With the job market being somewhat challenging these days, it’s more important than ever to have an effective résumé. And since we’re advertising ourselves as top-notch communicators, it’s even more critical for our résumés to be good. As a regular employee, the owner of my own consulting/contracting business, and someone who’s been in the position to hire other technical writers, I know how important it is to have a winning résumé. Here are a few tips I’ve learned over the years.

Keep a Master Copy
For as long as I’ve had a job, I’ve kept what I call a “master résumé” where I document all my work experience, skills and education. I add to it consistently. If I’m given a new task at work that involves new skills, or take a training course to use a new tool, I record it in my master. I store this information on my computer so I can easily update it. I never send out the master, though. It’s too long and has no focus; it’s simply a repository for all my employment data.

Focus on the Desired Job
When I do send out a résumé, I save a copy of the master and tailor it to the specific job for which I’m applying. I start with either an objective or a summary, geared specifically for that job. I then think of the objective or summary as my “thesis statement” and edit my master résumé so every item on my résumé supports it. If I’m applying for a job as a corporate trainer for a law firm, I make sure my training and teaching experiences are the focus. I also ensure that all the education I’ve had regarding teaching and training are included. If I’m applying for a technical writer position with a defense contractor, though, I’ll list not only my technical writing jobs, skills and education, but I’ll also include my military experience and the fact that I had a security clearance, something that most likely wouldn’t be relevant for a law firm corporate trainer. My experiences as a bartender and a TTY operator wouldn’t be relevant to either position, so I wouldn’t include those.

A few years ago when I was hiring another tech writer, I received an eight-page résumé, seven of which discussed the person’s screenwriting experience and expertise. The impression this left was that this person was only interested in tech writing until that big break in Hollywood came along. The résumé was all wrong for the position we had advertised.

Remember, your résumé is meant to be a foot in the door, not a total representation of yourself. So include only the most relevant information, and save the details for the cover letter or the interview.

Be Concise
Try to keep your résumé to one or two pages, if possible. Most people don’t have time to spend more than a few minutes per résumé, so if yours is too long, it’s likely that only your first page or two will get read.

Also, don’t forget to use power verbs to give your résumé more impact and keep it shorter. Phrases like “was responsible for the design of” may be shortened to “designed”; “made a decision to” can be changed to “decided”; or “gave a presentation on” could be “presented.” Scan your résumé for prepositions and see which ones you can eliminate.

Be Consistent
Keep an eye on consistency, both verbal and visual, when you produce your résumé. This will make it sound more polished and look more professional.

Use the same verb tense and the same types of phrases throughout the document. Decide if you’ll use periods at the end of each phrase or not and then be consistent. Most résumés use bulleted lists, not full sentences, so periods aren’t usually necessary.

It’s important that your résumé be consistent visually, too, or it will appear sloppy. Use the same typeface throughout. If you’re boldfacing and enlarging your section headings, make sure they’re all boldfaced and enlarged.

Pay Attention to the Visual
The rule of thumb is to use serif typefaces like Times New Roman for longer text, like paragraphs, and to use a sans serif typeface such as Arial for shorter text. Since your résumé will be concise and may be mainly in bullet form, a sans serif typeface will probably be more appropriate. And once you’ve chosen an easily readable typeface, a 10- to 12-point size should work well. If you use highlighting techniques like boldfacing or italicizing, use them sparingly. Highlighting techniques are meant to help a small piece of information stand out; if half the text on your résumé is boldfaced, none of it will stand out.

And while the text on your résumé is the most important element, don’t forget about using the white space effectively. Use moderate margins (3/4” to 1½”), and leave enough white space in between sections to give the reader a visual cue that another section is starting.

 

 



One trick I learned to check the aesthetics of my résumé is to use Word’s print preview feature to see how easily my résumé can be scanned by eye. I experiment with different typefaces and layouts until I can scan it easily.

Another trick I learned is to give my résumé to a friend for a second opinion. I ask my friend to do two things. First, I ask her to scan it for 60 seconds and then tell me what she got out of it. Your résumé may not even get that much time from a recruiter, so it’s important that it gets your reader’s attention and gives all the pertinent information in a minute or less. Then I ask her to read it again, this time carefully, to catch any errors I may have missed. I’ll ask specifically for her to check grammar, spelling, punctuation, inconsistencies, and parallel structure.

Also, aim for mostly full pages. If your résumé is one and a quarter pages, adjust the margins or the typeface size so it fits onto one page. If your résumé is a page and a half, adjust the margins and the typeface so it fills both pages.

Build Your Résumé
If your résumé could stand a little beefing up, consider one or more of the following.

Get evaluation copies of software or tools to familiarize yourself with them. (You can’t claim to be an expert, but you can at least say you’re familiar with it.) Or work through books and tutorials of software. Many public libraries have software books.

Also, consider attending workshops and conferences. These can often pack a lot of knowledge into a short amount of time.

And if you’re able, volunteer for anything you can use on your résumé. Relevant volunteer experiences may include conducting Internet workshops at local libraries or senior centers; leading writing workshops for literacy programs; or producing newsletters or web sites for schools, sports teams, churches, or community organizations.

Volunteering will not only help you gain knowledge and experience, but you’ll also be networking and making potential job contacts. You never know if your kid’s soccer coach works for a company who’s in the market for a great technical communicator. And if you’ve got that master résumé of yours up-to-date, you can modify it for his company’s position, and e-mail it to him before the mud on your kid’s cleats are dry.