Baltimore County, MD Webinar Series: Baltimore County Business Forum—COVID-19 and Beyond, 8 Jun 2020

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From YouTube: Resume Writing Strategies

Description

Understand that your résumé serves as an introduction to potential employers and serves to summarize your education, experience and expertise. Discover effective strategies for writing winning résumés and the core components of a résumé. This virtual training is designed to teach you résumé fundamentals that you can take and build upon.

Print the following materials to follow along and take notes during the workshop:
-Resume Writing Strategies Handout: http://ow.ly/CIjh50A2fTT
-PowerPoint Slides for Note-Taking: http://ow.ly/My3v50A2fYL

For more virtual training opportunities, visit our website at http://www.baltimorecountymd.gov/virtualcareer

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Welcome to resume writing strategies..

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My name is cathy, and I'm here to show a few ways to perfect your resume,, get it noticed, and get you the interview for the job. You really want.

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In today's session, we're going to cover what is a resume?, what are the guidelines of a resume?

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and the core components of a resume.

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The resume serves as an introduction to potential employers.

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Some people feel their resume should be a summary of their work. Experience.

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a resume isn't about listing your professional history.

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It's a strategic marketing tool..

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It is the way in which you communicate your skills, experience, and value to employers,.

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While determining how successful you are at generating quality interviews and landing, your next job.

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Be sure your resume tells a clear story of who you are as a professional., the resume, interview, application,.

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Reference resources, and any social media profiles,.

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Work together to create your complete job search, package.

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Sell yourself as the best candidate for the role.

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The resume should summarize your education,.

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Expertise, and experience.

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A common mistake: many job seekers make, is to create one single resume..

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They blast it out to every hiring company and recruiter they can find.. This is not gonna. Give you the outcomes that you're looking for. it's important to devote the time and energy.

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Into crafting a customized resume for each employment opportunity., you will never get second chance to make a first impression.

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What are some things that you think about when you're targeting your energy and efforts into your job search?, perhaps identify an employer, top-10 list.

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Which companies are your best prospects?.

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Use the web to research, the company's culture,, leadership, and philosophy.

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google them, see if they have anything new happening.

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And check their growth, or if they have a revolving door of job openings.

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You might want to evaluate the logistical issues,.

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Like how long is the commute?

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is there public transportation, nearby?.

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What are their working hours?

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and is there travel required?.

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The resume and the application will get you the interview,.

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But the interview will get you the job..

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The goal of the resume is not to land you, the job,.

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Therefore, you should not feel pressure to put everything on that. Resume.

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expect to have a master that has every single accomplishment,, skill, and talent you have, all the way. Back.

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All you'll need to do is select what you want to create the new next resume.

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Now,, let's talk about some general guidelines.

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When we talk about the length of a resume,.

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If you have more than 10 years of work experience,, then you have earned a two-page resume.

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Be sure that you use at least half of the second page.

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Ensure that most of the important information is on the first page, as the employer and recruiter will only give it six seconds.

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The document must be free of grammatical, errors.

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spell check, doesn't catch everything.

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Have someone else give it a look.

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Sometimes we don't have time to get a second set of eyes to review the resume,.

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So I have found that if you read the resume aloud,.

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You will hear what the reader hears,.

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And catch any errors., what goes on the top of resume in the header area?.

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Your contact information., it includes your name,, your address,.

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But today some people do not wanna include their address,, just the city and state,, and this is considered acceptable practices in today's market.

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Your email address. be sure that the email sounds professional, and during this type of job searching,, that you regularly check your email, account.

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It's not a bad idea to set up a separate account.

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That is used primarily for job search,, such as email.

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Includes a phone number.: while you are job searching,, you should be prepared to answer your phone. Even if you don't recognize the number.

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They might come up as private or unknown.

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Be sure you have your voicemail set up, and that you state your name, and that your message is clear and professional.

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If you have a linkedin profile,, you should include your url on the header of the resume.

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Make sure your profile and the resume.

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Are consistent with each other.

