11518 Career Whitepaper Dec r05

7/24/2019 11518 Career Whitepaper Dec r05

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byGary Capone, president,Palladian International LLC.,

in collaboration with

APICS The Association for

Operations Management

Operations ManagementRsum Benchmarking SurveRsum Structure and

Organization

by Gary Capone, president,

Palladian International LLC.,in partnership withAPICS The Association forOperations Management


2/30Palladian | APICS 1

Contents

About the Author 2

Executive Summary 3

Methodology 4

Rsum Structure 5

Format 5

Length 7

Number of Sections 8

Rsum Section Titles 11

Rsum Structure Recommendations 12

Summary Section 13

Objectives 15

Length of the Summary Section 17

Skills 18

Summary Section Recommendations 20

First Line 21

First Word 23

First Line Recommendations 24

Mistakes to Avoid 25

Best Practices 27

RSUM STRUCTUREAND ORGANIZATION



About the authorGary W. Capone, president of Palladian International, LLC, a career coaching

firm in Waynesboro, Virginia that offers rsum assessment, rsum writing, and

interview coaching services. He has authored two books:

Rsum Writing for Manufacturing Careers

Power Up Your Job Search: A Modern Approach to Interview Preparation

Mr. Capone is a graduate of the Management and Technology Program at the

University of Pennsylvania, where he concurrently earned a Bachelor of Science

in Mechanical Engineering and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the

Wharton School of Business. Mr. Capone has experience in manufacturing,

distribution, accounting, finance, recruiting, and human resources, gained from

positions at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Newell Rubbermaid, Kforce, Raymond

James, and Target Corporation.

In 2006, he joined the board of directors of the Blue Ridge Chapter of APICS

and in 2009 was elected Chapter President. Mr. Capone spoke at the 2009 and

2010 APICS International Conferences. In 2010, he became the career coach for

APICSs Ask the Coach in the APICS Career Center at apicscareercenter.org.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR



EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Operations Management Rsum Benchmarking Survey was conducted toprovide a detailed analysis of rsums used in operations management careers. The

survey is intended to help operations management job seekers understand their

competition and avoid common mistakes. The benchmarking survey will also present

best practices on how to design an effective rsum for the operations management

field.

This whitepaper is the first in a series that will present the benchmarking findings.

It deals with issues related to rsum structure. This includes the type of structure,

the sections the job seeker uses to organize their rsum, and how job seekers

should start their rsum. Later whitepapers will focus on specific sections and other

aspects of the rsum.



To conduct the Operations Management Rsum Benchmarking Survey, four hundredrsum documents from active Operations Management job seekers were obtained.

Each document was assessed in detail, and the results of the assessments were

compiled.

In reviewing the four hundred documents, it was found that eleven were not rsums.

These documents contained supporting information a job seeker might submit for

a job, but could not be considered rsums on their own. For example, several job

seekers submitted references letters instead of a rsum. Because these documents

were not rsums, they were discarded from the analysis, and the remaining 389

rsums were benchmarked.

The benchmarking process focused on objective, quantitative measures, wherepossible. Quantifying the attributes of rsums is a challenge. The style and content

of rsums vary significantly. There are no hard and fast rules job seekers must abide

by in rsum writing. Ultimately, a rsum is a personal document of each job seeker.

This makes it challenging to categorize rsums.

One example of the challenge of categorizing rsums was in determining the

structure. The three most common structures for a rsum are chronological,

functional, and a hybrid of the two styles. Determining which category a rsum falls

into is usually easy. Most rsums have chronological formats and clearly fit this

category. There were a number of rsums that fell in between the categories and

were not easily categorized. To ensure a consistent approach to categorizing the

rsums, the same reviewer assessed each rsum.

METHODOLOGY



When examining the structure of the resumes, there are several factors thatinfluence the overall effectiveness of the rsum. The choice of format type, length

of the rsum, number of sections in the rsum and the use of a summary section,

are all important details. Each of these was examined and is detailed in this report.

Format

There are a number of format types for rsums. In operations management, there

are three primary format types: chronological, functional and a hybrid of the two.

