Public Health Insight

Making Your Resume Make Sense: What Ingredients Make A Good Resume

August 24, 2021 Public Health Insight
Public Health Insight
Making Your Resume Make Sense: What Ingredients Make A Good Resume
Show Notes Transcript

A resume is a written compilation of your work experience, qualifications, skills, and education. It is a key part of a job application that the hiring team will review before considering you for a job opening. Therefore, it should communicate essential information about you in a concise and clear way to a potential employer.

In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, Kamara Toffolo, Resume Writer, LinkedIn Consultant, and Job Search Strategist, joins us to talk about:

  • Ingredients that make a “good” resume;
  • Six second resume scan and how to pass the test;
  • Ideal length of a resume based on experience level and how it should be structured;
  • Tailoring resumes for each target job; and
  • Translatable experiences and transferable skills 

Podcast Guests

Podcast Hosts

References for Our Discussion 

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Music Credits

The following tracks were used to produce this podcast episode:

Kamara:

we also want to make sure that, what we are sharing on our resume really reinforces our qualifications. So, and that's, that's really the lens that we should use to scrutinize. Any information we provide in our resume is does this show that I'm qualified for our target job? And that's why that target job is so important. Uh, and I'm so readable makes sense, uh, emphasizes accomplishments, uh, because that's our way of showing that we're skilled. And that's our way of showing that we're qualified. We identify our skills and then we give real world examples or how we've applied them. And that's that's, those are really the makings of a great writer.

Sully:

this is the public health insight podcast.

Ben:

before we move on is important to note that the views expressed in this podcast are our own and do not represent any of the organizations we work for or affiliated with.

Sully:

In the previous episode, Gordon and Leshaun spoke with Camaro. Resume writer, LinkedIn consultant and job search strategists about the importance of identifying your target job before you begin your job search process and some common misconceptions of the applicant tracking system. And the second part of the discussion Kymera remains with us to share her expert tips and tricks and best practices you can use to create resumes that will impress potential employers. This is where they left off.

Gordon:

So there's one thing, um, you constantly mentioned from me looking at your YouTube videos is, uh, make your resume makes sense. So what do you mean by that?

Kamara:

So if we, this is really important, especially for those who are transitioning, uh, into new professions, into new fields, we can't use something that we use for a prior profession or prior field. And expect that it's gonna make sense to a new direction. Um, so we have to translate our work experience so that it makes sense to the new directions. So we, we really want to put ourselves in the shoes of the reader and, and ask ourselves, are they going to understand what I did in that rule, regardless of whether you're actually changing careers or professions, but are they going to understand what I did in that job, in the context of their organization and the role that they're hiring for? And so that's, that's where the make it make sense part comes in is the onus is on you as a job seeker to help the recruiter and the reader of your resume. Understand that those skills work for this job that you're applying.

Gordon:

So you're saying if I feel like I'm a great fit for a certain job, and I feel really confident about the job, I shouldn't expect to just say here, here's my job application. You need to figure out why I'm a good fit for this role. You're saying I need to convince you, even though it might be obvious to me that I'm a fit for this role. I need to do some work to convince you in a way that makes sense to what you're asking for in the position.

Kamara:

Yeah, exactly. it's not so much about convincing, but it's about, uh, Educating I think is more so what it's about, um, because another thing that we need to be mindful of is that the folks who are frontline resume reviewers, um, they probably haven't done the job that you are applying to, which is okay, that doesn't make them disqualified to hire for that job. But it means that if you're using a ton of technical jargon, they might not, it might not resonate with them. Um, if you're using a bunch of acronyms, um, that's creating work for them and that means they have to go look it up and we don't want to create work for the reader. We want to make it an easy seamless process from them, reading the resume to making the decision. Ah, this person needs to be invited for an injury.

