Transcripts
1. Welcome!: Hi, My name is Jacob Lampe. I've been on both sides
of the hiring table. I've written successful
resumes and I've had resume is turned into me
in a hiring position. In this course, we're
going to help you get a job interview by learning
to craft impactful Resonance, we'll learn about
different types of resumes and when
to use each of them, and how to tailor resumes to a specific job will break down the individual sections of a resume and the order that
each section should be. We're also going to talk to leaders who have read
resumes and lead interviews and will get
their insight on what sticks out to them and what
they view as a red flag. We also have course notes in a PDF file so you can download and use them
as a quick reference. My job is to help you
get an interview. So let's start together.
2. What is the Purpose of a Resume?: One of the first and most
helpful things we can do is to understand the
purpose of a resume. When we know that it's
going to help us work from a better point
of understanding. The main purpose of a resume
is to introduce yourself, to accompany, to
secure an interview. You get on their map. So it's kind of a snapshot of your experience, your skills, and why you would fit in well to the position
that they have opened. All of the points on your
resume are also going to create talking
points in an interview. So, in a way, turning in your resume
is going to help you guide the conversation
in an interview, which can help
relieve some stress before that conversation.
3. Tailoring Your Resume to a Job: As we go through the
process of writing and creating this
snapshot of us, it's really important to
remember that different jobs have different needs and
different requirements. So we're not going to create one general resume that
can cover any industry. But we want to
tailor a resume to a specific job when we're writing and we're
going through this process, think like the hiring manager of the job you're applying to. What sorts of things
would you look for if you were on the other
side of the table? We're going to try to meet the unique requirements
of the job listing. Study the company ahead
of time and figure out what kind of culture
that company has. You can tailor your resume not only to the requirements
they're looking for, but also to their culture
and their values. Now remember, what you put on the resume could be brought
up in an interview. And the better the interview, the better chance you
have to get the job. Interviewers are familiar with the environment of the business
that you're applying to. Knowing the business well
and carrying their culture yourself can help you have an edge over the
other applicants. Now, each topic and
header that we cover in this course should keep
tailoring in view. Does the job care more
about your experience? Or do they care more
about your skills? Do they care about what
school you went to, what you majored in or that
you went to school at all?
4. Chronological Resumes: Now there are three
primary types of resume, and we're going to
take each one of these and just look
at them briefly. The first one is chronological. Now, the unique factors about
this one or that you put your most recent job
history first and it works further into your job
history as you go down. So another way to
think about it is that it's in reverse
chronological order. Now, this kind of
resume is great for those with consistent
work in one industry. The hiring manager will love to see that you've got all of this experience for the industry
that you're applying to. This is also good for increasing job levels so that you can show your experience and
why you deserve to go on to the next position
in your career. The chronological resume
really prioritize is relevant experience and
achievements over skills. They'll know you have the skills by your years of experience. It will also show that
you are consistent employee that they'll
have for a long time. And employers love consistency.
5. Functional Resumes: The next kind of resume
we'll look at is called a functional resume. Now, this is a great
option for people who have gaps in their work history
or are changing careers. It's also great if you're
a recent graduate with little to no professional
experience in your field yet. This focuses more on your skills and strengths then
your job history. And it shows most importantly that you can perform
the tasks that they need and are hiring for references that back up your skills can be
really helpful here. Now, it's important to know
that you don't typically provide references unless
you're asked for them. But it's important to
set them up and have that conversation with them so that they can
come on and say, Yes, I know this person has the skills that they're
saying they do.
6. Combination Resumes: The third type of resume
is a combination resume. Now, as the name suggests, these combine
elements of both the chronological and the
functional resumes. These are great for those with a couple of years of experience and some skills in their
field looking to move up. This is also great for
switching career fields. You're going to focus
on skills first, but not just any skills. You're going to focus on
the transferable skills. Then your work history
starting with the most recent. This will show the
employer that you have the necessary skills for your industry even though
you've worked elsewhere. First.
7. Resume vs. Cover Letter: Now, before we get into
the topic of a resume, Let's talk about a cover letter which often comes with a resume. What's the difference
between the two? Well, where a resume is more of general bullet points
and a snapshot of you. A cover letter can give depth
on your qualifications, why you want the job, and gives you an opportunity
to personally addressed the person who's in charge
of the hiring decision.
