1. BUILDING CAREERS AND WRITING RESUMES Prepared By Fahad Alsulaim

2. Agenda  Overview.  Employer’s approach to employment. Preparing Resumes Planning your resume Type of resumes Writing your resume Composing your resume Completing your resume Producing your resume  Proofreading & Distributing.  Summary.

3. OVERVIEW "First impressions are lasting ones” Well, your resume is the first meeting between you and a prospective employer. You only have a few moments to convince the employer that your resume deserves further attention before it's trashed. In those slides we will get to know how to: Prepare an effective resume. Plan a resume that convinces employers that you’re the right person for the job. Organize and design a professional resume.

4. Employer’s Approach to Employment  Employers generally follow this pattern in filling newly created jobs  Looking for someone inside the organization  Relying on contact and personal recommendations  Hiring and employment agency  Reviewing unsolicited resumes  Solicit resumes through advertising  Soliciting resumes use applicant tracking systems: a database that helps employers sort through thousands of resumes

5. Your Approach to Employment  Staying on top of business news is always helpful. There are several available sources including Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, Business Week, and Forbes.  Researching specific company’s helps gain detailed information about the organization and financial standing  Networking is the process of making informal connections with a broad sphere of business contacts. This can happen in any environment and can be facilitated by participating in business societies and online communities

6. Preparing Resumes  There is a 3-step process when forming your resume. This includes planning, writing, and completing.  By doing so you can specialize how companies view you and your business message PLAN  WRITE  COMPLETE

7. Planning Your Resume  A resume : is a structured, written summary of a person’s education, employment background, and job qualifications—it is a persuasive business message.  Here is a table on the fallacies and facts about resumes Here is a table on the fallacies and facts about resumes FALLACIESFACTS Purpose of resume is to list skills.Purpose of resume is to generate interest A good resume gets you the job.A good resume gets your foot in the door Your resume will be read carefully. Your resume will be given less than a minutes’ time The more information the better.Only the most pertinent, applicable information should be used

8. Planning Your Resume The guidelines to planning your resume:  Gathering pertinent information  gather specific dates, duties, and accomplishments.  Selecting the best medium  explore all options for formatting type.  Organizing resume around strengths  Make sure your resume conveys the qualities that employers seek, including thinking in terms of results, being well- rounded, and having professional standards of excellence.

9. Types of Resumes To ensure your resume displays your strongest points, use the appropriate organizational approach:  Chronological resume: the work experience section dominates and is places in the most prominent spot. The advantages: employer familiarity, highlights growth, highlights continuity and stability.  Functional resume: emphasizes your skills and capabilities while identifying employers and academic experience in subordinate sections. The advantages: employers see skills without reading job descriptions, emphasize experiences, de- emphasize any lack of career progress.  Combination resume: includes best features of the other resume approaches. There are two disadvantages: these tend to be long and can be repetitive.

10. Writing Your Resume  Keep in mind that you are your resume, give yourself time to write it, and learn from good models.  Keep your resume honest: This way your resume represents who you really are and a job that is suitable and truly right for you.  Adapt your resume: Depending on the audience your resume should highlight your unique qualities and show you are what the employer is looking for.  Composing your resume: Write your resume in a simple and direct style using strong action verbs. Also, avoid weak statements. Use strong statements that show results.

11. Composing Your Resume  The traditional resume includes name and contact information, educational credentials, employment history, achievements, and other relevant data.  Contact information includes address, email, and URL of personal website if applicable.  Objective statements and summary of qualifications help show how you are a good fit for the available position.  Education includes schools and supplemental training, along with locations

12. Composing Your Resume  Work Experience and skills focus on your individual theme by aligning your past with the employer’s future. Languages, computer skills, and work related skills are all relevant here.  Activities and achievements should describe any activities that demonstrate your abilities, especially those requiring leadership and teamwork.  Personal data is included if its work related or demonstrates how you would be the best candidate for the job.

13. Completing Your Resume  Revising your resume putting into the appropriate form and proofreading it for any errors is the final step.  Common resume flaws: Too long  not concise Too short  does not give enough information Hard to read  lacks enough white space Amateurish  includes wrong information Sloppy  shows lack of communication skills Boastful  overconfident tone puts doubt in credibility of information Too generic  boring, customary

14. Producing Your Resume  There are various forms that companies may want your resume to be in.  Compile a keyword summary: a list of all terms that could help match your resume to the right openings.  Consider optical character recognition (OCR) software that won’t pick-up symbols and non- traditional fonts.

15. Producing Your Resume  Create a plain-text version: a simple computer file without any formatting used in word processing.  Create a word file, HTML version, and PDF version.  Also, never forget about security. You are displaying personal information online so be prudent about privacy and security.

16. Proofreading and Distributing  Your resume needs to be PERFECT.  It must work in all formats, with correct spelling and grammar. All headings and lists should be done consistently with one another.  Once complete and up to date, your resume can be distributed, paying attention to the specific wishes of each and every employer

17. SUMMARY In these slides we have covered many important points about: Preparing a resume in an effective way. Planning a structured, written, and a well-organized resume. Different types of resumes. How to write a professional resume.

18. WEBSITE http://futuremanagers.webstarts.com