• 1out of 9 Americans in the workforce is unemployed• Average unemployment in Dec. 2007 – 16.5 weeks, today its over 36 weeks• Today roughly 45% of the unemployed have been out of work for 52 weeks vs. only 30% in June 2009 • In 2007 there were generally 2 qualified candidates for each position vs. today there are 7 qualified candidates• Job openings have risen 26% since July 2009• 54% of the large US businesses that laid off staff in the 12 months are planning to rebuild their staff to pre-recession levels • DFW’s top 25 private employers have added 12,834 employees in the last 12 months & the 25 largest public employers have added 2000

Winning Résumés – why are they so important?

What do employers really want?

• Candidates who’ve kept their skills current• Candidates with the right education, training,

relevant experience & requisite skills + flexibility, energy, and enthusiasm

• Doers with leadership & communications skills• Not to make a mistake and hire the wrong person

– they have limited headcount & its often difficult to get additional headcount

• Choosing a winner – A players

Winning Résumés

• Why have a résumé? To resume your career• What’s it really used for? 3 purposes Advertising – to get them to call you Script for the interview Reminder of who you are after the interview• Kinds of résumés – written & oral• Revising your résumés – reverse chronological,

functional or hybrid • Sample résumés

Chronological resumeChris Claus5252 Cypress Avenue Dallas, Texas 75000 chclaus@aol.com 972-555-1212OPERATIONS MANAGER

BACKGROUND SUMMARYVersatile Operations Manager with over 15 years of successful experience in manufacturing. Strong focus on Lean

Manufacturing and top quality production. Identified problems and developed solutions utilizing participative management style. Major strengths in:

• Cost Containment • Process Improvement• Maintenance and Engineering • Fleet Operations• Quality Assurance (TQM) • Distributions and Logistics• Warehouse Operations • Safety Programs

ACCOMPLISHMENTS• Increased line efficiency 12% through comprehensive analysis and reconfiguration of production operations.• Reduced production breakage/waste 30% through Pareto analysis and other problem solving tools.• Organized and executed cost reduction initiatives resulting in 6% decrease in overall manufacturing and distribution

expenses.• Managed $16 million operating budget and instituted cost controls that saved $850,000.• Directed maintenance and engineering department in capital projects ($10 million annually), including installation

and start up of $3 million state-of-the-art computer controlled production line.• Developed and implemented lowest cost operating strategy to distribute over 65 million units, saving $350,000

annually.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCECOOL COLA, Dallas, Texas 1994-2002World’s third largest soft drink manufacturer/bottlerPlant Manager. Directed Company’s sixth highest volume producing beverage manufacturing plant, with $900 million

annual production and 500 employees. Managed manufacturing, maintenance and engineering, fleet, distribution, logistics, quality control and warehouse. (2000-2002)

Manufacturing/Logistics Manager. Provided technical support and strategic direction for six manufacturing plants, ten fleet shops and 23 warehouse operations in three states.

Introduced numerous process improvement tools. (1998-2000)

Chronological Resume 2 Charlene Jones2105 Douglas BoulevardLouisville, Kentucky 40201502-555-1212OBJECTIVE: Teacher Elementary Education (K-8)EDUCATION: University of Louisville

Degree: BA Communications and Elementary Education 1990 Honors: Dean’s List, Outstanding Senior in CommunicationsCREDENTAL: Elementary Education, State of KentuckyEXPERIENCE:Teaching Belknap Elementary, Louisville ISD, Louisville, Kentucky 1998-Present

3rd Grade TeacherImplement and conduct curriculum for all subject areas. Use multi-sensory techniques for reading, spelling, writing

and arithmetic. Taught core and advanced reading lists. Utilized personal computers to enhance student learning and challenge students to proceed at their own pace.

Williams Elementary, Louisville ISD, Louisville, Kentucky 1995-19975th Grade TeacherApplied current teaching methods to an integrated curriculum for reading, math, science and social studies that

incorporated field studies in biology & natural history. Developed & taught units on Kentucky and America History and the related literature of the periods covered.

Jones Elementary, Lexington ISD, Lexington, Kentucky 1993-19941st Grade TeacherPlanned and implemented an integrated curriculum in reading, writing, spelling, basic arithmetic and social studies.

Emphasized daily writing across all subject areas. Student Teaching Bardstown, Elementary, Bardstown ISD, Bardstown, Kentucky 1991-1992 RELATED Louisville Independent School DistrictACTIVITIES - Coordinated school-wide Speech & Writing Festival at Williams ElementaryInitiated after school program to provide individualized instruction to students at Belknap Elementary to strengthen

their reading and math skillsInitiated, wrote and directed seasonal drama productions at both Williams elementary and Belknap Elementary

INTERESTS Girl Scouts, Hiking & Cycling, Public Speaking, Toastmasters

Functional Resume Charlene Jones

2105 Douglas Boulevard 502-555-1212Louisville, KY 40201 CJones@yahoo.com

Customer Relations, Communications or Public Relations positionEXPERIENCE:COMMUNICATIONS: Communications, Public Relations, Advertising, Training• BA degree in Communications (Journalism & Public Relations): at included training in journalism, mass

communications, advertising, media and newswriting & editing• Writing Skills: Strong written & verbal communications skills for proposals, publicity, public speaking, and customer

communications & correspondence • Training: conducted student-centered classroom training that emphasized development and use of basic skills in

reading, writing and math• Training: initiated after school program to provide individualized instruction to students that included parental

participation to strengthen students reading, writing and math skills • Successfully completed Toastmasters Training and help to administer the program for teachers in the Louisville ISDADMINISTRATION: Program Management and Supervision• Program Management: Developed successful programs ( volunteerism and community outreach) from concept,

design and implementation (after school program was adopted district wide by Louisville ISD and expanded to Saturdays mornings that included community participation to provide breakfast)

