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The preparation of the resume is usually the first step in any job hunt. The resume should be setup to make sure that you 1) get past the recruiter and 2) convey to the hiring manager that he / she should want to learn more about you. There are some general rules:

• TLAs - don’t use these unless you know what they mean… (oh yeah, TLA = three letter acronyms. These tend to be rampant in tech)
• Format - Don’t be a slave to format. The resume is to convey information. If you are a “creative” graphics person, it’s probably best to have printed versions of your resume be a little different than black and white. If you are an XML / CSS / AJAX expert, the web version of your resume, should be crazy creative.
• Know the audience - Make sure you
• Let others proof it - spelling, grammar, weird / redundant sentences. Getting another set of eyes will always make sure things just flow.
• Prep other collateral -If you’re a graphics / web designs, you better have a portfolio ready online and the link in your resume.
• Know the bounds of intellectual property. If you are applying to a competitor, it’s nice to show in your resume that you don’t leak secrets to everyone…
• Be descriptive, yet succinct - Words need to highlight your qualifications, but too many words muddy the message
• 1 Page or more: If you’re just coming out of school: 1 page. If you’ve got 15+ years of experience: maybe more, but you should still try to keep it to a page. Remember, the resume is intended for people to initiate contact and ask you more, not to sell yourself all in one shot.  Plus, it saves paper and staples. 

 

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Name and contact info

Make sure your name is at the top of the piece of paper. Do not misspell it (seriously). Only put one address, email address and phone number. Any more than that and Murphy’s law will guarantee that they will try to contact you at the one that you ware NOT at.

Objective (Optional)

What kind of job are you looking for. For example: “analog design engineering” is a pretty big field. It would be helpful if there were some specifics that show you actually understand the field you’re trying to get into. This item is of much debate. If you are straight out of school, have an objective. If your experience does not match the job requirements, have an objective. If you’re applying for a job that you know most of the people and your job skills match perfectly what they are looking for, you probably don’t need one.

Summary of Qualifications (Optional)

This is another section of come debate. My personal two cents is to have a short area of bullet points that quickly summarize why you are a qualified person. Total years of experience. Areas of expertise. Direct experience to position being applied for. And a couple of lines with info that doesn’t show up below (language skills, etc)

 

Employment History

Pretty simple. Where have you worked? For how long? What was your job title? Bullet items of your job responsibilities. You want to build your credibility here and show how your previous successes will benefit the current job. Do not lie here, but word smithing your experience is important.

For example, I just received a resume were the Summary of Qualifications noted some skills (example: networking expert), but all of the job experience showed unrelated tasks (board design for stepper motors). Now, if you were applying to a networking company, it appears that you were lying. In this section more than any other, the context of the job needs to be kept in mind. For many jobs, it’s important to quantify your skills (ex. Designed block x for 5 mixed-signal ASICs over a period of 2 years). Responsibility and accomplishment are the keys in this section.

Education

Schools, graduation dates, degrees received, GPA (if above 3.0). It’s debatable if you should add coursework that didn’t directly go toward a degree, but if you have certificates (CCNA, A+, etc) then you should put them here as well.

Personal Interests

If you have space, you can put personal stuff like runs weblog, etc. Don’t put anything that might be alarming to more conservative people (ie. streaking, arrest records, etc.)

References

For most professional jobs in the Bay Area, you should have your references ready for application forms, but not on your resume.

 

Remember, the resume just gets you a call back. It does NOT guarantee employment. We’ll cover interviews and such next, but it’s tough to get an interview without a solid resume.