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By Colette M.
Shaw, Director of Residential Programs at Franklin & Marshall College I am the
almighty employer. For centuries, those of us called Boss maintained a
code of silence about the mysteries of the job search. Some might say
it is because we learned the secrets ourselves, which allowed us to achieve
our powerful status. Others rose through the ranks by accident, and they
don’t have a clue why they progressed as far as they did. Could it
be that we fear you because of your impressive employment credentials?
Lucky for me, I possess the key to the classified information, so your
ability to usurp my Boss power is limited. Perhaps
because I am so mighty, I will risk the wrath of insecure Big Wigs throughout
the nation and tell you why even the best RAs (“cream of the crop”
as we were told when I was an undergrad) look pretty mediocre on paper.
Got a resumé? Go get it, and we’ll peruse it together to see
if it has future Big Wig between the lines. If not, just sit back and
absorb the knowledge. Leveling
the Playing Field Before I
let you in on the major stuff, let’s talk about the basics. You don’t
want to annoy me, the almighty hiring agent by making a common mistake. Secret #1 Employers
will photocopy your resumé For that
reason, leave the funky paper for your floor newsletter. Even seemingly
conservative paper with too many speckles in the background can look sloppy
when it’s copied. Ditto for photographs. Besides the fact that it
would be illegal for an employer to hire you based on anything they can
see in a picture, have you ever looked at a picture of yourself after
it was sent through the copy machine? It resembles a Rorschach blob, instead
of the competent, enthusiastic person you are. Ditch it. Now. Secret #2 Employers
have limited patience for cutesy Granted,
there is that one in a million employer who did a dissertation on Marsupials
South of the Equator, but for the rest of us, the koala bears on your
stationary and address labels is a turnoff. Equate your resumé
style with your interview suit. While you are allowed to dress in purple
corduroys and platform boots, and they represent your creativity and self
confidence, what might happen is that an interviewer will pay more attention
to your outfit than your eloquence. The same goes with your resumé.
A curly Q font is expressive, but potentially distracting. Don’t
get me wrong, you want to show some style (like a power tie or a subtle
animal print scarf), but you don’t want to detract from your product
– you. Try experimenting with SMALL CAPS, italics, and bold
to emphasize your key points. If possible, avoid underlining, as
it can make the text look like part of the line. Secret #3 Employers
have enormous egos If you spell
my name with two Ls, I will be irked. If my ad says that I represent a
small company, don’t try to impress me with how you managed huge
projects. Instead, focus on they way you provided a personal touch to
your work. If I run a residence life department, tell me about how your
experience relates to -you guessed it – residence life. In the end,
it’s all about me, me, me. If you make me me me feel like you appreciate
what I do, and then show me, me, me how you can help accomplish my goals,
you’ll stand out as someone special. Secret #4 Employers
don’t like you based on your resumé I hate to
admit it, but at the resumé review stage, I have very little interest
in getting to know you. Like Cheap Trick sang, “I want you to want
me. I need you to need me.” Your best chance to make it to the next
round of the hiring process is to nurture my fragile ego. When I interview
you, THEN I will look for the person that I like and who fits in the best.
Before that, your personality only gets in the way of my self-importance.
Remember the koala letterhead? Same goes for resumé categories
such as “Personal Interests.” I might give you a second look
if I read that you belong to the KISS Fan Club, like me, but otherwise,
I don’t need to know that you enjoy reading and needlepoint. If you
want to show me that you are well-rounded, describe your community service
or hobbies in a way that shows initiative. If you increased the number
of fan club recruits by 15% over the past year, that would be something
to share. Rising
to the Top of the Heap Let’s
get down to the nitty gritty of writing the text of your resumé.
I promise you that if you follow my advice, your resumé will be
crisper, snappier, and more likely to be read. Which reminds me of the
first secret… Secret #1 Employers
rarely read your whole resumé I’m
sorry, but someone had to tell you. We ask you to put all kinds of time
and sweat into your vita; we implore you to spell check and proofread
until your eyes cross, then we hastily skim over your work and make snap
decisions. Caution:
You still have to proofread! We usually don’t read every word, but
each of us has different areas of interest. While I might scrutinize your
student leadership experience, another Big Wig might want to evaluate
your dates of employment to see how loyal you are. Secret #2 The Cream
of the Crop Usually Look More Like Creamed Corn Are you
like 90% of the other candidates out there – too modest? Let’s
take a look at an excerpt from the typical RA resumé: Resident
Assistant I, Joe Schmoe University, 2000-02
I will admit
that having a position of such responsibility is impressive for a college
student. But… thousands of students are RAs. What makes you special?
Think about improvements you made or risks you took throughout your RA
tenure. If the RA above put his mind to it, the resumé might look
a little more like this: Resident
Assistant II, Joe Schmoe University, 2000-02
If you have
a tough time saying nice things about yourself, go back to your evaluations
and see what your supervisor said about you. Did you receive any formal
or informal accolades, as RA II did? Italicize it so it stands out. With
a little tweaking, you can go from average RA to King Corn. The
Bottom Line My time
is valuable. Don’t make me read a lot of extra nonsense or secret
code. Secret #1 Employers
are clueless I’m
fairly bright, but when I see that a candidate won the Betty Brown Blue
Ribbon Award, I wonder what the heck that means. On my own campus, belonging
to the Skull & Crown Society is quite an honor, but if someone hadn’t
told me that that is the name of our Sophomore Academic Honor Society,
I might have assumed some pretty crazy things. Triple-check your resumé
for person-walking-in-off-the-street credibility. Secret #2 It’s
All About Meat, Meat, Meat Since we
read from left to right, employers tend to skim the left hand margin of
your resumé for key words to see if they want to invest time in
the whole document. Resident Assistant I had some excess fat in the resumé
above. Terms like “Responsible for” or “Provided”
are boring. Try to think of active verbs to begin each phrase. If a verb
implies change, you will have my interest, and I am more likely to read
the rest of your vita. • Increased… That’s
the spirit. Someone who contributed to change is my kind of candidate.
Let’s go a step further. Do you use the words “the” or
“a” in your resumé? Slice them right out. Your resumé
does not have to use complete sentences, as long as your fragments make
sense. Resumé
Ethics Don’t
lie. Don’t list activities with which you were not active. You will
get caught. I will leave
it up to your conscience whether you want to share these secrets with
your friends. There is a limited number of Big Wig positions out there,
but at the same time, doesn’t everybody deserve a fair shot? While writing
a resumé serves a practical function, it is also an exercise in
defining your identity. I hope that you enjoy the process of revealing
your secrets to the world. Good luck in your search for greatness. You
have one of the most wonderful jobs in the world right now. If you succeed
as an RA, I have no doubt that your future holds many intrinsic rewards
that a Boss title will never come close to delivering. About the Author Colette
Shaw has been the Director of Residential Programs at Franklin & Marshall
College since 1999. She has 10 years of professional experience in higher
education, and she ran her own job search consulting business, including
writing resumés and cover letters for clients. Colette has lived in 7 different states in her adult life, and is a devoted member of the KISS Army and an aspiring novelist. |
