If you're a communicator or writer, your resume should act as a writing sample. This presentation covers modern resume design and content standards for getting an interview in today's world of applicant tracking systems and getting the hiring manager's attention.

1. Better Resumes for
Professional
Communicators
Christina Mayr
Resume Renovator
christinaemayr@gmail.com

2. About Me
• Incoming STC President
• Technical Writer & Editor at Extreme Networks
• Resume Renovator
• Cover letter writing
• Interview preparation

3. Today’s Topics
• How to get noticed by hiring managers
• What to take off your resume
• What to put on your resume
• Tweaking your resume during a job search
• Design tips for writers

4. How to Get Noticed
• Engaging cover letter
• Easy-to-skim resume
• Desired skills apparent
• Meets job description
• Accomplishments with
quantifiable results
• Eye-pleasing design
• Thoroughly proofread

5. Remove: Street Address

6. Add: LinkedIn Profile or
Professional Website

7. Remove: Objective

8. Add: Profile/Summary

9. Remove: Job Duties
• Resumes shouldn’t read like a job description.
• A duty describes what you did. An
accomplishment describes how well you did it.

10. Add: Accomplishments
• “Planned events” — job duty.
• “Raised $100,000 by selling out tickets to a 200-
person charity event” — accomplishment.

11. How to Write
Accomplishments
1. Remove anything that sounds like it came from
your job description.
2. Make a list of accomplishments using this list of
questions to ask yourself:
– What did I do that was above and beyond my normal job duties?
– How did I stand out among other employees?
– Did I win any awards or accolades?
– What new processes did I implement to improve things?
– What problems did I solve?
– Did I ever consistently meet or exceed goals or quotas?
– Did I save the company money? Did I make the company money?
– What made me really great at my job?

12. 3. Add the numbers.
– How many people benefited from your work?
– By what percentage did you exceed your target?
– How much money did you save or make for the
company?
– How much time did you save company-wide?
4. Add the benefits.
– What was the benefit to your boss or your company?
To your end-users?
How to Write
Accomplishments (cont’d)

13. Example Accomplishments
• Managed four websites – yawn
– Improved company’s four websites in under six
months, driving traffic up by 3000% and generating
$500 per month in advertising revenue. – wow!
• Assisted with Section 508 compatibility projects
– what does that mean?
– Ensured disabled users could successfully use
product by implementing Section 508 requirements.
– that’s great!

14. Example Accomplishments
(cont’d)
• Wrote procedures, installation guides, quick
references, and other user guides. – isn’t that your
job?
– Reduced documentation library from 200 to 50
guides by simplifying and reusing procedures. – what
a money saver!
• Wrote documents for ISO 17025 compliance. – ok…
– Generated over $250,000 in additional annual
revenue with the successful accreditation to ISO/IEC
17025 standard for five offices. – whoa!

15. Remove: Graduation Dates
 Graduated within the last 2 years?
 Graduated 2-5 years ago but have little
relevant experience?
 Graduated more than 2 years ago and have
some relevant experience?
• NOTE: All of the above goes for GPA as well.
• Continuing education courses should almost
always have a completion date (Month Year).

16. Remove: Unrelated
Volunteerism
• Related volunteering:
 Uses skills typical in your industry.
 Shows consistent schedule and long-term dedication.
 Could be considered a job if it was paid.
• Unrelated volunteering:
 Related to your kids (sports coaching) or pets (shelter
work).
 Maintaining a personal blogs.
 Planning your (or a friend’s) wedding/shower/vacation.
 Projects you “volunteered” to do while on the job.

17. Other Things to Remove
• List of references or “available upon request”
• Jobs from your college years (or even earlier!)
• Clichés:
– Team player
– Detail-oriented
– Strategic thinker
– Results-driven
– Strong interpersonal communication skills
• Salary History
• Reasons for leaving

19. Design Tips
• Simple, clean lines with ample white space
• Two fonts maximum (sans serif for headings genearlly)
• One color maximum besides black/gray
• Readable when printed in black & white
• Bold either the job title or the employer, not both
• Styles are used for consistency
• Dates right-justified
• NO CENTER OR JUSTIFIED TEXT
• Line up your bullets!
• Your name is the largest font
• Avoid underlining, especially with hyperlinks

20. Free or Cheap Templates
• Etsy (< $15)
• Resume websites (many are free)
• Avoid MS Word built-in templates: make your
own using tables & styles
• Avoid designer templates using
Illustrator/InDesign/Photoshop

21. Before & After Examples