Leshawn:

So overall, we're talking about just making your resume makes sense to whoever's reading it, but with that in mind, what are other ingredients we can use to make a good resume? And how do we know that we've created a good one? Is it only after we've, you know, received a job interview that we know that, oh yeah, that was a good resume. Cause I got a job interview. How do we know? And what are some good ingredients to

Kamara:

That's definitely a good measure is if if you are invited for interviews with frequency, um, that you have probably written a good resume, um, it's not always an indicator, but, um, but it is, it is often a good metric, um, as well, when we, when we are writing our resume, maybe. So this is not so much, uh, How, you know, you wrote a good resume more. So this is the ingredients is you want to have a very simplified and easy to read structure. So we talked about the making. It makes sense. We also need to make it readable, um, when we need to make sure that we are creating a document, that again, doesn't create work for the reader. If I have to squint in and look at, at a resume like this, or I have to like edit it in a certain way where I can, um, make like, make it easier on my eyes, uh, or to, to try and extract information, then we know that that we're, we need to really kind of take a step back and give it a little bit of a renovation. So we've got simplified structure. We've got making it make sense. And then we also want to make sure that, what we are sharing on our resume really reinforces our qualifications. So, and that's, that's really the lens that we should use to scrutinize. Any information we provide in our resume is does this show that I'm qualified for our target job? And that's why that target job is so important. Uh, and I'm so readable makes sense, uh, emphasizes accomplishments, uh, because that's our way of showing that we're skilled. And that's our way of showing that we're qualified. We identify our skills and then we give real world examples or how we've applied them. And that's that's, those are really the makings of a great writer.

Leshawn:

So, how would you lay out your resume in general?

Kamara:

So it there's two different approaches that I would recommend, depending on if you are a recent grad or new grad and an experienced professional. So firstly I'll cover the recent or new grad. So what I would like to see on a recent or new grad resume is your starting of course, with your name. Uh, and then under your name, you would include a title for the job to which you're applying again, this is why target job is so important. So it would, it would be something like, um, what what's, what's a role that you see a lot of folks applying to right out of school.

Leshawn:

Like a research analyst or, um, as a research assistant policy analyst.

Kamara:

Okay. Great. So I, it would be named research analyst depending on what the title of the job is to which they're applying. That's a dynamic line that you would, that they would be updating with every application then underneath that contact information. So we've got, um, city and state or province, phone number, email address hyperlinked. Um, and I can talk more about that in the LinkedIn, uh, URL hyperlinked as well. So we've got those different, uh, items in our contact information underneath that. Lou wants to make sure that we're including a short professional profile paragraph that tells the reader what we're all about. Um, and as a professional or a new professional in our field underneath that, um, would be a skillset. The skill section can be at the top, or it could also be at the bottom. And that's where you're identifying the skills you have, that the employer wants as identified in the job posting underneath that, or prior to the skills section, we would include our education. So this is, this is where the difference is for the new or recent grad is we lead with the education because that's, that's what makes us the most qualified at that point in our careers. And then following that, that's where we put our work experience in and at the bottom where the skills may be. You might also have a volunteering section or a section that showcases your community leadership community involvement as it supports your, uh, overall, uh, job application. So that's new grad. So that was a lot of information. so next is for the, uh, professionals. So once you've been in your fields for a little bit and have some experience under your belt, the structure is largely the same as what I mentioned, but where the difference is is you're going to swap education and professional experience. Education should be at the bottom or near the bottom of your resume when you're, when you're an experienced professional, so that your professional experience can shine.

Leshawn:

That, that sounds good. And, you know, I was always under the impression that, you know, you always lead off with education no matter what. So, I mean, that's, that's great insight. Quick follow up. question I have for that is you mentioned that professional kind of statement at the top of that, um, that resume. What, what would you include in that section? Exactly.

Kamara:

