photo by BiblioArchives / LibraryArchives

Back in the day (or clients have told me), you didn’t need a resume for a blue collar job. Yet today, companies are requesting them and the online application is instructing you to upload your resume.

Since my resume samples include resumes for Production Supervisors, Facilities Managers, and Manufacturing Engineer, I find many people searching for those terms and looking at the samples.

Why do you need a resume if you are applying online anyway?

If you have ever filled out one of the applications starting from scratch, you know how time consuming it can be. Since resumes are reviewed using Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), they are looking for key words. Let’s review a manufacturing posting:

Now to determine the key words for this posting, lets use a handy tool called tag crowd:While this tool doesn’t always give the right key words, it does quickly analyze the posting and pull out repetitive concepts which should be in your resume and job application.

If I am writing a resume for production related positions, I will select key words both on the basis of the job posting and my client’s expertise.

A sample list of keywords might look like this:

• Quality Control
• Production Processes
• Inventory Control
• Safety Regulation Compliance

As one progresses in a manufacturing career, those keywords might look like this:

• Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP)
• Production Supervision
• Hazardous Chemical Safety
• Process Flow

And as you reach a management level of manufacturing, keywords might be:

• Change Management | Project Management | Leadership Development
• Training & Development | Productivity Improvement | Production Management
• Quality Improvement | Proactive Management | Inventory Management

Just getting the keywords into an online application can take research and planning. But getting the keywords right is just the tip of the iceberg, you need to add accomplishment-driven statements to differentiate you from the pack.  Finding accomplishments is one of the talents that professional resume writers work hard to develop. I can’t tell you how many times someone tells me they have no accomplishments and then upon a little probing, they come up with things like this:

• Discovered a key performance indicator (KPI), a coliform pathogen hiding in the ultra filtration system, resulting in changes to the sanitation system and improved quality control.

or

• Designed new package filling head to lower container damage (one of the package filling head was creating holes in packages), resulting in reducing product downgrade due to package damage by 9%.

or

• Piloted reduction in packaging inventory through creating min and max safety stock levels, resulting in annual savings from working capital reduction at 8%.

Whether a person or an ATS system reads your resume or application, if you are competing with hundreds of applicants (and you often are), you don’t stand a chance without working hard to have a complete resume ready BEFORE you start posting your resume online or filling out the application.

What happens when you get it right?

- a client recently posted this on Twitter:

@JulieWalraven – Many Thanks 4 writing my resume & finding a wonderful position! no longer experiencing major life stress=unemployment.

Is is your turn to get it right and stop experiencing major life stress?

By the way, that tweet was from a NASA engineer who is now happily re-employed… she was up against thousands of others but she has won her new position. Whether you are blue collar or a NASA engineer, you need a resume!

Photo by Dave Bleasdale

The question of cover letters has been one that I have been asked continually since I started in the career industry.

• When do you use one?
• What are they?
• Do I use one at all?

To clarify, I asked my colleague, Dawn Bugni from The Write Solution to join us to help list and talk about the confusing definitions and misconceptions of cover letters:

Misconceptions

1. → That’s a sheet you put on the top with your name on it, right?

2. → Every cover letter is read, 100% of the time, in the order intended by the sender — before the resume. WRONG (from Dawn Bugni)

3. → A cover letter tells the employer what you want from them and when done correctly, is filled with “I, me, my” statements. WRONG (from Dawn Bugni)

4. → A cover letter is a regurgitation of resume content or your resume in narrative form. The reader wants to read the same info twice. WRONG. (from Dawn Bugni)

5. → A cover letter is optional. WRONG. (Unless the posting specifically states “No cover letters”. Then follow directions.) (from Dawn Bugni)

6. → Can you just do a generic one that I can slap on the top of my resume for everyone? You know one like this:

What’s wrong with this? It is written without targeting the position at all. You have no idea what specifically the job seeker is looking for in a position.

A cover letter is never a blanket. It is a sales tool that from the start lets the reader know why you are sending your resume to them. (From Dawn Bugni)

You are selling YOU! You are the product.

Here’s a snapshot of a cover letter start for one of my recent clients.

Strategies differ for cover letters but essentially they are a sales tool to help you convey your value to the employer for the specific job.