Industries outside of operations management utilize other formats. For example,

rsums for government opportunities have a vastly different style and requiresignicantly different information to be included. Rsums for academic roles

are typically in a curriculum vitae (CV) format that also differs from operations

management rsums.

Each format offers advantages and disadvantages. Choosing the right format will

influence the overall effectiveness of your rsum. In operations management, a

chronological format is the most common and usually the most effective.

Chronological: Organized around the work experience section. This section

presents jobs in reverse chronological order, with the most recent job first.

Each listing in the work experience section will include the company name, job

title, dates of employment, a description of the scope of responsibility, andnoteworthy accomplishments and experiences.

Functional: Organized around the skills of the job seeker. Skills are presented

with a description of the job seekers experience and accomplishments with

each skill. The work experience of the job seeker is presented throughout

the various functional sections. This breaks the experience up, rather than

grouping it by job. The functional resume then has a career history section

providing a list of employers, job titles and dates, with little to no additional

information in this section.

Hybrid: A hybrid rsum will have a large functional section detailing the

job seekers experience with key skills, and a work experience section that

includes details of each position. This format combines attributes of both the

chronological and functional rsum.

In the benchmarking survey, we expected most rsums to have a chronological

format. This was found to be the case, with 89.5 percent of rsums in a

chronological format. Hybrid rsums accounted for 6.2 percent of the rsums,

and functional rsums accounted for 3.3 percent. There were three rsums in the

sample that had a CV format, and one rsum that defied classification and could

only be listed as non-standard.

RSUM STRUCTURE



The chronological format is very effective in an operations management career. This

is a good a choice. The hybrid format can also be effective, and there were several

examples of very well-designed and effective hybrid rsums. The functional format

poses some challenges in operations management.

Operations management professionals will typically rely on experience and

accomplishments as their primary justification for being hired. The skills a job seeker

possesses are important, but are usually secondary to the experience of the jobseeker. Hiring managers need to know where you used your skills, how you used them

and what results you achieved. By separating the discussion of skills from the job

where the skills were used, it becomes very difcult to provide a context for the skills.

There are cases where a functional rsum can be effective. These situations arise

when the job seekers skills are more signicant than their experience. This typically

occurs with recent college graduates who dont have much experience and with

individuals making a complete career change where their experience provides little

value to the new career. There are also times when very senior executives can utilize

a functional rsum effectively.

The chronological format is by far the most common. Hiring managers will recognizethe structure easily and it is a very effective way to organize a rsum. This should be

the choice of almost all operations management professionals. As an alternative, the

hybrid format can also be effective for an operations management professional.

RSUM STRUCTURE

Rsum format type

89.5%6.2%

3.3%

0.8%

0.3% Chronological

Hybrid

Functional

CV

Non-standard



LengthIn a prior APICS whitepaper, we looked at rsum length and discussed how the

length of a rsum will inuence its effectiveness. Rsums that are too short will not

have enough detail to sell the job seeker. Rsums that are too long are unlikely to be

read completely, leading the reader to skip large blocks of text. The best option is to

design a rsum in the middle of the range with 400-900 words.

In this benchmarking survey we revisited rsum length, and the results were similar.

Even though the rsums studied in the previous whitepaper were completely

different than the rsums studied in this survey, the average rsum was almost

identical: 753 words versus 748 words. With a larger sample in this survey, we did see

a higher maximum and lower minimum, but other than that, the results were similar.

Results:

Minimum: 149

Maximum: 3,271

Average: 748

Standard Deviation: 330

60 percent of the rsums fell between 445 and 925 words, with 15 percentbelow 445 and 25 percent above 925 words.

Conclusion: An effective length of a rsum is between 400 and 900 words.

Note: Refer to the APICS whitepaper Rsum Formatting Best Practices for more

information on selecting the appropriate rsum length.

RSUM STRUCTURE



Number of SectionsA critical element in the design of a rsum is the divisions and organization of

information. The sections of the rsum provide the organizational structure,

allowing the reader to quickly identify and focus on the information most important

to them. They also provide a signal as what is most important to you. How you

organize your rsum into sections will play a significant role in determining the

effectiveness of your rsum.

