Polish Your Résumé

A week or two ago, the following cover letter was emailed to me:

Hi Michael,

My name is Sarah Parrish I am a current CLU graduate student, I talked to you over the pnone in regards to the Student Peer Advisor position, but as I am no longer a UCSB student I do not qualify.  Attached you will find my resume as you have reuested.  I hope we can work something out.  I would like to volunteer or intern if at all possible.

Hours of Availability: 8:00AM to 11:30AM  Mon.-Fri.

Thank you,

Sarah Parrish

CLU graduate student

Oh my gosh!
My name is misspelled. There are two typos. And there should be a period, not a comma, between “…graduate student” and “I talked to you…” in the first line.

If that weren’t bad enough, her résumé was obviously an old one, as there was no mention of CLU on it, and the last job she mentioned she started in 2005, with no mention of promotions or transitions.

I’ve been talking about cover letters for the past two weeks, so hopefully you feel as I do about her attempt above.

But let’s talk about her résumé. First – its document title was “Résumé 09.” If I wanted to keep it, I would have to rename it. She should have saved me that step by calling it something like “Sarah Parrish. Intern Résumé.” At least then I would know what it was.

Second – her objective was “Volunteer or Internship.” Volunteer what? What kind of internship? I have no clue what kind of work she wants to do.

Third – her Education only listed her BA degree (from UCSB! – did she never visit Career Services?). She mentioned in her email that she was attending CLU, but I have no idea in which program or in which year of that program.

Last – this is how her Experience entries were listed:

Facilitator / Instructor- YMCA Inc., Santa Barbara, CA, 05/05- Present

Special Program Advisor- Santa Barbara City College 08/04- 06/05

Adult Professional I, II, III- Tri-County Training Activity Center 09/00-02/05

Student Peer Advisor- San Marcos High School, Santa Barbara, CA, 10/03-03/04

Notice how some entries include the city and state (a good thing), while others do not (a bad thing). This kind of inconsistency kills a résumé. In a time when employers are getting 80-100 résumés per position announcement, the only ones that go in the keep pile are those that are flawless. While they might have looked at Sarah’s résumé a year ago, today it would go straight into the trash.

Did she did anything right? Yes – her bullet points were strong verb phrases (though on the minus side, past tense and present tense were randomly scattered in each entry), included numbers (so many students, so many dollars), the layout was good, and there were no typos.

How can you be sure your résumé doesn’t end up like hers?

1. Pick up a copy of the Career Manual given for free by Career Services. We have a whole chapter on résumés in there – more than enough to get you started.
2. Visit http://career.ucsb.edu/students/job_search/resumes.html for more tips and samples.
3. If you’re still not sure about how to get started, buy a good résumé book – the Darn Good series usually has some good samples.
4. Bring your rough draft in to a career counselor for a critique. Again – this is a free service, and it’s available to you Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (holiday and break hours vary) at Career Services.
5. Once you have it fine tuned, bring it in one more time to ensure there are no spellos, typos, or other errors that will work against you.

This is not a one-shot deal. You should expect to fine tune your résumé for almost every job to which you apply. You want to you their job title in Job Objective line; you want to lift phrases they list in their job requirements or job description and lay them into your Experience text. If they ask for “management experience” and you have listed one of your jobs as “shift supervisor,” you want to change that to “shift manager.” It’s a small thing, but can subliminally make your résumé seem a better fit.

This is your first introduction to an employer. Do everything you can to make it a good one.

Micael Kemp is the director of Career Services at UCSB.

4 Responses to “ Polish Your Résumé ”

1. Resume Builder | Blogger says:

   May 18, 2009 at 4:27 am

   The thing about resumes and cover letters is paying attention in small details such as typos, action verbs to use, dates, skills sets, etc.

   If a job seeker does not pay attention to either elements, he/she has no where to go in the job market.
2. John of Online Resume Builder says:

   August 5, 2009 at 2:33 am

   “Notice how some entries include the city and state (a good thing), while others do not (a bad thing). This kind of inconsistency kills a résumé.”

   This is a detail which is mostly overlooked by jobseekers. Consistency is part presentation and part content issue. I agree to the previous comment that attention to details is a must for every job seeker.
3. Rachel | Resume Builder says:

   September 8, 2009 at 5:13 am

   Yes, I agree with the above mentioned comments that the resume should be flawless for job seekers as it leaves a good impression on recruiters ..
4. Peter Cheng says:

   October 2, 2009 at 11:24 am

   Great posting Micael – NO H. I completed my BFA degree at UC Santa Barbara in June 2008 and have reviewed about 20+ new grad resumes and cover letters (UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis, UCLA, etc..). I have to say that you speak volumes of truth regarding properly written cover letters and resumes! Especially in this current economy when recruiters are reviewing the most infinitesimal details, there is no excuse to click the ’send’ button without first clicking the ’spell check’ button.