Should I have a resume for a blue collar job?

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!