Résumé-writing tips for managers and executives

Lori Michelle Ryan, JIST Publishing

Job seekers often communicate a first impression through their résumés. In the newly updated edition of "Expert Résumés for Managers and Executives," authors Wendy Enelow and Louise Kursmark stress the importance of a strong résumé for all applicants.

"A vital component of your career management plan is your résumé, which must instantly position you as a well-qualified and highly competitive candidate," the authors say. "The easiest way to accomplish that objective is by developing a powerful, performance-based résumé."

In their book, Enelow and Kursmark provide numerous résumé samples, divided by career field, that are aimed at people at all levels of management, from front-line supervisors to top-levelexecutives. They also offer nine strategies for writing effective résumés:

1. Write for the job you want: "You cannot write an effective résumé without knowing, at least to some degree, what type or types of positions you will be seeking."

2. Sell it to me, don't tell it to me: "If you 'tell it,' you simply state facts. If you 'sell it,' you promote it, advertise it and draw attention to it."

3. Use keywords: "Keywords are ... specific to a particular industry or profession. When you use these words and phrases, you are communicating a specific message."

4. Use the "big" and save the "little": "Try to focus on the 'big' things -- revenue and profit growth, new initiatives and ventures, special projects, cost savings ... then save the 'little' stuff -- the details -- for the interview."

5. Make your résumé "interviewable": After "you are contacted for a telephone or in-person interview, your résumé becomes all-important in leading and prompting your interviewer during your conversation."

6. Eliminate confusion with structure and context: "Be consistent, make information easy to find and define the context in which you worked."

7. Use function to demonstrate achievement: "A résumé that focuses on your job functions can be dry and uninteresting and says little about your unique activities and contributions."

8. Remain in the realm of reality: "Do not push your skills and qualifications outside the bounds of what is truthful."

9. Be confident: "There is only one individual with the specific combination of employment experience, qualifications, achievements, education and technical skills that you have."

"Your résumé can have tremendous power and a phenomenal impact on your job search. So don't take it lightly," Enelow and Kursmark say. "Rather, devote the time, energy and resources that are essential to developing a résumé that is well-written, visually attractive and effective incommunicating who you are and how you want to be perceived."
Lori Michelle Ryan is the marketing communications specialist at JIST Publishing, America's Career Publisher. In this role, she helps job seekers, career changers, students and working professionals develop the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in the job market and world of work.

Grammar lessons all job seekers should know

Kaitlin Madden, CareerBuilder Writer 

When applying for a job, there are few faster ways to get your résumé and cover letter thrown out of contention than by making a glaring grammatical error.
These days, human resources departments and hiring managers are flooded with résumés. They have to be narrowed down somehow, and grammatical errors are an easy way to eliminate applicants.

"In an era of spell check, easily edited documents and instantly shared 'can you give this a look' emails, typos and grammatical errors on résumés and/or cover letters are pretty much unforgivable," says Sean Smith, president of Third Street, an Indianapolis-based marketingcompany. "The message sent by typing 'too' when it should be 'to' can literally be the difference between getting the nod or getting a no."

Here is a proofreading checklist for your résumé and cover letter.

1. Know your homophones 
Homophones are words that sound the same but have different meanings, like too, to and two. Using the correct version on your résumé is crucial.

"The misuse of your/you're, there/their/they're, and to/too/two occurs more times than I care to dwell on," says Marisa Brayman, a Web developer and blogger for Stadri Emblems, a company that designs embroidered patches. "If someone uses one of these incorrectly on a cover letter, he can say goodbye to his chances of ever landing a decent job. If this is due to a simple typo, that is one thing; however, in my humble opinion, if the individual doesn't know the difference between these basic words and has never bothered to take an hour out of his or her life to learn it, he or she is not deserving of landing a decent job."
A quick refresher:

Their, they're, there
Their: The possessive form of "they." ("Applicants submitted their error-free cover letters.")
They're: The contraction of "they are." ("I think they're getting the hang of this grammar thing.")
There: A location. ("The pile of cover letters is over there.")

Two, too, to
Two: A number. ("There are two applicants in the lobby.")
Too: Also. ("I'd like to be interviewed for the job, too.")
To: A preposition or infinitive. ("I'm going to apply.")

Your, you're
Your: The possessive form of "you." ("Don't forget to proofread your résumé.)
You're: The contraction of "you are." ("I have a feeling you're going to get this job.")

