Resume

Making Sure Your Resume Works in Applicant Tracking Software (ATS)

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Those of you venturing into the private sector for the first time should know that private sector resumes are much different than federal ones. One of the major differences is that virtually all private sector resumes are run through Applicant Tracking Software (ATS).

There is no industry standard for ATS. That being said, there are some commonalities across systems. Since you may be thinking about updating your private sector resume—or even creating your first private sector resume—in honor of International Update Your Resume Month, here are some things to know as you work on your private sector resume.

• Key words are king. Make sure that your resume reflects the key words for the position you are targeting, Not sure what the key words are? Try running the job announcement through a word cloud software.

• Do not put your name and contact information in the header or the footer. Not all ATS can read what you put in a header or a footer. Some ATS can but why take that chance?

• If you have a title such as PE, PhD, CEM or even Junior, you may want to leave it off your resume. You do not want the ATS to read your last name as PhD.

• Standardization is the way to go. Most ATS uses (and expects) standard section headers. This is not the time to get creative. Use headers such as Education, Work Experience, Certifications. Dates should be expressed as months and years. Many ATS calculate years of experience from dates and they need the months to do so accurately.

• Use Word and send your resume as a .doc if at all possible. Some ATS cannot read a PDF, JPG, or even .docx. If you are a Mac user, invest in Word for Mac (the real Word).

• Make sure that your email address, LinkedIn URL, and other links are not live. You do not want ATS to read your live link as a potential virus.

• For your experience headings, you should put Company, Location on one line and Job Title, Dates on a second line underneath the organization and location.

• Make sure the file name says more than “resume.” Instead, make your file name: Your Name, Job Title Applied For.

Take 5 min to Proofread Your Resume the Right Way

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Did you know September is International Update Your Resume Month? Likely not, but it’s a perfect time to proofread your resume. Proofreading is hard—and it’s especially difficult to proofread your own work. Despite the challenges, it is critical that your resume be perfect and, if you’re including a cover letter, that needs to be perfect too.

Asking someone else to proofread your document is a good strategy but make sure the person you ask has strong grammar, spelling, and editing skills. And of course, you want to proof your own documents.

Some tested strategies for proofreading include:
• Read your document slowly from beginning to end to check for typos and other errors.
• Run spell check (recognizing that spell check is far from perfect and will not pick up errors in word usage; for example, using manger when you meant manager.
• Read your document backwards, starting at the end and then reading right to left
• Read your document out loud
• Run your document through Grammarly.com or other similar software

Here are some other ideas to address common mistakes:

Check for Punctuation Issues:
• Put periods at the end of all full sentences
• Keep your punctuation consistent when using bullets
• Periods and commas belong within quotation marks
• One space after a period is the current standard (not two spaces, which is appropriate for typewriters—and you’re not using a typewriter for your resume, are you?

Check for Spelling Errors:
• Don’t rely on spell check—it will not catch homophones or wrong words that are spelled correctly
• Use a dictionary
• Put your resume away for a couple of days and then read it; some times a few days away will help you see errors that were invisible before

Check Capitalization:
• Capitalize the first word of every sentence and bullet point
• Capitalize names and other proper nouns. The names of cities, countries, companies, religions, and political parties are proper nouns, as are days, months, and holidays. Other proper nouns including nationalities, institutions, and languages
• Governmental matters should be capitalized (as an example, Congress but not congressional, US Constitution but not constitutional)
• Government agencies are capitalized but the words federal and state and not generally capitalized unless those words are part of an official title (like Federal Trade Commission but not federal regulations)
• Titles are capitalized when they are followed by a name unless the title is followed by a comma
• Titles are not capitalized if it is used after a name or instead of a name

Tense Tips:
• Former jobs should always be in past tense
• Accomplishments should always be in past tense

Typos and other errors can be the “kiss of death.” The above tips, while not all-inclusive, will help ensure that your resume, cover letter, and other career documents are error-free.

Easy Resume Updates

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In honor of International Update Your Resume Month, I am focusing this month on providing tips to update your resume. If you’re ready to spend an hour or two updating your resume, here are some things you can do:

• Remove positions that are more than 10 or so years old. Most resumes these days only go back 10 years since most employers want to know what you have done recently.

• Check the length; if you’re updating a private sector resume, make sure it does not exceed 2 pages; if you’re working on your federal resume, try to keep your resume to 4-7 pages.

• Make sure your resume is full of key words that reflect the kinds of positions you are targeting. And make sure your language is up-to-date. If you are in Information Technology, don’t call it Management Information Systems, as an example.

• Modernize your font. For federal resumes, think Times New Roman or Arial; for private sector resumes, think Calibri or another sans serif font. No one should be using Courier anymore—ever!

• Make sure you have white space to make your resume easy to read. And if your federal resume still uses only one long paragraph for every job, break it up into several smaller paragraphs. It will be more visually appealing, plus easier to read.

