Resume Starters Guide

Resume Starters Guide

© 2012 Leader Builder Limited

http://LIBBLER.com

Welcome to LIBBLER’s Resume Starters Guide This guide is meant to help you write and perfect your resume – making it fail proof. All information contained in this material are available on the LIBBLER.com platform or our Career Blog. The team has made references and links, so make sure you check them out for more details. Creating your own resume We have introduced a powerful Resume Builder with resume tips, action verbs translator and online tutorials. Even better, we’ve got some slick templates you can choose from before you download to Word for final printing – all free of charge! Quick word on forwarding As long as you recognize Team LIBBLER’s efforts, we are more than happy for you to share this document with your friends or whoever is in need of a good resume resource material. More guides to come We have a fat pipeline of resume start guide enhancements and other guides initiatives, so become a LIBBLER and stay tuned!

Take me to the Resume Builder

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So anyways, let’s get down to the nitty gritty … - From the film,

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Contents

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Getting Started

9

Building & Perfecting • Objective • Contact Details • Work • Education • Activities • Skills & Interests

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The Don’ts

20

FAQ & Recap

22

About LIBBLER

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What is a resume?

Here’s how a standard resume looks.

Contact Details

Work Experience

Bullet Achievements

Education

Activities

Getting Started | Building & Perfecting | The Don’ts | FAQ & Recap | About LIBBLER

Resume is a document that presents your professional and educational achievements, skills and interests. Good resumes deliver an accurate and powerful story about the candidate. They are also well structured and formatted so that the recruiter can effortlessly make an assessment.

Technical Skills & Interests

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Principles of a powerful resume

#1 – Resume space = Real estate Location, location & location! Only include critical information. Move the information you want to highlight most to the top of each section. #2 - Resume sum of all parts = Powerful story A resume is not simply a compilation of your past experiences. It has to deliver your story in a structured and compelling manner. The recruiter should be able to effortlessly understand your competencies and picture how you can become a good fit for the team. #3 - 100% of resume = You Don't stop at who you worked for and where you studied at. Showcase what YOU did. Employers want to know the value you will bring to their team. The challenge here is always to show your personal contribution, the impact you made in each experience.


There are 3 key principles to remember.

Source Courses: Powerful Resumes – Principles of powerful resumes Blog: Powerful resume series – 1. Key Principles

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Pre-writing Checklist

You know what role and industry you are applying for. You have read the role profile, and you know what employers consider as an ideal candidate. You can find these in the companies' websites. You know your key strengths and how those could help you meet the candidate requirement. You have a laundry list of experiences & skills. Don't worry about sticking to only what you would be including. List them all out first so you know you are not missing anything. Voila, something quick and dirty like this!


Before the actual writing part, see if you can tick all of the following:

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Education

Work Internship, interesting projects…

• • • • • •

Academic achievements, GPA, notable thesis, language exchange…

• • • • • • Skills & Interests

Activities Extracurricular, volunteers, competition…

• • • • • •

Language, computer, certification, sports …

• • • • • •


Create a laundry list of all your experiences.

Source Courses: Powerful Resumes – Principles of powerful resumes Blog: Powerful resume series – 2. Pre-writing Checklist

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Building & Perfecting: Objectives

As a recruiter, would you think this is a good objective statement? NO! (why? it’s too vague) In LIBBLER CV workshops, we received a number of questions on whether including an Objective in a resume is a good idea. In our experience, an Objective is not a requirement from most employers' perspective and many find it redundant. You can instead focus on customizing the resume to each job you are applying for to strengthen your candidacy. If you still want to include an objective, do spend enough time and effort to ensure it's excellent and razor sharp. Don't just say something as bland as the above objective. You are trying to stand out from the crowd!

Pros

Cons


Objective: I am seeking an opportunity in which my skills and knowledge will add value to the organization.

Source Courses: Powerful Resumes – Building a powerful resume Blog: Objective in a resume. Yay or Nay?

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Building & Perfecting: Contact Details

Your contact information should appear on the top of the resume and it should help be as straightforward as possible to help the recruiters contact you easily. Quick Tips • Full name in about 4 font sizes larger than the other parts, and bolded • Mailing address where you regularly check for mails • Phone number where you can be easily reached. Remove any funky voicemail! • Professional email address. If you have something like [email protected], consider changing to something like [email protected]

Geeky and fun step by step guide with more useful tips.