The typical rsum had three to six sections, although there were rsums with as

few as one and as high as 14 sections.

The most common rsum sections were work experience and education. Everyrsum in the study had at least one section with work experience information.

Almost all of the rsums had an education section, but there were a few that

omitted this. Despite this, education is a required element for every rsum. Its

difficult to imagine a hiring manager who is not concerned about the educational

background of potential hires, and in operations management, education will be of

interest in every job search.

After these two sections, the next most common type of section was an introductory

section. These sections included information summarizing the job seekers

background, listing key skills of the job seeker, providing the objective of the job

seeker or a combination of these details. 329 of the rsums in the sample, or 85

percent, had some type of introductory section. Of these, 75 percent focused on

summarizing the experience or skills of the job seeker, and 25 percent focused on the

objective of the job seeker.

The next most common section on the rsums was a skills section, with 48 percent

of the rsums including this section. The skills sections often comprised of a list of

buzzwords. Buzzwords can be useful for rsums posted online, as they can help a

rsum show up in database searches. Interestingly, many job seekers placed this

RSUM STRUCTURE

-20

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

Number of rsum sections

Numberofrsums



section at or near the top of their rsum. For job seekers that qualified their skilllevel, this was an effective presentation. For the job seekers who just listed a bunch

of skills, it was not. Anyone can type project management, lean/six sigma, and

budget management on the top of a rsum. Doing so will not set a person apart.

A better tactic would be to provide the list of skills at the end of the resume, where

it doesnt get in the way of the more important details. Even better, qualifying these

skills can make them much more effective. For example, instead of listing Inventory

Management, provide a bullet point such as:

Inventory Management: Implemented a new inventory tracking system that

improved inventory accuracy from 45% to 95% on over $10 million of raw

material and finished goods inventory.

This qualied bullet point drives home an expertise level with inventory management

than can never be conveyed by just listing the keyword.

After the four primary sectionswork experience, education, introduction, and skills

the variability increases dramatically. Job seekers in the survey included sections

with the following information

AffiliationsGroups and organizations where the job seeker is a member

(91 rsums23 percent).

CertificationsList of licenses and certifications the job seeker possesses(69 rsums18 percent).

TrainingProfessional development activities listed separately from

education (53 rsums14 percent).

AccomplishmentsList of major accomplishments from the job seekers

career (26 rsums7 percent).

ReferencesList of references or a statement of available upon request


AwardsList of awards received (16 rsums4 percent).

ProjectsList of major projects the job seeker completed


RSUM STRUCTURE



LanguagesForeign language skills (15 rsums4 percent).

Military Experience or security clearance (7 rsums2 percent).

PublicationsList of publications the job seeker authored

(6 rsums2 percent).

Note that this list of sections is not detailing the total number of rsums including

each type of information, but is showing how many rsums included a dedicated

section for the information. For example, the vast majority of rsums included

projects the job seeker had completed, but only 15 rsums had a dedicated

projects section. Other rsums included projects within other sections.

In addition to this list, there were 117 sections that fell in the miscellaneous

category. These included leadership experience, personal details, hobbies, interests,

community service, teaching experience, public speaking experience, and a wide

range of other topics. Most of the information in these sections was non-career-

related, and of little value.

RSUM STRUCTURE



Rsum Section TitlesTo help job seekers develop ideas for titles for sections, all of the section titles that

appeared on at least two rsums are listed below. Titles were not changed in any

way, so a singular title such as Certification is listed separately from the plural

Certifications. Also, note that many of these section titles are not recommended

for rsums. Sections such as hobbies are unlikely to be beneficial on a rsum.

Although a number of job seekers list personal details, these details do not help

demonstrate the suitability of the job seeker for an operations management job.