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when formatting the resume, understand that the whole document should only have one font style,, such as times roman or arial.,.

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They're simple, fonts and easier to read.

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You can use up to three font sizes..

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Your name might be in a 16-point font,, subheader 14, and the body no smaller than 11-point..

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It makes it more difficult to read.

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All the information included must be completely honest.

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You can choose not to include information on a resume,.

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But everything should be verifiably honest.

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Customize each resume to match the job posting.

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Use the language of the job posting, and highlight the qualifications, requirements, and preferences, as they are prioritized in the posting.

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Your resume should highlight your responsibilities,, the results of your efforts, and the recognition that you earned throughout your career.

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Now we're gonna review the core components of a resume.

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Resume design may be different from person to person,, but there are a few core components that should be addressed on each resume.

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The professional statement, skills,.

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Experience, and education.

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Your accomplishments should have their own section, or they can be embedded within the experience section of the resume.

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Now we're gonna look at jane mccormick as an example.

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Of what a chronological resume might look like.

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We're looking at jane, mccormick.

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jane, is an example of what a chronological resume might look. Like.

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She has a professional profile,.

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And she has a list of skills..

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She has created an accomplishment section.

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She has employment, history,.

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As well as additional relevant experience.

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She has a category called education and professional development, and then computer skills.

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The components of a functional resume are slightly different.

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Notice, their relevant experience is not the same as work history,.

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But the skillset will directly relate to the job posting.

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Joshua dennis is this style of resume.

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Let's take a look at joshua's resume.

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As you can, see, joshua's resume also has a professional profile.

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He lists his education at the top of the resume because he is a recent graduate within the last five years,.

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But his relevant experience differs from work, experience.

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A combination resume is just what it sounds: like..

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It combines the chronological and functional resume,.

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And it is great for career changers., it can highlight your skills as well as your work. History.

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Candace's resume has all the same properties at the top of the resume, as the chronological resume does have,.

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But it has properties also of what the functional.

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It has categories for the skills such as product sales,, customer relations,.

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Or customer service, and account management.

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The employment history has a category of its own,, but doesn't have any of the details of each one of the jobs.

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She has also included education and professional development.- those are also in a section for affiliations that are connected to the type of work.

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That she is looking for.

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now that we understand the core components of a resume,.

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We're gonna look at creating a professional profile.

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The profile statement is the introduction section of the resume..

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You might use sub-headers like profile statement,, summary of qualifications, summary, or just profile..

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The length is usually just a few sentences.

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The goal of this section is to provide a brief summary of your qualifications as they relate to the job. Posting., introduce your employment identity to the reader,.

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And describe yourself: professionally.

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employers are looking for potential employees with strong soft skills..

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This is a great opportunity to introduce them to your proposed impact on their company.

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Note, take time to review the job posting,.

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Highlighting the soft skills and the hard skills that are required for that position, and identify them in your list.

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Of skills., you might consider using this template to help form the profile statement.

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who,. What is your current employment identity?.

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Maybe you're an experienced customer service professional,.

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Or a compassionate youth, advocate, or maybe a highly-skilled administrative support, professional.

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The what,, what do you offer to the prospective employer?.

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What skills,, traits,, experiences, and qualifications.

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Are most important to that employer?.

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Be sure to go back to the job posting, find those keywords, and incorporate in this statement.

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Why,, you should communicate why your offering skills matter to the employer.

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It could tell them the impact, or the result, of your offering skills.

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The who might sound like experienced customer service professional.

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The what, proven sales success and customer engagement, skills.

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and the why, increased profitability and customer satisfaction.

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When you put it all together,, it could sound something like this:.

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Experienced customer service professional, offering proven sales success and customer engagement skills,, resulting in increased profitability and customer satisfaction for your organization.

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The skills section., the skills section, gives you an opportunity to directly connect to the job.

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Headers might be like knowledge,, skills, and abilities.

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Professional qualifications,, core competencies or skills.

