Employers Hire People With Skills,
Not Majors!
Writing
The Resume
As you organize your resume, keep
in mind the needs of the employer
who will be reading it. Consider
what s/he is looking for in a candidate
and make it easy for the reader
to pick out those skills by selecting
appropriate categories, using underlining,
boldfacing or capitalizing and presenting
relevant experience and skill areas
higher on the page. Competencies
sought by Employers illustrates
common transferable skills and qualities.
15
Traits Sought By Employers
10
"Hottest" Skills Any Major
Can Acquire
- Budget
management
- Speaking
- Supervising
- Writing
- Public
relations
- Organizing/managing/coordinating
- Coping
with deadline pressure
- Interviewing
- Negotiating/arbitrating
- Teaching/Instructing
How
To Acquire Competencies
- Volunteer
work
- Part-time/summer
jobs
- Participation
in activities--school or community
- Study/work/travel
overseas
- Internships
- Seek
out new experiences, new friends,
new places
- Specific
skill courses - at your college
or university, a vow-tech school,
an adult education program.
Keep
in mind the following suggestions
as you begin developing your resume:
Sell
yourself : Create a good first
impression by highlighting skills
and abilities appropriate to the position.
Use
active language: Check out our
on-line list of action words to spice
up your resume. Articulate marketable
skills acquired through your positions.
Example: Salesperson, Childresn's
Book Store, Bangalore, India. Assisted
clients with selection of books, developed
and promoted special marketing events,
trained new employees, monitored cash.
Store increased in sales by 7 percent
in 6 month period.
Be
consistent: Choose a pattern of
spacing, an order of information presentation
or a format of highlighting and be
consistent throughout.
Information
order: Present information in
reverse chronological order within
categories. List education and work
experiences starting with the most
recent first.
Check
for grammar: Misspellings and
poorly constructed sentences communicate
negative impressions about a candidate.
Visual
appeal: Resume should be neat
and visually appealing. Choose high
quality paper in white, off-white
or other conservative colors. Have
the final version professionally reproduced.
Make
Your Resume Unique: Feel free
to develop your own categories to
highlight your special relevant experiences
and skills. It is frequently useful
to separate your related or professional
experiences from your other work experience
by creating separate categories for
these content areas. In this way,
you can call more attention to your
relevant skills by putting them in
categories closer to the top of the
resume so they are read first.
Here
Are Some Examples
- Student
Teaching Experience
- Related
Experience
- Experience
With Children
- Related
Courses
- Community
Volunteer Work
- Workshops
& Conferences Attended
- Technical
Skills
- Special
Skills
- Computer
Skills
- Certificates
- Travel
- Leadership
- Accomplishments
- Professional
Memberships
- Military
Experience
- Language
Proficiencies
- Additional
Information
- In
place of Related Experience you
might wish to indicate your field
of experience in the category heading.
Examples: Business Experience, Engineering
Experience, Human Services Experience,
Sales Experience, etc.
|
