The art of resum� building

Wednesday, September 03, 2003

A few weeks ago, one of the developers on my major contract left and went on to a great new job for a major aerospace corporation. Because of this, an ad was placed on Monster.com, as well as DCWW, looking for a Junior Web Developer. I've been going through resumés as they've been coming in, and boy, what a mess they are.

This isn't the first time I've done recruiting / resumé review / interviewing, so I'd like to post a few tips for people trying to get a job in the IT industry. It's painfully obvious that a lot of people don't understand cover letters and resumés, so heed my advice and you'll have an easier time getting your resumé reviewed, and possibly pulling an interview out of it.

Before I go on, let me tell you exactly what a resumé should be. It should be a nicely formatted outline of your professional career (current and former positions, companies, dates of employment, responsibilities), college education (school, major, awards, graduation date, GPA if you'd like), and skills that you possess (ASP, HTML, JSP, J2EE, Oracle9i, etc.).

Now onto my tips for making a good resumé and cover letter.

• Cover letters are a must. If you don't have a cover letter, sorry, you go to most employers' trashcan. A cover letter is a half-page bio about what you can bring to my organization. If your cover letter is nonexistent, or rambles on about how you love to water ski and design model factories that produce models of factories, again, you go into the trashcan.
  
  
• SPELL CHECK. If you don't spell and grammar check your cover letter and resumé, you DEFINITELY go to the trashcan. A lot of jobs require someone with an attention to detail, and in the case of IT and Web Development / Design, it's a must! If you state in your resumé or cover letter than you've got an attention to detail and I see a bunch of misspellings or grammatical errors, you are OUT. Trashcan! You are the weakest link, goodbye!
  
  
• Somewhat related to my last point, if English isn't your first language, please have someone who is fluent in English check to make sure your cover letter and resumé make sense. I've seen a bunch of resumés by people who obviously don't speak English, and it really stands out. If you are applying for a job where written and spoken English is your primary form of communication, you won't get an interview if you have things like "We is applying for position of the Junior developers web person," I'm sorry, but you go to the trash can even if you are perfectly qualified for the position.
  
  
• Hobbies, sports, personal projects, photographs, drawings, and anything else that is unrelated to the job you are applying for doesn't belong on your resumé. No, you don't want to put a picture of yourself on there. It's not useful, because we can't hire you if you are an attractive person with no skills. I've also seen a few resumés with doodles, information about peoples wife / husband / children / pet fish / etc., and those things also have no place on the resumé.
  
  
• Organization. Organize your thoughts before you put pen to paper. If your resumé looks like you took 10 minutes and threw it together, with information all over the place and no real good design to it, your resumé goes to the trashcan. A resumé should be something that's easy to read for you and everyone else, and not just you. Before you officially say that your own resumé is complete and ready to send out to potential employers, have a friend proofread it for you to make sure it makes sense, and that you didn't miss anything.
  
  
• I know that making a cover letter is a lot of trouble to go through, but you need to understand that a cover letter is like a personal ad to find that soul mate you've been looking for forever. As a friend of mine, who is the CEO of a large temp agency, once told me, "You've got to sell yourself to get a job, and your cover letter is the first and most important impression you are giving employers. Make it good."
  
  
• If you've only got one cover letter, please make sure that you customize it for every job you apply for. I can't tell you how many I've seen this week that mentioned the name of a completely different company, or were dated two years ago.
  
  
• Don't apply to jobs without looking at the requirements for the job. If an ad says they need someone with a Ph.D. in Psychology and 12 years professional experience, and can also help create documentation that will be put on the web for presentations, don't apply for this job because your Monster.com search found the keyword "web" in it. If you aren't qualified, it's a waste of everyone's time, and it makes you look like a moron.
  
  
• Related to the last one, if you live in California, and the job you are applying for is in New York, don't apply unless you are willing to relocate, usually at your own expense (unless otherwise noted in the ad).
  
  
• Salary. If you require at least $45,000 to live, and you apply for a job that pays $32,000, chances are slim to null that you'll be considered. You've usually got a leeway of $3,000 to $5,000 when you get to the point of salary negotiation, but that's about it. Anymore than that and you are asking to be put in the trash can.
  
  
• Don't lie. If you've "exaggerated" your resumé to make you look perfect for a certain job, and then get an interview for it, you'll pay for your actions there. If you put down that you know XML and how to create an interface between Oracle9i databases and users using XML and JSP, you'll probably be asked on an interview to explain how you would do that. And if you are really lucky, they bring the lead technical person into the interview to quiz you on what you REALLY know.
  
  
• Short and sweet. Your cover letter should be no more than 1 full page. Your resumé should be no more than two full pages. If your resumé is seven pages long, it'll be trashed. Like I said at the top, it needs to be short and to the point. Use short sentences to convey your responsibilities, not long-drawn explanations of your day-to-day tasks.
  
  
• Don't beg. Really, it's that simple. Don't put down how you have three children and live in poverty. I know it's a bad situation and all, but you won't get a job by begging. You can't be hired to do a job you aren't qualified for just because you have a sad story to go along with your life. Your personal life and professional life are to be completely separate.
  
  
• Thank you letter. Okay, this doesn't pertain to your resumé or cover letter exactly, but it's important none-the-less. After you've had an interview, even if you don't think you got the job, send a thank you note to the people who interviewed you. You can do it by email or snail mail, but you really need to do it. It makes you look like a responsible person who is mature and knows common courtesy. This goes a long, long way. I've seen people get a job offer after a so-so interview because they were kind enough to send a thank you note to their interviewers for taking the time to see them.
  
  

So, that's it, really. Those are the basics. Honestly, if you use those tips, your chances of at least getting an interview are a heck of a lot higher than they would normally be. Good luck.

• Permanent Link
• Comments [0]