The Art and Science of the Resume, revisiting a tired, old cliche.

Hi Christian,

My name is XX and I'm XX's friend from Ignatians service org at LMU. She gave me your e-mail address, so I've attached my resume. I graduated from LMU in December 2008 with a degree in psychology and a degree in marketing. I plan on earning a Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational psychology and becoming a consultant. My general goal is to improve organizations so people are happy at work and businesses are more successful. I enjoy science, technology, sports, socializing, and overcoming challenges. I'm currently living in XXX and am ready to move forward to another city (or country). If you'd like any other information, just let me know. Thanks!

___________________________________________Hi XX,

Thanks for reaching out to me.  Regardless of what comes of our discourse, simply contacting people directly is by far the best way to learn about opportunities and eventually find a great vocation.

Regarding opportunities at google, have a look at google.com/jobs for all of our openings.  Browse around and let me know what you find interesting.

I share your interest in IO since my first three full time jobs have been in HR and clinical psychology research.  This is the field I know best, so I'll try to pass on what I've learned over the past few years.  I've always been on the recruiting/staffing side of the HR department, but I've interacted with Organizational Development and Learning folks as well as HR Generalists.  To discover what entry level position titles are out there, try searching "Human Resources" on indeed.com.  Let me know what you find and if you have any questions.

In the mean time, I have some feedback for your resume.  If you enjoy overcoming challenges, I suggest you conquer the resume!

At first glance, you have an admirable amount of involvement in organizations on top your two majors.  This should be attractive to recruiters, provided you communicate it well.  You also have advanced aspirations to get your Ph.D.  Employers want to see this.

Beyond generally listing your work history, I think recruiters like to see precise descriptions of work experience.  Having done research myself, I've found value in expanding upon the specifics of of my responsibilities, accomplishments and investigations.  If you're aiming for an industry oriented degree and career, you'd be best served translating 'research/science speak' descriptions into the business language you absorbed in your marketing coursework and store management experience.  You might want to have a CV as well as a business resume.

Here are some other tips I've heard from multiple sources:

• quantify your accomplishments, not just daily responsibilities
• "recruited participants" vs.
• "recruited 100 participants through 4 separate advertisement campaigns"
• grammatically, use active voice
• look up Bloom's Taxonomy of Verbs.  
• "Entering survey data into Excel" sounds like the person could be replaced easily
• "Categorized survey results of human subjects research" sounds like the person is adding intelligent value to an organization.

 The next challenge in communicating your valuable experiences and accomplishments is the way in which it appears.  A resume must be structured or formatted to guide the reader through each section. Your resume is fairly easy to navigate.  You clearly differentiate between unique experiences and jobs.  Once you have written comprehensive descriptions that make you valuable to the employer, you must limit the clutter that is common when you put a lot of text on one page.  It's tricky, but including sufficient white space is what makes your resume effective.   A good resume neither sacrifices content for structure nor structure for content.  You can look at my resume as a model.

Finally, I always emphasize the value of Linkedin.com.  From building a professional network, to being visible to recruiters (they use it), to seeing the career paths of successful people in your field, Linkedin is an incredible resource.

Good luck, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Regards,

Christian Bogeberg