8. Do You Need a Cover Letter?: Now a resume is already
a whole big task. We have to deal with. A cover letter is a
whole separate elements. So do we really need one? Well, first of all, some jobs require a cover
letter in your application. So right off the bat, that's a hard yes. For jobs that don't require it. Let's think about it this way. Cover letters are
an opportunity to let your personality shine. And business is
really about people. If you have a good,
personable spirit, you're going to get far
in the business world. It also helps you to stand
out from the competition by being uniquely you
as you address people, you want to keep a friendly
but still professional tone. The only time you won't include a cover letter
is if the company specifically says
not to or you don't see an option to include
one on an online forum.
9. What Should a Cover Letter Include?: Knowing that we should have
a cover letter is one thing. But what do we actually put
into this cover letter? Let's look at a little bit of
a format and some examples. We're going to
start really simply with your contact information. This would include your name, your address, your phone number, and your e-mail address. We're also going to
put the date and the recipients
contact information. We're going to address our cover letters to
a specific person. So we'll put their name
and we'll put their title. If you can't find the
person in charge of hiring, we can put hiring manager
addressed the HR department, or even reach out to the company and ask them who we should address this to after
we've put the date, their name, and their title. We're also going to
mention the organization that they work for
and that address. Then we get to put our
opening statement. This will introduce you to the potential employer and indicate the position
that you're applying for. Think of it as this is me and
this is what I want to do. You're going to put a description
of your qualifications. This will describe your
relevant qualifications, including your education, your work experience,
and your skills. Now, something unique here
that you don't get to put in your resume is a
statement of interests. The cover letter will explain
why you're interested in this specific job and what you
can bring to the position. Once you've done all of that, it's time to conclude it
with a closing statement. This will express
your appreciation for the opportunity to apply for the position and
an invitation for the potential employer to contact you for
further information. With that structure down, let's take a look at some
cover letter examples.
10. Cover Letter Examples: Let's go ahead and
take a look at three different cover letters and see what we can
notice about them. First of all, of course,
we've got the name and the title that
we've got the date. And then over here
we've got who it's addressed to, which
is important. We also got some contact
information over here, a personal address, and
then the whole story. So this is how he introduces himself as a lifelong enthusiast of XYZ's marketing initiatives. I was thrilled to
see your posting. So that shows excitement for the position of digital
marketing manager. And he's mentioned the position,
so there's excitement. There's position. I'm positive, I can help with
XYZ's upcoming challenges. So there he shows what he
can bring to the table. I have experienced with leading successful
national online campaigns with budgets over 300,000. What's more? I've succeeded expanding
ABC's client-based by 19%. So now he's getting into
details right there. So here's thrill. Here's what position I can
bring something to the table. And here is how in my
current position at ABC, I've supervised all phases of our online marketing
initiatives, both technical and creative. Last year, my key challenge
was to design an optimized. So he's talking now, specifics, challenges, things
he's overcome. Down at the bottom, I'd welcome the chance to discuss your digital
marketing objectives. Show you how my successes can translate into digital and
online marketing for x, y, z. Let's take a look at
this one over here. A little bit different of
a format carriage aid. You've got contact
information here. You've got the date, who it's going out to. Dear Ms. Carter again, notice a personal name there
as an experienced nurse. The advertisement for
nurse practitioner with hospital at home
sparked my interest. There's the interest part. When reviewing the
position requirements and your organization's website, I was excited to find that my qualifications and
personal strengths align with your
needs and mission. That's a great line. My personal strengths aligned with your needs and mission. We talked about that
earlier in the course about aligning yourself with
company culture and mission. Here's what they offer
and bring to the table. I bring a comprehensive set of skills that I believe
will be valuable. We're gonna get into
some more detail. In my nurse role, I hone my
abilities, patient safety, case management firm foundation for the nurse
practitioner position. There's more excitement. Got the resume coming
with the cover letter, and then there's the
thank you for your time. Let's take a look
at one more here. This one here we don't
have a personal name. So you go with the next best
thing, Dear Hiring Managers. Cover letters in regards to my interest in applying
for the business analysts. So you've got interest and the position
you'll notice those are both at the top of
every cover letter. I'm confident that
the combination of my experience and develop skills set makes me a perfect
candidate for the role. Alright, so there's what
you bring to the table, getting in some detail. She goes into education here, and I appreciate the opportunity to come in for an interview. So there's a lot
of saying hello, interests, the job, what you bring to the
table. And thank you. Same thing over here, right? Hello, interests, what
you bring to the table. And thank you again here. Hello, interest, position, what you can bring to the table at the end here, there's no thank you, but there is a kind regards.
