Résumé magic : trade secrets of a professional résumé writer
by Whitcomb, Susan Britton, 1957-
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Summary
A giant compendium of advice and before-and-after resume transformations explains resume creation and illustrates professional techniques with actual examples that show why the techniques work. All of the tricks professional resume writers use to create eye-catching, result-driven resumes are reveal... Full description
Table of Contents:
- 1. A résumé primer
- Tools for the task
- The résumé tool : asset or liability?
- Employers and candidates usually view résumés as having different purposes
- You need to do more than write a résumé to get a job
- A résumé is most effective when it follows face-to-face or voice contact with a hiring manager
- A support person or computer program will probably be the one to screen your résumé
- Résumés are not read thoroughly
- You won't always need a résumé to land a job
- Then why write a résumé?
- And why this book?
- Some success stories
- Your most important tool
- Top 10 tips to create résumé magic
- 2. How to use branding and advertising strategies to get an interview
- Elements of your career brand
- Authentic image
- Advantages
- Awareness
- The proven ad agency formula
- Step 1 : how to grab your reader's attention
- Headlines and hard-hitting leads
- Visual appeal
- Step 2 : how to capture your reader's interest
- Selling points
- front and center
- Where's the center of the page?
- Place supporting information below the visual center
- Skimmable material goes at the bottom of the page
- Step 3 : how to create desire for your product
- you!
- Why you buy
- Why employers buy
- Prove your superiority
- Step 4 : call to action
- Top 10 résumé strategy tips
- 3. How to choose the most flattering format to support your résumé strategy
- Two tried-and-true winning formats : chronological and functional
- The chronological format
- A chronological format worked for David
- The functional format
- A functional format helped Grace get a new life
- A "wonder mom" goes back to work
- Marching to new orders
- Genetic variants of the two main résumé types
- The accomplishments format
- An accomplishments format worked for McKenzie
- The combination format
- Condensing 30 years of experience
- The creative format
- Themed résumés
- Using specialty paper
- The curriculum vitae (CV)
- The dateless chronological format
- A dateless chronological format helped Anne
- The international résumé
- The linear format
- A linear format worked for Richard
- The newsletter format
- Some newsletter formats that worked
- The reordered chronological format
- A reordered chronological format helped John
- The targeted format
- A targeted format helped Fred
- If it works, it's right
- Top 10 résumé formatting tips
- 4. The blueprint for a blockbuster résumé
- Data bits, or contact info
- To list or not to list your business telephone number
- Other solutions for daytime contacts
- Sample résumé headers
- Three data bits
- Four data bits
- Five data bits
- Six data bits
- Seven data bits
- Eight data bits
- Objective, or focus statement
- Key features, or qualifications summary
- Professional experience
- Skills
- Education, credentials, and licenses
- Affiliations
- Publications, presentations, or patents
- Awards and honors
- Bio bites
- Endorsements
- Keywords
- What not to include
- Putting it all together
- Top 10 résumé blueprint tips
- 5. How to write great copy
- Keywords
- What are keywords?
- Where to find keywords
- How to position keywords
- Top 10 résumé keyword tips
- The objective or focus statement
- Cover letter focus statement
- Title statement
- Traditional objective
- Exercise for assembling a focus statement
- The qualifications summary
- Professional experience
- How far back?
- Where to find material for your job descriptions
- How long is too long?
- Solutions for downplaying less-relevant positions
- Recently demoted
- Demoted several months ago
- Most recent position title sounds like a demotion, but isn't
- Obscure titles
- Skills
- Focusing on skills worked for Jan
- Education, credentials, licensure
- Recent high school graduate
- Recent college graduate
- Degree obtained a number of years ago
- Degree in a field different from your major
- Degree not completed
- Two-year degree
- Degree equivalent
- No degree
- Including credentials, licenses, and certificates
- Affiliations
- Publications, presentations, and patents
- Publications
- Presentations
- Awards and honors
- Bio bites
- Endorsements
- Top 10 tips for writing great copy
- 6. Accomplishments : the Linchpin of a great résumé
- What's in it for me?
- Words to woo employers
- Buying motivator #1 : make money
- Buying motivator #2 : save money
- Buying motivator #3 : save time
- Buying motivator #4 : make work easier
- Buying motivator #5 : solve a specific problem
- Buying motivator #6 : be more competitive
- Buying motivator #7 : build relationships/image with internal/external customers, vendors, and the public
- Buying motivator #8 : expand business
- Buying motivator #9 : attract new customers
- Buying motivator #10 : retain existing customers
- Strategies for presenting accomplishments
- Numbers : the universal language
- Comparison
- a powerful form of communication
- ROI
- how quickly can you deliver?
