RESUME "FAILS" & FIXES

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Special Formatting for ADPR Resumes

Resumes in advertising and public relations fields tend to be held to higher standards of of layout/formatting than those in other fields, because candidates need to demonstrate their professional knowledge of visual communication, type, writing, and graphics. For info on basic content development, Career Services and the ADPR tutorial on this site can be helpful. For info on ADPR resume formatting needs, this website is an important supplement to Career Services. For example, an office administrator can get away with using Times Roman font in a resume and can break rules of alignment and grid layout. They don't have to worry about kerning large type, such as the name at the top of the page. However, an ADPR resume must reflect special knowledge of the field in areas such as type layout and design.
 

• Public Relations resumes tend to reflect a business style ranging from conservative to a little flair.

• Creative advertising resumes can show creativity while effectively communicating
  (see the collection at Enhancev.com).

• Both should effectively communicate the candidate's abilities to perform the particular job sought.

• Both should reflect foundational principles of typography and layout hat are required knowledge in ADPR fields.

 

Does your resume pass "The Six Second Test?"
An employer will spend seven seconds, on average, viewing each resume, according a 2018 Ladder study. That's an improvement over the previous six-second findings widely quoted on the Web. Suffice it to say, there's little time to impress. Recent grad resumes should be no longer than one well-organized page, easy to scan. Hundreds of resumes might be in a stack with yours. An employer's task is to disqualify most of them upon first glance and hold on to the strong ones. Of course, if your primary job search method is networking (which is the most effective approach), you won't need to compete with hundreds of resumes on job boards. However, it's still a good idea to have a strong competitive resume that can be quickly scanned by a busy employer.

Common Content Mistakes

 

One of the most common mistakes recent college graduates tend to make is
to use a standard chronological resume. A chronological style resume focuses on all the employment a student has had, from babysitting on up.  It's true that jobs in childcare, restaurant service, merchandising, and other areas reflect valuable skills, and they can be briefly listed on your resume. However, they do not reflect the skills in advertising and public relations that students have acquired through school work, internships, freelancing, jobs, and other activities, which would qualify them for jobs. Most urgently, your resume should show an employer that you can perform a particular job they need done today--for example, write a press release using A.P. style, use Photoshop to correct the color balance of an image, etc. "Chronological" resumes are limited in showing this.

On the extreme other end of the spectrum is the "functional" style resume, which focuses primarily on skills and qualifications without supplying context. For example, a candidate might list "page layout" as a skill, but what if the page layout project was completed in third grade? Functional resumes that isolate skills from context can make employers leery because they may be unclear about where/how particular skills were obtained and practiced. So what's the solution?

Solution: The "Combination Resume"

The recommended "combination resume" format fuses chronological information with skills and qualifications learned in jobs, internships, classroom projects, and other activities. The "combination resume" is widely considered to be the best resume format for college students, because recent grads don't have an extensive job history in their field. See "Resume Tutorials & Samples" for examples of "combination" resumes. They typically include the info below:

 

• a profile or objective, which gives focus to the resume from the start, like the headline of an ad.

• qualifications or accomplishments (relating to the job for which you're applying)

• hard skills (like "Google Analytics, Photoshop, etc.--list the most important first and MS Office LAST).

• soft skills are lower priority, should be brief if featured at all, and can be included at the end of a resume or skill set (e.g., self-directed, goal-oriented, team player).

• related experience (the most recent first) with responsibilities listed

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A resume is an advertisement--not just a job history.
Target your audience and position. Remember that a resume is an advertisement of you (a truthful one) marketing you as a strong person for a particular job. The more carefully a resume targets its audience to fill specific needs, the more successful it will be. The resume is not simply an exhaustive job history or a general list of everything you can do in life. Your resume should be customized for each position you seek (see job search strategies and tactics)

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Online Portfolio Link​
Your resume will likely contain a link to an online portfolio of work that provides proof of those capabilities identified in your resume. Combined, these materials can show that the grad is qualified for the job, even if they have never been employed in the field before.

 

We don't care about your favorite colors. :-)

Would you create a car ad with a pink background just because it's your favorite color? Probably not. Yet, some students will choose their favorite colors and fonts for their resumes, even if they're not the most professional choices. When choosing the graphic style of your resume, consider audience and industry first.

Resume Styles for Specific Fields
 

• Public Relations resumes tend to reflect a business style ranging from conservative to a little flair.

• Creative advertising resumes can show creativity while effectively communicating
  (see the collection at Enhancev.com).

• Both should effectively communicate the candidate's abilities to do a particular job.

• Your resume should be customized for each position you seek (see job search strategies and tactics)

Tips & Disqualifiers

Here are some important resume-writing tips to employ and quick disqualifiers to avoid when writing your resume. Many of these surprise students, so they're worth a look.
 

How to Use Your Resume

The best use of a resume is after you've met an employer (see job search strategies and tactics).
The goal of your resume is to get an interview--to get you face-to-face in a room with a person who could hire you. The sooner you get face-to-face with people, the more successful your job search can be. Networking establishes a relationship that might be followed by an invitation to "send me your resume," at which point you can tailor the document to meet the needs you have learned about in conversation. This way, you won't be competing with hundreds of other strangers on a job board. The vast majority of jobs are acquired through networking, according to this Washington Post article that quotes the U.S. Bureau of Statistics.