Judy Bishop: Resume Tips

CREATING A WINNING RESUME
BISHOP & COMPANY, INC.
841 BISHOP STREET, SUITE 1614 HONOLULU, HI 96813 WWW.BISHOPCO.NET 808-
839-2200

CREATING A WINNING RESUME
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF A RÉSUMÉ?
BISHOP & COMPANY, INC. 841 BISHOP STREET,
SUITE 1614 HONOLULU, HI 96813
WWW.BISHOPCO.NET 808-839-2200

To get your foot in a door!
To get an interview!
To get reader excited about you!!

 It’s an advertisement.. for you!!
 To MARKET YOU, to SELL YOU!
 It is MORE important than the data you put on
MATCH.com, or Facebook, maybe more important than
getting married; May alter the course of your life, may
determine whether you rent the rest of your life or
whether you chart a new career that will earn you enough
$ to own your own home!! Your next job could propel you
into new adventures or a dead end.

RÉSUMÉ MEANS RÉSUMÉ & COVER LETTER

The Cover Letter Adds:
 Reason or relevance of your résumé's submission
 Offers more insight into you
 Might serve to excite or stir the interest of the reader
 Might impress the reader!

COVER LETTER
In a recent survey of 150 executives from the nation's 1,000
largest companies, 60 percent of the respondents said that
when they screen applications, the cover letter is either as
important as or MORE critical than the resume. Your cover
letter really does matter !!!!!
Cover letters explain what you can’t and don’t know how to
convey in a resume, for example: why is all your experience for
8 years in Texas and now you live in Hawaii ?? Why are you
here? Interviewers will wonder and your cover letter can
provide the answer for them.

WRITING AN EFFECTIVE COVER LETTER
 The cover letter is where you can think outside the box &
really stand out from the crowd.
 Think about 2 things when writing it:
. How exciting this job is to you and why
you want it
. How excited they will be to meet you &
hire you

COVER LETTER
 This is the place to describe anything about yourself that
would be inappropriate on the résumé, for example:
“I love the symphony and have had season tickets for 10
years. Although I have no professional experience in the
Art and Music industry, it is my intention to redirect my
career into the music field…”
 Don't underestimate the importance of the cover letter.

WHEN EMAILING OR FAXING:
RESUME AND COVER LETTER
• Microsoft Word – because everyone can open
• Don’t put images like logos, etc. in resumes or emails
• Don’t use Italics
• Use same fonts throughout each document
• Preferably use font size 12
• Use common Font like Times New Roman
• Try to call to confirm receipt or have Outlook give you a
receipt confirmation
 Always – unless instructed otherwise – include a cover letter

HOW TO IMPRESS WITH YOUR RESUME
AND COVER LETTER
• Focus On the Employer’s Need’s - Not Yours =
F O E N N Y
Remember “FOENNY” we will refer to it often

REMEMBER
The first lines of your Résumé will make or
break you.
And will determine if the resume goes in the
“Hot Candidate” file or the trash CAN !!!
There is no second chance to say “Can I re-do
my resume and resend it you?”

ACCURACY & HONESTY
 Make sure that you can back up what you say.
 Communicate who you are and what you can do at your very
best.
 Brag about yourself!!
 In fact, you are being foolish if you seek to convey a careful,
balanced portrayal of yourself.
 YOU WANT TO KNOCK THEIR SOCKS OFF!

HAVE A PLAN
• Gather all information needed before you begin typing,
composing, creating
• Focus your writing efforts
(how can I demonstrate that I’m the perfect candidate?
What is perfect to them? What is special about me?)
• Loosen up your thinking
• Ask your friends, family co-workers
ex-bosses what makes or made you
a good employee, a “star”; Listen to
them; use what they tell you

HAVE A PLAN
 Take your time; avoid interruption, distractions
 Tell your spouse, friends, whomever to respect this
time for you!!
 This is your own Prime Time Show about you!!
You are Director, Producer, Writer and Star! And
you are advertising and marketing this movie
 MAKE IT AN OSCAR WINNING SHOW!!!

