The Language You Want To Use On A Resume

Joe — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:27:02 +0000

When you are preparing your resume there are many items that you need to be aware of including style, arrangement of information, how far back in time to go on extracurricular activities and awards, etc. This entry, however, only deals with the language that you should be using in your resume to describe your work history. For efficiency’s sake, you may want to have your resume next to you while you’re reading through this quick guide.

Example #1: Spent time reviewing applicants and deciding whether or not they would fit in with the company’s mission statement

In this example, someone is seeking a job in human resources and is describing one of her regular tasks at her previous company. However, remember that your potential employer does not read your resume to read a description of your previous job. Instead, they want to know about how effective you were at your previous job.

Resolution #1: Hired 14 staff members over a 5 year period including 3 executive level positions; managed an average of 4 employee complaints per month; designed and successfully implemented an annual department review program

The resolution tells a little bit more about what you actually did while in that position.

Example #2: Managed a loan portfolio and analyzed potential new borrowers for the company’s various loan products

Blech! All this tells the reviewer is that you went to work each day and did your job. How exciting?! Talk about what you managed at work and describe your analyzing.

Resolution #2: Manage a $60 million loan portfolio including $30 million in residential mortgages, $20 million in federal grants, and $10 million in commercial real estate; analyzed new business opportunities through cash flow statement and audited financial reviews and background credit checks on applicants

This resolution gives specifics and tells the reviewer much more about your daily work load.

Quick, pertinent details are what you’re looking for in your resume. Keep it simple, but make it count!

This post is also scheduled to appear on GradSpot.com – Your destination for life after college with all the content, tools, and services you need to ease your transition from college to the real world.

Trying to Get Back to Normal

Joe — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 15:41:00 +0000

I’ve spent the better part of this week trying to get back to “normal,” whatever that means. I went back to work on Monday morning and though I believe I’ve been mostly unproductive, my co-workers and colleagues seem to be glad to have me back. You know that it’s always tough to have someone out of the office – everyone else has to pick up their slack and in my business, it means that they have to try to understand what I was doing with my specific loan portfolio. Not an easy task, but one that my colleagues were more than successful with in my absence.

Condolences continue to come in and I’m very thankful for them. I am extremely grateful that I have such caring friends. It’s very comforting to know that for both me and my family.

So what is “getting back to normal” besides getting back into the office? Well, I watched a few of the latest summer movie releases – which will all be reviewed in due time on this blog and JerseySmarts.com. I also got back to looking for a new place to live since I’ll be moving out of my apartment at the end of August. There’s a slow, aggravating process for you…

I have not had the opportunity to get back into the gym yet, though I am really looking forward to that day. The reason I haven’t been able to get back in yet relates to my sleeping patterns – they’ve been terrible for the last 2 weeks (as you could imagine). I actually got to work an hour late today because I chose to sleep in a little bit; if I had another day in the office today like I did yesterday, it would just be a waste of time.

My Usable Web Solutions, LLC company is on hold for at least another week or so. I’m just not ready for the high level of analytical and logical thinking that it takes to design websites. Soon, but not right yet. That was also applied towards my contributions to my two wrestling sites, TBLWrestling.com and XHeadlines.com. Thankfully, both sites are webmastered by competent individuals who are more than capable of handling them in my absence. There’s still a lot of work to do with XHeadlines.com yet, though…

I’ve got a bunch of blog entries prepared in “draft” format that I have to revise before posting so be on the lookout for that. Many of you know that I spend a good deal of my free time working as a volunteer for Sigma Pi Fraternity. I have not had the opportunity to get back into the advising mindset for the Fraternity yet, but I plan to do so after I attend Sigma Pi University next week in beautiful Nashville, Tennessee. I have 2 presentations that I am scheduled to deliver while in Nashville which I think I will be up to doing. One of them is completely put together and the other is in its final stages. Wish me luck!

I’ll be headed back home one day this weekend to spend time with my Mother and brothers. Before I left at the end of last week, my younger brother and I did a lot of cleaning and purging with my Mom. Nothing major – just a lot of the junk that was laying around our backyard and some of the stacks of magazines in our living room. My Mom has a new vacuum up there and it works wonders on her living room floor so we wound up rearranging the living room after moving all of the pieces so she could vacuum.

Anyway, be on the lookout for more “stuff” in the coming days.