CV to Résumé – steps

Well friends, for those of you who might be looking for a job outside the academe, this should prove very handy. For others, I guess its high time that we all realize what is the exact difference between the two and how to prepare a résumé from a CV! This article has been republished from chronicle.com . Also refer to my previous article on resume writing tips to better understand this article. For copyright consideration, I would request you to read the original article (link at the bottom).

Think of a résumé as a compelling introduction of your experiences and skills as they relate to a particular career or job. By contrast, a curriculum vitae displays your academic credentials and accomplishments in great detail.

A résumé indicates to employers your seriousness of intent. By the time you are actually seeking jobs, your résumé — along with a cover letter — is essential for getting an interview, unless you have managed to network your way to an interview.

Although they provide incomplete information, résumés are typically your only means of persuading an employer to take a risk on a career changer. Therefore, you need to tailor your presentation of skills, experience, and motivation to fit the requirements of the job you are seeking, while making the entire “package” irresistible.

Erin Keay (a pseudonym) asked for help in converting her C.V. to a résumé. A Ph.D. candidate in neuroscience and a columnist for The Chronicle’s Career Network, Erin is considering alternative careers in science journalism and publishing, public relations, and industrial research. We present her C.V. first, and then the annotated Résumé we created for science writing and editing jobs. (She would submit a slightly modified C.V. for industrial-research positions.)

In general, note that résumés require you to be both more concise and more general than C.V.’s. Your résumé will emphasize the experience and skills most relevant to the new career and probably play down your academic credentials and experience, as does Erin’s.

Here are some common-sense rules for creating a résumé:

• Try to keep a résumé to one page, particularly for business and media fields. (There is a rough rule of thumb that more than 10 years of experience warrants a second page.) If it goes to a second page, make sure the first page contains essential information and the second page includes your name. Often you can present the second page as an addendum listing publications and similar material, as Erin does.

• Make the résumé visually effective to communicate professionalism and clarity. Make it easy for the eye to scan, using capital letters, bold print, underlining, and spacing to highlight your strongest credentials. Don’t make it too dense, busy, or cute. Use a white or cream bond paper (the same as for your cover letters).

• Be consistent in your use of grammatical structure and style, and make sure your grammar and spelling are perfect. Proofread your résumé several times and then have someone else proofread it as well. Use accurate, accessible language; be judicious about abbreviations and jargon — even those of your targeted career.

• Be aware that information presented at the beginning of a section, at the left-hand margin, or in a column gets extra emphasis; therefore, it is generally not advisable to put dates in the margins. (Note, however, that dates in the margin appear to be standard for résumés in business fields.) Present information in order of its importance; for example, if you happen to have substantial experience or want to de-emphasize your doctorate, put Experience before Education. Or consider putting a Skills summary first if that is your strongest point. Erin places Education first because it is important for a job in science publishing and writing, and because she has relatively little relevant experience.

• One increasingly common beginning for a résumé, which Erin has adopted, is a Summary or Highlights of Qualifications section. Here you summarize the qualifications most relevant for a particular career or job, including experience, credentials, and skills. In general, avoid “Job Objective” statements, because they usually sound vapid or canned and can limit you.

• Select the best format for your qualifications and experience: reverse chronological, functional, or a combination. The reverse chronological, starting with the most recent and working backward, is easiest to construct. Functional formats are most appropriate for people who have little work experience or whose capabilities have been demonstrated in non-professional situations. The functional résumé categorizes your experience (including paid and unpaid work and personal achievements) by skill, followed by a brief section listing employment history. Functional résumés are harder to pull off successfully, partly because readers wonder if you are hiding something. For that reason, a modified chronological résumé (items described in reverse chronological order within different categories of experience) is often more effective for career changers. In Erin’s case, it allows her to emphasize the experience most-closely related to the field she hopes to enter.

• Personal information such as age, marital or health status, and race or ethnicity should be omitted. Although information about citizenship or visa status is not required, it might be wise to include a reference to U.S. citizenship or permanent resident status if your nationality is ambiguous.

• References and even the phrase “References furnished upon request” are usually omitted. However, before you go on the job market, you should line up your references — preferably a mix of academic and non-academic ones. Explain what jobs you are seeking and prime them (with a typed list, perhaps) to emphasize your skills and traits appropriate for that work. For the job interview, you might prepare a list of references with contact information, in case employers ask for names.

Author of the original article is the assistant director of career services for Ph.D.’s at Harvard University.

How to write a winning resume!!!

Resume writing is a very difficult task. I can safely say so after having created many for my own job hunts as well as my graduate school applications! Just to bring everybody out of their cozy little beds (taking cue from the previous post), experts say that one should never try and follow the normal rules which define the art of resume writing (particularly those which you get to hear through the grapevine).