11. Using Color: Let's talk about using color. Should your resume
be black and white, or should it have
some color in it? Well, color can be used as
a tool if it's used well, used poorly, it can be
a horrible distraction. Color could make your resume attractive and
pleasant to look at, especially if it's used sparingly to highlight
the important parts. So think maybe your name and the header sections
of your resume. You want to pick a pleasant
color, not too harsh. Blue is always a
great calming option.
12. Headings and Order: Let's talk about the
different sections of your resume and the order
that they should come in. At the top of your resume, you're going to have the header. And this is going to include
your contact information. Underneath the header, you'll have your
summary statement. Now, under the
summary statement, there are two options. You've got skills and
you've got work experience. Now, skills and work
experience can come in either order depending on the type of resume like
we talked about earlier. If this is a
chronological resume and you've got a good history
of work experience. You'll want to put that
work experience at the top and skills underneath. If this is a functional resume, than our skills will be up top with our work
experience underneath. Under both of those, no matter the order
that they come in, we'll put education. And if there's space
at the very bottom, you can put interests that you think fit the job description.
13. Spacing and Format: Let's talk about
the proper spacing and formatting of our resumes. We want to make sure that
it looks professional. Now, resumes are
typically one page long. You want to fit the
relevant information in a succinct way to pages can be acceptable if you've got
succinct relevant sentences. You've already removed
filler words and you still have relevant
information that needs to fit. Just remember that
employers don't have much time to
review your resume. So the second page
might be overlooked. As for the texts,
you're going to pick a professional font and you're going to use
one to 1.5 spacing. You want it to be
easy to look over, but without too much
whitespace between lines. Using a spacing
anything less than one, it's going to make it
really difficult to read. Anything above 1.5 is
going to be much too spread out and make it
difficult to fit onto one page. Now, the side margins you have
a little bit of play with. You can expand them out to
help things fit onto one page, but you don't want
them to be smaller than 1 " on either side.
14. The Heading: Now it's time to
actually talk about the individual sections and to dive in and see how we
can craft each one. The first one at the top of
your resume is the header. As we mentioned before, this is where your contact
information is going to go. So you can put your name, phone number, and
e-mail address. Those are the standard and I
would say necessary things. Now, optionally, you could also put your mailing address and links to online portfolios if you've got them
and if they apply. As a new idea, you
could even set up a QR code at the top of your resume to take
people right to a portfolio or your
LinkedIn profile.
15. Write a Strong Summary Statement: Underneath the heading
of your resume is going to be your
summary statement. Now, the summary
statement is optional, but can be really powerful. It's going to summarize
your skills and experience in just a
couple of sentences. If you are a new graduate, are still a student
and you don't have skills or experience yet. You could make this
summary statement more of a quick
objective statement. Talking about your short
or medium-term goals. Here are a couple of examples of goods summary statements. First of all, here we've got
Senior Account Executives. So you've got your
position right at the top. Senior Account Executive with experience helping companies clean and enrich their data with sales Intelligence tools. Okay, so let's
pause right there. You've got your job
title right there. Some things that you
do for your job. And especially a statistic. You've got statistic
right up at the top. Let's take a look
at another one. Qualified psychologist
with seven years. So that's a fact of clinical and private
practice experience most recently as a marriage
and family therapist. So he's a narrowing
in right here. We don't have so much of a broad statement like
we do at the beginning, but we're narrowing and even
more so here my area of expertise is helping active and former service
personnel and their loved ones. Okay. So this one is kind
of like a funnel. You're starting broad and
then you're narrowing in where our first one
here you've got statistics job title,
and that's great. Here we're narrowing in what his specialties are and
that's great as well. Let's take a look
at a third example that's a little bit different. It's not a summary so much
as it is a career objective. Engaging in structured
elementary teacher with an extensive track record. Alright, there's still
some history there. There's still some
experience there. But you'll see at the
end, eager to apply this approach at lowell
elementary school. Now, this is interesting, right? Because we've got what he
can do and then he's put a short-term goals in
his career objective, even though he's
already got experience.