• Management & Supervision: Accountable for planning, staffing, facilities and coordinating the after school programs with 200 participants and 12 instructors

• Planning: Served on task force that conducted curriculum development for future years • Planning: Served as faculty advisor to local Parent Teacher Association with an annual budget of $100,000 and

covering 550 students SALES: Customer Relations, Presentations, Negotiations and Fund-Raising• Strong Communicator: Formal presentations to decision makers and board to sell new programs and secure funding

approval to take a local program district wide. Also involved securing community participation funding and support.• Event planning: organized and directed special events in the community drawing on volunteer support to offset a

reduction in Louisville ISD funding • Customer Relations: Selected by administration to serve as a liaison to resolve concerns among coworkers, vendors

and the community.EMPLOYMENT HISTORY:Experience as a teacher”: Louisville (1995-Present) & Lexington (1993-1994) KY Independent School DistrictsEDUCATION: BA with Honors, Communications & Education, University of Louisville 1990INTERESTS: Girl Scouts, Hiking & Cycling, Public Speaking, Toastmasters

Résumé Basics

• What’s the big deal about Real estate - generally 2 pages A résumé is not a comprehensive career history Type font: Ariel 10-12, Times Roman 11-12; no fancy fonts Margins – generally 1 inch left right, top bottom References Pictures• Scan ability – ATS, Job Boards, email Text boxes and Headers Bullets, underline, italics, shadows, graphics• Contact info – make it easy for the recruiter to reach you - phone numbers & email, LinkedIn URL and zip code• Headlines – why are they so important? – laser focus• Summary – experience counts – concrete examples• Skills table & what you’ve done to keep up

Résumé Basics continued

• Company name, location dates• Company tag line – 1 line summary• Job title and duties & responsibilities (1-5 lines) recent relevant experience• Duties/responsibilities vs. Accomplishments• Achievements & accomplishments – where do they fit in? Bullet, then an active verb - 1 to 2 lines description• Key words – more than once, spell out acronyms• Education & certifications & awards• Spell checker & grammar • Numbers & dates – double and triple check them• Does everybody lie on their resume? HONESTY!!!

What’s the big deal about Achievements?

• ACCOMPLISHMENTS - Situation, Action taken, Results• Start with an active verb – 1 to 2 lines describing the results• Performance reviews. Linked-In Recommendations; In the last 6 months what

activity are you proud of? Readers’ Digest article “The Greatest Accomplishment in My Career”, What would you write about?

• Uses $s, and %s where possible, to convey impact. • Use before & after comparisons - with competitors, the industry, your

predecessor, others in your work group or the company• What were the results in terms of making or saving money? Of saving time,

making work easier, or solving a problem?• How did the activity make the company more competitive or increase

business? Or build relationships with internal or external customers?• How did the accomplishment expand the business, attract new customers or

retain existing customers?• Ask yourself about the achievement: SO WHAT? WHAT’S the

SIGNIFICANCE? WHAT’s the REST of the STORY? WHAT RESULTED FROM the ACTIVITY?

Résumé obstacles

• Lack of relevant experience• Gaps in employment history• Handling a number of recent jobs • Dates - How far back? • Accomplishments – demo the value proposition• Myopia – Drop the I, ME, MY • KOD words – Responsible for, resulted oriented,

self-taught, seasoned professional, hands-on, proven leader, team player, high powered, proven track record, dynamic, tactical or strategic thinker, mature, innovative, motivated, problem solver

Cover letters & email

• Does anyone still use a cover letter?• Do recruiters/hiring managers read them?• Why they are useful? Are they important?• Components The carrot, the validation and the close• Table letters – T-letter• Email – include the resume in text and/or as

a word.doc (version 2003) or .PDF file

Jane Smith Jane_Smith@gmail.com 972-555-1212September 12, 2010

Dear Hiring Manager:In response to you ad in the Sunday, September 11, 2011 edition of the Dallas Morning News (your posting on Monster) for a Property Manager, I feel my qualifications favorably match your requirements.

YOUR REQUIREMENTS MY QUALIFICATIONSMust have 3 years of experience with multiple 13 years of Property Management experienceresidential sites for multiple commercial & residential sites

Manage service requirements of vendor contracts Project manager for three team moves within company involving Real Estate, Facilities and Telecommunications project managers

Identify & supervise savings initiatives Saved $10,000/mo on water meter usage by meters for individual units

Develop overhead, operating and capital budgets Met target goals of 2.7% variance in 2009 for $5M budget and saved $15,000 for the first three months employed by analyzing, researching and following up on P&Ls

Assure optimal functional of building systems Inspected and evaluated builders on completion of product installation and modificationDegree BBA in Management

Enclosed is my resume for your review. I will call you to schedule a time when we can discuss my background.

Sincerely,

Jane Smith

2 Minute Resume

• Response to “So tell me about yourself.”• 20 seconds – your Name & Background &

credentials & degrees• 60 seconds – your professional experience• 30 seconds - what you are looking for• 10 seconds – transition statement/question –

“Now that I’ve told you about me & my background, could you describe for me the ideal candidate for this position.”