Authors: Ellen Gordon Reeves
Tags: #Non-Fiction, #Self Help
Can I Wear My Nose Ring to the Interview?: A Crash Course in Finding, Landing, and Keeping Your First Real Job (11 page)
What do language skills mean to an employer? If the employer deals with foreign clients or has work that needs to be executed in a foreign language, a specific language skill may be useful to him. But even if he doesn’t, he may still be impressed by your mastery of a language. Why? Because a smart employer understands that mastery indicates a flexibility of mind; a bior trilingual job candidate may be better able to pick up industry-specific lingo and technical terms, and may even have an easier time communicating in general.
Always include your foreign languages, no matter how unlikely it seems to you that you’ll use them in a particular job.
Basic computer skills (Word, the Internet) are assumed these days, so there’s no need to list them if you’re having trouble fitting all of your experience on a page.
If you need filler or have knowledge of specialized programs, though, the “Computer Skills” section will come in handy. Since résumé readers may do no more than skim a skills section filled with technical terms, you may choose to add detail under your job entries: “Designed flyers using QuarkXPress.” “Managed ticket sales using Access database.” If a job description lists specific programs you have worked with, definitely feature them somewhere on your résumé.
There’s a Gary Larson cartoon I love in which one panel is titled “What We Say to Dogs” and the other, “What They Hear.” In the first panel, a man is scolding a dog: “Okay, Ginger! I’ve had it! You stay out of the garbage! Understand, Ginger?” in the second, you see what the dog hears: “Blah blah GINGER blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah GINGER.”
That’s exactly how people read résumés. They scan the page in a matter of seconds, picking up only a few details: proper names (i.e., the names of places you’ve worked); positions (if they’re looking for a financial analyst and your résumé lists “financial analyst,” this is good); and other keywords. Some résumés are actually scanned for keywords by computers. But whether it’s a human or a computer taking the first look at that piece of paper, the same principle applies: The words that stand out relate to what we’re looking for.
That’s where the discriminating use of jargon comes into play: “Insider terms” let the reader know that you’ve had exposure to her field. A legal résumé might have phrases like “took depositions, filed motions” a teaching résumé might read “designed and implemented curricula.”
How do you come up with that jargon if you’ve had limited exposure to the field in which you’re applying? First, read the job description carefully. The language on your résumé should be an answer to that description. You don’t want to mimic the exact wording—too obvious—but use it as a starting point. Then, research the duties associated with the position you’re applying for; interview people in the field about what tasks they perform and the industry terms they would use to describe them. Once you’ve accrued a good vocabulary list, use it to frame the experience you’ve already had. Be careful not to overdo it or misuse terms, though. Have one of your industry contacts read your résumé to make sure it sounds authentic.
It’s important to add a few “hooks” to your résumé but don’t fake interests or include outlandish or overly provocative information. Hooks come in many forms. An “Activities and Interests” section is an obvious place for them, but there are others.
RÉSUMÉ WORDING: A CHEAT SHEET
There is no special set of grammatical rules when it comes to résumé writing, but make sure you are consistent and aren’t violating the basic tenets. Beyond that, I’ve assembled some pointers to help you make the best possible use of the limited space—one page!—you’ve got.
Résumés are generally composed of sentence fragments. You don’t need to include articles (“managed $10,000 budget” as opposed to “managed
a
budget
of
$10,000”).
Be consistent in your use of punctuation. Even though it’s technically incorrect, you may use periods at the end of sentence fragments—or not. Just decide on what you are doing and do it throughout. If you are stringing together a row of sentence fragments, you may separate them with commas, semicolons, or even periods.
Do not use the first-person pronoun. A résumé is an objective recounting of your experience, as opposed to a cover letter, which should be written in the first person.
Verbs should be cast in the past tense, except in entries about jobs or positions you currently hold.
Avoid repetition. Group experiences and consolidate entries when you’ve had many jobs at one place. Don’t repeat words or phrases. Avoid redundant adjectives and phrases: “Restocked shelves as necessary.” Why would you be restocking the shelves if you didn’t need to? “Kept orderly files.” We assume so—we wouldn’t want you keeping “disorderly” files.
Avoid the overuse of italics, bold, underlining, asterisks, and so on.
Don’t turn nouns into verbs! Words like “liaised,” “impacted,” and “referenced” may have crept into the dictionary, but they look silly. Don’t verb nouns, even if everyone else does it! (See how ridiculous it sounds?)
Don’t assume readers will know the name of the company where you worked or what it does unless it’s known in the field. Use parentheses to add explanatory information as necessary—“Pyrotechnics, Inc. (largest U.S. fireworks display company)”—or make sure the nature of the company comes through in your bullet points.
Dates and prices aside, spell out numbers under ten and use numerals after that: “Organized three fund-raisers, each attended by more than 1,000 invitees.”
Draw attention to your use of any specialized tools of the trade. Instead of “Copyedited manuscript” try “Copyedited manuscript using
Chicago Manual of Style.
Familiar with typesetting and copyediting symbols.”
