The YourResumeStinks.info Guide to

Writing A Killer Resume!

By Casey Case

Owner:

YourResumeStinks.info

Image: graur razvan ionut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net 2010 Edition

Casey Case is the owner of a resume editing and creation site known as YourResumeStinks.info. He is an internet entrepreneur who spent almost a decade hiring people on a large staff in the business world.

He is currently working with teams on projects from as diverse fields as real estate, higher education, ministry, and entrepreneurship.

If you have questions or need more resume advice, contact Casey at the addresses below, or add him as a friend on Facebook or Twitter!

About Casey Case

Address/PhonePO Box 7992

Lawton, OK 73506(580)713-6789

Skype ID: case.casey

Onlinewww.yourresumestinks.info

www.caseycase.comfacebook.com/caseycasetwitter.com/casey_case

4 Image: graur razvan ionut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

For More Help (Shameless Plug) - If you need more help writing or editing your resume, visit my site at www.YourResumeStinks.info where we can edit or create your resume and cover letter for a fee. We only take a small number of clients per week so we can keep it personal.

For almost a decade I have been reviewing resume after resume when trying to hire someone for a job. To be honest, in this economic climate, I often have to be looking for good reasons to cull someone out of the hiring process because I have so many qualified applicants.

Table of Contents

Compiling Your Skills/TalentsIn this chapter:

• What can you really offer?• It’s more than just duties.• How is it relevant?

Putting It all TogetherIn this chapter:

• Formatting doesn’t matter.• Concise and correct is key.• Different jobs, different resumes.

Final ThoughtsIn this chapter:

• Cover letters are mostly useless.• Modifying for specific positions.• Conclusion.

3

Why A Good Resume Matters

Make no mistake about it - Interview skills are important, but if your resume is not eye catching, you will not even have the chance to showcase yourself to any hiring managers, except for at jobs that no one wants. Let me help you write the best resume you can.

What Can You Really Offer?

What do you have to offer a company? Before you can tell anyone

what you have done and what you can do for them, you have to

know those answers for yourself. Stop and think, right now. Can

you tell me what I would need to know about you to be able to

even consider hiring me? Can you tell me without pausing?

Probably not. If you can, it is probably in general terms, such as “I

am responsible.” or “I served as general manager of...for 5 years.”

These types of words and terms have no meaning to someone

who has to look through 200 resumes today; however, most

resumes I see have some variation of these terms.

Do you want to get noticed? If so, you need to be specific. You

cannot do that until you have sat down and compiled your skills

and talents. Go ahead - get out a piece of paper or open a word

processing document and start thinking. What have you done?

Specifically? Think about the following -

1. What were my specific duties in my past/current positions?

2. What outstanding accomplishments did I achieve in these positions?

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Compiling Your Skills/TalentsCompiling Your Skills/Talents

3. What volunteer or other leadership positions have I held, and what were my specific duties?

This might take a while. Get it started and look it over again

tomorrow or later this week. Have a close friend or family member

look it over and see if they remember anything you forgot. Call old

supervisors if appropriate and ask them if they remember anything

(this can also be a good primer to ask someone to be a reference,

as you just talked with them about your great accomplishments.)

Keep this list for future reference.

Once this is completed, come back to this book and continue. Or,

if you just can’t wait, keep reading and come back to this spot

once you have everything compiled!

It’s More Than Just Duties

Take a look at what you have put together (and if you do not take

the time to make this list, you will find it tough to continue from

here). Make sure your list is more than just duties. It is important

for employers to know about your responsibilities, but it is

more important for them to know that you acted responsibly.

For example, during my time as a Director of Student Housing, I

could put the following -

“Was responsible for marketing three residential facilities.”

Or I could put -

“Achieved an over 250% growth in on-campus residency through

creative marketing.”

I can promise you, as someone who hires people in student

housing, the latter statement will get my attention. Believe it or

not, few will take the time to describe something like this in detail

and will end up the pile of people who said they were “responsible

for marketing.”

Now, take your list and expand it based on the “More than just

duties” principle. Find a way to put number and achievements to

those duties that help hiring managers know that you are good at

what you do. One caveat, however. In trying to reword your duties

into specific achievements, make sure you don’t make them too

wordy. Look at my example above. While my improved statement

is a bit longer, it is still only 11 words. If each of the bullets under

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Compiling Your Skills/TalentsCompiling Your Skills/Talents

your past positions is a paragraph, no one will read it. We will

discuss this further in a later chapter.

How is it relevant?

Now that you have your list, start culling items that are useless.

