Completing Your Résumé

Completing your résumé involves revising it for optimum quality, producing it in the various forms and media you’ll need, and proofreading it for any errors before distributing it or publishing it online. Be prepared to produce several versions of your résumé, in multiple formats and multiple media; these are discussed later in this section.

Revising Your Résumé

Ask professional recruiters to list the most common mistakes they see on résumés, and you’ll hear the same things over and over again. Take care to avoid these flaws:

■Too long or too wordy

■Too short or sketchy

■Difficult to read

■Poorly written

4 LEARNING OBJECTIVE

Characterize the completing step for résumés, including the six most common formats in which you can produce a résumé.

MyBCommLab Apply

these concepts. Go to mybcommlab.com and follow this path: Course Content Chapter 13

DOCUMENT MAKEOVERS

■Displaying weak understanding of the business world in general or of a particular industry or company

■Poor-quality printing or cheap paper

■Full of spelling and grammar errors

■Boastful

■Gimmicky design

Avoid the common errors that will get your résumé excluded from consideration.

The ideal length of your résumé depends on the depth of your experience and the level of the positions for which you are applying. As a general guideline, if you have fewer than five years of professional experience, keep your conventional résumé to one page. For online résumé formats, you can always provide links to additional information. If you have more experience and are applying for a higher-level position, you may need to prepare a somewhat longer résumé.33 For highly technical positions, longer résumés are often the norm as well because the qualifications for such jobs can require more description.

If your employment history is brief, keep your résumé to one page.

Producing Your Résumé

No matter how many media and formats you eventually choose for producing your résumé, a clean, professional-looking design is a must. Recruiters and hiring managers want to skim your essential information in a matter of seconds, and anything that distracts or delays them will work against you.

Fortunately, good résumé design is not difficult to achieve. As you can see in Figures 13.3 through 13.5, good designs feature simplicity, order, effective use of white space, and clear typefaces. Make subheadings easy to find and easy to read, placing them either above each section or in the left margin. Use lists to itemize your most important qualifications. Color is not necessary by any means, but if you add color, make it subtle and sophisticated, such as for a thin horizontal line under your name and address. The most common way to get into trouble with résumé design is going overboard, with too many fonts, too many colors, and too much clutter.

Depending on the companies you apply to, you might want to produce your résumé in as many as six formats (all are explained in the following sections):

■Printed traditional résumé

■Printed scannable résumé

■Electronic plain-text file

■Microsoft Word file

■Online résumé, also called a multimedia résumé or social media résumé

■PDF file

Unfortunately, no single format or medium will work for all situations, and employer expectations continue to change as technology evolves. Find out what each employer or job posting website expects, and provide your résumé in that specific format.

Effective résumé designs are simple, clean, and professional—not gaudy, “clever,” or cute.

Be prepared to produce several versions of your résumé in multiple media.

Do not include or enclose a photo in résumés that you send to employers or post on job websites.

Use high-quality paper when printing your résumé.

Some employers still prefer résumés in scannable format, but most now want electronic submissions.

As you produce your résumé in various formats, you will encounter the question of whether to include a photograph of yourself on or with your résumé. For print or electronic documents that you will be submitting to employers or job websites, the safest advice is to avoid photos. The reason is that seeing visual cues of the age, ethnicity, and gender of candidates early in the selection process exposes employers to complaints of discriminatory hiring practices. In fact, some employers won’t even look at résumés that include photos, and some applicant tracking systems automatically discard résumés with any kind of extra files.34 However, photographs are acceptable and expected for social media résumés and other online formats where you are not actively submitting a résumé to an employer.

In addition to these six main formats, some applicants create PowerPoint presentations, videos, or infographics to supplement a conventional résumé. Two key advantages of a PowerPoint supplement are flexibility and multimedia capabilities. For instance, you can present a menu of choices on the opening screen and allow viewers to click through to sections of interest. (Note that most of the things you can accomplish with PowerPoint can be done with an online résumé, which is probably more convenient for most readers.)

A video résumé can be a compelling supplement as well, but be aware that some employment law experts advise employers not to view videos, at least not until after candidates have been evaluated solely on their credentials. The reason for this caution is the same as with photographs. In addition, videos are more cumbersome to evaluate than paper or electronic résumés, and some recruiters refuse to watch them.35 However, not all companies share this concern over videos, so you’ll have to research their individual preferences. In fact, the online retailer Zappos encourages applicant videos and provides a way to upload videos on its job application webpage.36

An infographic résumé attempts to convey a person’s career development and skill set graphically through a visual metaphor such as a timeline or subway map or as a poster with array of individual elements (see Figure 13.6). A well-designed infographic could be an intriguing element of the job-search package for candidates in certain situations and professions because it can definitely stand out from traditional résumés and can show a high level of skill in visual communication. However, infographics are likely to be incompatible with most applicant tracking systems and with the screening habits of most recruiters, so while you might stand out with an infographic, you might also get tossed out if you try to use an infographic in place of a conventional résumé. In virtually every situation, an infographic should complement a conventional résumé, not replace it. In addition, successful infographics require skills in graphical design, and if you lack those skills, you’ll need to hire a designer.

Producing a Traditional Printed Résumé

Even though most of your application activity will take place online, having a copy of a conventional printed résumé is important for bringing to job fairs, interviews, and other events. Many interviewers expect you to bring a printed résumé to the interview, even if you applied online. The résumé can serve as a note-taking form or discussion guide, and it is tangible evidence of your attention to professionalism and detail.37 When printing a résumé, choose a heavier, higher-quality paper designed specifically for résumés and other important documents. White or slightly off-white is the best color choice. Avoid papers with borders or backgrounds.