The biggest challenge is to realize the simple fact that at present, the resumes that we have are probably grossly inadequate to foment a winning impression. So simply scrap them and start anew. A resume should be treated like an advertisement. It has to serve its purpose of getting you your dream job interview call or your admission into an educational program….without that, it is just a piece of waste paper or worthless word document which most definitely belongs to the recycle bin!
Most often, the resume acts as the best possible means to showcase your communication skills. They also reflect your creativity, to clarify your direction, qualifications, weaknesses and strengths!! Many of us think of a resume as the means of showcasing our past. Though the content of the resume deals with our educational and professional experiences, it should be written is a way to elicit interest and not like a personal statement. Research has depicted that most organizations roll out one interview call for every 200 resumes received. Resumes get about 20 seconds of reading time (I should rather say a quick glance) and this implies that the top portion of your resume would make or break your chances of acceptance!

The ploy is to be able to subtly advertise for the one product on which you have put in maximum investment (you) and then market the same effectively. The main reason why most of us miss out on getting positive results is the lack of marketing skills and additionally the blatant ignorance!

The vital trick is to focus on the requirements of the prospective employer or organization. If you are already well versed with the field in question then probably you already know very well what the prospective employer wants from you. However, if you are new to the field, some groundwork is mandatory. Ask the people already working on the project in the same company or organization. Else ask people in similar projects in other institutions! Also try and look into the projects personally and gather necessary information. Thus the trick here is to be able to put yourselves in the employers shoes and think as to what he wants!!!

It is necessary that you write down all these requirements separately. Once they have been listed try and answer each of the questions wrt your own achievements and professional experiences. This activity would help you realize many new connections with regards to what you have done and what the prospective employer wants from you. These are to be listed in the final draft in the right order of importance.

A winning resume would generally have two sections. The first section deals with your delicate announcements while the next section includes the actual data to back up your assertions in the first part. The best way is to leave the intended employer guessing by providing interesting information to usher him in a particular line of thought and then make him want more! The resume should always begin with an introduction with the precise information wrt the job you are pitching for and should always finish off with a suitable conclusion.
Resume should always be suitably targeted. This calls for absolute clarity on your side with regards to your career objectives and motives. It is also essential that you change the contents whenever there are any new developments in your field in general so as to better target the prospective employers who are always gunning for novel ideas.

OBJECTIVE – an equipment sales position in an organization seeking an extraordinary record of generating new accounts, exceeding sales targets and enthusiastic customer relations.

As you can gauge from the above opening line, the objective is very powerful in that it tries to take into account the needs of the new age business environment. It is apparent that the candidate knows exactly what the company needs and shows that he has the right mix of qualities to excel. Please refrain from providing your own goals or private agendas in the objective. Though it might be very relevant to the cause, it surely doesn’t help the same as the organization would be looking for people who can help them grow……

It is very important to know what the target wants. The above mentioned example would probably work better when the company is an upstart and thus it shows how seamlessly, the candidate is able to associate with the overall cause (growing). Thus find answers to these critical questions and then frame the objective:
What the employer wants?
Why does he want these qualities?
Any other qualities which he might value?
To make a sizzling introduction, you need to make sure that the very first line captures the reader’s attention. To this end, give as much time as needed and come up with something really interesting!
At every point, do remember that you are writing an advertisement and not a life story!

If you are making a career change or have a limited work history, you want the employer to immediately focus on where you are going, rather than where you have been. If you are looking for another job in your present field, it is more important to stress your qualities, achievements and abilities first.

A few examples of separate Objective sections:
· Vice president of marketing in an organization where a strong track record of expanding market share and internet savvy is needed.
· Senior staff position with a bank that offers the opportunity to use my expertise in commercial real estate lending and strategic management.
· An entry-level position in the hospitality industry where a background in advertising and public relations would be needed.
· A position teaching English as a second language where a special ability to motivate and communicate effectively with students would be needed.
· Dive-master in an organization where an extensive knowledge of Caribbean sea life and a record of leaving customers feeling they have had a once-in-a lifetime experience is needed.

The summary is a collection of concise statements depicting your qualifications and abilities in general on quantitative terms. These should be compelling enough to answer the reader’s most pressing question…..why should he select you?
It is also probably the only part of the resume that is fully read. So do make sure that it is the spiciest part as well.

The most common ingredients of a well-written Summary are as follows. Do understand that it is not essential to write all these in your summary. Include the ones most relevant to your cause!

1. A short phrase describing your profession
2. Followed by a statement of broad or specialized expertise
3. Followed by two or three additional statements related to any of the following:
> breadth or depth of skills
> unique mix of skills
> range of environments in which you have experience
> a special or well-documented accomplishment
> a history of awards, promotions, or superior performance commendations
> One or more professional or appropriate personal characteristics
> A sentence describing professional objective or interest.

