15-POINT RESUME CHECKLIST

1. Contact information

_____Is the name/address clear?

_____Are the phone numbers home and/or cell?

_____Are advanced degrees and/or industry certifications shown behind name? (i.e. MBA, CPM)

_____Is the e-mail address suitable? If not, get Hotmail or Yahoo.

2. Headline

_____Is there a headline which summarizes the type of position desired? (i.e. Senior Buyer)

_____Is specific industry experience included? (i.e. healthcare, manufacturing, semiconductor)

3. Profile

_____Is there a summary paragraph which explains what makes me different from other people?

_____Does it match the way the I will talk about myself in an interview?

_____Can a recruiter use this profile to describe me to a potential hiring manager?

4. Areas of Expertise/Core Competencies/Core Strengths

_____Are specific skills mentioned? (i.e. Contract Negotiations, Vendor Site Audits)

_____Are specific areas of knowledge mentioned? (i.e. RFPs, government contracts)

_____Do these support the information in the profile and headline?

_____Can I discuss each of these areas of expertise in an interview with specific examples?

5. Employer Information

_____Is the city and state where the employer is based (or where I worked) noted for each position?

_____Is information about each employer included – such as: Public / private Approximate size in $Industry Target market

6. Professional History

_____Is there a clear chronological progression of career history with different employers?

_____Are any periods of time out of the work force accounted for? (i.e. professional / personal sabbatical)

_____Is career progression at specific companies clear – with dates, titles, increased levels of responsibility?

_____Is there a clear description of job duties for each position? (i.e. # of direct reports, commodity specialty)

7. Accomplishments / Achievements

_____Are these included for each position?

Do they include information such as:

Number of people involved

Length of time project took # of PO’s processed

Size of budget

Multiple sites / departments

$saved

$amount of project

# of items in inventory

8. Awards

_____Do I have any awards listed?

_____What was done to get the awards?

_____Who gave them? (peers, customers, managers, etc.)

9. Technical / Computer Skills

_____ What skills are listed?

_____ What are the skill levels (i.e. intermediate Word, advanced Excel)

_____ What computer software has been used? (i.e. Oracle, SAP, QuickBooks)

_____ What special training has been received to get these skills?

10. Education

_____What degrees were completed? Where? Dates?

_____What coursework (without completed degree) was completed?

_____What was major?

_____GPA (if recent graduate and above 3.5)

_____Any academic awards? 11. Professional Training

_____Any certifications from professional associations?

_____Any in-house training given by employers?

12. Professional Affiliations

_____Membership in organizations?

_____Special duties/positions within the organizations? (i.e. Chair of Recruiting Committee)

13. Additional Information (anything else pertinent?)

_____Multi-lingual abilities (i.e. conversational Japanese, fluent Spanish)

_____Unusual personal activities (i.e. completed Los Angeles marathon)

14. Appearance

_____Enough “white space”? (i.e. are words too crowded?)

_____Easy to read and visually scan? (i.e. bullets instead of long paragraphs?)

15. Focus

_____Is it really clear what I want to do? (i.e. what job do I really want?)

_____What makes me different from other candidates with similar professional backgrounds? ____________________________________________________________________________

SUMMARY: What are 3 main reasons why someone should hire me?

1.___________________________________________________________________________

2.___________________________________________________________________________

3.___________________________________________________________________________

© Tools for Transition, Irene Marshall 2005