16. Work Experience: Now one of the most
important sections is the work experience. Remember for the chronological or reverse chronological style, we're going to put the
most recent experience at the top and move backwards
through history as we go down. Think about what
job experience is relevant to the position
that you're applying for. E.g. if you worked in a fast food restaurant when
you were in high school, they may not be that
interested in that fact, if you're applying
to a job at say, a hospital as a nurse. However, that does become
relevant if you're applying to open your own
chick filet location. Look at the keywords in the description of the job
that you're applying for. And try to naturally
work those keywords into the details of
your work experience. Let's take a look
at work experience. Now, there's two things I want
to pay attention to here. First of all, I want us to notice the order of work
that we're given here. We start as a student teacher, go up to teacher's assistant and then primary
history teacher. And like we talked
about already, this is in reverse
chronological order. So the most recent
thing is at the top. And then we go back in time
as we move down the page. As we look at the other one, we've got the same thing,
reverse chronological order, the most current
thing being the top, but there's also one other
thing I want to see. The detail in each section
covers a broad range of facts. E.g. down here we've got Teacher of the Year,
which is fantastic. That's an achievement,
that's an award. We've also got some statistics. You'll see 12% at
raising grades by 12%. Same thing up here. We've got statistics 13, 17% managed a classroom
this time, things escalate. We've got one-on-one down here. We've got Teacher of the Year and co establishing
in the middle. Then we've got managing up top. So there's a clear growth as
you come up to present day. And this could indicate
that you're ready for the next career
move in your life.
17. Your Skills: Our next section is the Skills section where you can show off what you are
actually good at. Now remember, depending
on the type of resume, this might Go ahead of the
work experience section. Now, things that
apply here are both hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills are the
actual technical work that it takes to make
it in your industry. These would be
things like coding or bookkeeping or writing. Soft skills are more
interpersonal skills. Things like teamwork,
communication, and conflict resolution would
be examples of soft skills. The most important
thing is to keep skills relevant to your job. You might be great at
flipping water bottles, but most companies
won't appreciate it. In your skills section. Don't just list facts, but also results and the
impact that your work has had. I like this example from Indeed, instead of writing something
like experience completing high volume daily outbound calls with successful
conversion rates. That's a fact. Try writing recognized as a
top performer by consistently completing 100 plus
daily outbound calls with a 20% conversion rate. Numbers and statistics
in your skills section will get you further
than facts alone. As you write your own skills, make sure you're familiar
with the skills that the job listing
says are important. Now, just like the
experience section, go back to the job listing and look at the
keywords that they use and try to work some of those keywords into your skills. Tab. Skills are something we can put in a few different places. Kind of your classic look is to have the skills down the middle. You may do them
as bullet points. You'll notice in
this one you've got them above work history, which we know at this
point means that this is a functional Resume. And then over here, same thing, bullet points, another
functional resume. We've got it above work history. One of the newer
changes is that we can also put skills off to the side. So here they've actually graded
themselves on a scale of one to six with how they are at these different skills.
Same thing over here. You've got them off to the side except there's no grading. So another option is you
could put work experience down the middle with
skills off to the side.
18. Education History: The next section on your
resume is going to deal with your own education,
training, and requirements. Now, where you put your education section depends on how relevant it
is to your job, as well as where you
are in your career. If you've just graduated
or you're still a student, you may want to
prioritize this section, especially if you've done
relevant study at your school. If your many years
into working your job, you might place your education after your experience section. So if education is what
you've got more of, put it above your experience. If experience is what
you've got more of, put it above your education. That's a great rule of thumb. Now, again, remember in the chronological method
of writing things out, you're going to put your
most recent schooling first. If you've graduated or you're currently enrolled in a college, don't actually put
your high-school down. If you didn't attend college, you could think about putting
your high school GPA and any study that you
did that would be relevant to your
potential new job. As an example, if you went to a tech school and you
were in auto shop, that would be
relevant if you were applying for a job
as a mechanic. So real quick, let's take a
look at the education here. These are pretty
straightforward. What degree you got, where you got it, and the years that
you were there. Now, the years you were there
aren't always necessary, as we'll see in
this next example, we've got almost the same thing. What degree you got, where you got it, but this time through
there's no years.