Section titles and number of rsums using this title:

RSUM STRUCTURE

Education 255

Professional experience 147Experience 95

Objective 71Summary 56

No title 32

Work experience 32Summary of qualifications 29

Skills 28

Certifications 24

References 21Computer skills 19

Profile 18

Technical skills 17Employment history 16

Career summary 15

Professional affiliations 14Languages 13

Areas of expertise 12

Professional summary 12Activities 11

Career objective 10

Core competencies 10

Professional memberships 10Employment 9

Professional development 9

Additional 8Certification 8

Education and professional development 8

Professional certifications 8Professional profile 8

Relevant experience 8

Accomplishments 7Career history 7

Education and certification 7

Education and certifications 7

Memberships 7Professional associations 7

Awards 6

Education and professional development 6Education and training 6

Other 6

Training 6Affiliations 5

Organizations 5

Professional background 5

Professional organizations 5

Selected accomplishments 5Skills summary 5

Supply chain management 5Academic projects 4

Business experience 4

Education and certifications 4Executive summary 4

Expertise 4

IT skills 4

Membership 4Other experience 4

Professional skills 4

Professional training 4Projects 4

Summary of experience 4

Work history 4Additional experience 3

Additional information 3

Additional training 3Associations 3

Career experience 3

Career highlights 3

Community service 3Computer knowledge 3

Education or certifications 3

Education or training 3Educational background 3

Honors 3

Honors and awards 3Interests 3

Key qualications 3

Operations management experience 3Personal information 3

Professional history 3

Professional qualifications 3

Professional work experience 3Profile summary 3

Qualification summary 3

Qualifications 3Security clearance 3

Supply chain professional 3

Academic and professional credentials 2Achievements 2

Additional professional experience 2

Additional skills 2

Awards and recognitions 2

Background summary 2Career achievements 2

Career profile 2Education and professional training 2

Education and affiliations 2

Education and certification 2Education and credentials 2

Education background 2

Executive prole 2

Experience and achievements 2Formal education 2

Global supply chain executive 2

Highlights of qualifications 2Honors and activities 2

Honors and awards 2

Job history 2Job objective 2

Military service 2

Other skills 2Patents 2

Personal details 2

Personal interests 2

Previous experience 2Professional 2

Professional affiliations and certifications 2

Professional association 2Professional certification 2

Professional competencies 2

Professional membership 2Professional overview 2

Publications 2

Related experience 2Relevant coursework 2

Relevant experience and skills 2

Skills and abilities 2

Software skills 2Specialized skills 2

Strengths 2

Summary experience 2Supply chain executive 2

Technology analyst 2

Training and certifications 2



RSUM STRUCTURE

Rsum Structure Recommendations

Use a chronological or hybrid structure. This is the most common and most

effective in operations management.

Start with an introductory section, and make sure you list work experience

and education sections. After those, include sections for skills, certifications,

accomplishments, or projects. You can also include dedicated sections for

key skills that you want to highlight, such as languages.

When prioritizing your sections, lead with your best selling points. For most

job seekers in operations management, this means starting with a summary

section, followed by work experience, with education and other skills later.

Dont go overboard with sections. Most rsums should have four to sixsections.



A summary section is a great way to start a resume, and most job seekers inoperations management include a summary section. 85% of the resumes surveyed

included an introductory section. Of these, 75% were a summary of the job seekers

background, and 25% were an objective statement.

A summary section gives the reader a quick snapshot of who you are, and it allows

you to make the first impression you want. Without a summary section, the reader

will work to categorize you based on a quick scan of your resume. This categorization

is essential for the hiring manager to determine which job the resume matches. By

leading off with a summary statement that brands the job seeker, you can help the

reader conclude you are a t for the job you are seeking, and move them to the next

step in the evaluationensuring you are a strong enough candidate.

A summary section can do something else important for you. It will allow you to

highlight your most noteworthy and impressive skills and accomplishments. This is

very important if you want to create a strong sales pitch. The average rsum is 750

words, and most rsums are read for only 30 seconds before being rejected. In 30

seconds, the average person can read around 100 words. Thats less than 15 percent

of the rsum. Hiring managers tend to skip around when reading a rsum, and

look for the information that is most important. If you do not help them find the most

important information, they are likely to read lower priority details, and may focus

on details from your background that are not particularly important. This can cause

the reader to skip the most important details. If this happens, your odds of moving on

drop dramatically.