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Sections should include demonstrated abilities, ones that you've used in the past.

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measurable skills,. That could be measured objectively.

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And points to knowledge.

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That does not include training,, coursework, and certificates.

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Use the skill in the skill section, be sure that it's mentioned in other sections within the resume., an example might be. If you are customer service,.

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As a skill section, it needs to discuss how your exceptional customer service was in your last job.

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in the employment section,. You could include it there, or in the profile statement.

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Avoid using tables on resumes,, because applicant tracking systems, or ats,.

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Have a hard time categorizing the data listed in them.

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It's best just to use columns.

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make sure the skills listed are both current and relevant..

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No one should be listing microsoft, 2007 as a skill on a resume in 2020.

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A good rule of thumb is to have nine to 15 skills on a resume.

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Columns, create those.

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Columns can help you organize your skills without taking up too much of your real estate.

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make sure the skills list, the max skills.

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In the job posting exactly., it ensures better keyword, matches.

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If your industry is in it or in project management,,.

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You might want to categorize skills by section.

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Transferrable skills are skills and abilities that are relevant and helpful across different areas of life, socially, professionally.

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They are portable, skills.

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people usually think about their transferrable skills when they apply for a job, or when thinking about a career, change.

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Some examples might be analytical skills,, leadership, or time management.

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There's also job-specific skills.

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These are more hard skills which are quantifiable,.

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Or capable skills, and are required for other.

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Specific types of jobs such as editor.

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Transferrable skills are more soft, skills.

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They are more subjective skills, often related to your personality and behavior,.

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Particularly how you interact with others.

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Think about your online resources.

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here are some web-based resources to help you create.

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That list of skills for your resume., you can go to google and type in resume skills for customer service.

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or you can go to www.onetonline.org.

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In the occupational, quick, search, type, your job title., let's try that..

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This is o-net online, and I have typed in up in the occupational, quick search, customer service.

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I then select the arrow, and click,, and it takes you to a list of occupations.

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Here is customer service,, so that will be the first one that I select., the bright sunshine means bright outlook, or that there is growth in the industry.

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Click on it, and it opens up a summary report.

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For customer service representatives., it gives you a definition,, it gives you a sample.

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Of reported job titles, that could be helpful when you're looking for it..

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It also gives you lists of tasks.

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That someone in a customer service position might do.

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Then you can look at the technology skills.

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That you might wanna include on the resume., be sure that you can do these skills.

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Knowledge, again, more skills,, like active listening,.

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Speaking, service orientation.

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Work activities,.

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Detailed work, activities, and so on.

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This is a really good site to look at..

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It can really help you in creating that resume,.

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And getting that skill section started.

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Here's an example of what a skill section,.

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Completed, might look like..

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The writer has chosen core competencies as the header.

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They have looked at what skills the employer wants. First,.

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And that's what they started: their list: with.

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they've chosen customer service,, communication,.

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Sales, presentations, so on and so forth.

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Again, remember to use columns so that you have a neat and clean resume.

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The work experience section of the resume can be titled many different things, such as employment, history,, professional experience,, work, history, or just experience..

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These type of headers are normally used.

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In a chronological style, resume.

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Every employment section must include an employer, job, title,, location, and date.

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The section should be a mixture of responsibilities and results,, not just a copy of the job description.

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Highlight your job tasks., they should be relevant to the job posting.

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only list, tasks that are important to that particular job opportunity..

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This is one reason why you revise the resume for each job.

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Whenever possible, include numbers to provide context for tasks.

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An example might be, instead of saying.

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Provided case management, services, say, provided administrative support for two high-level executives.

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or consistently exceeded sales goals by 15%.

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Adding numbers can help the employer see.

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That you are able to do the things for him.

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That you have done for others.

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Action verbs can help create a dynamic document.

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Some examples can be developed,, implemented,, directed,, supervised,, created,, invented, and facilitated.

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Be sure that each item in the list begins with a consistent, formatting and tense.

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Consider using the car technique. that will help you craft impact statements as a part of the employment history section..