Printing a Scannable Résumé

You might encounter a company that prefers scannable résumés, a type of printed résumé that is specially formatted to be compatible with optical scanning systems that convert printed documents to electronic text. These systems were quite common just a few years ago, but their use appears to be declining rapidly as more employers prefer email delivery or website application forms.38 A scannable résumé differs from the traditional format in two major ways: it should always include a keyword summary, and it should be formatted in a simpler fashion that avoids underlining, special characters, and other elements that can

A plain-text version of your résumé is simply a computer file without any of the formatting that you typically apply using word-processing software.

Make sure you verify the plain-text file that you create with your word processor; it might need a few manual adjustments using a text editor such as NotePad.

Some employers and websites want your résumé in Microsoft Word format; make sure your computer is thoroughly scanned for viruses first, however.

You have many options for creating an online résumé, from collegehosted e-portfolios to multimedia résumés on commercials websites.

special formatting. The plain-text version can be used in two ways. First, you can include it in the body of an email message, for employers who want email delivery but don’t want file attachments. Second, you can copy and paste the sections into the application forms on an employer’s website.

A plain-text version is easy to create with your word processor. Start with the file you used to create your résumé, use the “Save As” choice to save it as “plain text” or whichever similarly labeled option your software has, and verify the result by using a basic text editor (such as Microsoft Notepad). If necessary, reformat the page manually, moving text and inserting space as needed. For simplicity’s sake, left-justify all your headings rather than trying to center them manually.

Creating a Word File of Your Résumé

In some cases, an employer or job-posting website will want you to upload a Microsoft Word file or attach it to an email message. (Although there are certainly other word processing software on the market, Microsoft Word is the de facto standard in business these days.) This method of transferring information preserves the design and layout of your résumé and saves you the trouble of creating a plain-text version. However, before you submit a Word file to anyone, make sure your computer is free of viruses. Infecting a potential employer’s computer will not make a good first impression.

Creating a PDF Version of Your Résumé

Creating a PDF file is a simple procedure, but you need the right software. Adobe Acrobat (not the free Adobe Reader) is the best-known program, but many others are available, including some free versions. You can also use Adobe’s online service, at www. acrobat.com/createpdf, to create PDFs without buying software. The advantages of creating PDFs are that you preserve the formatting of your résumé (unlike pasting plain text into an email message) and you create a file type that is less vulnerable to viruses than word-processer files.

Creating an Online or Social Media Résumé

A variety of terms are used to describe online résumés, including personal webpage, e-portfolio, social media résumé, and multimedia résumé. Whatever the terminology used on a particular site, all these formats provide the opportunity to expand on the information contained in your basic résumé with links to projects, publications, screencasts, online videos, course lists, social networking profiles, and other elements that give employers a more complete picture of who you are and what you can offer (see Figure 13.7).

A good place to start is your college’s career center. Ask whether the career center (or perhaps the information technology department) hosts online résumés or e-portfolios for students.

A commercial hosting service is another good possibility for an online résumé. For instance, the free service VisualCV (www.visualcv.com) lets you build an online résumé with video clips and other multimedia elements. This site is a good place to see numerous examples, from students just about to enter the workforce full-time all the way up to corporate CEOs.39

Regardless of the approach you take to creating an online résumé, keep these helpful tips in mind:

■Remember that your online presence is a career-management tool. The way you are portrayed online can work for you or against you, and it’s up to you to create a positive impression.

■Take advantage of social networking. Use whatever tools are available to direct people to your online résumé, such as including your URL in your Twitter profile.

■During the application process, don’t expect or ask employers to retrieve a résumé from your website. Submit your résumé using whatever method and medium each employer prefers. If employers then want to know more about you, they will likely do a web

The career summary works effectively as an introductory statement to

present a concise summary

of his career so far and as an indication of the types of

positions he is seeking.

His professional experience is his strongest selling point at this stage of his career, so it comes first after the summary.

Farther down the screen, he includes professional affiliations, community service activities, education, awards and recognition, and links to news media articles in which his work was highlighted.

Figure 13.7 Social Media Résumé

Reinaldo Llano, a corporate communications executive in the media industry, used the résumé hosting website VisualCV to create and present this multimedia/social media résumé.

Source: Visual CV Social Media Resume, by Reinaldo Llano. Copyright © 2012 by Reinaldo Llano. Reprinted with permission.

The site’s social media sharing button makes it easy for viewers to copy his information to their networks.

He prominently links to his profile on the social network LinkedIn.

The multimedia capabilities of the site allow him to embed professional videos that he has produced.

Farther down the screen, he links to other work projects, such as brochures and photos of promotional items he has produced.

search on you and find your site, or you can refer them to your site in your résumé or application materials.

Proofreading Your Résumé

Employers view your résumé as a concrete example of your attention to quality and detail. Your résumé doesn’t need to be good or pretty good—it needs to be perfect. Although it may not seem fair, just one or two errors in a job application package are enough to doom a candidate’s chances.40

Your résumé is one of the most important documents you’ll ever write, so don’t rush or cut corners when it comes to proofreading. Check all headings and lists for clarity and parallelism, and be sure your grammar, spelling, and punctuation are correct. Double-check all dates, phone numbers, email addresses, and other essential data. Ask at least three other people to read it, too. As the creator of the material, you could stare at a mistake for weeks and not see it.

Your résumé can’t be “pretty good”

or “almost perfect”—it needs to be perfect, so proofread it thoroughly

and ask several other people to verify it, too.

Distributing Your Résumé

How you distribute your résumé depends on the number of employers you target and their preferences for receiving résumés. Employers usually list their requirements on their

When distributing your résumé, pay close attention to the specific instructions provided by every employer, job website, or other recipient.