By creating a summary section, you can tailor the message you want to get across

and put all the most important details in one place. This is an excellent strategy.

Although many of the rsums had a summary section, most had little information

that was valuable and impressive. Instead, the rsum provided a list of past

experience and background information in the summary section. Little was

presented to qualify these experiences or to show any past successes. One of the

most important and impressive elements you can include in your rsum is past

achievement. Accomplishments show how you contributed in your past roles. Without

accomplishments, a job seeker appears to be a bottom performer; someone who did

the minimum needed to get by but never added any real value. This obviously does

not make a strong case for hiring the job seeker.

SUMMARY SECTION



In the rsums surveyed, only nine percent included at least one quantified

accomplishment in the summary section. To be considered a quantified

accomplishment, the accomplishment needed to include a description of what the

job seeker improved and how much they improved it. Below are a few examples of

accomplishments from the rsums surveyed:

Drove a continuous improvement program, increasing efficiencies by 35

percent over a two-year period.

Implemented a new material requirements planning (MRP) system leading to

over $1.5 million in inventory reduction.

Improved process yields, reducing material usage by 25 percent.

Designed and implemented a process for rejected material processing,

leading to lower scrap write-offs and a 95 percent reduction in inventory

variances.

Improved delivery performance from 65 percent to 100 percent using value

stream mapping.

These accomplishments are a good start, but most of them could be more specific

and impressive. Each tells only part of the story. To maximize the effectiveness, the

accomplishments need to show your role, what you did, the results you achieved, and

the time frame over which the results occurred. Most of the accomplishments found

in the survey did not do this. For example, one job seeker included a statement that

they had delivered over $100 million in cost reductions. This accomplishment was

likely a lifetime total generated over the job seekers career. It was interesting, but

difficult to assess. How did the job seeker achieve this and how did he arrive at this

figure? Although its a huge number, its not specific enough.

SUMMARY SECTION

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Number of accomplishments

Rsums with accomplishments in thesummary section

Numberofrsums



SUMMARY SECTION

ObjectivesAn objective statement is designed to convey to the hiring manager the job seekers

goals. It is essential to convey the job you are seeking. A hiring manager needs to

know what position to consider you for. Their interests in your goals, at least during

the rsum screening process, end there. Other details of the job seekers goals are

of little value to the reader. Later in the hiring process, the hiring manager is likely

to want to understand the goals of the job seeker in detail, but this is after they have

determined that the job seeker is a fit for the role.

Nearly a quarter of the rsums provided an objective statement. The typical

objective statement was 23 words long, although some were much longer. The

longest was 168 words and provided in great detail the type of job, workingconditions, career potential, and corporate culture the job seeker wanted. Nothing in

the 168-word section gave a reason to hire the job seeker. This is typical of objective

statements. They focus on what the job seeker wants, not what the hiring manager wants.

A rsum is essentially an advertisement for a job seeker. Imagine if advertising

companies included objective statements in their commercials: Seeking car buyers

who want to pay the sticker price, with good credit, a high sense of urgency to buy

now, and a desire to be a repeat customer every two years. Is that going to get you

to head into the showroom? Of course not, and an objective statement is no different.

If you are not sure, read a few of the objective statements from the rsums.

Remember, these statements were the rst thing listed on the rsum. After reading

each, which candidates do you want to learn more about? Below are examples ofobjective statements from operations management rsums:

A senior-level position directing transportation and distribution

operations, reducing costs, integrating operations, and improving

customer service.

Actively seeking the position of master scheduler, which would help

utilize my experience of planning and control skills in improving the

productivity and supply chain of the company.

Advance a global organization in meeting goals and shareholder

expectations in an increasingly complex and volatile economic

environment.

Ambitious, dedicated senior engineering manager with technical and

managerial expertise seeks director position requiring these attributes to

lead optimization of company processes and systems through continuous

improvement and innovative problem solving.



