One of my brothers recently is out of college and on the job market. (Anybody need a Mechanical Engineer?) I have some friends at places like Raytheon and Lockheed I am going to try and put him in touch with but first I had a look at his resume....
I won't post it here, but I will post my suggestions:
--Begin:
Couple of things:
1) Put Your name and Address and phone number (all the contact info) at the top
2) It is ok to use a larger font (especially when you are starting your career) It fills up the page better and makes it easier for old people to read it (just not stupid large ;) )
3) Try and be more specific in your work experience.. Use specific terms and examples
A perfect example is in your computer skills. Don't put just Microsoft Office. Put Microsoft Word 2000/2003/2007, Excel 2003, etc.
Why you ask?
Because many recruiters are lazy (and many times do NOT KNOW the industry they are targeting for) they will just put in keywords and see what resumes float to the top. Then they skim them in about 10-15 seconds to see if it matches what they want. Then it goes into a stack to be looked at by someone who might actually read it. -- Make it easy for them by putting specific details so it will trigger the searches.
4) Don't put bilingual. Put Fluent in German (or something along those lines where they know you speak German. bilingual is way to generic)
5) When you decommissioned the *** put cool stuff you did (leave out grunt work, but try and emphasize anything you did that was cool)
6) Nothing cool? Mention other projects you have done on your own.. like your helicopter experiment. better yet, if you have a website about stuff like that it is good to put that in.
7) Name the Resume FirstnameLastnameResume2008.doc (Not FMLResume) The first will stick out more.
8) Put "Willing To Relocate" not "will relocate"
9) The goal of a resume is to make them interested enough in you to pick up the phone and call. Then you have to make sure that who you are matches the resume.
Bad Example:
Manager At Things, Inc. - Managed office and helped keep things in order.
Good Example:
Lead Manager At Things, Inc. - Increased measurable productivity by 10% through employee moral programs which resulted in lower turnover. Saved $13,000 in new hire training expenses.
They both say the same things, but the second one draws a picture in the reader head and gives them facts and numbers they can use. (Note your numbers and facts had better be accurate :) I find that MANY people exaggerate on their resume. And many people expect you to. But I NEVER exaggerate (and recommend you don't). When people realize that I am NOT exaggerating (usually during the interview when they try to find out what a person exaggerated on) it moved me to the top of the list pretty quickly.
Normally I would say put education after work experience, but since you don't have a ton, you did right by putting education at the top.
--End:
Sound advice? Or am I going to destroy his career? ;)
Labels: Advice, Job Search, Resume
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