There is one very important question to ask now about all of the

items on your list - “How is it relevant?” Did you know I won the 4-

H county rabbit show when I was in third grade? No (well, I guess

now you do), and you don’t care. Neither will prospective

employers. (By the way, I’m not in the rabbit business anymore.)

Don’t be too quick to throw out awards or achievements outside of

work, however. If an award can show your passion for a particular

sector, keep it on your list. For example, if you won an award for

helping tutor students after class, and you are applying to be a

teacher or some other job in the field of education, keep it.

Here are a few questions to ask when narrowing down your skills

and achievements -

1. Would I care to know that if I was a hiring manager?

2. Does this skill or achievement relate to the job I am looking for?

3. Is this skill or achievement already highlighted elsewhere?

If you are not sure about an item, keep it for now. It won’t hurt to

delete it later if you see your resume is too wordy. However, if you

have more than 25 items on your list at this point, you should begin

to think about which ones are the most important to highlight. If

you have less than 10, go back to the drawing board and come up

with some more.

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Compiling Your Skills/TalentsCompiling Your Skills/Talents

Chapter Highlights

1. Brainstorm what you have done, and ask for help.

2. Make sure your achievements are listed and not just your duties.

3. Keep only what is relevant to the job you want.

Remember - It is important for employers to know about your

responsibilities, but it is more important for them to know that

you acted responsibly. This is the only way your resume will

stand out in the crowd.

Formatting Doesn’t Matter

It’s that simple. Formatting itself has little bearing on getting a job.

Your aim is showcase your talent, not your resume design.

Many sites will try to sell you “their” template, and will tell you they

have everything laid out just right for a hiring manager to see what

you want them to see. Don’t waste your money. This is simply not

true. In fact, these days, if you are applying for jobs online, you do

not get to format your resume at all. You have to place the

information into that particular company’s online form.

Also, don’t stress about what template to use or what type of

paper to put it on. I have never hired anyone because their resume

was on thicker paper or their word processing template suited my

tastes. Most hiring managers will end up with a copy of your

resume instead of the original anyway, and you will have wasted

your money on that box of (expensive) heavy paper.

Simply find a template in Microsoft Word or whatever word

processor you use that is simple and easy to plug your information

into. At my company, we do not even change the templates of the

resumes we receive to review from customers, because it is an

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Putting It All TogetherPutting It All Together

unimportant detail, and we want to make sure that it is easy for

them to edit it later. If you spend too much time deciding on a

template, you will not have enough time to make sure the content

is correct.

While formatting is mostly unimportant, there are some things to

keep in mind -

1. If you are applying in person and not online, do not place your

resume in some type of fancy cover sheet or binding. This just

makes it difficult for the company to file, and it will probably get

thrown away as soon as you turn it in.

2. Do not use any colored paper.

3. Do not put fancy graphics on your resume or use any color text

besides black. Fancy graphics may not hurt, but again, they are

a waste of time (unless you are applying to be some type of

designer).

4. Choose a standard, simple template from your word processor.

Do not try to create your own or to create something that

doesn’t fit on a regular sheet of paper.

Concise and Correct is Key

As I mentioned in the beginning of this book, many hiring

managers will have to go over many, many resumes when hiring for

a position. We are often looking for ways to cut applicants out of

the process in order to save time. Here are some sure-fire ways to

get cut from the process -

1. Errors - if your resume has spelling or grammatical errors, you

will often get immediately removed from the process, no matter

how qualified you are otherwise.

2. Being too wordy or too long - if your resume is 5 pages long,

most hiring managers will not read it. Being concise is the name

of the game.

3. Dishonesty - If it is not true, do not put it in your resume. Period.

As if just being honest wasn’t enough in and of itself, hiring

managers often have a way of sniffing out a liar.

As a boss, I have seen all three of the mistakes listed above and

have cut people out of the process for it. There are several ways to

avoid these pitfalls -

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Putting It All TogetherPutting It All Together

1. Have someone else edit your resume. There are services like

ours that will do it for a fee, but if you do not want to pay for it,

at least have a friend look it over. Make sure your friend or family

member will give you honest feedback and not tell you it is great

because they don’t want to hurt your feelings.

2. As a general rule, try to keep all descriptions of

achievements to one line. This can help you to be as concise

as possible. Also, sometimes going more than one line in a

bulleted list can cause formatting issues that can make you want

to pull your hair out.

3. Keep it to one page if at all possible. Sometimes, this simply

cannot be done, and it is not catastrophic if your resume is 2

pages. Keep in mind that a hiring manager will spend about the

same amount of time on each resume, so the longer your

resume is, the less content will actually be read.

4. Eliminate the “Interests” and “Objective” areas. Some

templates come pre-populated with these sections, but they are

completely unnecessary. Everybody knows your objective is to

get a job. It just takes up space. Also, your future boss does not

care that you like hiking.