- The company's mission statement
- make it your mission
- The CAR technique
- challenge, action, and result
- Where to find material for your accomplishments
- Performance appraisals
- Your career management file
- Impact-mining : probing questions to unearth hidden treasures
- Sifting through the accomplishments you've gathered
- Focusing on accomplishments worked for Patrick
- Use impact statements to portray yourself as the right fit
- Top 10 tips for writing accomplishments
- 7. Editing : résumé-speak 101
- Development editing : a primer in power writing
- Top 10 tenets of developing your résumé
- Examples of résumé-speak
- The keys to writing compelling copy
- Address the needs of your audience
- Summarize by using the ABC method
- Focus on transferable skills
- Résumé-speak 101
- Deliver the goods up front
- Start sentences with action verbs or noun phrases
- Sidestep potential negatives
- Give outdated experience a feeling of real time
- Avoid an employer pet peeve : baseless personality
- Attributes
- Convey confidential information without giving away proprietary/trade secrets
- Technical editing/copyediting : the mechanics of résumé-speak
- Abbreviations
- Acronyms
- Active Voice
- Articles (in absentia)
- Auxiliary or helping verbs
- Capitalization
- Colons and semicolons
- Commas
- Commas that separate
- Commas that set off
- Comma trauma
- Contractions
- Dashes
- Ellipsis marks
- Elliptical sentences
- Gender equity
- Hyphenation
- Numbers
- Parallel sentence structure
- Parentheses
- Parts of speech
- Passive voice
- Periods
- Possessives
- Prepositions
- Quotation marks
- Sentence fragments
- Slashes
- Split infinitives
- Tense
- Verbs
- Writing in the first person
- Prune, prune, prune
- Proof, proof, proof
- Top 10 résumé proofreading tips
- 8. Visual artistry : the missing link
- Design elements
- Create a visual pattern
- Consistency counts
- Use tab stops sparingly
- Apply white space liberally
- Make bullets work for you
- Think in threes
- Keep headings to a minimum
- Segment paragraphs
- Segmenting made Martin's résumé more readable
- Balance is beautiful
- Pay attention to vertical balance
- Balancing a two-column format
- A two-column format worked for Gail
- Balancing a full-width layout
- A full-width layout worked for George
- Balancing unevenly distributed copy
- Patricia's résumé became a good balancing act
- Balancing impact statements
- Justification
- ragged right or full justification?
- Hang it on the wall!
- Use typefaces tastefully
- Choosing a font
- Fonts that buy more space
- Use discretion in mixing fonts
- Go easy on bold, underline, and italic
- Establish a logical sizing hierarchy
- Tweaking tips
- Technical tools to create tables
- Add white space
- Change line height
- Expand character spacing
- Tricks to make text fit
- Use bullets strategically
- Creating bullets
- Adding or subtracting spacing between bullets and text
- Changing the type of bullet
- Using the right bullet size
- Use rule lines
- Other graphic elements
- Visual artistry made the difference
- Top 10 visual appeal tips
- 9. E-résumés, e-portfolios, blogs, social media, and profile sites
- How people get hired
- Résumés in MS Word .doc or .docx format as e-mail
- Attachments or Web form uploads
- The advantages and disadvantages of MS Word résumés for e-mail attachments and Web form uploads
- MS Word résumé do's and don'ts
- Do's
- Don'ts
- ASCII text résumés as e-mail body text or Web form upload
- The advantages and disadvantages of ASCII résumés
- ASCII résumé do's and don'ts
- Do's
- Don'ts
- Steps for ASCII conversion
- Converting to ASCII for E-mailing using MS Word
- Converting to ASCII for pasting into e-forms
- Quick cleanup of an ASCII conversion
- How to post an ASCII résumé to a Web site
- Web résumés, e-portfolios, and blogs
- The advantages and disadvantages of Web résumés
- The technical how-to's of web résumés
- Use an online résumé-builder service
- Do it yourself
- Hire a pro
- What to include in a Web résumé or e-portfolio
- Getting on the blog bandwagon
- Creating a blog
- Using RSS (really simple syndication) technology
- Marketing your blog
- Social media sites and online profiles
- Scannable résumés
- Scannable résumé do's and don'ts
- Do's
- Don'ts
- Applicant-tracking systems : what happens after you e-mail or post your résumé?
- Positive aspects of applicant-tracking technology
- Negative aspects of applicant-tracking technology
- Conflicting advice
- Résumés of the future
- Top 10 technology tips for e-résumés, E-portfolios, and blogs
- 10. Cover letters and other parts of the puzzle
- Strategy and style
- The value mantra
- Sell, don't tell
- Reveal a secret
- The segments of a cover letter
- The carrot
- Example of intrigue [new graduate]
- Example of inspirational quotation
- Example of an interesting fact
- Example of appeal
- The corroboration
- The close
- Cover letter anatomy
- Sticky wickets
- To whom it may concern?
- Missed a filing deadline?
- Terminated from a job?
- Relocating?
- Request for salary information?
- Other types of letters
- Direct-mail campaigns
- Writing to a recruiting firm
- Thank-you letters
- a chance to resell yourself
- Other pieces of the puzzle
- References
- When to send references
- When and how to ask for references
- How to improve the traditional reference list
- Networking cards
- Addenda
- LinkedIn profile
- Do
- Don't
- Paper
- Sending your cover letter and résumé
- By surface mail
- By fax
- By e-mail
- Futurist career management
- Top 10 cover letter tips
- Appendix A. Worksheets to catalog professional history
- Appendix B. Survey : what executive recruiters really want in a résumé
- Appendix C. Sample résumés by professional writers
- Index.