Writing a Resume

This section of our journey through Business Communication tackles the challenges of writing effective resumes.  During your career search, your resume will be the most important document in the process.  An individual will be able to use it directly in many instances, adapt it to a variety of uses and reuse portions of the resume in social networking profiles and online applications.  However, as you go about developing your resume you should be mindful of four important points; first you should treat your resume with the respect it deserves being mindful that you should keep you resume honest as any detected mistakes can cost you an interview opportunity.  Individuals should also be mindful that employers conduct intensive background reviews on potential employees and are keen to detect and uncover misrepresentations.  Should an employer discover an egregious misrepresentation on your resume, it results in severe damage to an individual’s integrity.  Secondly, you should give yourself enough time to properly compose the resume.  Individuals should not wait until the last minute to throw together a resume in one sitting.  Thirdly, you should learn from the best, in that you should find good examples of well written resumes online at places like college websites and job boards, and model your resume after these effective models.  Fourth, individuals shouldn’t get frustrated or discouraged by the conflicting advice circulating about writing resumes.  Bovee & Thil indicated in their text Business Communications Today, 11^th Edition, “resumes are as much art as science, and there is more than one way to be successful with them.”  Bovee & Thil further stated that you should “consider the alternatives and choose the approach that makes the most sense to you.”

Individuals should be aware of the importance of adapting their resumes to their target readers’ needs and interests.  Individuals should know that in a competitive market such as today’s job market, the more you appear to be a good fit for an employer, the greater are your chances of being selected for an interview.  As a result individuals should translate their past accomplishments into a compelling picture of what you can achieve for potential employers in the future.  Additionally, material information like military service and other specialized experiences may need to be translated into terms more easily understood by the targeted audience.

After considering how you would adapt your resume to your target audience, it is time to compose your resume.  According to Bovee & Thil, individuals should write their resumes using a simple and direct style, using short, crisp phrases instead of whole sentences and focus on what it is that your reader needs to know.  In writing the resume, the writer should mindful not to extensively use the word “I” too often for fear of conveying a self-involved individual.  The over use of “I” can also make your resume appear repetitious by the time you have completed the outline of all of your skills and accomplishments.

Additionally, you should include supporting evidence, which is vital however you should not go overboard with small details.  Bovee & Thill indicates that you should include key words in your introductory statement, work history and education sections. 

The resume’s traditional lay out should be as follows from top to bottom; the name and contact information.  The writer should make certain that everything on the resume heading is well organized and clearly laid out on the page.  Bovee & Thill indicates that the writer should be sure to provide complete and accurate contact information as mistakes in the contact section of the resume are surprisingly common.  Bovee & Thill also advises that you should get a professional sounding email address for business correspondence.  The next section on the resume should be the introductory statement, which can be a career objective, a qualification summary or career summary.  The education follows the introductory section and this section is followed by the work experience, skills and accomplishments.  The activities section follows the work experience, skills and accomplishment, and in this section the writer would include accomplishments if they suggest special skills or qualities that are relevant to the jobs you are seeking.  The final section of the resume is the personal date and references, however because of anti-discrimination laws in the United States, personal information should not be included on resumes.  Finally, a list of references should be prepared but should also not be included on the actual resume.

I like and chose this topic because as an active member of the United States work force, I have learned that the resume is the single most important document in an individual’s career search.  Individuals are judge based on what is written on an individual’s resume and in the career search process the resume makes the first impression.  As a result, it very important that it presents the writer in the most positive and candid manner, and at the same time present an appealing candidate to potential employers.

In a Wall Street Journal title The Best Recruits May Not Be Who You Think by Mike Michalowicz, the author discusses how recruiters are considering qualifications first and last when hiring new employees.  The author indicates that recruiters are looking for someone with the best education, the most experience and the most impressive skills.  The author also discussed the interviewing process in the article, however before the interview the first impression is made with the resume, and if as is written by Michalowicz, recruiters are looking for someone with the best education, the most experience and the most impressive skills.  Then it is imperative that job seekers are effective when writing their resumes.  Individuals must be certain that they are presenting themselves as impressive and prudent on their resumes so that they can proceed to the next step in job search process, which is the interview.