Work On It Wednesday: Improving your Resume

By Emily Young MA ‘16

This week I choose to tackle the resume after attending an Annenberg Real World 101 Workshop on Building a Winning Resume and Cover Letter featuring Annenberg alumni Whitney Blaine.  Whitney recently wrote a a book titled “Stop Doing What you Should” that explains some of the common misconceptions millennials purse in their career development.  One of the main topics in her book is improving your resume.

If you don’t already have a resume, there are a lot of great USC Resources to help you.  This is a link to the USC Career Center Resume booklet to help you draft your resume: http://careers.usc.edu/docs/handouts/Resume_Booklet_Small.pdf  

Also, you can have your resume reviewed by a USC Career Center staff member during walk-in advising hours, or can even ask a teacher or mentor for their thoughts on improvement.  

Three of Whitney’s Key Points to Improve your Resume:

1. Add a Little Bit of your Personality.

You have one sheet, your resume, to convey who you are and how you would fit into the company role you are applying for.  Now I’m not saying add a picture of yourself or put a design on the page, but it’s okay to make stylistic changes to make your resume standout.  If you feel Times New Roman is boring try Arial or San Serif.  You can also add an additional color to your resume to make certain sections pop.  (Whitney uses blue and black).  Also, Whitney strongly suggested adding a conversation point or interesting fact in your skills section.  Whitney’s fact is that is a peanut butter aficionado because she loves peanut butter and has had over 100 different types.  This creates a talking piece in your interview and also is a way to show cultural fit within a company.  Ultimately, people want to work with people they like and can have a fun conversation with.

2. Experience

Experience is not just a title, or what you did, but your professional performance at a position you held.  For example, instead of listing one of your roles as a systems programmer, you can write, “Evaluated automated information systems and major system applications to determine user feasibility.” Notice the WHY you performed the task is clearly stated and important.  Also, try to quantify your experiences as much as you can.  
Examples:
• Developed and programmed web-based applications in PHP/MySQL to improve web interfaces and increase traffic by 12%
• Tested and implemented security software programs, decreasing department viruses by 60%

3. References

Every line of your resume is precious space.  Putting in a line “references upon request” is just a waste of a line.  If you are applying for a professional position supply references upfront.  If you can get letters from your professors or previous employers in a signed PDF expressing your personality and work ethic, you can email them with your resume and application.  This saves the employer a step in reaching out to your contacts and shows that you are prepared and motivated to get the job position.

In closing, all of these tips are just advice.  Some, like no spelling errors, you should strictly adhere to while others, like adding color, is up to you.  Do what you think is best to get the job!  Good Luck!

~Emily