WHAT AM I GOOD AT?
I’M NOT SURE I’M EXTRAORDINARY AT ANYTHING
 Remember:
 What an employer pays you for is to perform some
special function or functions.
 Everything one does at work, from flipping burgers to
understanding the most obscure abstract data, is a
specific work function. Most careers involve combining
a few different functions together.

 Everyone is born with a certain degree of talent for
each of the hundreds of possible work functions.
 Think about it for a minute. Notice that there are
some things that seem to come easily to you and
others that are much more difficult to deal with.
 Your innate talent for any specific function may be
100% or only 1%. Almost every person is naturally
good at some things, pretty good at some others, and
not so good at yet other functions.

 Those people who are very successful, who have no trouble writing a
powerful and sincere resume are people who have discovered what they are
naturally good at.
 It is as simple as that.
 Just review your own life and think about what you like to do, what people
have told you you’re good at then you uncover your true talents.
 And, you can easily write a resume that honestly communicates that you are
the best candidate for the job - because you know you are.

CHOOSE A TEMPLATE/FORMAT FOR
YOUR RESUME
 www.excite.com
 www.google.com
 www.yahoo.com
 www.ask.com
 www.office.microsoft.com
Each of these search engines will provide a lot of
documentation on Resume Writing.

CHRONOLOGICAL & FUNCTIONAL RESUMES
Most Interviewers and HR Staff prefer a Chronological Resume because it
clearly indicates what you did where and when and for whom all in one
section, whereas Functional Resumes indicate your functions separately from
the job where you performed those functions. Therefore interviewer must
search among jobs listed and try to determine which function was done at
which job – this is time consuming and frustrating.
HOWEVER, if a Chronological resume makes you look like a job hopper or
emphasizes a shaky work history, or if you don’t have much work
experience, then a Functional Resume will work better for you. Try them
both and see how they look. Take your time working on this. It is very, very
important.

A GREAT RESUME HAS
THREE MAIN SECTIONS
 The Objective
 The Summary
 The History

A GREAT RESUME HAS
THREE MAIN SECTIONS
The Objective
• Clarify your objective
• Why are you the perfect candidate?
• Good advertising is directed towards a very specific target
audience. You want to focus your resume just as
specifically: who is your target audience? Is it always HR or
is it a Sales Manager? Vice President/Head of Engineering?
• The objective provides clarity for the reader.

– The point of using an objective is to create a specific
psychological response in the mind of the reader: What is
Candidate looking to gain, achieve? What is Candidate’s
goal?
– Can what candidate wants match what we want and can
offer?
– Be very clear and straight forward in your objective.

– Decide on a specific job title for your objective. Think about:
“How can I demonstrate that I am the perfect candidate?” What
are the two or three qualities, abilities or achievements that
would make me as a candidate stand out as truly exceptional for
that specific job: think about the company and it’s job
description. Write your objective with the company’s
advertisement or job posting in mind. Use their wording.
– Be absolutely clear about what you want and can offer.

– Use “key words” in your objective and resume, i.e., if you are
applying for a data entry clerk you should have “clerk” or “data
entry” in your resume. Many companies do “Key Word”
searches to select resumes.
– Especially if you are applying for a job doing something you have
not ever done, you should have key words describing the job in
your objective because the words will not appear in the
experience portion of your resume.

– You should customize your resume and cover letter to each
type of job you apply for. There is nothing wrong with having
several different resumes, each with a different objective, each
specifically crafted for a different type of position, emphasizing
different aspects of your experience and/or education.
– Remember, you are writing advertising copy to sell yourself, not
writing your life story.

The Summary
 Focus on your qualifications, achievements and abilities
 SPICE IT UP!!! But Keep it Real!!
The summary consist of several concise statements (use bullet
points) that focus the reader’s attention on the most
important qualities, achievements and abilities you have to
offer as they relate to the job advertised!!! If you are a
great piano player don’t focus on that if the job is for
Service Manager at a Veterinary Clinic.

The Summary
 The summary provides you with a valuable chance to attract
and hold the employer’s attention, to get across what is
important, and to entice the employer to keep reading. Should
be the spiciest part of your resume.