19. References: Now let's talk about
how references work in the whole
application process. First of all, you
shouldn't put them on your resume or your
cover letter unless your explicitly asked for them or there's a section
to write them down. But what you should
do is you should notify people that
you'd like to use them as a reference and
have them set up and ready to go when
they are asked for. Now, your references should meet a couple of qualifications. First of all, they should be
people who are familiar with your skills and experience so
that they can back you up. They can confirm the skills
that you say you have. Now you don't just want them to be familiar with your skills, but you want people that you've had good experiences with, not people that you've
butted heads with, or people that you've had a
tense work environment width. You want people
who know your work and have had good
experiences with your work. Now, very important,
you don't want these people to be family. If you've worked
with them, maybe, but we all know that mom
and dad will be bias.
20. Your Interests: Now the next section here is completely optional
and really should only be included if
you think it's really relevant and it's not making
your resume too long. If your resume is already two pages or even
a page and a half, it might be best to skip. Or if your resume would
be one page without it. And this brings it into
that two-page category. It might still be best to skip. These are the interests. These would go at the
end of your resume. And again, only if
they're really relevant. If you've got interests that
you think are relevant to your job and they fit and don't make your
resume too long, then you can put them on.
21. Interview - Gabe Anthony: Alright, I am here
with Gabe Anthony who has some experience
reading resumes, conducting interviews,
but gave I don't want to step on your toes too much in introduce you for you. So why don't you tell
us a little bit about your experience with
hiring and viewing? Sure. Well, I'm happy to be part of
this important discussion. I come from an
insurance background. I work in product
development design for a larger life
insurance company. And as an actuary, I deal with some lower
level actuarial students who are working through
exams and do a lot of the supporting analysis and other work projects initiatives
that we're going through. So I've hired primarily folks who were in
terms of co-ops, but also over the last couple
of years has been managing some folks who are full-time employees and going through the actuarial
exam, Thompson. And these tend to
be pretty bright and driven individuals. Very competitive landscape. And they all have resumes and some of them even have cover letters just to set
themselves apart. In that whole myriad of resumes, then what are some key things that you look for
that helped you decide that a candidates
ready to move on to that stage of a live interview? Yeah, I think organization
is a big thing to have something that is well
organized and tell us a story. Now it doesn't have
to be a narrative are told exactly like a story, but really laying out
someone's background. And particularly
pertinent details of a background to a job. Now most people have
like one resume, they just changed
the label on it and submit it to
different firms. But if you're looking for
a particular type of role, ask yourself what in that resume is really
irrelevant to that job. Now, in my younger years,
I worked in restaurants. And so at the time that was
like all the experience I had when I got from
my first actuarial job, I did include thinks
about restaurant work, but it had more to do with my communication skills and
working with the public. It was I wasn't saying, hey, I'm good at serving
drinks and food. It was more what kind
of skills do they have that could carry over to the work I was trying to do. Yeah. Yeah. Carryover skills are huge. Is there anything on the
other side of that coin, anything in a resume
you see that kind of sticks out to you as
a red flag that would make you just toss
it aside? Yeah. I very rarely tossed
aside or resume. But that being said, I'm not
looking at hundreds of them, like some hiring managers. Some things that do
stand out they really want to avoid though is typo. Did this organization
putting an arrow of details to try to embellish
someone's background. I would just say
anything that isn't accurate or clearly
isn't accurate or is clearly trying to inflate their past
background and make them seem more awesome
basically then R is a red flag. Be genuine and be honest about your experience and also
your inexperience with a desire to grow and to
develop into the type of a person who excel at
whatever role you're in Florida. Yeah, that's good. And I think that's two
things too that we haven't covered
in the course is, first of all, typos are huge. So don't just put something together
quickly and turn it in, but go over it 23 times. Make sure that the grammar, the writing, the
spelling is alright. And then not lying as
well is a huge one. People think it
gets them the job, but it often call them the job. Well, and it seems obvious, but so often it can be little,
little embellishments, a little dishonesty here and there that people
think is going to get them that next
opportunity or the interview, whatever it happens to be. Yeah. This is more of a
subjective question, but of all the
sections on a resume, when you are looking at them, what do you think is the
most important section that you should put
the most focus into? Well, I like this
question because it's not something people
ask all that much. I would say the experience
is the biggest. Now I'm someone who,
who values education. I did a fair amount of
it to become an actuary. And yet, when I'm looking at people who
I went to work for me, It's gotta be someone who
has relevant experience or the type of experience that has translatable skills like what you're talking about before. So I really zero in on the
experienced past work. Even volunteering or extra
curricular stuff highlight what it is you've
done in your life, even if it's not
the exact type role that you're trying to go into and point out some
things that demonstrate that you can excel
where you wanna go. Yeah, that's good. That's great.
