they've seen more poorly written resumes
cross their desks recently than ever before.
Attract more interview offers and ensure your
resume doesn't eliminate you from
consideration by following these six key tips:
1. Format Your Resume Wisely "Do the
Hiring Managers" Work for Them
No matter how well written, your resume
won't get a thorough reading the first time
through. Generally a resume gets scanned for
25 seconds. Scanning is more difficult if it is
hard to read, poorly organized or exceeds
two pages.
Use a logical format and wide margins,
clean type and clear headings
Selectively apply bold and italic typeface
that help guide the reader's eye
Use bullets to call attention to important
points (i.e. accomplishments)
2. Identify Accomplishments not Just Job
Descriptions
Hiring managers, especially in technical fields
like engineering, seek candidates that can
help them solve a problem or satisfy a need
within their company. Consequently, you
can't be a solution to their problems without
stating how you solved similar problems in
other companies and situations.
Focus on what you did in the job, NOT what
your job was there's a difference
Include a one or two top line job
description first, then list your
accomplishments
For each point ask yourself, What was the
benefit of having done what I did?
Accomplishments should be unique to you,
not just a list of what someone else did
Avoid using the generic descriptions of the
jobs you originally applied for or held
3. Quantify Your Accomplishments
Q: What's the most common resume mistake?
A: Making too many general claims and using
too much industry jargon that does not
market the candidate. A resume is a
marketing document designed to sell your
skills and strengths rather than just portray a
bio of the candidate.
Include and highlight specific achievements
that present a comprehensive picture of
your marketability
Quantify your achievements to ensure
greater confidence in the hiring manager
and thereby generate interest percentages,
dollars, number of employees, etc.
Work backwards to quantify your
accomplishments by asking, If I had not
done X, what could have happened?
4. Cater Your Resume for the Industry
Unlike advertising and design professionals
who have greater creative license in designing
their resume for those fields, the mechanical
engineering industry won't be impressed and
may be turned off by distinctive resume
design.
Err on the side of being conservative
stylistically
Your accomplishments, error-free writing,
grammatically-correct, clean, crisp type and
paper will make the impression for you
5. Replace your Objective" with a "Career
Summary"
A Career Summary is designed to give a brief
overview of who you are and what you do.
Most Objectives sound similar: Seeking a
challenging, interesting position in X where I
can use my skills of X, Y, and Z to contribute
to the bottom line. Not telling at all.
Grab a hiring manager's attention right from
the beginning, remembering you
have only 25 few seconds to make a good
impression
Spend time developing a summary that
immediately gets their attention, and
accurately and powerfully describes you as
a solution to their problems
6. Network. Network. Network.
For unemployed candidates, handing out
resumes should be a full-time job. The
majority of mid- to senior-level positions are
filled through networking, so contact
absolutely everyone you know in addition to
recruiters who are in a position to hire you or
share insights. Networking can include
Personal business contacts, people you've
worked for or who worked for you
Vendors and sales representatives you've
dealt with in the past five years
People listed in the alumni directory of your
alma mater
With a solid resume in hand you'll greatly
increase your odds of earning a closer look
and getting that interview.
Source- asme.org
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