The Essential Connected Resume Guide

Q: HOW LONG SHOULD MY RESUME BE?

A: Your resume should be one page.

Q: WHAT SHOULD I INCLUDE IN MY RESUME?

A: You should include the following on your resume:

• Your contact info.
• Relevant jobs that show responsibility.
• Your education, especially if you have limited related work experience.
• References. You can say “References available upon request” or you can include names, job titles and contact references if you choose to include them. If your work experience is skinny, this can be a way to fill out your resume–just make sure your references know before they get contacted by a prospective employer.

You may not want to include the following:

• Non-related job experience.
• Irrelevant content.

Q: HOW SHOULD I FORMAT MY RESUME?
A: ADHERE TO THE FOLLOWING:

• Use traditional fonts (we recommend Arial or Calibri).
• Again, be clear and concise and stick to the one-page rule. 43% of managers say they spend less than 60 seconds looking at a resume (according the CareerBuilder Harris Poll survey of 2,100 hiring managers)
• Check out free resume templates HERE. You could do worse than use one of them.
• Save your resume docs (resume, references, cover letter) as pdf files. HERE’S a free online pdf creator. This guarantees that what you send to the employer is what they see.
• Attach your resume docs to the email you wish to send in response to the job opening. Do not zip files. Instead attach one by one.
• Here’s a pretty cool example of a non-traditional resume that includes everything.

Q: WHAT SHOULD I INCLUDE IN THE SUBJECT AND BODY OF MY EMAIL?

A: INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:

• The subject line should be clear and concise. Make sure it says you are applying for a specific job.
  Ex: “Applying for Audio Engineering Job”
• The body of the email should begin with a greeting and should include:
  1. Your name
  2. The position you are applying for
  3. Where you saw the job listing
  4. How to contact you
  5. Mention that you have attached your resume and cover letter (and references if you have done so).
     • Your email signature should include your name, phone number, and email address.
     • If you have a relevant, professional looking website, you may include a link in your email signature
     • Make sure to clean up your social media pages. Prospective employers WILL check them out!

Be clear and concise. 43 percent of managers said they spend less than 60 seconds looking at a resume, according to a survey of 2,100 hiring managers conducted by CareerBuilder and marketing research firm Harris Poll.

Q: ANYTHING ELSE?

A: Yes! When in doubt, remember the purpose of the resume is to get you an interview so give your soon-to-be employer reasons to bring you in to talk with them. Be realistic about what you apply for. There’s no point in applying for a job for which you are not qualified for or don’t meet some of the requirements.

DO NOT GET DISCOURAGED. Landing work is a numbers game. If you’re getting 1 call back out of 4 applications you are doing well.