It's, its
The best-selling grammar bible, "Eats, Shoots, and Leaves" by Lynne Truss, best describes the difference between these two words:

"To those who care about punctuation, a sentence such as 'Thank God its Friday' (without the apostrophe) rouses feelings not only of despair but of violence. The confusion of the possessive 'its' (no apostrophe) with the contractive 'it's' (with apostrophe) is an unequivocal sign of illiteracy and sets off a simple Pavlovian 'kill' response in the average stickler. The rule is: the word 'it's' (with apostrophe) stands for 'it is' or 'it has.' If the word does not stand for 'it is' or 'it has' then what you require is 'its.' This is extremely easy to grasp."

Some other common homophones you should know:

Whose and who's
Every day and everyday

2. Use apostrophes properly
Apostrophes are used for a few reasons:

• They indicate the possessive: "In my last job, I managed the CEO's calendar."


• They indicate the omission of letters in words (i.e., in contractions).


• They indicate the exclusion of numbers in dates: "I graduated college in '05."


• They indicate time or quantity: "I must give my current employers two weeks' notice."

Be sure to check your résumé for proper use of apostrophes, as well as for any erroneous punctuation. Apostrophes do not, for example, indicate the plural form of a singular noun. It is incorrect to say "I developed orientation programs to help new employee's get acclimated to the company."

3. Keep tenses consistent
"Building lists correctly is important," says Christina Zila, director of communications at Textbroker.com, a Las Vegas-based content-creation firm. "Use consistent verb tenses: If you start your job duties with 'managing multiple employees,' don't have your next point as 'prepared annual reports' but 'preparing annual reports.'"

Similarly, as a general rule, all activities or accomplishments that you completed in the past should be in the past tense. Activities that you perform now should be in the present tense. This should be kept consistent throughout your résumé.

4. Proofread and then proofread again
The bottom line is that proofreading your application materials before submitting them is a must.
"There are enough people with bad grammar pet peeves that there is virtually no position out there where grammar doesn't matter," says Debra Yergen, author of the "Creating Job Security Resource Guide." "Since a basic search-engine inquiry for 'grammar pet peeves' nets more than 400,000 returns, it's safe to say that hiring managers are paying close attention to grammar and other résumé and cover-letter errors. Read and reread everything you write for a job application, and if you doubt yourself even slightly, run your submission past someone you trust."

Kaitlin Madden is a writer and blogger for CareerBuilder.com and its job blog, The Work Buzz. She researches and writes about job search strategy, career management, hiring trends and workplace issues. Follow @CareerBuilder on Twitter.

Qualifications versus duties: Why knowing the difference matters

Justin Thompson, CareerBuilder Writer

Some job seekers have problems selling their skills. They list their basic duties, which most job seekers have in common. You can stand out in a job search by positioning those skills so they set you apart.

Think of how a salesperson sells a car. He doesn't tout the fact that the car has four wheels, windows and functioning lights, because you'd expect that from every car. Instead, he sells the unique points of the car -- design, safety, mileage -- all of which make the car appealing to a potential buyer.
Job seekers need to do the same when selling their qualifications. Instead of saying you've used Microsoft Excel, tell the employer how you've solved problems or increased efficiency by creating a basic accounting process through Microsoft Excel.

Kyra Mancine, a professional copywriter with a career development background, says a list of job responsibilities is her biggest résumé pet peeve. "The key is to take a simple job duty and expand it to match the [job posting] with quantitative evidence of accomplishments," Mancine says. "It may take some thought and creativity, but it can be done for any job, no matter what the level. I don't care if you're a sanitation worker, CEO or seamstress; anyone can do this."

By adding numbers, statistics and adjectives applicable to the posting, job seekers can set themselves apart from others who have submitted more generic résumés.

How to quantify accomplishments
To give an example, here's a real job posting from a bank looking for a call-center representative:

• Serves as first-line response for incoming customer calls.​


• Accurately and expediently answers inquiries from customers on all types of new and existing products and services, drawing on a detailed knowledge base of bank products, services, policies and procedures.​


• Sells and cross-sells bank products and services to new and existing customers who have contacted the bank by telephone.​


• Efficiently performs routine follow-up work and initiates requests for detailed follow-up work.​


• Relies on excellent verbal and written communication skills to fulfill customer requests and to ensure customer satisfaction.​

If you're applying for this job and all you've listed on your résumé is that you answered phone calls in a call center, you probably won't get an interview, Mancine says. Instead, she suggests rewriting your résumé to match the bullets listed in the job posting, quantifying your successes. Mancine shares this example of how an applicant could restructure her résumé to address the posting above:

Primary call-center contact for a high volume of customer service inquiries, ranging from orders to returns.

