mail at the top of your resume.
2. Clearly state your job objective – no more than one sentence.
3. List 3-4 career qualifications – FABs that immediately show your exceptional credentials.
4. In descending chronological order, list each company in the following format:
Company Name – brief description of products and services with revenue details and number of people in the company. Include if company is public and when established.
Dates (Month/Year) – Your Title – short description of responsibilities.
EXAMPLE
Famous Corp. – a public company listed on the NYSE with over 2,400people supplying aircraft engine parts worldwide.
July 1991- Present. Vice President Marketing: Responsible for all marketing and field sales including product support, technical service, order processing, and field service repair.
§ 22% revenue increase per year compounded since 1989
§ SG&A expenses reduced from 6% of sales to 4% since 1989
§ Launched 12 new product ranges increasing sales by 300%
§ Started new Service System improving response 100%
§ Developed LAMP for key accounts and reduced T&E 20%
Additional Guidelines
1. Education should include name of university, exact degrees, dates of graduation, major and awards.
2. Always have a cover letter outlining exactly where you fit in the job referenced.
3. State your relocation desires and your willingness to travel in your cover letter.
4. Whenever possible, tailor your resume to fit the job specifically.
5. You should use action words [coordinated, managed, etc.] & avoid long run-on sentences.
6. Never include your references, social security number, or salary history data.
7. Do not state reasons for leaving, but always show promotions within the same company.
8. Try working your FABs and PARs into your resume to highlight key achievements.
9. Always use "$"/dollar statements to add solid emphasis to your career results.
10. Try to edit out any extra phrases or extraneous sentences that are not significant.
11. Have other people read and critique your resume and suggest other key points.
12. Create a dossier of catalogs, recommendation letters, awards, and notable achievements.
13. Complete at least 6 PARS and 6 FABS for each job you have had.
14. Other credentials, i.e., CAD/CAM programs, computer software/systems, specialty skills or certifications can be included at the end of the resume.
15. If you have any special awards, military status or other interest point – list them.
16. Use white space to make the resume easy to read and use lists wherever possible
17. Individual pictures add nothing to a resume – they do not fax well and are problematic to transmit via e-mail.
18. Try to keep resume to only 2 pages and use no less than 11-point font. It is best to stay with one font style without mixing any other formats or sizes to the resume (Arial or Times New Roman is recommended).
Typos and spelling errors in resumes are an immediate turn-off to a hiring authority