• The resume does that too but you generally don’t have to fine-tune the resume to meet the exact specifications of each position. The cover letter does that for you.
• Like a resume, the cover letter needs to portray value, speak about how your accomplishments will transition to the needs of the company, and solve the company’s “pain”.

This post is just the tip of the iceberg but it should help to get you thinking about what the job of a cover letter is and why you need one. Always think target and selling when you are planning to write a cover letter which will help you be on the right page as you write.

Resume Objective Statements: Objecting to Objective Statements on Résumés

Here’s the first part:

Jason: What is the objective statement?

Julie: From my perspective, Jason, the better question is “What was the objective statement?” When thinking of the traditional objective statement, such as “I want a position that offers a challenge working with a committed team of people in a progressive environment,” this is an archaic phrasing that went away years ago.

Now you can go to JibberJobber’s blog to read the rest!

Busy day for me today at Design Resumes but you may hear another post from me later. If not, catch me back here real soon!

Do you hate applying online?

You know, filling out all those fields and hoping that your application actually gets there and they read it?

I haven’t found anyone yet that is in love with using online applications for employment.

I don’t like them either! I have wrestled my way through many of them on behalf of clients who threw in the towel or didn’t even know where to begin.

Mailing a resume or dropping one off seems a lot easier but not many companies let you do that anymore.

To diminish the pain, here is my prescription for greater success with online applications:

Note: I am a PC user. If you use a MAC, you may need different directions.

I find it much easier if you have a text version of your resume (and if you are using a cover letter, a text version of that too). Here’s how!

1. → Create your resume in Microsoft Word format first

(or if you must, other compatible word processing program) even if you are applying online. Some online applications take the Word version easily others don’t.

You want a presentation resume at interviews and networking.

Creating your resume in an eye-appealing layout does something for you psychologically too. It is easier to visualize your talents and remember your accomplishments.

Some people might think all they do is fill in the forms online so they don’t need to write a resume but then you are going to miss keywords and struggle to figure out your accomplishments.

In addition, if you follow this formula, you can use it over and over again with minor changes for other applications. Otherwise, you will be starting from scratch each time.

2. → Convert MS Word document into plain text.

Save the document as a .txt version and select the “allow character substitution this time as you save it. I will give you more instructions later. For this example, I used the Global Marketing Executive Sample which is already fictionalized on my website.

3. → Reopen the document in MS Word, use the “find and replace” function

Replace any odd characters which are probably your bullet points now converted into “?” marks. I use “replace all” and replace the “?” with “+” most of the time.

Double-check to see if anything you didn’t want converted also changed. Lately I find that the em dash “—” that I use between dates also gets changed to a “+” and I don’t want that so I change it back to a “-” hyphen.

4. → Reformat your Keyword section

It will have issues with bullets but is probably all jammed together. I make this into a long list.

5. → Check formatting and remove any “Page Two” information headers

The document becomes one long document at this point.

6. → Set the margins

1 inch top, bottom, and left, and 1.25 on the right which will now paste better.

7. → Save as Plain text one more time.

Select the “insert line breaks” option this time.

8. → Reopen in Notepad.

MS Word will try to use its own formatting if you stay in Word so you need to move to Notepad, the very basic word processor that comes with your laptop or PC.

Yuck, huh? That’s just a snapshot of how the text version looks but this is what you need to get you started on online applications.

Bonus directions:

9. → Now armed with your new text version of your resume, you start by filling out all of the fields that the application asks for.

Some applications will let you upload early and others will want you to upload your resume later in the process. Using the text version to cut and paste in all the areas of the application. Your formatting will not change.

10. → Answer everything fully.

Make sure you have available information like supervisor names, salary, specific months and years of employment, supervisor phone numbers, and supervisor e-mails before you start.

A few applications let you put the MS Word version into them but often the formatting is destroyed in the upload process. Using the text file will save you headaches.

After you submit the file, follow up by phone. If you are unsure about how to follow up and when to follow up, I covered that in 11 Tips for Your Phone in the Job Search.

This should get you started, but remember I know all that and I get frustrated! Every application format is slightly different and there are areas of customized questions that you need to be ready to answer.

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