5. Consider eliminating other sections. If you do not have any

job-relevant skills or achievements outside of your previous jobs,

delete the section that most templates will call something along

the lines of “Other Skills and Achievements.” Do not put

information in it simply because it is there.

6. Offer references upon request instead of listing them. Unless

otherwise requested, simply put a line that says something to

the effect of “References available upon request.” This can save

you some serious space.

Again, concise and correct is key! Try to keep it simple, honest,

and as short as possible.

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Putting It All TogetherPutting It All Together

Chapter Highlights

1. Formatting is mostly unimportant. Pick a simple template and go

from there.

2. Keep it short - less than one line for each achievement, less than

one page for the entire document, if possible.

3. Eliminate unnecessary sections.

4. Be honest!

Remember - Your aim is showcase your talent, not your

resume design. Design will go almost completely unnoticed; well

written achievements will not.

Is There Another Name for “Shameless Plug?” - If you need more help writing or editing your resume, visit my site at www.YourResumeStinks.info where we can personally edit or create your resume and cover letter for a fee.

Cover Letters Are Mostly Useless

I don’t think I have ever actually read a cover letter when choosing

someone to hire. Seriously. After having hundreds of cover letters

come across my desk, I have ignored them all. Many companies

do not even request them anymore. Some jobs still require that you

submit one; however, and I suggest that you do so if it is an option,

since it is one more chance to show that you are more interested in

the job than others because you took the time to write one. Let’s

go over some quick advice on how to write a cover letter.

1. Use a simple business letter template in your word

processor. Again, don’t get fancy. It’s a waste of time and could

be an unwelcome distraction from your talent.

2. Make sure the information is correct. When you include the

name, address, etc., of the company, make sure it is all correct.

While I haven’t really read any cover letters when hiring, I bet I

would have noticed if our company was misspelled.

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Final ThoughtsFinal Thoughts

3. Make it no more than three paragraphs -

a. One paragraph can introduce yourself and let them know you

are interested.

b. The second paragraph can state a few quick reasons why

you are qualified.

c. The final paragraph lets them know they can contact you

anytime for an interview and includes your preferred contact

information.

4. As with your resume, plain white paper is acceptable.

5. Again, concise is key. In your second paragraph, do not list

more than two or three reasons why your are qualified.

There is not much more to be said about cover letters. Again,

many online businesses will try to tell you that it is vital to have a

great cover letter, but it is just untrue. Almost all hiring managers

are going to skip straight to your resume, only noticing that you did

take the time to write a cover letter, which might earn you some

points.

Modifying For Specific Positions

Many resume creation sites will not tell you that it is not important

to modify your resume when applying for specific positions. This is

because they want you to believe that their carbon copy resume is

good enough for you to buy once and forget about it. This is simply

not true.

If your field is broad enough or if you are considering many

careers, then you should keep your list of achievements someone

you can find it and modify your resume based on the job you are

applying for. This is why I told you above to hang on to your list.

You may have to include some achievements for one job and other

achievements for another.

For example, I might include my achievement above concerning

marketing if I am applying for another position that requires it, but I

might delete it and put something more relevant in its place if I was

applying to be a computer technician. I know I have several

versions of my resume for different types of jobs I am interested in,

as my interests and abilities span across three or four different

fields.

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Final ThoughtsFinal Thoughts

This is also why I advise people to use simple templates. They are

easier to modify on the fly. The bottom line - be prepared to modify

your resume if possible for specific jobs, or at least have several

versions of it for different categories of jobs.

Conclusion

Let’s review the overall advice -

1. Take time to brainstorm your achievements.

2. Write them in a way that highlights accomplishments, not duties.

3. Keep it as concise as possible.

4. Let someone edit your resume.

5. Be honest.

6. Do not use a fancy template. Keep it simple.

7. Write a very short cover letter if it is an option.

8. Make sure you can modify your resume for specific jobs.

This is the first version of this book, so I would love to get

comments, questions, and suggestions from you. Feel free to

contact me anytime, as my contact info is on page two of this

book. I also put just a little more info on the next page to plug our

company one last time. I hope you will choose to use our services,

but if not, I hope you can use these principles to get the job of your

dreams!

Best of luck to you in your job search!

Casey Case

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Final ThoughtsFinal Thoughts

www.YourResumeStinks.infoIf you need more help writing or editing your resume, visit my site at www.YourResumeStinks.info.

Why use us?

1. Free edits for a year!

2. 110% Money Back Guarantee

3. Personal touch - we only take a few clients per week so we can help YOU personally.

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Check us out - www.YourResumeStinks.info