Volunteering. I mean, we've talked about doing some work if you're just getting started in your
industry for free, one or two projects for free, something on a resume, but it really shows your
heart in a resume which is huge on the other side
of the interviewing table. Do you recall anything I don't know when
your last resume was, but do you recall anything in your resume that you're either really thankful
that you put in or anything that you
wished you hadn't done. Yeah. Good question. And I will address the part about
having there's so many. I think it's important to
always have a resume. Now. I don't always keep
mine super updated, but at least relatively updated. You never know when a role is going to come along
that you might be interested in or
something can happen and the job you're currently in. So you don't want to say, Hey, I've got a great applicant. Forget about my resume for a few years or until I
want something else, try to keep some
sort of track on it. Keep one around that at
least mostly updated and it's a living
breathing thing that you'd change over time. So your experience does. Now to address the
question in the past, I think maybe I included too much detail on different roles, too
many bullet points. It was maybe a little too noisy. I have at times had people review my resume for that
type of thing and say, hey, is this level
of detail right? Do you think that the type of
things I'm including makes sense and are telling a
good story about my career. That's something we
continually need to be doing. I would say something that I struggle with
that I'd like to do more is to include
quantifiable information. Now, now I work in a very
numerical type field. So it's important I
had x impact on y. But even in other roles, tried, tried to highlight
quantifiable ways that you've done something, whether it be improvement or, you know, some impact to the company or the venture
that you're a part of. Now if you can't do that, try to be specific
in some other way. But I guess what
I'm saying is I've maybe had been too
vague in the past because I didn't want
to go into the level of detail and maybe that
was just laziness. My tip would be, don't be lazy about
those details as characteristics because they
matter and they will show that you're really
interested in communicating, demonstrating the value provided
or the skills you have. That's awesome. Well, thank you so much for talking for a
little bit about it. And given some insight that we haven't covered yet,
That's really helpful. I'm sure everyone,
I appreciate it. My pleasure. Always happy to talk and give
more input. Awesome. Thanks so much.
22. Beyond the Resume: Now, the hope with
all of this is that your resume and cover
letter had been crafted to get you an interview. This is not a course on
how to nail the interview, but remember that that is a very important part
of getting a job. There are a couple of
things you want to do that go beyond the resume. First of all, a little while after you've
submitted the resume, think one to two weeks. If you haven't heard back, you can always call and follow up with whoever would
be in charge of hiring. Hearing your voice can
make a huge impact and following up shows that you're interested in care
about the job. If you do get an interview or even just a chance to talk
to the hiring manager. Remember these things. You want to dress
appropriately, speak kindly. And I think very
importantly, be human. Engage with people
in a friendly way, be a good presence to
have in the office. If people like you, they will hire you.
23. Final Project: You've made it to the
end of the course. Congratulations. Now, as a final project, we're going to submit
the resume that we've been creating
throughout this course. Talk about the type of
resume you chose, the order, you put the different
headers and why you structured it that way, or why you chose that type.
24. Congratulations!: Congratulations. By now you should have a
basic understanding of how resumes are structured and how you should manage each section. Hopefully you've found
this useful and you've got a resume in hand that you can submit to any potential jobs. If you've got
questions or comments, you can always reach out
to me at Jacob at lamb lessons.com or find more
courses at lamb lessons.com. I'm really looking forward to hearing from you
and meeting you.
Jacob Lamb, Musician, photographer and videographer