SUMMARY CONT…
 The summary is the best place to include
professional characteristics which may be helpful in
winning the interview, i.e., extremely energetic,
exceptional interpersonal skills, committed to
excellence, team player; highly organized, works
well with deadlines, innovative, learns quickly,
consistent, persistent; accurate, etc. etc.

Summary
 The most common ingredients of a well-written
summary are as follows:
 A short phrase describing your profession, e.g.
customer service professional
 Followed by a statement of broad or specialized
expertise

 Followed by two or three additional statements
related to any of the following skills and
accomplishment:
• Breadth or depth of skills
• Unique mix of skills
• Range of environments in which you have experience
• A special or well-documented accomplishment
• A history of awards, promotions, or superior
performance commendations
• One or more professional or appropriate personal
characteristics
• A sentence describing professional objective or interest.

Summary
 Your Best Career Skills and Accomplishments
should be in the “summary” and then…
• Tell the BEST of the REST of your story, i.e. the best
you have accomplished and the result of your efforts as
part of each job history.

EVIDENCE
 Mandatory information
Like College Degrees, Certification, Computer Skills
Place in the last part of your resume
 (put juicy and exciting stuff first !!!)
 Unless you very recently earned your
degree/certification and it is very important and
relevant to the job you are applying for.

THE HISTORY
Experience
 List jobs in reverse chronological order
 List dates: month and years only, unless it looks like job hopping, if so,
eliminate dates.
 Don’t show that you are “currently” at a job IF you have been gone from
that job for 3 months or longer.
 Focus on the most recent or relevant jobs
 List most relevant first instead of most recent IF the most recent is not
relevant

 Decide which is more impressive
 The job title OR the name of the company for
whom you worked and lead with or emphasize
this and continue with the same format for all of
your jobs.

EXPERIENCE CONTINUED
 Include military service, internships and major volunteer
roles – IF RELEVANT!!
 Include job title, brief description of work performed, dates
of employment, reason for leaving, CHIEF
ACCOMPLISHMENTS.
 Do not list your salary at your previous jobs.
 Avoid significant GAPS IN EMPLOYMENT or if they cannot
be avoided, add brief explanation.
 Keep same format throughout, e.g. bold, underline,
capitalizations, spacing, dates, titles, etc.

Experience
 Don’t be longwinded or flowery or wordy –
Be succinct = to the point, clear and brief.
 Make sure to indicate what the company does because
ABC Inc. doesn’t tell the interviewer anything.

EDUCATION
 List education in reverse chronological order
 Degrees or licenses first
 Followed by certificates or advanced training
 Include degrees in progress!
 Do not include actual certificates or diplomas
Note: You can put EDUCATION BEFORE
EXPERIENCE in your resume IF it is both most
recent and most relevant.

AWARDS AND COMMENDATIONS
A MUST to list them, if you have received them and
they relate to the job!!

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
 Include IF current and IF relevant
 Include leadership roles if appropriate
 BEWARE OF POLITICAL and/or
CONTROVERSIAL AFFILIATIONS

CIVIC/COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP
 If relevant and shows skills acquired

PUBLICATIONS
 Include only if relevant, published, and be sure to
summarize if there are many.

PERSONAL INTERESTS
 Be prepared to share them
in your interview – do not
include on the resume
unless very relevant.

REFERENCES
 List on resume: “References available upon request.”

PROOFREADING
 Get a friend (an English major or someone in HR would do
nicely) to do a grammar, spelling, formatting review.
 Ask another friend to proofread. The more people who see
your resume, the more likely that misspelled words and
awkward phrases, etc., will be seen (and corrected).

REMEMBER:
 A few typos can land your amazing resume and
successful career accomplishments in the trash
can!!
 Take the time to check and double check!

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
BISHOP & COMPANY, INC. 841
BISHOP STREET, SUITE 1614
HONOLULU, HI 96813
WWW.BISHOPCO.NET 808-839-
2200

Judy Bishop: Resume Tips

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