RE: Resumes/Interviewing

["Giordano, Connie" <Connie -dot- Giordano -at- FMR -dot- COM>]

Nea,

Actually, I have found a combination of skills summary, major achievements,
and a little apple polishing to work the best. it would go something like:

17 years as a professional technical and marketing communicator.
Highly successful strategic planner.
Outstanding GUI design and information development skills.
Skilled in consensus-building and functional design facilitation.
Co-developed user interface for several large financial management
application suites.
Planned and implemented product redesign initiatives, successfully
integrating marketing and product support objectives.
Delivered 12-volume documentation set to beta client on schedule and under
budget.
Proficient in all major word-processing, help-authoring, and desktop
publishing tools.
Polished presenter and platform trainer.
And so on.  

The advantage to this method is it allows you to simply re-order bullet
points, or do minor edits, based on the requirements of the position and
your own gut feelings about what the employer is really looking for.

I NEVER lie on a resume  (all of the above is true, believe it or not!), I
take my strengths and interests and apply them to the type of position I'm
seeking. Specific achievements I leave to the bullet points under the
chronological history, and for the face-to-face interview, backed up by a
well-designed portfolio.  It works extremely well for me, and my new
employer is well-aware upfront of what I can bring to the table, how I want
to grow, and what I'm looking for. 

again my $.02

Connie Giordano 


*snip* 
All of those look particularly bad when actually written down, particularly
item 3. :>

Connie Giordano's idea of a Summary of Qualifications is a good one, though.
If I'm reading this correctly, you mean a summary of the achievements lists,
something like "Taught 3 classes and Wrote 73 User Guides, 17 SOPs, and 5
in-house guides," yes? 

*snip*