Question:
One of the most common fallacies about resumes is that they
should be a complete job history.
Hear, hear! Judging from the resumes I've reviewed, this point is lost on
many tech writers. Maybe it's because they're so accustomed to providing
ALL the information they think the user might find pertinent.
A resume is a SALES document. Many tech writers suffer from either an
antipathy towards sales writing, or in some cases, a flat-out inability to
add a marketing spin to factual information. That can really bite you on
the ascii if you're not careful.
When you write a resume, you take on the responsibility of PACKAGING
yourself, your skills, and your experience. Spend some time thinking about
what to include, AND what to leave out. If you think a piece of
information could hurt your chances at getting called for an interview,
omit it.
Answer:
- I second Keith's motion! I have also seen my share of dreadful resumes, from
tech writers and others. It's not that people are stupid - it's just that
they don't know and have not researched how to assemble an effective resume.
For years, my resume sucked also, until I finally got my act together with
it.
Although there is no one "right" way to write a resume, based on my research
and having dealth with professional career consultants who know this stuff,
I would make the following suggestions to anyone who wants a "killer"
resume:
1. Include a profile that describes you as a person and as a writer, and
gets across the point that you eat, live, sleep and breath documentation.
Read books about resumes for some ideas.
2. You may also wish to include a career objective, something to the effect
of "To create great documentation". Note that "To continue a career as a
tech writer" is not a very effective objective - of course that's what
you're trying to do, but what is it you WANT to do that will benefit the
company hiring you?
3. In your work experience section, list as many of the accomplishments that
you did which made the docs better. Quantify those accomplishments, for
example:
- Merged User Manual and Online Help into a single-source document thereby
saving the company $5,000 in maintenance and translation costs.
HR people and hiring managers absolutely drool over that kind of stuff. At
all costs, do not say "Responsible for..." That means nothing.
4. Keep your resume to exactly 2 full pages, and not more. People just do
not have the time to read more than this. Think of it as "triage" on your
resume.
5. Use a basic font, like Times Roman. Remember - just because you like
Jupiter Extra Bold doesn't mean most people do. Include lots of white space.
Bullet your points.
6. Ideally, get a professional to review your resume, or failing that,
several people you trust. The more feedback you get, the better.
7. Keep in mind that many people who will look at your resume are not tech
writers, so you need to state your skills and objectives in such a way that
non-writers would understand them.
8. Continually revise, edit, rewrite, update, tweak and tailor your resume.
It is always beta - it is never, ever, ever complete.
- Also, the standards for resumes have changed drastically in the last few
decades. My mother used to help people with their resumes in the Sixties
and Seventies, and she was recently surprised to hear what was currently
expected.
I'm not sure about this advice. I used to think that you should only
include relevant information.
However, during my latest revision of my resume, I remembered that I got
one job because, during the interview, I mentioned that I have parrots
for pets; the interviewer had a cockatiel, and the shared subject
created a rapport between us. By serendipity, a headhunter recently told
me that many hirers look for job candidates who have done volunteer
work, on the grounds that this background shows that they are not just
thinking about themselves, and might be good team players.
For these reasons, I've decided to briefly list some interests and
volunteer work on my current resume. It should be interesting to see
what the results are.
If I could add to this suggestion: try to be specific about how you will
help the company. For example, make sure that your objective explains
how creating great documentation will help the company. After all, many
hiring managers won't know.
On the one hand, in the past, I've found that many people don't object
to a longer resume, so long as the extra length is due to formatting.
For example,if your three page resume is that long because you've done
everything in bullet points that can be easily scanned, you can usually
get away with a resume longer than two pages.
On the other hand, you'll probably run into people who will refuse to
look at more than two pages. Also, I wonder whether you want people to
scan your resume easily; perhaps you'll be better off if your resume has
to be read more slowly.
Also, the attempt to reduce everything to two pages does force you to be
organized and concise.
No, but a well-chosen text font can make you stand out. But, if you use
anything unusual,you better send your resume in PDF format.
Unfortunately, unless your experience is rather short, this suggestion
may contradict the effort to keep to two pages.
Just some random thoughts and additions - in general, the points Andrew
makes are well worth taking seriously.
- As someone who also looks at a lot of tech writer resumes, I can tell you
I cannot stand seeing an objective at the top of a resume. Your objective
is getting the job you are applying for.
What we have found that was key though, is when describing the projects
you have worked on, tell us what software you used to develop your OLH or
Manual. That saves us and the applicant much heartache when we are
looking for something more sophisticated than Word. Make sure you list
your computer skills up front. I hate having to search for them.
Also key is I want to know where you went to school and your degree. I
don't care if it was 20 years ago and in philosophy. It gives me the
oppotunity to find out how you got into tech writing and why you stayed
with it.
A pet peeve is when I see someone include that they do creative writing
"on the side". It's nice that a person does creative writing on the side,
but my number one worry when I hear that is the person will try and do it
at work. I have had 2 people already who worked for us do that.
- I used to think the same way.However, recently I've heard it argued that
the point of an objective is to give a concise summary of why the
company should hire you.
That makes sense to me. You want to start a short story or a news
release with a hook that makes readers want to keep reading, so why not
a resume? If you sound promising in the Objective, then maybe there's
more chance that the hiring manager will actually read your resume,
instead of just scanning it. In other words,the psychology seems sound
to me.