Make it easy for the recruiter to reach you. Keep it professional.

Tutorial: Contact Details

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Building & Perfecting: Work

For each job you have held, state the company name, role & department, location, start and end dates, company or role description (if deemed necessary), and your bullet achievements. Quick Tips • Show that you got the relevant experience and skills. Here's an example for those applying for a sales job. Can you demonstrate your communication skills (which would be part of the role requirement) from highlighting your experience in writing presentations, tutoring kids, or winning a speech contest? • Spell out if it is an unknown company or if it's a new role. Did you work for a start up? Or was it a role where you assumed tons of responsibilities but the title's just called a rather vague "creative agent?“ Write a brief description about the company or the role. • Each bullet should tie into the role requirement. Read the role requirement that is given to you. Each bullet achievement should be connected to the list of qualities the employer is after. Something like this.


Keep to your most impressive accomplishments. Highlight your Core Leadership Skills.

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• Use action verbs that describe what you have actually accomplished. It’s much stronger to say that you ‘implemented,’ ‘initiated,’ ‘drafted,’ ‘completed,’ or ‘changed’ something, than to say that you ‘did,’ ‘made’ or ‘were responsible for’ something. The action should describe what YOU personally did rather than what was accomplished. We have a list of action verbs categorized by competencies and common verbs. Check out our Action Verbs Translator on LIBBLER.com.

Created this using the Resume Builder’s “Scholar” template. Took less than 2 min!


• Keep to maximum 5 bullet points per company/role. Generally speaking, there should be 3-5 bullet points per role. Assume they will spend a minute or less on the entire resume, so stick to the 'must-haves' NOT the 'nice-to-haves'.

Source Courses: Powerful Resumes – Building a powerful resume Blog: Powerful resume series – 3. Work Experience


Tutorial: Work 12

Building & Perfecting: Education

For each education experience, state the school (and program, if any), location, start and end dates, degree, major (and minor, if any), GPA, and your bullet achievements. Why education section? The education section tells the recruiter that a) you completed/will complete a certain degree and you have some technical skills, and b) you have taken on interesting learning opportunities.


Be specific with your academic achievements. Show recruiters that you went above and beyond the environment.

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• Include the official name of the school, program. • Include the GPA if they are good. GPA tends to be the filtering criterion of choice especially when there are overwhelming number of applicants. • If you are still a student, state when you are expected to graduate so recruiters can plan not only where but when to fit you in. Something like "B.A., Accounting, graduation expected in May 2012.“ • Showcase your Core Leadership Skills. Demonstrate that you have the transferable skills to fit right into the team and add value. • The kick here is to show that you are different from everyone graduating from similar schools, degrees and qualifications. You can show it academically, but again, there's only so much differentiation in a rather monolithic university setting. • A better way to differentiate yourself is to show that you went above and beyond your environment. Think of accomplishments that demonstrate your drive, your passion and willingness to take risks. Did you master a topic outside your field of study? Did you volunteer for a complex research project to help out your professor? Did you innovate ways to solve a problem for a specific assignment? Did you take the initiative to create a new student organization that made an impact on campus? Should education go before or after work experience? If you are a post graduate with more interesting education experience to write about, then you may consider bringing the education section to the top. Having said that, if you do that, make sure the education section displays more than just your university degree. Approach it as if you are writing the work experience section. (In this case, choose the Resume Builder’s Scholar template)


Quick Tips

Source Courses: Powerful Resumes – Building a powerful resume Blog: Powerful resume series – 4. Education


Tutorial: Education 14

Building & Perfecting: Activities

Is the Activities/Extracurricular Activities section really necessary? Absolutely, it can make a big difference by bringing character to the resume. Employers have the common desire to find someone well-rounded enough to adjust in any type of environment. Quick Tips • Show leadership skills and character. For employers, it's more important to hire someone with transferable leadership skills than technical skills. Most of them think that the technical skills can be taught on the job but leadership skills such as critical thinking, communication, and teamwork are difficult to develop within a short period of time. It is also very important for employers to find someone who exhibit the drive and commitment. Extracurricular activities are one of the best ways to showcase these qualities. • It has to be about YOU. What could be added as extracurricular activities? Student clubs & other organizations, competitions, volunteering and typical activities are among those one could consider. Most importantly, be sure to include what you did. Were you in charge of fund raising, or did you lead the team to teach minority children English? • Show impact. If you were in charge of fund-raising, how much did you raise? If you led a team, how big was the team and what was actually achieved? e.g. Organized various in-campus seminars and events to promote students' interest in the 2012 presidential election, successfully obtained pledges from over 1500 students to vote. • Keep to maximum 5 bullets of the most impressive accomplishments only. • Start with an action verb, ensuring that you choose the most precise verb to describe what you did. (See our Action Verb Translator on Resume Builder)


Bring character with the Activities section.