SUMMARY SECTION

An active role in operations using my business skills.

An entry-level career position in engineering, engineering sales,

manufacturing, or similar.

Assist in streamlining business processes by working in supply chain.

Team player who functions well with minimal supervision. Effective

communicator, initiator, self-motivated, and action oriented.

Be reliable to receive growing responsibilities by performing effectively

and efficiently, challenging and valuable assignments related to supply or

materials management.

Career advancement opportunity that will utilize my knowledge

and experience in the elds of logistics, warehouse and inventory

management, production planning, purchasing, and customer service.

Career position with a company where I can make a difference. Out-of-

the-box type thinking. Open to new avenues.

I have extensive experience in manufacturing management, purchasing

management, inventory management, material planning, and sales and

product development.

Continued growth for a supply chain professional with more than 15 yearson-the-job experience, along with APICS CPIM or CSCP designation.

Enhance the companys operations through cost reduction, process

optimization, shortening product introduction time, and improving

internal and external customer satisfaction by utilizing process

improvement, project management, team leadership, and customer

support skills.

Expand my knowledge and experience of supply chain management in a

constant learning environment while working for a stable company with a

good reputation.

Highly driven, dedicated, and well-rounded professional looking to obtain

a position in supply chain management that offers opportunity for career

advancement.

I am seeking a job to improve my personal skills, put me in a good

position to acquire more experience, have challenging career opportunity

in a good corporation, and prove myself in logistics and supply chain

management with new methodology in this field.



SUMMARY SECTION

I am seeking a position with potential for growth in a team-friendlyenvironment where I have the opportunity to connect people together

from all over the world.

I am seeking a supply chain management role within a best practice

organization.

I would like to obtain the opportunity for challenge, professional growth,

leadership and career advancement.

I hope it is clear that the typical objective statement does little to nothing to sell the

job seekers. Despite this, the objectives do have an important goal. They attempt to

convey quickly, at the start of the rsum, the career field the job seeker is pursuing.This is important to convey. The first reader of your rsum will first try to figure out

how to assess you. Most rsums go to a person in HR rst, and this person is likely

recruiting for numerous positions in different fields. Their first task is to figure out

what job to assess your rsum for.

There is an easier and more effective way of conveying your career eld goal. You

can provide a title to your rsum. 18 percent of the rsums in the survey did just

this. The first section of the rsum had a title that was a keyword indicating the

career eld of the job seeker. For example, ve of the rsums titled the summary

section of their rsum Supply Chain Management. This technique is very effective.

Length of the Summary Section

The length of the summary section varied widely. Some people put a short sentence

providing a summary of their experience. Others included incredible detail in their

summary including skills, experience and accomplishments.

Average summary section 94 words

Minimum summary section 6 words

Maximum summary section 552 words

Standard deviation 70 words

In addition to word count, the summary sections varied from less than 1 percent of

the words in the rsum to nearly 50 percent:

Average summary section 12.7 percent



SUMMARY SECTION

Minimum summary section 0.7 percent

Maximum summary section 49.7 percent

The averages, in both words and percentages, are a good guideline to follow. A

summary section that is 10 percent to 20 percent of a typical rsum can contain

enough information to make a strong sales pitch for the job seeker, without being so

long that it gets skipped over.

Skills

Almost every summary section included some statement of the skills of the job

seeker. Including key skills at the top of your rsum is a great tactic. In operations

management, as with most careers, there will be a few skills that are essential,

nonnegotiable requirements for the position. There are likely to be a few other skills

that are highly preferred by the hiring manager. Together, these skills will be used to

differentiate candidates and weed out weaker rsums.

To be effective, you need to demonstrate your skill with all of the requirements and

most, if not all, of the highly preferred skills. A good first step is letting the reader

know at the top of the rsum that you possess the skills.

The number of skills included in the first line of the rsum and in the summarysection, were examined. Below are the results:

There are three ways to list skills at the top of the rsum.

Incorporated naturally:You can include a few skills that you want tohighlight, and incorporate these into the text of your summary statement.

