Superman was offered the key to the city of Metropolis as one of his honors. What are your honors? Picture from www.wikimedia.org
Let’s start with my previous example Superman’s Resume. His organization attributes included the Justice League of America (1946 to Present), where he was Superboy, moved up to Superman, and was President of the Justice League for a time. Under the heading ASSOCIATION, or ASSOCIATIONS for more than one association, it could look something like this.
ASSOCIATION
Justice League of America (1946 to Present)
Superboy (1946 to 1960)
Superman (1960 to Present)
President (1965 to 1966)
Now let’s move back to some more modern up to date examples. On my Job Application Template, and Resume Aid, I suggested that you provide a complete list of the following:
Equipment You Can Operate
Honors and Scholarship
Associations
Okay, you have your complete list, and that’s good but that doesn’t mean that you should list your complete list on your resume or your application blank.
I counseled one young college graduate who asked me to review his resume and offer suggestions. He wanted to put down every organization that he ever belonged to complete with Cub Scouts in elementary school. His list for organizations alone took up two whole pages. He was very proud of all his accomplishments, and no way could I convince him to cut down the list. Remember in my previous blog article I said you would be lucky to get a recruiter to read 30 seconds at the most. Do you really want to only share with them that you were once a Cub Scout who earned 50 merit badges?
Of course not. You know that no recruiter will care that you were once a Cub Scout when you were 10. Let’s say that you should only list the organizations on your application aid that that you are presently affiliated with, and then choose the top 2 or 3 to place on your resume. You should choose those that have to do with either the position you are applying for (say leadership for a management position) or the industry or occupation that you are interested in.
You can break this rule if you are recent college graduate, and I define recent as one year or less beyond graduation, then you can list the top 3 organizations that you were involved in with high school or college. Keep in mind that if you list any religious or political organizations you are opening yourself up to potential discrimination by a recruiter.
Did you notice Superman’s ASSOCIATION above? You can set up your climb up the organization’s ladder the same way or you can list the various committees or events you were involved in below the organization’s name.
I like to peruse Yahoo Answers in order to get ideas for this column where college and high school as well as middle aged people like to ask questions for the general public to answer.
Under the category of Careers and Employment a recent college graduate wanted to know where to place his GPA and his Dean’s List accomplishments. He wanted to place it under the heading EDUCATION, after his college address.
When I answered, the yahoo question, I replied don’t place it there place it under HONORS, or HONORS AND SCHOLARSHIPS. Why do these know it all new college graduates ignore me? He flagged my response, and in the comment section accused me of being “uppity.” In other words he didn’t like my answer.
People, I am only sharing information that works for me, and documenting the formats that the recruiters like to see. Here in Phoenix, Arizona where I reside, I am getting interviews but my cohorts aren’t even getting a phone call. According to The Arizona Republic, the state's major newspaper, there is an average of 500 applicants for every job opening in the Phoenix metropolitan area. My resume is getting through the filters. Obviously I am doing something right. Don’t you think?
Anyway back to HONORS AND SCHOLARSHIPS. One recent college wrote on Yahoo Answers that he didn’t earn any honors, or scholarships and he felt bad that all the resume examples showed that category. Look people it is okay if you didn’t earn any honors or scholarships. Do you think we can all be President of our senior class, or go to school on a scholarship? Of course, not. Believe me there’s room in the job market for average people, doing average things. Even Superman, as a Cub Reporter for The Daily Planet was a follower, getting coffee, and performing small tasks. I think this young generation thinks that they all have to do wonderful things like Superman saving the world 50 billion times, and receiving the key to the City of Metropolis from the Mayor, and so forth. You don’t have to be Superman to land a job, but if you are flaunt it!
So if you have no honors or scholarships to report drop the category from your resume. Don’t put it on your resume and leave it blank! And of course if you have honors but no scholarship only list HONORS, and vice versa.
I went to college on 2 academic scholarships, and I am proud of it. But two decades later believe me recruiters don’t care to see it on a midlife resume. If you have been out of school longer than a year, don’t list honors and scholarships on your resume; recruiters want to know what you have been doing lately. I don’t care how proud you are of those accomplishments, and don’t keep reporting me to the Yahoo committee for saying so. Okay, okay I hear you complain, you can’t find a job two years out of college to put on that resume. In that case, maybe you can stretch it to two years.