Source Courses: Powerful Resumes – Building a powerful resume Blog: Powerful resume series – 5. Extracurricular


Tutorial: Activities 15

Building & Perfecting: Skills & Interests

Make sure that you include your technical skills so that the recruiters can quickly see if you fit the role they are seeking to fill. For interests, ask yourself, which interests do I most enjoy, excel at, and consider unique? Quick Tips • Technical skills would typically include computer, language and certifications (e.g., CFA). • Make sure you include the relevant skills with the appropriate knowledge level, especially if you are advanced. The standard knowledge levels are expert (native/fluent for language skills), advanced/proficient (you are saying to a certain degree the skill can be applied to work), and basic. LIBBLER Resume Builder has the Language Skills Matrix and the Computer Skills Matrix to help you accurately determine your language proficiency and essential computer skills knowledge level. Both are under the Resume Builder’s Skills & Interests section. Check them out!


Showcase your technical skills. Include interests that would help you stand out.

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• Include interesting hobbies. Employers are looking for people they like to work with. Showing some personality is good. Don’t say that your interest is ‘reading the Wall Street Journal’ when applying for an investment bank, or that your hobby is ‘working hard.’ This section is supposed to show how you spend your time outside of work, so that people can get a glimpse of who you are. At the same time, this section is not supposed to be a list of all of your favorite things. For example, don’t include your favorite book. Something like this. Here we used the Resume Builder’s High Caliber template.


• Even though employers emphasize Core Leadership Skills in selecting candidates, you should not explicitly include these skills on your resume. Rather than saying you are “great at teamwork,” you need to demonstrate that this is the case via actual achievements in the work, education & activities sections.

Source Courses: Powerful Resumes – Building a powerful resume Blog: Powerful resume series – 7. Skills & Interests


Tutorial: Skills & Interests 17

Resume Crimes. DO NOT…

✗ Include typos and grammar errors. There is absolutely no excuse for any errors. This is a sure way of getting your resume tossed right away. ✗ Use ‘I’ in any part of the resume. Everyone knows the resume is all and only about you. Start all bullets with an action verb instead. ✗ Include confidential information about a previous employer. It shows you are not professional and you are likely to reveal confidential information about the new employer. ✗ Disclose too much personal information, such as sexual orientation, race, religion, age, marital status, health, or family issues. ✗ Include a photograph of yourself or graphics of any sort, unless in artistic field or specifically asked by the employer. Similar to the point above, you don’t want to give any subjective data points when the resume review is meant to be objective and purely based on your skills and experiences. ✗ Include irrelevant experience held many years ago. For example, the fact that you waited tables during college will not help your application to a law firm. Only include those experiences that showcase your best foot forward. ✗ Use all capital letters or flamboyant fonts. You have to show your professionalism in all your application materials. Stick to safer formatting to not distract the employer from making an objective assessment of your candidacy. ✗ State a salary requirement. You should leave the salary discussions until after you receive an offer. Besides, you don’t want to limit your opportunity by defining your salary upfront.


✗ Lie or exaggerate. Lying is the fastest way of ruining your reputation that you have so painstakingly built.

✗ Include the statement “References required upon request’ or a similar statement. It’s obvious that you’ll need to furbish them if requested.

Source Courses: Powerful Resumes – Resume Don’ts Blog: Powerful resume series – 8. Suggestions

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Resume Bloopers: Don’t try these at home.

“Hopefully you can think of a more imaginative interest than passion for driving”

“SOME auditing and SOME financial work. Taking “Keep it brief” to another level”

“Grammatical errors. Competency jargon overload. Nope, this is not what we want to hear.”


We asked recruiters to share their favorite resume mishaps. Here are our picks along with their comments. No hard feelings, it’s an effort to perfect our resumes together!

“I don’t know why people write this on their resumes. Of course if you want a job, and the company asks for a reference, you’ll provide it. It’s like saying ‘available for work’.”

