I have been working at the same office ever since I graduated from university five years ago. Pretty soon I plan on changing jobs, so I need to get my résumé up to date. I pulled it out today, and I noticed that since I originally wrote it while I was still in school, a lot of the information on it pertains to my university days. I am pretty sure that after all this time, I can purge most of that info. (I seriously doubt that any of my future employers are going to care that I was in French Club from 1998-1999. 
) However, I was wondering if I should get rid of everything. For example, would it still be worthwhile to leave on information about special honors or awards I received? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
My advice these days is to pull together all of the information you think might possibly be useful to have on your résumé, create a master document, and save that on your computer. Then, when you’re applying for a particular position with a particular company, open it up, assess each item for whether it helps you make the case that you’re a viable candidate for the position, and if the answer is “no”, delete it. Obviously, you don’t want gaps in your work history if you can avoid them, but if I’m considering you for a technical position I don’t need to know much about your stint as a ticket-taker at the local theater (unless you did something there that’s particularly germane to the position) beyond your start and end dates. I’ve heard other hiring managers say that in reviewing résumés they’re mainly looking for reasons to toss them on the “reject” pile, and while I don’t share that attitude, too much detail that doesn’t address why you’re right for the job I’m hiring for is a bad thing – it just gives me more potential reasons to form a negative opinion of you without improving your case. You don’t necessarily have to get rid of the fact that you were president of the French Club, if you tell me something about that experience that makes it relevant to the position I’m hiring for. If you can’t, lose it.
As you may have gathered, I believe you should be tailoring your résumé for each position you apply for. In the days when you had to pay good money to have a résumé professionally prepared and printed, the cost todo this was prohibitive. Now, when it’s just a matter of spending a half-hour or so editing and polishing an existing document in a word processor, my attitude is that you better not be wasting my time applying if you’re not willing to invest the effort required to eliminate the extraneous stuff and highlight the relevant stuff.
Thanks a lot for the helpful advice, rackensack . It all seems pretty straightforward; as you say, it is important to note how my past experiences are relevant to the job I’m seeking. However, I guess my concern is that none of my past experiences at university are going to be directly relevant, but at the same time, I don’t want to toss out stuff that might catch an employer’s attention. Are employers going to look all the things I was involved in at university and say, “Wow. This guy must be pretty outgoing,” or are they going to think, “Gee, this guy is obviously just trying to pad his résumé with all this out of date crap.” In the end, I think I’ll only keep the most important stuff like special honors. French Club will probably have to go!
Well, that’s where you have to think creatively. If you’re applying for a job that involves organizing events, and as French Club president, you coordinated a campus-wide French festival, it’s relevant (lame example, I know – no coffee yet today). You have to think about the requirements of the position and then break down the things you’ve done into component skills and experiences and look for connections. The less experience you’ve had that’s directly relevant, the more important it is to make these connections. I’ve found it’s much harder to think about how to do this in the abstract than it is to actually do it once you’re working toward a specific position.
Wherever possible write about things in terms of their business purpose. Use this thinking as much as possible, even when thinking about interviews and giving answers to questions. I have taken to suggesting this to people with really good results. People tend not to think about the significance of their actions and so they talk about them in a bland way. If they pay attention to what their actions achieve they sound far more focussed and motivated.
Here is an example from real life. I was doing some data research and discovered that it was possible to follow a set of actions and never be caught by our compliance programs. So I wrote a report that identified all the possible cases and passed it on to the people who deal with that stuff.
Before my “business purpose” epiphany I would have just said “Developed a report to indentify yadayadayada…” but now I say “Located $5 million in lost revenue by developing a report…”
If you take some time to look at your resume you will find lots of opportunities to sound less passive.
I hope this makes sense because everyone I have harangued over a beer has done really well with it.
Look at the description of the jobs you’re applying for, and try to put that spin on all your past experience. Whatever words they use in the job ad or job description should be in your cv. In the summary up on top, if possible.
Use action words as much as you can. Developed, managed, organized, led, improved, etc, instead of “Was in charge of…” Makes you sound more motivated, and it’s stronger.
rackensack’s idea of a master document is brilliant, and I’m going to go make one for myself right now even though I’m not looking for a job yet.
I also suggest picking up Resumes for Dummies somewhere, because it’s the best book I’ve found yet on resume writing. It’ll show you how to take inventory of all your experience and soft skills, and build a clear, concise, attention-getting document out of them. And you’d be surprised how much you learned in university in terms of “soft skills”. Time management, organizational skills, patience, working in teams, etc. And many of these are just as important as whether you can work a fax machine. Because they can train you to work a fax, but if you’re a disorganized mess, they can’t fix you.
Good luck, and come back to let us know how it turns out!
I just wanted to thank everyone for the good advice. I apologize for taking so long to respond. Anyway, all the information has definitely been helpful. I started polishing up my résumé yesterday, and now I feel like I have more direction.
I’ll do that! It might take me a while though; I probably won’t be changing jobs until the middle of next year or later, but I just wanted to get a head start. Thanks again!
Basically you want your resume to tell a one-page story about yourself and how you are the best person for the job you are applying for. It is not a complete list of all your acomplishments and activities. Try to have a constant theme or message throughout. Include stuff that shows you have skills relevent to the position - social skills, quantitative ability, leadership, creativity, whatever is relevant to the job.
As a former technical recruiter and resume consultant (headhunter), I can actually speak from professional experience on this one. Rackensack’s idea on creating a master doc and customizing it for each position applied for is the perfect way to get started. This process earned me quite a bit of money, and helped many of the candidates I was working with really bring out the relevant skills they had for the position they were appling for.
Always try to use aggressive terminology, backed up with real impact figures, as stated above. It’s great to say " Responsible for designing the lens configuration for XYZ’s company 1920’s style death ray", but if you don’t tell the prospective employer how much cost savings and/or how much more effective a killing machine this became because of your work, then you really haven’t told them anything they want to hear.
As far as college experiences/ clubs/ memberships, etc…unless the experience is directly relative to the position, I would omit it. Most of the time the only significant experience that my client companies really cared about was chemistry and design related, and if you did your internships at a highly regarded company. the French Club might be useful only if you are applying for a position requiring you to be multilingual.
Finally, in regards to resume length, I would not limit myself to one page. This usually causes people to minimize their previous accomplishments, and also comes off somewhat pathetic, considering your entire career can be boiled down into one page. The 1 page resume may work for positions where the hiring authority is looking for someone in desperation, and they need a quick fix, but more often than not, they want to see a fairly detailed history of your relevant work experience.
Please, whatever you do, and swear to Og that you will not do this… do not list hobbies on your resume. Most people could care less if you enjoy backpacking, scuba diving, and croquet. It may seem like a conversation starter, but most of the time, these are generally ridiculed, not the reaction you are going for I assume.
Oh, Fark. That reminds me that I have to update my resume for a possible upcoming position/promotion I want to go for. ::grumble, grumble::