Professional Experience:
This is the heart of the resume. Prospective employers should be able to find a skill they are looking for
on page 1 (the summary-remember!) and find the detail of that skill in the body of the resume. For example, if you state in
your summary that you are a Visual Basic developer, the reader should be able to quickly and easily find Visual Basic in the
body of the resume. Start with the most recent company first. State the Company Name, City/State and dates of employment (MM/YY).
Bold it or put it in a table or chart. Next describe what you did. For example, "As a Software Developer, worked on financial
application. Designed, developed, tested, debugged and documented a system to calculate the average income of the Seattle
Mariner baseball team. Wrote several programs in Visual Basic to determine the salary peaks for each player...."
Describe your role on the job (for example, were you the Manager, Analyst, Software Engineer, Networking
Specialist, Tester). Next describe what you did on the job. Do not skimp or overstate the job.
Do not make sentences too long! Break it up to make it readable . Put the summary in paragraph form. If
you worked on more than one project for a company, write a paragraph per project.
The description for each job should be 4-7 typed lines. Anything less says, "this job was not important".
It is important the resume "look" appropriate for the experience level you have attained.
End each project description with a list of the tools used. State each prior employer in reverse chronological
order. State the company name, city/state and dates of employment. Again describe what you did and how you did it. Repeat
the process until you have documented each employer in your career.
Special Situations: If you have been a consultant for a company, state the consulting company name. Then
bold the company name where you worked.
If you have been in the business for a number of years (10-15+), the last 4-5 years are the important ones
to document. Anything prior to that should be accounted for in your resume, but a short description of 2-3 lines is fine.
Hiring managers will try to find the exact skill they are looking for and read that paragraph.
Education:
State the degree, university attended, city and state of the university, major and year degree was attained.
If you have more than one degree, start with the highest level first. If you do not have a degree but have professional education
in certain areas, summarize the classes and label the category Professional Education.
Sending your resume: As you respond to ad's, send your resume via e-mail (preferred), fax or mail. If you
use e-mail, send it in a word attachment.
Cover note or letter: Include a brief note. Do not summarize everything you did. State your main skills.
It does not need to be more than a couple of short paragraphs.
If you are applying for jobs in another location (i.e., you live in Boise but are applying for jobs in Seattle)
state why you are considering the area. If you have family in the area, state it. Employers are very reluctant to hire from
out of the area. It is risky and expensive to relocate employees.
Follow-up: It is a good idea to e-mail or call for a status. It can be a good way to get your resume reviewed.
Do not annoy the recruiter with hundreds of phone calls. If rejected by the company, try not to take it personally. It could
be your salary, requirements of the job, timing, skill set or any number of factors. Just keep working at it!
