Creating a Resume

Parent Cafe
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<p>I know there’s been a million posts on this recently with all the recent graduates… but how about some help for a non-recent college graduate? :)</p>

<p>This is going to be a long post but I want to give enough background so that the responses are specific to me.</p>

<p>Been at company for 6 years. Have worked in various departments over that time. (Sales, Service, Enrollments, Training, etc). Contemplating posting for an analyst position on the back end that very rarely ever comes up so I’m sure there will be tough competition and want to submit the best possible resume… I think I’d be really good at it and I think I have a nice mix of experience for the position… but I’ll need a a wow-factor resume to even get my foot in the door.</p>

<p>Some background (for those of you who don’t remember me during college 6+ years ago!) I have a degree in Business Information Systems. Took all of the business courses (accounting, statistics, economics, finance, management, etc) all the techy courses (yes i have a bit of a background in programming), as well as classes like systems analysis, database management, etc. I also dabbled a little bit (ok a lot) in art and finished a few art minors prior to graduating.</p>

<p>I had an analyst position that I did for my internship in college, and also did a lot of that type of work during my job that I had during senior year. Tracking sales, transfering merchanidse to correct stores/areas to maintain the correct balance, making sales projections, etc.</p>

<p>I also am a web designer on the side so I’m very familiar with things like php/sql, etc. Great at querying information. I’m a very analytical person and GREAT with numbers. Math was my favorite “core” subject in school.</p>

<p>So here is my question… How should I go about putting this experience in my resume? I think I should mention my familiarity with the company (this is an internal posting as well as an external posting) and how versed I am in the different areas. I’ll put about being a top preformer, being a great multi tasker, and a quick learner. The fact that I’ve worked there gives me a heads up because I’m familiar with the tasks that they are basically going to be analyzing in this position.</p>

<p>Beyond that, I think I need to highlight what I’ve done in my past positions because they seem more relevent to this one. Will the fact that they are 6+ years ago make them irrelevent? Should I have a technical portion of the resume listing software programs I’m familiar with? I’m not used to creating a resume for this type of position. Should I mention the college courses I took in my cover leter as far as analysis is concerned? We did a large senior project where we had to do swot analysis of major corporations in our college area… We also had a large senior project where we had to do a systems analysis of a big corporation, pinpoint what could be done more/better/different and create a new systems plan for them. My groups always made me play the part of the analyst because that’s my way of thinking. Are college courses taken 6+ years ago irrelevent since I now have real world experience to be listing in place of them?</p>

<p>Thanks in advance for any help or advice you guys can provide. :)</p>

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<p>Well…here’s my distinguished opinion…do your resume…as you would for any job. Then do a cover letter that highlights your experience with the company and your desire to grow and move within the company (and the reasons for applying for this position). I’m not sure you should “merge” the two…but then I don’t work in the private sector so perhaps others who do will comment.</p>

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<p>Thank you thumper, that was quick!! :)</p>

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<p>Well Fender…I could be wrong for private sector work…but that’s my opinion.</p>

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<p>I’m with thumper on this one. I work in biotech (private sector). A typical biotech resume lists positions and brief description of responsibilities and accomplishments for each job held, academic publications, patents, and professional affiliations (e.g., memeber of editorial committee of This and That, collaborator on a grant, etc.). A resume should be somewhat tailored to the position and contain all the right buzzwords from the job ad, because most resumes nowadays are pre-screened by a computer. A cover letter is the place to highlight your special strengths and show the hiring manager why you think you will be the number one candidate for the position. Good luck!</p>

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<p>So basically what I am thinking is… list the last 3-4 jobs and highlight the things I did that pertain to the position I want to post for? And keep it to one page plus a cover letter.</p>

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<p>Since the coursework is at least 6 years old, I would not list it in the resume, just the degree (I’m not sure if you even need to list the gpa since you already worked for a while), but I would mention it in the cover letter (of course, without listing each course). Your programming skills, especially if the job ad mentions that they are a plus or a must, should go on the resume.</p>

<p>Most resumes we get are at least 2 pages long (only fresh grads have 1-page resumes).</p>

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<p>The job description basically talks about database admin and forcasting models and such.</p>