• Successfully handled hundreds of incoming consumer calls daily from across the country.


• Received recognition for product upsells, resulting in a 5 percent increase in weekly sales.


• Tapped into strong base of product knowledge on thousands of product stock-keeping units, quickly and courteously relaying product information to existing and new customers.


• Consistently acknowledged for speed, accuracy to details and follow-through on catalog requests, Web order processing, batches and data entry.


• Committed to going above and beyond to ensure customer satisfaction, resulting in being named Employee of the Month for June 2011.

Here's another test that can help determine if you've listed qualifications or just duties: Look at each bullet point on your résumé and ask yourself, "So what?" If you're not impressed, why would a recruiter be?

Don't neglect the cover letter
"Cover letters are most often left out or even sent as generic notes with résumés," says Tiffani Murray, a résumé writer and career coach. She says that the cover letter is a great place to sell your personality and breathe life into your application.

"If a job posting specifically asks for a cover letter, this is a great opportunity to match up your skills and experiences with the requirements of the job," Murray says. "Make sure to detail how you can perform the tasks of the job you are applying for, but also add to the company, team or overall business with your knowledge and success in similar roles."

Justin Thompson is a writer and blogger for CareerBuilder.com and its job blog, The Work Buzz. He researches and writes about job search strategy, career management, hiring trends and workplace issues.

Eight Ways to Maximize Your Cover Letter's Power

Like peanut butter and jelly or bacon and eggs, résumés and cover letters go hand-in-hand. Although both pieces are valuable on their own, they pack the most punch when served together. But while all job seekers know the importance of a well-organized résumé, many don't understand the power of a strong cover letter. In addition to reinforcing key skills and experience, a cover letter demonstrates your desire to work for the employer and the specific ways in which your expertise can benefit the firm. More importantly, it helps differentiate you from other job seekers and provides incentive to contact you for an interview. Even if composition isn't your forte, you can still create a killer cover letter.
Here's how:

1. Know your stuff. |
Before you begin writing, learn as much as you can about the potential employer. Visit the firm's Web site and scan industry publications to familiarize yourself with recent news about the company, such as quarterly earnings, and to learn about future plans, like expansion into new markets. The more you know about an organization, the better you can tailor your cover letter to the firm's needs.

2. Personalize it.
Never begin a cover letter with "Dear Sir or Madam" or "To Whom it May Concern." Correspondence with generic salutations often signal to potential employers that you lack the initiative to locate the appropriate contact. If a job listing does not include the name of the hiring manager, call the company's receptionist and explain the position you are applying for to see if he or she can help you fill in the blank.

3. Start strong.A good cover letter begins with a powerful opening paragraph. Your goal is to briefly describe how you heard about the position and why you're interested in it. Skip cute introductions: "Teamwork is my middle name" or "I am smart as a whip," for example. A "catchy" opening can appear stilted and insincere and offers little, if any, value to the piece.

4. Offer an enticement.
The body of the letter should expand upon -- not simply repeat -- the key points in your résumé. Highlight those skills and experiences most relevant to the job opening and provide concrete examples of how you can benefit the company. For example, if you are applying for a management position, share how turnover within your department decreased by 20 percent during your tenure. Or communicate how your attention to detail and ability to adapt quickly to new environments allow you to deliver first-rate client service.

5. Be bold.
In addition to expressing gratitude for the hiring manager's time and interest, close your letter by outlining your next steps. Be proactive by stating when you will contact him or her to follow up. Doing so is a great way to reinforce your enthusiasm for the job. However, don't forget to include a phone number or e-mail address where you can be reached in case the firm wants to get in touch with you first. In addition to following best practices, you'll want to avoid common pitfalls when composing your cover letter:

6. Getting ahead of yourself.
Focusing on matters such as expected salary and title can come across as presumptuous and untimely. Wait until you have secured a meeting and become better acquainted with the hiring manager to mention these topics.

7. Goofing the proof.
Our company's research consistently shows that one or two typographical errors are enough to discourage a hiring manager from calling you back. Utilize your computer's spell-check function, but also ask friends and family to double-check your work. You don't want a small mistake to call your professionalism or attention to detail into question.

8. Forgetting the format.
If you submit your application via e-mail, make sure to prepare the file as a plain text document so it is universally compatible. Remove all formatting enhancements, such as underline or boldface, and replace bullets with asterisks or dashes. If you fail to do so, your recipient may receive a bowl of alphabet soup. Also, paste the cover letter into the body of an e-mail to save hiring managers the worry of corrupt or unreadable attachments. Some job seekers spend hours assembling a résumé and only a short amount of time on the accompanying note. Submitting a thoughtful and well-written cover letter, however, can help you outshine your competition and get you one step closer to an interview.

