Resume, Letter, Interview
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Sample Marketing Resume Guidelines
BETA COPY OF SAMPLE MARKETING RESUME GUIDLELINES
(THIS IS IN THE DEVELOPMENT STAGE. PLEASE CHECK
BACK BEFORE COMPLETING ANY HOMEWORK BASED ON THIS):
- Realize the purpose of a resume
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It’s an ad for you, and it’s a way
for someone who does not know you to get an idea of who you are, what
your background is, what successes you’ve had, and how you may be
different than the other resumes in front of him/her.
·
A resume should be easy and quick to read and to
understand, and it should lead the reader to consider meeting you if
that’s appropriate.
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A resume also can help the reader (particularly in a job
interview) find common ground in yours and interviewer’s interests.
- Understand what a reader is looking
for on a resume
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First are very basic credentials that keep you in the
sort—your degree and (usually) some key experiences.
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Next are issues that make you stand out in the sort:
your grades, special awards, key work experiences such as internships,
coops, jobs and positions in civic, school or social organizations.
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Finally are any unique experiences or credentials such
as sports, hobbies, special skills or interests.
- What are common mistakes on resumes?
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Not making the resume clear or simple to read.
Most jobs have many more resumes than openings, and most of the
applicants are usually not really appropriate for the job.
Resume readers usually scan them quickly looking for key
information--a low involvement situation usually using a conjunctive
heuristic (if you remember this from consumer behavior or promotional
strategy, it’s when the receiver is looking for a few basic features
which a product has to some minimum degree). In
regular terms, on the first pass the reader is looking for a couple of
very basic bits of information that if present means they’ll look at it
again. Otherwise, you’re in the reject pile.
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Resumes that are made unclear by putting dates in
obscure places, forgetting to put job and internship titles, giving
vague or misleading job responsibilities. Too much
information is almost as bad as too little. I have
only seen one undergraduate resume that legitimately needed two pages.
Unless you did something truly spectacular in high school, all
secondary school information is irrelevant because it’s too dated.
A common mistake is listing courses taken, which to the reader is
meaningless as first, all college students take courses, and second, the
reader wants to know skills, not where you were sitting last year.
However, if your courses have led to special skills, be sure to
list the skills (i.e., DART, computer skills, languages, etc.).
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Distracting the reader—colored paper, boxes and
frames, many different type fonts or fancy fonts (avoid italics) and
pitches are all easy ways to distract the reader from seeing key
information about you.
·
Leaving off key information that makes you unique
is also a common mistake. Forgetting to put
responsibilities of positions in social or service organizations is an
example. Even putting the position you played in
sports is important.
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Too small fonts. An 11 pitch
font is appropriate.
A SAMPLE FORMAT
A career or job objective statement is not
necessary for an entry level resume. For situations
where it can be helpful, please contact the instructor.
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Your name and contact information. If you
will be at more than one address (i.e., at home for vacations or
cooping) then give both addresses and the dates you will be at
each one. If space or white space is an issue, then put the
addresses side-by-side.
Fred Q. Student
email
XYZ Dorm
Phone
(From 12/20/00-1/15/01 and
3/12/01-3/20/01)
XYZ Home
Phone
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Education
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La Salle
University, Philadelphia, PA.
BSBA,
Marketing, May 2000 (expected)
Overall GPA
3.5/4.0, Average in Major 3.7/4.0
(notes on
grades—usually I encourage putting them on if one average is
over a 3.0, if neither are, be ready to explain your academic
performance to an interviewer. They have
become very sensitive to easy majors and grade inflation.)
Academic
honors (e.g., deans list, scholarships, awards.)
If an award, give selection criteria for the award.
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Experience
Note: this section can be done in a couple
of different ways. The three main types of
experiences that employers may be interested in are actual work
experience, internship and coop experience and organizational
experience such as officers in social, school or civic clubs.
If you’ve had significant work experience, then have a
separate work experience section and a “related experience”
section. However, if the total number of all
key experiences is around five or less, then you can group them
all together. If you’ve worked at the same
place every summer in relatively similar positions you can make
these one entry. Unless a job was
time-limited (e.g., you worked the Christmas rush somewhere, or
coordinated a campus project that only lasted a few months),
don’t put in entries that lasted less than a few months.
Other issues—give 2-4 basic and real
responsibilities. Realize that employers are
as much interested in the fact that you’ve worked at all as they
are interested in where you’ve worked.
Phrase responsibilities in common sense, easier to understand
words. Also, use customer-related phrasing
when appropriate. For example, all waiters
and waitresses have to handle customer complaints and ensure
customer satisfaction. They also have other
responsibilities such as preparing and setting up for the meal,
and assisting with other functions during a rush.
In other words, working at McD’s is ok, and some jobs
that you thought were a little low on the status scale may
actually convey positive benefits. Any
specific accomplishments (awards, promotions, etc.) should be
highlighted.
While you may get other advice, we have
found that a chronological resume, with dates clearly posted in
the left column (use MSWord table to get the spacing.
This format also will convert to html easily for web
placement), followed by job title and firm/organization and
responsibilities is the one that employers have reported to be
the easiest to read.
Relevant Experience
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8/99-present |
Driver, United Parcel Service,
Philadelphia, PA |
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Responsibilities include:
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Accurate and efficient package delivery
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Designing most efficient routes for delivery order
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Maintaining positive customer relationships and
resolving customer service
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Awarded Efficiency Rewards 3 out-of-last 5 periods
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9/99-12/99 |
Marketing Intern, XYZ Ad Agency,
Philadelphia, PA
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Assist in media placement for 6 national ad
campaigns
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Prepare background research on 2 national industries
currently being pitched by XYZ
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Team member on Agency Web Site Design Committee
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Help with recruiting spring semester interns
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1/97-present |
Vice President, Awful Awful Chi Social
Fraternity, La Salle University
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Supervise biannual fraternity recruiting program
(responsible for a net gain of 20% in new members 1998-present)
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Coordinate national chapter’s mission goals in local
AAC chapter
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Manage membership dues budget of $60K/year
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7/98-9/98
7/97-9/97 |
Water Front Counselor, Camp Kukamonga,
Poconos Village, PA
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Ensure safety of boating and swimming activities at
camp with 120 campers
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Train other counselors in waterfront safety
procedures
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Teach campers ages 8-11 in basic swimming and
canoeing
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Computer Skills |
Proficient in MS Word, PowerPoint, Excel,
and Access, Page Mill, working knowledge of basic HTML
programming for Web Site design
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Volunteer or related service |
Give title, location, nature of work and
dates |
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Hobbies and Interests |
Swimming, cooking.
Moderate verbal proficiency in French (spent summer of 1999
touring France). |
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