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When thinking about this kind of statement, consider what was the competency or the skill that was used?.

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The action,, the task performed.

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And the result of the impact or the outcome.

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Your car might sound something like this.

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The competency is knowledge of microsoft, excel.

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The action, built an inventory control system, spreadsheet.

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And the result, optimized inventory levels and increased profitability.

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When you put it all together,, it might sound something like this:.

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Utilized expert-level knowledge of microsoft, excel.

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To build a new inventory control system which resulted in optimized inventory levels.

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And increased profitability.

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This slide demonstrates how the "sell your car" technique, looks in a resume.

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Notice, the use of connector words used to create sentences from three sections.

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Each bullet point begins with a strong action word that has the same tense.

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We recommend that everyone have some type of education section on their resume,, regardless of their individual education level or attainment..

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Titles, for this section might be professional development or training and development.

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Professional development, workshops,, trainings, and seminars can be used when post-secondary education is limited.

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You should focus on completed resumes..

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There are always ways to include.

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Incomplete degrees and show value.

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remember to be honest.

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Over the next several slides, we're going to show examples that cover most educational situations.

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With your education, information, consider including relevant coursework,, your gpa, awards, and any publications or presentations.

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Include the institution, name of the program,.

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Degree or certificate earned.

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These next examples are, if you.

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Graduated in the past five years.

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This individual graduated, with a bachelor of science degree in biology from the university of maryland in college park.

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She has a gpa of 3.75 and 4.0.

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Including your gpa is not necessary..

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If your gpa is not that great, or you just barely graduated, leave it off.

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alternately,. If you have been out of school for a long period of time and have a fair amount of experience,, then your gpa is not relevant..

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This individual has also included their certified nursing license..

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She has included the number, from what department, and in baltimore, maryland.

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If your graduation date ages, you, or is more than five years ago,, you may seriously think about not including it.

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It may not be helpful.

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This next example is someone that has completed a certificate program at a community college.

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The fact that the applicant is currently attending.

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Another college and trying to obtain an aa degree.

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Also gives an anticipated graduation date.

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This is a good example of if you're still in school,.

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That you can show the employer that you are trying to improve your skills.

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This slide shows a recent graduate, and identifies that the graduate's degree,.

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What the degree is in, and the year of graduation..

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It also shows his relevant coursework.

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So this shows that the courses are relevant to the employment opportunity..

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Here we are highlighting the inclusion of coursework, and completed credits, as a part of an incomplete degree.

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Although you may not have completed the degree,, you may find that including this is helpful.

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This can help demonstrate value, in spite of not having a completed degree., don't include things that are not relevant, such as music appreciation..

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If it's not relevant to the job, you are applying to,.

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Don't include it.

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Options for the resume components can be.

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Volunteer and community experience,.

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Military service,, professional memberships,.

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Special projects,, publications, or presentations.

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Options for volunteer experience, which should be included.

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Shows value for the employment opportunity., but remember, volunteerism does equate to experience.

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For military service,, you should always be included,.

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Regardless of the employment opportunity., add your experience in a staff sense, with that heading,.

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And list all the positions that you held.

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Under each position, you should have one to three bullets.

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That explain your specific duties.

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A cover letter should introduce you to an employer..

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It is designed to do a few things..

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The first thing is to call the employer's attention to you as a person for that position..

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This is where you really soar as an eagle..

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It also summarizes your qualifications for that position without being redundant.

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Always send a cover letter when, given the option, and remember to target the cover letter to that specific job., a cover letter is critical to your arsenal of marketing materials. an effective cover letter. Compliments the resume,.

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And should also be targeted to that specific job. Ad.

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The font,, graphics, and contact information on the cover letter should be consistent with the resume.

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And have proven references.

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When writing the cover letter, tailor to the job ad.

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The job ad is an indication that the company has a problem.

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Read the ad to determine that problem.

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Think about how you can help the employer solve the problem, and then tell them.

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remember, applying for the position is not about you or about what you want.