• Change all written numbers to numerals; use $ instead of dollars, % instead of percent, and M instead of million. This will make your resume more visually appealing, take up less room, and make those numbers stand out from all of your text.

• Update your training and technical skills. If you’re still showing Windows95, and training classes from the 1990’s and the early 2000’s, it’s time to move on. You do not need every single class ever taken or every single software or other technology you ever used.

• Remove your objective and references from your resume. These are both considered old fashioned. Employers are not interested in what you want; instead they want to know what you offer. And instead of including references on your resume, you should create a reference page and bring that with you to interviews (and leave it with your interviewers).

• Eliminate the term “responsible for” from your resume. Just because you’re responsible for something doesn’t mean you did it…it just means you should have done it! Start your sentences and bullet points with verbs. And don’t put “s” on the end of those verbs—keep your verbs strong and varied!

Translating Military Experience into Civilian Language

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You have been told over and over again to translate your military experience into civilian language. Why is this important? Even, if you are looking for a position with the Department of Defense (DOD) or in a defense company, the people reading your resume may not have military experience themselves or the Applicant Tracking Software (ATS), in the case of private sector jobs, may not be programmed for military-specific language or acronyms.

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No, You Should Not Have References on Your Resume

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You read that right, references do not belong on your resume! I know that many of us grew up learning to include “References Available Upon Request” on our resumes. Those days, however, are over. Hiring managers know that you will provide references if you are asked. Do not waste your resume “real estate” with this information (unless the job posting specifically requires that you include references—and by the way, this is not a requirement of USAJOBS).

Instead of noting references on your resume, you should have a separate reference page ready to go. Your reference page does not get submitted with your resume when you apply (unless explicitly requested); instead, you should bring your reference page with you to your interview. Then, if the hiring manager asks for references, you’ll have your reference page ready to provide.

Here’s how to put together a reference page:

• Match the formatting of your reference page to the formatting of your resume (and cover letter) in terms of font, color, and any graphics.

• Include your name and contact information (professional-sounding email address—not your work email and phone number) at the top of your reference page. You may want to include your customized LinkedIn URL and any other social media links as well.

• List 3 to 5 professional references. Each reference listing should include the reference name, their title, organization, City, ST, email, phone number, and relationship to you. You may want to consider to consider listing projects or skills that they reference can attest to.

• Make sure the first reference is the most important one. Be sure to ask permission before listing a reference. And, provide your references with a copy of your latest resume so that know what you have been doing.

• If you are including references on USAJOBS (even though they are not typically required), make sure your references are different than the supervisor names you have provided for each of your jobs.

If you are asked to provide references for a particular job, contact everyone on your reference page right away to let them know. Let your references know the name of company / organization that asked for the information, the position you are seeking, and the name, title, email address, and phone number for the person who may be calling. You should also share some of the critical challenges and responsibilities of the position so your references will be prepared to discuss specific skills, experience, and achievements from their work with you.
And, don’t forget to thank your references!

Preparing a Private Sector Resume

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If you have made a decision to leave the federal government for the private sector, you’ll need a private sector resume. A private sector or corporate resume is much different than the resumes you may be used to seeing in the federal government.

Here are some of the more significant differences:

  • Resume length – Private employers are not under the same type of obligation to review your credentials as are Federal agencies. You can be sure that a ten-page resume will quickly find its way to the nearest waste basket. Therefore, resumes should be concise; just long enough to tell your story but not too long. Two pages is the maximum for private sector resumes.
  • Level of detail – Unlike federal resumes, private sector resumes do not require the name of your supervisor, the number of hours worked per week, or the detailed descriptions typically found in federal resumes.
  • Formatting – While federal resumes are typically devoid of most formatting, private sector resumes can effectively use color and other formatting tools.
  • Applicant Tracking Software (ATS) – The vast majority of private sector companies use ATS. While there are currently more than 50 kinds of ATS in use at the present time, there are a few standard features.

In addition to the above, most private sector employers are looking to understand how you can help them—what is called your value proposition. Who are you and what do you bring to the table? The content of your resume should point to that goal. Without this focus, your resume will be mediocre at best. Great resumes are ones in which every piece of information supports your professional value. If you’ve already established your value (in writing, not just in your head), you’re prepared to write your resume. If not, you need to spend some time establishing your goals.

As you write your resume, keep your value proposition in mind. This will help you decide what to include, what to leave out and will help target your resume. You may want to write your goal on a separate piece of paper and weigh each item in your resume against your goal. If it isn’t clear how the item relates to your goal, then strongly consider eliminating it.

A resume is not a literary document, it is marketing one. The rules of grammar are different from formal writing. Complete sentences aren’t necessary. Avoid the use of “I,” as the subject of the resume is assumed to be the person named in the heading of the resume. Resumes are written in what is called “telegraphic style;” this means that articles such as “the” are typically not used. Avoid long narratives; remember that your resume may be one of the dozens, hundreds, or even thousands that are submitted to an employer.