{"id":83967,"date":"2014-11-06T09:45:26","date_gmt":"2014-11-06T15:45:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=83967"},"modified":"2014-11-06T09:43:08","modified_gmt":"2014-11-06T15:43:08","slug":"the-anatomy-of-your-resume","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=83967","title":{"rendered":"The Anatomy of Your Resume"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Diana La Femina, Senior Editor, INALJ Newfoundland and Labrador<\/a>, Northwest Territories<\/a>, New Brunswick<\/a>, Manitoba<\/a>, British Columbia<\/a>, Alberta<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The Anatomy of Your Resume<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"diana<\/a>A resume is a powerful tool. While your cover letter should be used to explain why<\/em> you are the\u00a0best person for this position, your resume should show who<\/em> you are.<\/p>\n

It should tell a story.<\/p>\n

Your resume is NOT a dumping ground for every job you\u2019ve ever had, and for this reason you\u00a0can tailor your resume to different positions. Sometimes you\u2019ll need to include seemingly non-relevant positions or tasks, or change wordings, to modify the story you\u2019re trying to tell. But\u00a0those are just details in your story. Once you figure out what you\u2019re trying to convey you\u2019ll be\u00a0able to create a good base document to work with and modify.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s go through the anatomy of a resume. This is a link<\/a> to my online resume; it\u2019s basically\u00a0exactly what\u2019s on my current resume, with a few minor tweaks for format. Now, let\u2019s go over the\u00a0basic parts.<\/p>\n

Summary:<\/strong> I fought against this section for a long time. A summary is basically on objective,\u00a0right? And those are outdated and frowned upon. It wasn\u2019t until a career counselor explained the\u00a0purpose of a summary that I started using one.<\/p>\n

As I said, you\u2019re trying to tell a story with your resume. Most hiring managers will only look\u00a0at your resume for a few seconds. A summary tells them your story at the beginning, hopefully enticing them to see just how qualified you are for the position. It makes their jobs easier, which\u00a0will always work in your favor. Also, by telling your story at the beginning you\u2019re coloring how\u00a0the reader will view your experience. Basically, you\u2019re telling them what story to see rather than\u00a0making them figure it out on their own. It\u2019s a way for you to control how the reader views you.<\/p>\n

Expertise:<\/strong> I have a huge problem with the idea of expertise. I don\u2019t think I\u2019m an \u201cexpert\u201d at\u00a0anything yet. So instead, I called this section \u201cThings Diana Knows or Can Do Well\u201d just to\u00a0get out of that mind frame. This section is for you to list your competencies and can easily be\u00a0tailored to each position you apply to. You don\u2019t even have to mention keywords in your actual\u00a0job descriptions, just here. It opens up the dialogue, saying \u201cI know this\u201d AND adds keywords to\u00a0your resume. Win-win.<\/p>\n

As far as what you call this section, it\u2019s up to you. I kept the title I use because it\u2019s unique and\u00a0shows off my personality a bit. It\u2019s always best for people to be forewarned about my personality\u00a0before they meet me.<\/p>\n

Experience:<\/strong> Unless you\u2019re doing a functional resume (which should only be if you\u2019re trying to\u00a0get into a different field from what you have experience in) your experience should make up the\u00a0bulk of your resume. Don\u2019t include everything you\u2019ve ever done, just what will paint a picture\u00a0and tell the story you want to tell.<\/p>\n

If you look at my resume, this is the story I want to tell:
\n\u2022 Currently working with rare material
\n\u2022 Concurrently volunteering in various positions, which shows drive, commitment, and\u00a0willingness to gain experiences outside my jobs and librarianship.
\n\u2022 I\u2019ve worked both outside and within librarianship and have taken on challenges after\u00a0finishing my MLS
\n\u2022 While in my program, I held multiple positions and had the drive to gain as much\u00a0experience as I could<\/p>\n

Did you notice the gaps in my work history? That\u2019s fine. If a hiring manager has a question\u00a0about those gaps I can tell them the non-related positions I held and why I held them. But those\u00a0positions don\u2019t help tell the story I want to tell, so I don\u2019t include them. I didn\u2019t even list my time\u00a0on Wall Street, which was a huge experience for me. If I feel it\u2019s relevant at any point I\u2019ll list\u00a0in in my cover letter (after the phrase, \u201cWhat you won\u2019t see on my resume…\u201d), but I keep it off\u00a0here. Real estate on your resume is valuable, so you have to cut out whatever isn\u2019t serving you.<\/p>\n

How do you format the job experiences you do include? Something like this:<\/p>\n

Company \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong> Location \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Time at position
\nTitle<\/em>
\nResponsibilities
\n\u2022 Accomplishments<\/p>\n

This is how mine is set up, but you can format yours however you want so long as you have\u00a0those basic elements.<\/p>\n

I can hear you now: \u201cBut I don\u2019t have any accomplishments!\u201d Yes, you do. This doesn\u2019t mean\u00a0you saved your library or company (although if you did, be sure to include that information). It\u00a0means you accomplished something. You finished a project, you created a system, you were\u00a0asked to train people, etc. I won\u2019t make this post longer by listing how to do that (perhaps next\u00a0month). Suffice it to say, accomplishments are ways you helped your company. This is what\u00a0people want when they tell you to quantify your experience. Give numbers or statistics. You\u00a0won\u2019t find many numbers on my resume, but that\u2019s just the nature of what I\u2019ve accomplished.\u00a0And you don\u2019t always have to list an accomplishment, but you should try to.<\/p>\n

Education:<\/strong> Your education isn\u2019t as important as you think it is. You have the degree, and that\u2019s\u00a0really all that matters. It\u2019s your experience<\/em> that matters more, so put education towards the end.\u00a0Went to a really good school or know the hiring manager went to the same school as you and\u00a0want to highlight that fact? Put it in your summary, but leave the education section towards the\u00a0end.<\/p>\n

Foreign Languages \/ Certifications \/ Continuing Education \/ Whatever:<\/strong> Anything else you\u00a0want to highlight? Make a section for it. It\u2019ll let you stand out and show off your abilities and\u00a0experience, and you can always add\/delete a section based on the position you\u2019re applying to.\u00a0Just make sure these sections come after your experience.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s it! Hopefully this helps you. There\u2019s a lot of information about resumes out there and\u00a0it can be overwhelming. It helped me when someone broke this down. Just remember: you\u2019re\u00a0telling a story and it\u2019s up to you to get the person reading your resume to see that story. Have\u00a0confidence in your experiences and abilities and let how awesome you are shine through.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Diana La Femina, Senior Editor, INALJ Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, New Brunswick, Manitoba, British Columbia, Alberta The Anatomy of Your Resume A resume is a powerful tool. While your cover letter should be used to explain why you are the\u00a0best person for this position, your resume should show who you are. It should…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":74114,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[69,3592,3996,3666,3992,6486,5888,4391,6358,3667,112,4898,5373],"class_list":["post-83967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-diana-la-femina","tag-inalj-alberta","tag-inalj-british-columbia","tag-inalj-labrador","tag-inalj-manitoba","tag-inalj-new-brunswick","tag-inalj-newfoundland","tag-inalj-northwest-territories","tag-resume","tag-resume-writing","tag-resumes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/diana-la-femina.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-lQj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/74114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}