Next a separate skills and accomplishments section may be included to delve deeper into the qualities already mentioned before. Make judicious use of bullets or numbering to make it as presentable as possible.
There are three basic types of resumes: Chronological, Functional, and “combined” Chronological – Functional. To see what these styles look like, get a resume book.

CHRONOLOGICAL
The chronological resume is the more traditional structure for a resume. The Experience section is the focus of the resume; each job (or the last several jobs) is described in some detail, and there is no major section of skills or accomplishments at the beginning of the resume. This structure is primarily used when you are staying in the same profession, in the same type of work, particularly in very conservative fields. It is also used in certain fields such as law and academia. It is recommended that the chronological resume always have an Objective or Summary, to focus the reader.
The advantages: May appeal to older, more traditional readers and be best in very conservative fields. Makes it easier to understand what you did in what job. It may help the name of the employer stand out more, if this is impressive. The disadvantage is that it is much more difficult to highlight what you do best. This format is rarely appropriate for someone making a career change.
FUNCTIONAL
The functional resume highlights your major skills and accomplishments from the very beginning. It helps the reader see clearly what you can do for them, rather than having to read through the job descriptions to find out. It helps target the resume into a new direction or field, by lifting up from all past jobs the key skills and qualifications to help prove you will be successful in this new direction or field. Actual company names and positions are in a subordinate position, with no description under each. There are many different types of formats for functional resumes. The functional resume is a must for career changers, but is very appropriate for generalists, for those with spotty or divergent careers, for those with a wide range of skills in their given profession, for students, for military officers, for homemakers returning to the job market, and for those who want to make slight shifts in their career direction.
Advantages: It will help you most in reaching for a new goal or direction. It is a very effective type of resume, and is highly recommended. The disadvantage is that it is hard for the employer to know exactly what you did in which job, which may be a problem for some conservative interviewers.
COMBINED
A combined resume includes elements of both the chronological and functional formats. It may be a shorter chronology of job descriptions preceded by a short “Skills and Accomplishments” section (or with a longer Summary including a skills list or a list of “qualifications”); or, it may be a standard functional resume with the accomplishments under headings of different jobs held.
There are obvious advantages to this combined approach: It maximizes the advantages of both kinds of resumes, avoiding potential negative effects of either type. One disadvantage is that it tends to be a longer resume. Another is that it can be repetitious: Accomplishments and skills may have to be repeated in both the “functional” section and the “chronological” job descriptions.

Finally I would discuss about the evidence section of the resume. This includes work history with descriptions, dates, education, affiliations, list of software mastered, etc. If you put this toward the top of your resume, anyone reading it will feel like they are reading an income tax form! Therefore it should always be towards the latter half of the resume.
Jobs and Education should be listed in reverse chronological order. Include the dates in italics and refrain from putting the months unless your experience is less than a year. Include only the relevant and impressive professional affiliations and awards. Civic/Community leadership may be included to demonstrate leadership capabilities. Only include those publications that have been published! Please refrain from putting personal interests and try and include references who can be available upon request!

The resume should be perfect to make it winning…some tips include:

· There is uniformity and consistency in the use of italics, capital letters, bullets, boldface, and underlining
· There are absolutely no errors. No typographical errors. No spelling errors. No grammar, syntax, or punctuation errors. No errors of fact.
· Jobs listed include a title, the name of the firm, the city and state of the firm, and the years
· Strengths are highlighted / weaknesses de-emphasized
· Use power words.
· Writing is concise and to the point.
· Shorter is usually better
· Experience before education…usually.
· Telephone number that will be answered

Other things to be taken care of!!!!

1. Try not to include anything on the resume that could turn the employer off, anything that is controversial (political, etc.) or could be taken in a negative light.
2. Put the most important information on the first line of a writing “block” or paragraph. The first line is read the most.
3. Use bold caps for your name on page one. Put your name at the top of page two on a two-page resume. Put section headings, skill headings, titles or companies (if impressive), degrees, and school name (if impressive), in boldface.
4. Spell out numbers under and including ten; use the numerical form for numbers over and including 11 (as a general rule), unless they are the first words in a sentence. Spell out abbreviations unless they are unquestionably obvious.

Certain things which we should not include in the resume include:
· The word “Resume” at the top of the resume
· Fluffy rambling “objective” statements
· Salary information
· Full addresses of former employers
· Reasons for leaving jobs
· A “Personal” section, or personal statistics (except in special cases)
· Names of supervisors
· References unless required

Well friends, I hope this post is helpful and informative enough to justify the effort that I have put into compiling this article! Hope you enjoy reading it! Also do note that even though I have written the article to suit the needs of job seekers, the same methodologies hold true for gradschool applicants as well!!!

Sources :http://www.rockportinstitute.com/, http://www.careerjournal.com/