Resuming your Resume Editing
By now, you’re starting to revise or develop your resume! (hint hint) It’s hard to get it down to 1–2 pages, but it is possible.
Here, I want to give you some suggestions and guidelines to writing a strong resume that will get you around the balance of being overly vague and overly specialized. I only cover a few elements here, leaving you to find examples of how to talk about your professional experience and other dimensions of yourself/resume.
Value Statement
The thing to keep in mind: jobs in media and communication industries want to hire a specialist that can fulfill the role of a generalist (and not the other way around). That means balancing what you can do as a specialist, and what basic skills you have that are necessary to working in a team. This is true of EVERY.POSSIBLE.INDUSTRY.EVER. Applying to a PR job at a university? “I am a public relations person” isn’t good enough. “I am a public relations specialist with experience in higher education, focused primarily on student life and related services.” See how that’s different — your specialization is in student life, but you understand how to do PR in a university.
Say that I’m applying for a job as a political analyst. This is what I would write as my value statement:
I am a qualitative and quantitative media scientist with 5 years of experience in political analysis, specifically in survey, ethnographic, and big data methods for evaluating the transnational social penetration of radicalized conservative ideology. My career has emphasized the necessity of mixed-methods research about class, gender, and race in policy development focused on developing a better society.
One of the key things about the value statement is that it lists your core skills as key to supporting your values.
Core Strengths
The first rule of core strengths: don’t talk about core strengths that don’t require any training. So, for instance, you should not include “Microsoft Office.” That is a given in today’s workplace. But you can use something more specific if you actually have the skills. If you include a skill on your resume, you should be prepared to show a piece of work that proves you can do that thing.
So here’s an example of my core strengths
- Big Data, Quantitative, and Qualitative Research Design
- Advanced formula and table use across Microsoft Office Applications, including the use of Macros
- Data Science in Python and R
- Team-based Research Project Management and Supervision
See how I got around that pesky MSWord problem? Not only did I not include the obvious thing that every HR and Hiring Manager is tired of seeing, but I’ve also set myself ahead of the crowd by saying I can actually use ALL of the power of MSOffice/365/366/whatever.
The final crusade I have is against including the words “detail oriented” in your strengths or anywhere else in your resume, for two reasons. First, if you say “detail oriented,” and you have any mistakes in spelling, formatting, etc., you’ve just made a fool of yourself. Second, everyone who is detail oriented demonstrates it with the meticulous construction of job materials. In other words, I can tell if you are detail oriented based on your materials, I don’t need you to do that evaluation for me. The same thing goes with “strong leadership skills.” I can tell if you have those based on what you talk about in your resume and/or cover letter. If you say “strong leadership skills” and don’t have any leadership experience in the industry you’re applying to, you’ve effectively cut yourself out of an application review.
Education + Awards
The final set of hints.
Education: Your degree is the obvious thing to list, typically with the date first. If you plan on graduating in 2020, it should be clear in your resume. Do not worry about getting down to the month, the year is fine. If you’ve already graduated, the date comes after your degree. Like this:
Expected in 2020 — Bachelor’s of Arts in Media and Communication Studies
BA, Media and Communication Studies. University of Maryland, Baltimore County (2017).
It is true that this may remove you from the running for some professional level jobs. But the thing to keep in mind is that your choice after the resume reviews and interviews would be to tell them (they would feel deceived and you wouldn’t get the job) or maintain the lie (which they would learn via social media and fire you).
One thing people frequently ask is if they should include specific classes. The answer is a resounding no from the folks I’ve talked to. They don’t care.
If you are a double major, you should combine like degrees. If you’re an MCS and GWST double major, it should look like
BA in Media and Communication Studies and American Studies
If you’re an MCS and Computer Science Major, you would include them separately like
BA in Media and Communication Studies, UMBC (2017)
BS in Computer Science, UMBC (2017)
If you have any certifications — things like the Microsoft Core Services or Adobe Certified Web and Application Designer — you will list these certificates as though they’re degrees. Certificates come with a, well, certificate. Don’t claim that you have one if you don’t (obvious), because they will ask you for the certificate. If they find that you don’t have it, they can report you to Microsoft or Adobe, who then have disciplinary legal apparatuses to punish you.
Finally, there is a hot debate about awards. To be frank: no one cares about your GPA (unless you’re applying to grad school), and likewise no one cares that you were on the dean’s list. The awards section is for awards that you would want to get advanced versions of in your career. So, if you received an undergraduate research award for a project that would be understood in your career path, you would include it: “Undergraduate Research Award, TITLE HERE.” If you write an undergraduate thesis as part of an independent study, you might include it here if it is selected for publication and is relevant to your career path. If it is not relevant to the job you are applying for DO NOT INCLUDE IT. You’ll be eating up useful space that could be dedicated to real material.
Conclusion
Resumes are hard to write. If you’re writing a CV, come talk to me or shoot me an email. They’re harder (at least for undergraduates). Good luck!
