Zen and the Art of “Resume Writing”
So you are looking for a job. Perhaps you feel the whirlwind of downsizing hitting you soon, or you’ve already been hit!!! Maybe your desk chair has caved into the shape of your body, and you feel it is time to find yourself a new set of desk and chair, or perhaps you are a first-time job seeker venturing into the world of business. Wherever you are in your personal journey, getting that ever-elusive job interview appointment means a bulletproof resume, one that is sharp, attractive, and all-around eye-catching!
The optimistic go-getter in you is not worried too much since Good Ol’ Google has plenty of resumes in store. All you need to do is take one that fits your purpose and is “YOU,” so to speak, change the name and address, and move a couple of paragraphs, or better yet, jump on the AI bandwagon and have AI write you one and Voila! You have yourself a kick-ass resume, right? ….. Wrong!
The last thing you want to do is to copy your resume from some randomly-googled Joe Blow or AI it and expect to impress a potential employer. I have seen my share of odd-looking resumes, from, let’s say, “special” to downright “creepy” ones, and I can tell you that copied resumes with no thought put in them scream “Fake.”
A good resume has a coherent body and a genuine soul. When you think of a good resume, think Zen. It is a balanced combination of Simplicity, Asymmetry, and Originality—the ingredients of a show-stopper piece!
Here are some essential tips to help you get your Zen on!
1. A professional email address: There was a time not too long ago when you had to pay for an email account. Thankfully, those days are far behind. Now you can get one for free, so get yourself one with your first and last name as the handle and leave the more creative ones like eurogal121@ or wassupG@ to social media sites as well as your BFFs and Homies. And while you are at it, avoid _ (underscore) or – (hyphen) or anything else that makes your email address unnecessarily difficult to remember and to type.
2. Format it: Choose one of the following two most popular and user-friendly formats.
- Reverse Chronological: from the most recent job experience to the earliest (usually for those with some pertinent experience under their belts).
- Functional: Start with the most recent “Relevant” experience (geared towards chain part-timers et al.)
**Also, while you are at it, make sure you save it in a more recent version of MS Word.
3. Spel-Cheque, please! : Spell check, and I don’t mean leaving it to the kindness of Microsoft Word to do the job for you. Because even though it does a good job, there is still a phenomenon known as homophones (words that have the same sounds but are spelled differently and have different meanings) e.g. “for/four” and the most common and embarrassing flop “there/their”.
4. Choose a legible font: There’s a time to be creative and artistic and a time to be professional and realistic. The bottom line is that if your future boss gets butterflies reading your resume, chances are you go from artistic to “an artist formerly known as Job Candidate.” Some foolproof font options are “Arial” or “Tahoma.”
5. Coif it, don’t fluff it: DO NOT waste time listing your strongest attributes with jaw-breaking words you looked up in the dictionary to impress your future employer. Think about it: any pathological lair can claim they are hardworking, detailed, and “a people person.” What is the best bet? Stick to tangible facts and leave the judgments to the interviewer.
6. Keep it simple and honest: Don’t make your resume longer than a page unless you have over seven years of experience, at least half of which is in the capacity of a manager. Recruiters spend anywhere between 5 and 25 seconds on each resume. Use that blink-of-an-eye opportunity to nail it.
7. Transparency=Accuracy: in other words, put a clear job title and a clear employment date in front of each position you have held. If you have a big gap between your employments, have a logic ready as opposed to being ambiguous and secretive. Ambiguity is an immediate turnoff as it implies that things don’t jive!
8. Dodge the bullet: Everyone will tell you to list the job responsibilities for each position you have held in four or five bullets. While this method has its obvious benefits, such as keeping it all tidy and together, it is totally mechanical and boring. My advice? Brief your duties in one coherent and well-worded paragraph for each position. It is classy and professional and is sure to impress the interviewer.
9. « Oh la la » or « Eh »! Unlike retail trends where the label “European” sells, Resume writing is one area where you want to stick to your Canadian values. Thanks to the advanced labor laws in our country, many typical trends in the European job market are considered unnecessary or downright illegal in Canada. Therefore, mentioning your age and marital status or adding a picture to your resume is uncalled for.
10. Visual Effects: Here are the facts about the visual effects of a resume:
- Fact 1: By default, a resume’s focal point is the upper half towards the middle of the page.
- Fact 2: The two most important things every recruiter is interested in are your most recent job experience as well as the highest degree.
What do these facts mean to YOU? Keep the most relevant information in the middle of the page to make the best first impression. Start with the education section, followed immediately by your “Work History,” and leave things like memberships or other less important info at the bottom of the resume.
All right! You are now on your way to building a professional and pre-ZEN-table resume for yourself. Go get ’em, Tiger!