How To Make
A Resume
That Gets You
An Interview

Outline To Make A Resume

"I just need a simple outline to make a resume".

Whether or not that statement is true depends on a handful of variables…

What are your GOALS with this resume? (beyond the very nebulous, "Get a Job")

What INDUSTRY do want to work?

What are their industry expectations for resumes?
Is there an EXPECTED FORMAT?
Does the expected format present YOUR CAREER HISTORY in the BEST LIGHT?
How much flexibility is there to tell your story?

What is your HISTORY?

What are YOUR greatest ASSETS?
Is your TRACK RECORD the right one for a Chronological Resume?
Are you CHANGING CAREERS?

What are the EMPLOYER's NEEDS?

Does your resume address the EMPLOYER's NEEDS?

What is the GOAL of your resume?

If you are the only candidate for a position open only to internal applicants in a department of five, your needs may not be critical because of an absence of competition. For you, a very simple outline to make a resume may be appropriate:

Contact Information
Professional Summary
Experience
Education
Honors and Awards

However, if you are competing against 3500 other highly qualified candidates, the task of your resume is instantly much more complex.

What INDUSTRY do you want to work?

Your industry choice can REQUIRE you to make certain decisions about your resume.

Very Conservative Industries A chronological resume may be demanded in banking or accounting because of the nature of the career ladder. Everything in this resume format is listed in reverse chronological order. Whether your education or your experience, everything goes chronologically. The sequencing of experience vs. educations sections first depends on which is stronger for you. Your BEST ASSET goes first. So, if you have a Ph.D. in International Finance from Harvard, you would certainly put that before an experience section that only contained a month as a relief teller in a failed bank ten years ago. Conversely, if you hired in as a relief teller and became the CFO of Goldman Sachs in 15 years, that would be more noteworthy than a BS in accounting from Yazoo City Community College.

Medical, Scientific or Academic Industries These are industries with varied types of expectations depending on relative rank. For instance, clerical workers and other non-professional level workers would have similar expectations for similar positions within other industries, and would be allowed more flexibility and creativity than in conservative industries. However, most professionals Doctors, Professors, Lead scientists, etc., may need a curriculum vitae rather than a simple one or two page resume.

How Does Your HISTORY Affect Your
Outline To Make A Resume?

Face facts! YOUR history is going to affect your outline to make a resume. Your resume is a marketing document for YOU!! Regardless of what may have worked for your friends, co-workers, family members, your resume has to market YOU! In order to best do that you must address your history in the best light.

You must find ways to present your best

accomplishments
skills
knowledge bases
problems solved and
other assets

for employers to understand how what you can do for them fits the needs they have.

In addition, if you are changing careers, or have something less than a vertical assault on the career ladder, you may need an outline to make a resume that beats to a different drum, a functional or skills based resume.

Here's the point...Some people think this thing of building a resume as simply figuring out about four to six headings and go to pounding keystrokes. And, to be honest, that is the way a LOT of people prepare resumes.

But if you want a resume that actually GETS AN INTERVIEW, soemtimes you must put more thought into what you're doing. Your resume's task is to first get past a screener, then make a secondary cut, and finally present you as a person of interest who gets an interview.

So, with that said, let's put together a plausible outline to make a resume that meets some assumptions...

Assumption 1: You are a banker who has recently separated from a bank that went belly up...

You must assess your strengths. Is your education or your work history your greatest asset?

Assessment 1A: Your main strength is 25 years progressive experience. Your elements might include:

Contact Information
Professional Summary
Experience
Licensure/Certifications
Education
Honors & Awards
Accomplishments
Civic Leadership

The way you would sequence the items below your Experience section would depend on what is most important.

Do you have truly outstanding accomplishments as a banker of 25 years? Then that should probably either have it's own section fitted immediately after Experience, or be laced throughout your Experience section. Then if your next greatest asset is that you graduated (but perhaps not with honors) from the University of Southern California, then your Education section should come next.

Assumption 2: You are a career changer with LOTS of accomplishments and transferrable skills, but no degree from a prestigious institution...

Again, you must assess your strengths, but also think about what your employer wants and synthesize those lists.

Assumption 2A: Your accomplishments are clustered around some very important skills but come from more than three industries...

You may need a Functional Resume to focus on your accomplishments and skills

Your outline to make a resume might include something like this:

Contact Information
Professional Summary (or Qualifications Summary or Professional Qualifications, etc.)
Major Accomplishments and/or Indications of Potential Value
Experience
Education
Licensure/Certifications
Honors & Awards
Patents, Presentations and Publications

But, again, the sequence of these sections would be dependent upon the needs of the employer, what your greatest assets are and how you can best meet the employer's needs.

No Simple "One Size Fits All" ... Sorry...

I'm not in the business of trying to burst bubbles or disappoint folks. My web site is here to help you make a resume that gives you YOUR best shot at getting an interview. The sad fact of the matter is that there are currently over 10 MILLION people in the US looking for work. The lazy ones, careless ones, those who have no motivation will remain on welfare rolls for an extended time.

If you want off the rolls, and want to work, truth and reality are what you need to consider. The reality of resume construction is that there is NO "One Size Fits All." I'm sorry to be so blunt, but there is hardly any other way to deal with the reality of the employment situation.

You CAN get a job. But to do so, you simply MUST put your BEST foot forward in the form of a resume that attracts attention, makes claims that are relevant to an employer's needs, and one that provides evidence of the claims.

You must put your best assets in the places most likely to gain immediate attention and sequence your most powerful assets as far toward the front of your resume as possible. Your first set of items should make the reader say, "Aahhh, this is what we NEED…", while the latter items should make her say, "OK, this adds a really nice touch…"

Your outline to make a resume should take into consideration a way to factor the employer's greatest needs by your greatest assets. You get the elements together that resolve those matters, and THEN sequence them, with the most important and relevant first, least important and relevant last...

An Outline To Make A Resume That Works...

Believe it or not, that may be simpler than it seems. The following grid layout will help you identify your most valuable assets to a particular employer.

Employment Aasset Evaluation Grid
Potential Employer Needs	My Employment Assets
Licensure in Mechanical Engineering	Licensure in Mechanical Engineering
5 years experience on _____ technique	MS in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech
Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering	12 years experience in 2 similar but alternate techniques
7 years experience as mechanical design team leader/project manager	Author of Six Sigma Project Development book and software template
Expertise in retrofitting of power generation equipment	7 years lead engineer for retrofitted power generation equipment
Familiarity with supervision of Latin American work crews	3 years experience leading Brazillian mechanical design team
Knowledge of AutoCad	3 years installation/supervision of AutoCad software in a Brazillian company

If you wanted to improve on this super simple system, you may wish to add another couple of columns where you can apply numerical values to the relative importance of each item. This will help to identify whether your most valuable asset meets the potential employer's greatest need.

Any resume that disregards the relative importance of the employer's need is significantly weakened. Figure out what the employer needs and then how your assets dovetail into those needs. The answer to that question will get more results faster than any other approach to an outline to make a resume.

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