So the formula that I like to use, um, is to, well, first of all, we want to, the first sentence is like the most important part. And the formula I like to use is type of professional. You are, or type of professionally, um, you're aspiring to be plus the main solution that you would create. So if we're using research analyst as our example, it would be, um, perhaps aspiring research analyst or research analyst, um, known for, uh, let's say, um, transforming large data sets into meaningful, um, meaningful, uh, public health information or public health insights, uh, something like that. So it's type of professional. You are. Plus the main solution you'd create that they'd want for you. So you might do something, you might do something else. Great. As a research analyst, but is it what they want from you? Is, is it the, is it fulfilling the main need of this role? That's what you want to identify there just as like a big, like, bold statement right out of the gate, then underneath that, and you can talk about things like your approach to communication, your approach, to collaboration, your approach to leadership, um, the size of the teams that you've led, perhaps the size as, as we're getting further into our career. Um, we might want to talk about budget. Um, put a dollar figure on the budgets. Um, so, so that the reader knows that, okay, this person's capable of handling our budget. Um, if you're going to speak in a budget, if you're aiming for a rule that has a smaller budget, you can give a range of budgets, like a budget ranging from this, to this, um, stakeholders. Uh, if you're engaging with other, uh, public agencies, uh, health agencies, um, healthcare authorities, the types of groups that you've engaged with a new brought together to make stuff happen. That's what you can put in that paragraph.

Gordon:

Interesting. I'm learning a lot too. I feel like I watch your videos three times and I still learn something new every day. So,

Kamara:

Maybe I didn't do a very good job of explaining things,

Gordon:

they're just a lot. There's a,

Leshawn:

Those videos are great, and those ideas are

Gordon:

sold. So one thing that stood up for me and I'll use it to segue into this question as well. You mentioned, um, having the title on your actual, in the header of your resume almost, that's something that I I've never done before. Um, so that's very insightful for me, but can we also then tailor, um, previous positions we've had on a resume to be more fitting of what were the target job is? Is that something that's common practice.

Kamara:

That's a really good question. Um, so yes it is. Um, Acceptable to a certain extent. So we don't want to, let's say we were research analysts and now we're targeting like a senior research analyst role or something. Um, it, we don't want to rename it completely to be senior research analyst, uh, unless it certainly was that, um, we can, so if it was something that was a research analyst role, but it was called something really weird that wouldn't resonate. Like, um, I dunno like a data collector or something, or like, um, Google or something really that does not make sense. Uh, in a lot of cases that does happen because there's free rein with naming jobs, whatever employers want to name them, if that's the case, then yes, I would recommend in that case that you translate the role title into something that's going to make sense, uh, and going to best represent you, um, and best represent what you were doing. So, uh, certainly in that case, we would change it to research analysts. Um, now you can also, instead of just totally renaming the title, you could also add some clarity under the title, uh, in a little paragraph, um, where you do talk about your responsibilities in that little paragraph, you could say, let's say it was, um, you were called a data collector, but it was a research analyst in that little paragraph. You could say something like, uh, acting as a research analyst. So we've got the official title, but we're clarifying that it's a research analyst role. So there's, there are, there are a variety of different things that we can use, but yes, it is, especially amongst resume writers. It is very common practice for us to, um, take some creative license with job titles to make sure that they make sense outside of the organization that our clients are

Gordon:

And for the students soon to be recent grads as well, would I, could I also tailor like an intern role? Let's say my role was student intern. Could I then say research analyst, intern? Is that something that's acceptable too? Okay.

Kamara:

I mean, if that's what you were doing. Um, so if you were like, if your title was student intern, which sounds like,

Leshawn:

Yeah.

Kamara:

which is like just a redundant student intern. Um, so if it was student intern, but you were doing, you were doing research analysis work. Absolutely. You could say research analysis, intern research intern. What at whatever, you know, would make sense in the outside world.

Gordon:

Okay,

Leshawn:

No, that makes total sense because a lot of the students in public health are coming out after practicums and they often put, you know, a student. intern or whatever intern. So that's a great insight that you could tailor that to make your application stand out even more.

Sully:

You've just heard part two of Gordon and LaShawn's conversation with Camaro Buffalo as the main writer, LinkedIn consultant, and job search strategist, where she shared her expert tips and tricks and best practices you can use to create resumes that will impress potential employers. Be sure to check out the next episode where Camaro talks about the importance of cover letters when to include them in a job application and how to structure them in a way that is engaging for them. Thank you for listening to the public health and say podcast, you would go to space for informative conversations, inspiring community action. If you enjoy our content, I would like to stay up to date, follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, to learn more about our community initiatives and how you can support us. Visit our website@thepublicofinsight.com joined the Phi community and let's make public.