More to be released on our Blog.

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FAQ

Q: I have a low GPA, but I know the employers look at your GPA. How do I still get a job? A: If you have time to work on your GPA, then of course that would be the first choice. If you are out of time, look at other ways to improve your candidacy. Employers look at the 'whole package' so if you had a great internship or extracurricular experience or possess a specific skill set, they may overlook the GPA. If it's too low, I would omit it in the first instance unless it's specifically requested. You will need to provide this info sooner or later, but making the first good impression always works to your advantage. Q: I have organized my experiences by 'themes' to highlight my strengths. Is this a good way to do it? A: This is called a functional resume. Instead of the typical way of organizing your resume, which is 'chronological', you are listing out your key skills and the evidence that support them. Functional resumes are great for specific cases: e.g. someone that has a time gap in their experience, or in artistic fields where the years of experience is perhaps less important. It would be odd for entry level professionals. Moreover, most employers still want to see what you have been up to so they will try to piece together the timeline. Don't create more work for them if you don't have a specific reason. Q: Can I use email as a cover letter? Yes, this is acceptable in most companies, also as many employers don't read cover letters these days. If you are going to write a full cover letter, the effort to write one in Word or Email makes zero difference but we haven't heard of anyone being hurt by writing an email cover letter. All the rules of writing a good cover letter also apply to email. It should be professional, concise, and without any error.


Q: Is it a must to fit the resume into one page? A: There's no hard rule about this, but the conventional wisdom among the recruiters is that you should be able to highlight your top achievements in one page. A lot of professionals with 10+ years of experience can also write good resumes in one page. So why can’t you? Our philosophy is that you don't know who will be reading your resume, so just err on the safe side.

More FAQ are regularly updated on our Blog.

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Recap

 Have a well formatted resume with consistent spacing, font sizes and text styles. If you are using the LIBBLER Resume Builder, there is no need to worry about this as the tool will take care of it for you.  Sometimes less is more. Stick to what you absolutely need to highlight. Keep the resume within one page. Keep your bullet points short.  Each bullet should be unique and tie into the candidate profile of the role you are applying for.  Bring personality to your resume. Consider adding extracurricular activities, hobbies and personal interests. This is especially helpful for those who have homogeneous experiences and need diversifying, or those who lack in work experiences.  Do NOT disclose any sensitive and confidential information!  Don't forget to include your GPA if that could highlight your academic achievements.  Be careful with acronyms and jargons. Unless it is universally known or you are applying for the same technical role, make sure to spell it out. Note that most of the companies have in-house recruiters review your CV before it gets passed onto the front office.  Test scores (GMAT, TOEFL) - It's nice to include as an objective way for the recruiter to assess your English language and academic skills. But don't over do it. Listing out 10 different test scores won't get you anywhere.


After having reviewed more than 250 graduate resumes this year via our awesome LIBBLER Resume Clinic, here are some common suggestions to help you write a professional resume.

 Photo - It's optional depending on the employer. However avoid for international investment banks or management consulting. (Note most of the MNCs are Equal Opportunities Employers).

Source Blog: Powerful resume series – 8. Suggestions

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About LIBBLER

We are all about maximizing your leadership potential, and fostering the skills and confidence you need to succeed in any environment. LIBBLER delivers a comprehensive career management solution – you can build and market your professional profile, receive training and mentoring, you can track and manage your job applications.

libble – verb \’li-bəәl \ definition: Pursuing self-development in a continuous manner and innovating beyond one’s limit. origin: The word LIBBLER was created from “Leader Builder” at 9:02:58AM on 27 Nov 2011.


LIBBLER is in the business of empowering tomorrow’s leaders.

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How it works

Build a professional profile.

Join the competitive LIBBLER talent pool. Enhance your profile with personalized career training. • Build your LIBBLER Profile and market your career interests, strengths and achievements to global employers hiring in Asia. • Enhance your profile with our career training resources – resume builder, mock interviews, leadership tutorials and more.

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Find and manage opportunities.

Access exclusive career opportunities. Manage your applications. • Find opportunities. Learn what they are. • Join a Career Track for targeted opportunities search and mentoring. • Be on top of your application progress with our interactive dashboard. Learn the next steps.


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To infinity, and beyond! - From the film,

I am ready to create my professional resume.

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