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It's the value you add to that company.

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In your cover, letter, convince the employer.

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That you can solve that problem.

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Think about what you're saying to the employer in your cover. Letter..

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Are you addressing the concerns? The employer, has?.

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Lastly,, what can I say about a cover letter that will capture employers' attention?.

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Cover letters are about selling versus telling.

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How should the cover letter be laid out??

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There should be an opening,, a body, and a closing.

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In the opening you mention what the job you are applying for is called,, where you heard about it, any connection to the company that you may have, and a creative way to say that you are awesomely qualified.

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In the body of the cover, letter, summarize with bullets, paragraphs, or a comparative format,.

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That you have the skills, education, and/or background to meet their needs.

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The closing is where you request to schedule an interview.

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Reiterate that you match to the job.

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Thank them for taking the time to review your package, and that you look forward to hearing from them.

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Now, let's look at a comparison between telling and selling.

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Telling might sound like:, I am applying for the administrative assistant position posted on indeed,.

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Versus selling, which could sound, like: dear hiring manager,, according to the advertisement.

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For the administrative assistant on indeed,, you are in search of a highly motivated, detail-oriented individual,, who is self-directed.

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And is also a problem solver with exceptional customer service skills. that describes me!. I am an administrative professional with over 10 years of experience in the insurance industry.

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Which option would make you want to read further?.

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There are things your cover letter should do.. It should grab the reader's attention,, surprise them,. It should sizzle just a little.

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Once you reel them, in, outline the skills that you possess.

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Relevant to what the employer is looking for.

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by outlining your skills,, you indicate that you could solve a problem that the vacancy presents.

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You wanna close the letter by asking for the interview.

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Let's look at ways to ask for an interview.

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This cover letter is very direct.. The writer starts her letter off with the fact that she is confidently responding to the ad.

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She highlights her skills by saying this is what you're asking for, and in the requirements section, you'd, like that.

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Then she starts another column, saying this is what I have, in the my experience. Section.

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Then she closes the letter pointing out the fact that she has enclosed her resume, and then asks for the interview.

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This cover letter is more traditional, however..

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It indicates that the person writing it did some research on the company..

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It is still attention grabbing., it outlines the skills. The employer is looking for.

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as you can see, this person added numbers, accomplishments, and definitely told the employer how he can solve their problem.

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You will also notice that he refers.

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To the job title in his narrative.

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Other types of correspondence you might need to have.

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Are a salary history and references.

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The salary history is generally used upon request.

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You'd create separate document that outlines the following:.

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Companies, dates,, positions, and yearly salary.

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Do this for each company that you indicate on your resume,.

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In the same order., references are a separate, document.

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notice. We did not include on our resume.

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The phrase "references available upon request".

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The employers expect that you should have your references, and that you're ready to present them.

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If you use someone as a reference, contact them before, you use them to find out if they're, still, okay, with talking about you.

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Inform them that the company you used,.

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And their reference that you use the reference for,.

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And the position that you're applying for.

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There's a difference between personal references and professional references., the contact information for the reference.

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Should be name, name of company, and the position the person holds or held,.

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Email address, and telephone number of the person providing the reference.

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Personal references are people who can attest to your character on a personal level.

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Professional references are people who you work, with,.

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Preferably a supervisor that can attest to your work, ethic.

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When creating your salary, history or references,,.

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You should use the same header that you used for your resume.

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Using all the same fonts,, borders,, bullets, and graphics,.

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Makes your package consistent.

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As a reminder,, we have a lot of services and resources available to help you meet your career, goals.

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Resume assistance, interview, preparation, career consultation,, virtual recruitments,,.

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And specialized services for veterans., we also have other intensive services,, most of which are being done. Virtually.

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We also have three locations within baltimore county,.

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The career center at hunt valley on mccormick road,.

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Career center at eastpoint off eastern avenue,.

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And the career center at liberty on offutt road.

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Feel free to call the center and ask for an appointment.

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Thank you so much for listening.