6 ways hiring managers are spotting résumé lies

Mary Lorenz, CareerBuilder Writer

Thirty-eight percent of employees have embellished their job responsibilities at some point, and 18 percent have lied about their skills, according to a CareerBuilder survey. Other common lies surrounded information about employment start and end dates, academic degrees, previous employers and job titles.

Here are six ways employers might be evaluating your résumé in today's digital world. These are not only good reminders that you shouldn't lie, but they'll also help you avoid mistakes that might make hiring managers question your honesty.

1. They're performing a standard background check. Employers check on things such as work history, residences, dates of employment, etc. Managers look for discrepancies between what the candidate submitted and what the reports reveal.

2. They're checking for red flags. Unexplained gaps in employment, a reluctance to explain the reason for leaving and unusual periods of self-employment can be a tip-off to false employment history. Since even references can be fake, employers might check the websites of previous employers and use the phone numbers found online for employment verification.

3. They're using social networking sites. Social networking profiles contain public information that may help employers verify certain information such as a candidate's work history or education credentials. Both job seekers and employers should be aware of the possible legal ramifications of using social media to screen applicants.

4. They're testing your skills. Knowing that employers use keyword searching to find and qualify their résumés, applicants may include keywords for all skills required for the job -- regardless of whether they have them or not. To confirm any embellishment, employers might ask specific technical questions about the candidate's stated skills or test the candidate's computer skills.

5. They're willing to hear an explanation. Mistakes and misunderstandings do happen. If managers find a discrepancy, they might give the candidate an opportunity to explain. If this happens, have a good explanation for the error.

6. They're following their intuition. When it comes to the difficult task of hiring a new employee, employers have to trust their intuition and experience. If something doesn't seem right, they'll probably follow up on it.
Mary Lorenz writes for The Hiring Site, CareerBuilder's community for hiring professionals and other curious-minded individuals to discuss the attraction, engagement and retention of their #1 asset -- their people.

Transforming Your Résumé From Military to Civilian

Beth Braccio Hering, CareerBuilder.com writer

Duncan Mathison, co-author of "Unlock the Hidden Job Market: Six Steps to a Successful Job Search When Times Are Tough," recalls working with an ex-Navy SEAL who was trying to land a civilian job.

"He realized that most people thought his skills consisted of landing on beaches and blowing things up. Impressive skills, but not really needed in the business world," Mathison says. "As a result, we reframed his experience to highlight his abilities to lead small teams as well as creative problem solving and planning in the face of uncertainty."

While civilian employers may respect military experience, they may struggle to see it as relevant to their workplace. The challenge for veterans is to present their background in ways that civilians can understand and appreciate.

Talk the talk

The first thing that must go is military jargon. Job titles and codes that are second nature to military personnel are like a foreign language to many hiring managers, so translation is essential.

Lisa Rosser, author of "The Value of a Veteran: The Guide for Human Resource Professionals to Regarding, Recruiting and Retaining Military Veterans," suggests converting military skills to civilian equivalents using a tool such as O*Net Online. "The service member can type in his or her Military Occupational Code and see what a civilian equivalent would be and some alternate civilian job titles. The civilian job description will also list skills, knowledge and attributes commonly held by someone in that position. So, for example, a 90A (army logistics officer) would be a logistician or, alternately, an integrated logistics support manager or a production planner."

Armed with this information, Rosser then recommends job seekers "get busy on a site like CareerBuilder and search on the very general and the very specific job titles." Reading through ads will give the applicant a better idea of qualifications needed for various civilian jobs and will provide insight about key words to use on a résumé.

Putting your best self forward

"Military professionals are groomed to lead others and excel in a team-oriented environment," says Abby Locke, master résumé writer and personal brand strategist for Premier Writing Solutions in Washington, D.C. "Consequently, they find it hard to really market and promote themselves as effectively as they should in the job search process."

Experts offer these tips to help veterans sort through their experiences when creating application materials:

• Focus the cover letter on skills most pertinent to the given position; don't give a generic summary of everything you're qualified to do.


• Tailor the résumé to the specific job, and keep it to a maximum of two pages.


• Scour military performance reviews for relevant achievements (and to jog your memory).


• Use numbers, percentages, statistics and other concrete examples when possible to demonstrate competencies.

