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PREPARING YOUR RESUME
It’s critical to build a good resume.
Your resume is an essential part of your marketing campaign that not only details your background and experience, but also reflects your career accomplishments in a manner that will persuade the reader to contact you. Your professional background should be presented in reverse chronological order, starting with your current or most recent position.
COMPONENTS OF A PROFESSIONAL RESUME
➩ Contact Information
Make it easy to contact you by phone or e-mail. The more difficult you are to reach, the less likely someone is to try. Be sure that home answering machine and voicemail messages are professional.
➩ Objective or Summary
Including a Summary or Objective is a frequently debated topic. If you are currently employed, and your objective states a logical progression to the "next step" in your career, then consider placing it on the resume. If not, consider replacing the Objective with a two or three sentence Summary of your experience.
Objective: An objective should be one sentence
o Example: To secure a position as Operations Manager with a Food / Beverage Manufacturer.
Summary:
o The first sentence should include your title and years of experience
o The second should indicate special skills or achievements
o A third sentence could include something about your work style
Example:Production Manager with over 15 years of experience in three Fortune 100 companies. Experience includes Continuous Improvement, Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, and team building. Hands-on leader with proven track record of developing subordinates.
➩ Professional Experience
List each position in reverse chronological order, going back at least ten years. Include the location and dates of employment with each company, as well as a one-sentence profile of the company. If you have held multiple positions in the same company, be sure to list all of them - including dates. If your career extends beyond ten years, evaluate the relevance of those early positions to your current position or career aspirations.
Divide the body of the position description in two parts -- a description of your responsibilities, and your accomplishments for each of those positions.
Example:
ABC Company, Anytown, USA. Production Manager, 2007 - Present
ABC Company is a $100M manufacturer of snack foods and baked goods.
Production Manager, 2007 - Present
Responsibly managed a plant that operated on a $30M budget with 185 union employees.
• Created and managed a Continuous Improvement Team that reduced unplanned downtime, eliminated problem areas, and saved $1.1M.
• Reduced labors costs by 15% and OSHA Incident Rate by 22%.
• Consistently earned a 100% SQF rating.
➩ When compiling a list of achievements, consider the following:
Supervisory Management Capital Planning Mentoring & Coaching Increased Efficiencies Continuous Improvement Budgeting & Cost Control Crisis Management Identify Best Practices Cost Savings Project Management Project Development Asset Management
➩ Education
List your education in reverse chronological order, starting with the institution, its location and dates you attended. Be sure to indicate the type of degree, if earned. List your GPA if above 3.0 or B, and indicate if you graduated with honors.
➩ Language
If you are fluent in more than one language, include it on your resume. The criteria for evaluating your skill level as fluent should be your ability to negotiate a contract in that language. If you are not fluent, identify your skill as a "working knowledge." If you are multi-lingual, identify your mother tongue.