• A pragmatic treament of resume writing by pNaomi Most.

What I discovered was that writing a good resume is actually pretty simple. Just like in physics, where nearly every problem can be derived from one of Newton's fundamental laws (conservation of energy and mass), there are really only two things you need to know about resumes. The first "law" is that whoever's doing the hiring gets pretty bored and unforgiving reading one job application after another all day. The second is that companies don't actually want to hire a new employee -- they're doing it because they need to.

From the first "law", you can derive several corollaries, the most important one being that employers don't want to read a lot. They spend about an average of 15 seconds on each resume before deciding whether to move it to the save pile or to the trash. Instead of letting that depress you (as it used to depress me), you can use that to your advantage. By putting the most important stuff somewhere near the top of your resume -- the "highlights", or "summary", or whatever -- you are effectively saving a resume-reader the hassle of searching through your experiences for the qualifications she's looking for. Your resume then has an advantage over the others in the pile -- those others may have the right qualifications, but if the employer can't find them fast enough, they won't make the cut.

Which brings me to the next important corollary. You must tailor each resume for the job you're applying for, especially if it's a job you're really interested in getting. Most resumes are not tailored to the job. Why? Because it's time-consuming to do so; because only a fraction of those applying for any particular job are actually really interested in getting that specific job; and because many people don't realize how crucial it is. When you send in a resume, your "highlights" at the top should match as closely as possible the job requirements listed in the want ad (or however you found out about the job). And there are certain things you almost always want to put into your "highlights" because they are always desirable to employers. Teamwork and leadership roles fall into that category.

From the second "law", you guessed it, there are several important corollaries. Because companies aren't looking to hire out of the goodness of their hearts, your resume needs to show not just how you are qualified for the job, but also how your qualifications will positively affect the company's bottom line. Resumes aren't about showing what you did on a daily basis; they're about showing what you are capable of, which means describing "accomplishments" rather than "duties". References to completing some number of projects "on time and well within budget" are great. Showing how you saved companies money is pure gold.

If you don't think you even have that kind of qualification to put in your resume, you'd be surprised. You just need to dig a little, and start thinking more like an accountant. Here's an example of "before" and "after" lines from someone's resume applying for a management position:

Before:

• Branch Manager, First Bank of Whatever.
  • Responsible for weekly quality checkups at each branch in my region.

After:

• Branch Manager, First Bank of Whatever.
  • Oversaw 452 employees among 13 branches.