Education and training

Locke notes that military professionals often have completed hundreds of courses, training assignments and certifications. Instead of turning the education section of the résumé into a laundry list, however, she recommends "cherry picking" to make sure the training that is most relevant to the given position is apparent.

Mathison suggests listing any training that is applicable to the job whether or not you have a degree or a certificate. "For example, you may have had one class in wireless communications and another in management out of 355 hours of training on a wide range of topics. In the résumé under a training or education heading, write 'More than 350 hours of professional development training including wireless communications and management.'"

Remember you're a civilian now

While a veteran's military background will always be a part of his identification, it is important to keep in mind that hiring managers encountered for civilian jobs may not have the same thoughts or experiences.

"Everyone has an opinion about the war," says Michael Coritsidis, a career coach from Lido Beach, N.Y. "Keep emotion out of the equation, and stay neutral."

Experts generally recommend avoiding potentially charged words such as "war," "warfare" or "weapons" (unless applicable to the specific industry). Likewise, it is better to concentrate on your skills and why you are the best candidate for the position rather than focusing on the military conflict or combat.

Remember, though, that military experience has helped you become who you are today, so bring confidence to the civilian job hunt.

"Most, if not all, learned skills can be transferred to any company or industry, whether it is around the block or around the world," Coritsidis says. "The armed forces also instill the highly regarded qualities of being all that you can be as well as being a team player. What company wouldn't want to hire a person who can communicate how their military skills and qualifications can save time, save money or make money for their business?"Get the latest job search news and advice on CareerBuilder.com's job blog, "The Work Buzz," and follow us on Twitter at Twitter.com/CareerBuilder

How to write a cover letter for a sales position

Susan Ricker, CareerBuilder Writer 

A cover letter is your first opportunity to impress a potential employer, and when you work in sales, you know how important a first impression can be.

While the goal of a cover letter is to introduce yourself, explain why you're a good fit for the position and express your interest in the company, a cover letter for a sales position will be more targeted. Are you unsure if your cover letter can close the deal? Read on for tips on what to include.

Strut your sales statistics
If you've already held a sales position, this is your opportunity to show off your winning numbers. Sandra Lamb, a career, lifestyle and etiquette expert, says to include your most important achievements:

• Sales success rate, expressed in numbers.
• Customers or clients retained and converted to new product areas.
• New customers or clients gained.
• Increase in profits and sales levels.

Being specific has more impact than simply saying you were one of the best sales team members at your company.

"Stats have to be included," says Marcia LaReau, president of Forward Motion LLC, a career strategy firm. "If they are going from small-number tickets to much higher tickets, they should use percentages rather than the numbers, or at least give context, such as, 'In year two, brought in $800K in contracts, which represented 30 percent of market share in the region, up from 18 percent in year one.'" The company's size doesn't have to determine how well-qualified you are for your next position. By assigning numbers to your past successes, you're giving the hiring manager an idea of how you would perform if on his team.

Share stories of your success
Sometimes, stories can better express success than numbers can. While you should include your sales stats, incorporating a story of how you overcame a challenge or closed an important deal can be just as informative.

"Be specific and provide examples," says Keith Wolf, vice president of marketing at Murray Resources, a Houston recruiting firm. "Include clear and measurable proof, like the number of new accounts opened. Also, consider including a brief story about a particularly difficult sale you made. Perhaps it was a cold call that you turned into a large account. Hiring managers love to hear stories of perseverance turning into results."

Prove you have a plan
While it's important to include your sales records and stats, it's also crucial to show that you understood what you were doing in your role. "A key element in the cover letter for a sales position would not only be the metrics -- increase in sales percentage, overall sales, etc. -- but the how; how did you achieve this success?" says Beth Carter, executive recruiter and certified executive, business and career coach at Carter Consultants Ltd. "Write about your sales tactics; for example, 'I increased sales in two years by 20 percent by identifying an untapped market in this industry.' Companies want to understand how you can replicate your past success for their company." By showing that you understand the market, can spot an opportunity for a sale and can reproduce your sales accomplishments at a different company, you're marketing yourself as a flexible and experienced sales representative.

Reiterate your interest in the company
After you've proved your sales skills, discuss why you want to join the team. A cover letter should strike a balance between introducing yourself and expressing your interest in the company. Prove that you've done your research, and give examples of why you admire the company, what made you interested in working for it and how you could contribute to its goals.

Susan Ricker is a writer and blogger for CareerBuilder.com and its job blog, The Work Buzz. She researches and writes about job search strategy, career management, hiring trends and workplace issues.