If you are a long time professional don’t forget your honors either. Employee of the year, employee of the month? Organizational or industrial rewards? Bonus for a job well done? List them under HONORS. Safety Award, well maybe not? Be selective.
Moving on to the heading EQUIPMENT. You should list any equipment you can operate on your Job Application Template and Resume Aid. You should list such equipment as fax, personal computer, copier, adding machine, dump truck, coffee machine, blender, or whatever is appropriate for your job, but you should be selection on the resume. Only list equipment on a resume if the job description specifically requires that you know how to operate said equipment.
I am going to give you some examples that don’t include Superman. Look at the job description that I pulled from a post that I discovered on Career Builder. The employer is looking for a Dump Truck Driver.
OTR Owner Operators only with frameless dump experience. Home on weekends. 76 year old company. Call Doug at Kerns Trucking 800-821-0120 ext. 8
So since frameless dump experience is listed in the job description on the resume you should list:
EQUIPMENT
Frameless Dump Truck
Here’s another example of a job description for a city clerk that I pulled off of the City of Gilbert, Arizona a small town government.
Skills: Operates a personal computer, telephones, copiers and other general office equipment as necessary to complete essential functions, to include the use of word processing, spreadsheet, database, or other system software.
Equipment, Machinery, Tools, and Materials Utilization: Requires the ability to operate, maneuver and/or control the actions of equipment, machinery, tools, and/or materials used in performing essential functions.
I don’t think I would list the above equipment except on an employment application, or a resume. If under the heading SKILLS on your resume, you list word processing, spreadsheets, and administrative skills the recruiter is going to assume you know how to operate a personal computer, telephone, and etc. It’s kind of redundant and takes up too much limited space on a resume.
However, if you are applying for a state or federal position instead of a small town city position the computerized recruiting system will probably filter you out based on whether you have the words personal computer, telephone, copier, and general office equipment on your resume or not. Damn the length. When applying to a large bureaucratic employer like the State of Arizona, it doesn’t matter if your resume is 10 pages long, as long as it gets through those extensive government filters that are purposefully designed to weed out a large amount of applicants. A real live person doesn’t get to apply some common sense in reading your resume first thing, and a non reasoning machine that isn’t bored by the length is going to filter your resume out first. I would list the equipment below utilizing the same words that are listed in the job description because those specific words are what the computerized filter system will be programmed to look for. In other words don’t use the acronym PC instead of Personal Computer, the computer won’t recognize the acronym.
I like to list equipment alphabetically so when a real live person finally reads the resume, he or she will note a pattern, and thus the resume is easier to skim.
Here is the bureaucratic example:
EQUIPMENT
General Office Equipment, Personal Computer, Telephone
Now let’s say you just graduated from high school and are looking for an entry level office job, and you can’t operate the above equipment. Don’t feel bad. Everyone starts somewhere, even your successful parents. If you can operate at least 80% of the equipment listed on the resume, you can learn the other 20% on the job, especially if you apply to a company that’s open to training people.
However, if the job description states you must, notice the word required or must have ABC experience and you don’t have it, don’t bother on applying it’s just a waste of time. But if the job description states that “ABC, DEF, and GHI” are required experiences, and “JKL, MNO, and PQR” experience is desired or optional but not required, and you only have “ABC, DEF, and GHI” experience go ahead and apply. It sounds like the employer will be willing to train you in “JKL, MNO, and PQR” experience.
That’s what I did when I graduated from high school, and it worked out all right. My employer decided I was trainable, and was willing to train.
Besides if I knew everything about the job before I went into it, I would be totally bored, and would stop learning and growing. Remember nothing ventured, nothing gained. And if you have absolutely no skills whatsoever, you might have to take more classes. There’s opportunity out there for the budgetary deprived. Take free software tutorials on-line, or volunteer somewhere to gain experience in operating that personal computer. Broaden your horizons.
If you aren’t a new high school or college graduate and are a mid-life career changer you might have to do the same thing. A well written resume will only get you so far. Remember, you should only put on the resume what is truthful. If you don’t once you start the job you will be found out soon enough, and get yourself fired rather quickly, anyway.
So you don’t have to be Superman and know all things to get that job, but it certainly helps. What helps even more is communicating to that potential employer that you can do that job, and the only way they will know this is that you have to put it on your application blank, and/or your resume. The recruiter isn’t Superman either. He doesn’t have X-Ray vision either; he can’t read your mind. It’s up to you to be apparent, and visual on your resume.
Good Luck Superman!
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