Resumes of Old & New

At its foundation, a resume is a self marketing tool that simply describes what you could provide to the potential employer.

Before the age of the internet, potential applicants used attractive cover letters, high quality resume paper of different colors and textures, and fancy fonts to provide a slight edge over the other applicants. In many instances, the first impression came from the visual attractiveness of the resume rather then its content, which is still somewhat true today.

However, as the age of the internet came upon us, the whole concept of an attractive resume went away. The age of key words, and content was born out of massive resume databases, now being utilized by many organizations. So what is a key word? Simply put, a key word is a word or phrase that is somewhat specific and descriptive to your skill set, which an employer can look for in a stack of resumes.

For example, if an employer is searching for a particular skill like welding, or maybe word processing, or even a special software skill like a computer programming language like Java; the potential employer can type into their computer one or several key words, and the resumes that have these words included on them will appear to this employer. It's the same concept as a search engine like Google on your computer.

Beyond these obvious differences, a number of more subtle content refinements have also occurred during this transition:

• Cover pages once a major component of the resume has become of less importance; as the content originally described on the cover page has shifted to the resume, in the form of an executive summary.



• Resume length, once thought to be constrained to a single page has now changed, as content driven resumes often dictate the length. Yet resumes exceeding three pages for a highly experienced professional are somewhat an unwritten limit.



• Bullets and symbols used to highlight key phrases have virtually disappeared from today's resume formats, driven by the acceptable electronic format required for database search engines.



• Fonts and unusual text also falls into this category. Many organizations set limits on the format your resume can be in, and as a guide, the simpler the format the better. Basic text resumes work best, but it is always best to hand carry a somewhat attractive and formatted resume to an interview; more on this later.



• Email addresses, cellular telephone numbers, and multiple forms of contact have also become somewhat of a standard. In some instances, depending on the applicant this may not be an option, but it is always best to provide some form of contact information other then a mailing address, so your prospective employer can quickly contact you. Remember, timing is a very important factor and displays to the employer your desire and future work ethic.