Your resume is an important piece of your HNC application. The HNC's own Career Counselor, Robbie Shields, shares his 5 Dos and Don'ts of resume writing.
Hello. My name is Robbie Shields and I’m the Career
Counselor at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center. In this post I’d like to briefly
discuss resumes. For most, resume writing is hardly an exciting topic. You’d
probably rather be reading about the 9-Dash Line, Baidu’s investment in Uber,
or how governments, businesses, and NGOs are working to solve environmental
challenges. But in order to position yourself to work in these capacities you
need to know how to write a resume. Virtually every job, internship,
fellowship, scholarship, or degree program (the HNC included) will require you
to submit a resume. Therefore, let’s take a few minutes and discuss 5 Do’s and
5 Don’ts of resume writing.
Before we get started let me offer this disclaimer; there
are many different resume formats for many different regions. Additionally,
different industries have different preferred styles. So the likelihood that
you’ll be able to write one resume and use it for all applications is slim. But
the recommendations I’ll present are fairly universal and will hopefully help
you regardless of your region or industry of interest.
Do’s
1.
Understand the Purpose of Your Resume
a.
Before you begin writing it’s important to
understand the purpose of a resume. Prior to writing you should ask yourself,
“What do I want my resume to accomplish?” Almost certainly the answer will be
to convey to the reader that your skills, experiences, and personality make you
well-suited for the position you’re applying. This may sound obvious, but it’s
important to understand this aspect, as it will influence your resume’s
content.
2.
Choose a Balanced Format
a.
When deciding on a resume format, you want to
make sure that the information you put on the page is balanced, meaning that
there aren’t parts of the page that are blank while others are cluttered with
information. For example, resume writers often clutter the information on the
left side of the page while the right side remains largely blank. You want to
make sure that your information is balanced to ensure that the person reviewing
your resume can efficiently find pertinent information.
3.
Be Specific About Dates
a.
Resume writers are often overly vague or generic
in the information they include on their resume. There is no area that more
commonly illustrates this than dates. For example, when writing about a
previous job someone might put that they were in the position from 2013-2014.
If I was reviewing this resume I don’t know if this means the person was in the
position for nearly two years (January 2013 through December 2014) or for only two
months (December 2013 through January 2014). Specifying dates is an important
part of conveying to employers your previous experience. Consequently, you
should put the actual months and years you were in a position. This is true not
just for internships and jobs but also for educational experiences, such as
study abroad semesters.
4.
Personalize Your Bullet Points
a.
Resumes are very personal documents. The content
that you put on a resume should be your experience
and your skills. Despite the personal
nature of resumes, most resumes writers write bullets that are generic and
don’t show what the writer did in a position. For example, look at the
following bullet point under an internship:
i.
“Assisted
in the marketing of organizational services to clients.”
This bullet, while accurate, doesn’t tell the reader what the writer did in that role. A good test
would be to ask if the bullet listed could have been copied and pasted from the
duties section of the job description. If the answer is yes, then it’s probably
not as strong a bullet point as it could be. Look at the bullet point below:
i.
“Used
graphic design tools, social media platforms, and presentation skills to assist
in the development of marketing plans for 12 multinational clients and 4
Chinese clients looking to enter China’s second tier city market.”
Notice that the actions completed by these two bullets could be
identical, but the second individual has done a much better job of
personalizing it. When possible, try to personalize your bullet points.
5.
Proofread
a.
Resumes are usually the first example of your
work product that an employer will receive. If your resume has mistakes in it
you can rest assured that the employer won’t be calling you for an interview.
Understand that spell-check is not a sufficient method of proofreading. I have
recently seen job seekers submit resumes that had mistakes such as:
i.
“Curses included Financial Accounting,
Managerial Accounting, Tax, and Audit”
ii.
“Translated
documents from Chinese and English to asset
supervising professor in his research”
Taking time to thoroughly review
and proofread your resume can help ensure that the work you’re submitting is
mistake free.
Don’ts
1.
Exceed 1 Page
a.
Resumes are not biographies. They are a
marketing tool designed to communicate your relevant skills and experiences to
an employer. Consequently, you’ll need to omit some of your experiences. I find
this is something that is especially difficult for SAIS and HNC students, as
you probably have accomplished a great deal in your life. But when writing your
resume, remember to consider the perspective of the reader. Most positions
you’re applying to will value people who can efficiently and concisely
communicate thoughts and ideas. Someone who can’t limit their relevant skills
and experiences to one-page is probably illustrating that they lack the ability
to identify what’s important and communicate it efficiently. So if you
currently have a resume longer than one page, take time and think about what
can be omitted.
2.
Use Font Smaller Than 11
a.
After reading the previous “don’t,” you might
have thought that you could pack more information on your resume by changing
the font to a smaller font. Don’t do this. When writing your resume you
shouldn’t use a font that is smaller than 11 point font. You want to make it
easy on the reader to review your resume and if they have to squint to read
your information it’s too small.
3.
Assume Knowledge of Others
a.
A good practice to get into when writing your
resume is to always consider your audience. If you put information on your
resume you need to ask yourself “will the reader likely know what I’m talking
about?” For example, if you were the recipient of the Rhodes Scholarship or an
Olympic gold medal you can be certain that the overwhelming majority of readers
will know these awards. But if you indicate on your resume that you were
awarded the Whittle Scholarship but include nothing else, you leave the reader
wondering what this scholarship means. Rather than leave them wondering,
parenthetically qualify/quantify the criteria of the award. Don’t just do this
for scholarships, think about acronyms (you probably wouldn’t need to do it for
the FBI but if you were applying for a job with a US company and you interned
at the African Development Fund, you shouldn’t assume most readers would know
ADF) and other instances.
4.
Aggrandize
a.
It’s not uncommon to hear of stories of
individuals who get caught making claims on their resume that are gross
exaggerations of their actual abilities or experience. For example, individuals
who may put they have advanced Microsoft Excel skills but during an interview are
unable to create a pivot table when asked. Don’t inflate your
skills/experience. Ultimately, you do yourself a disservice because when you’re
caught doing it calls into question the credibility of everything else on your
resume.
5.
Email Your Resume in Word Format
a.
Formatting of a resume is incredibly important.
When you submit a resume to a potential employer you want to make sure that the
information is presented to the reader exactly as you intended. Different
versions of Word can affect the formatting of the resume and consequently
distort the information as you presented it. So when you’re applying for
positions, make sure you submit a pdf version of your resume.
Hopefully, these tips will help you in getting started
writing an English language resume. Remember that writing an effective resume
takes time so don’t get frustrated if you find it difficult. Like most things,
it gets easier with practice.
Written by Robbie Shields, Career
Counselor at the HNC