Example:

Successful supply chain manager with twenty years of experience

leading logistics operations.

Qualified list:You can provide a few keywords in a bulleted list with eachkeyword qualied with your experience.

Skills in the first line Skills in the summary section

Average 4.5 19.1

Minimum 0 0

Maximum 26 62



Example:

Leadership: Twenty years of experience leading supply chain

operations. Holds the APICS CSCP designation.

Logistics: Experienced logistics manager with a track record of

cutting costs. Reduced transportation costs in 2010 by $400,000

by implementing an improved backhaul strategy.

Keyword dump:You can list, in sentences or in a bulleted list, as many keywordsas you can.

Example:

Logistics, Supply Chain Management, Lean/Six Sigma,

Supplier Relationship Management, Capital Equipment

Acquisition, Inventory Control, Strategic Sourcing ,

Contract Negotiations, Quality Assurance, Vendor

Performance, International Trade , ISO 9000, Contract

Management, Budget Development, Variance Analysis,

Process Management, Inventory Optimization, Training

and Presentations

Of the three options, the qualified list provides the strongest presentation. It lists

the skills and backs them up with an example of the job seekers experience with theskills. The keyword dump tactic is unlikely to be effective. Try to imagine the hiring

manager that is going to get excited because there are thirty or forty industry terms

at the top of a rsum. Its just not going to happen.

The top of the rsum is extremely valuable real estate. It is the place where hiring

managers start reading. If you provide information of little value, they will quickly

skip the top and jump to other sections. As they skip around, they may skip over your

most impressive attributes.

You want to make it clear what you bring to the table and emphasize a few key skills.

The averages are a good guideline to follow. Include four or five terms in the first line

of your rsum. Then provide another line or two summarizing your background and

a few bullet points listing key skills, and qualifying your skill level. This is likely to lead

to a total number of skills in the 15-25 range, and should be effective.

With this presentation, make sure you emphasize a few key skills, typically three to

five major skills. The rest of the skills in the section are supporting these key skills.

For example, in the qualied list example, Logistics is provided as a key skill, and

within the qualification statement, it discusses backhaul strategies as a supporting

skill. This additional skill helps reinforce the overall goal of demonstrating that the job

seeker is a logistics and supply chain expert.

SUMMARY SECTION



SUMMARY SECTION

Does this mean a mass dump of keywords isnt valuable? No, there are times whena keyword list can be helpful. If you post your rsum to a database, it is important

to have the right keywords so you appear in searches. To do this, consider adding

a keyword list (typically called a skills section) to the bottom of your rsum. This

information is designed for the database to read, not the hiring manager. It should

not be at the top of the rsum.

Summary Section Recommendations

1. A summary section should start your rsum. Although this is not a required

element of a rsum, it makes a strong presentation.

2. A summary section should be a small summary of the rsum, totaling 10-20

percent of the total length (75-150 words).

3. Include specific accomplishments in your summary section demonstrating

your past successes.

4. Minimize your objective and focus on details important to the hiring

manager, not you. Often, using a job title as the title of a rsum can be a

good way to brand yourself while conveying your objective.

5. When listing skills in the summary section, qualify your skill level. This can bedone by showing your years of experience with the skill, projects where you

have used the skill, or with accomplishments where the skill allowed you to

succeed.



FIRST LINE

How do you start your rsum? If you have ever struggled to find the right words to kickoff the first line of your summary section, you are not alone. The first line is likely to be

one of the first and most read elements of the rsum. It is important to make the right

impression. The first line of your rsum starts to create a brand for who you are and why

you should be hired.

It is impossible to write a single line that will cause you to be hired. Your goal with the rst

line, as well as with the summary section and rsum as a whole, is to generate interest

in you and create a positive impression of how you can do the job. There are numerous

ways to do this. The first line of the rsum can focus on any aspect of the job seeker.

Most people focus on their skills. Others focus on their experience level. Some provide

their objective. In operations management, emphasizing an APICS Certified in Production

and Inventory Management (CPIM) or APICS Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP)designation is common.

To get an idea of how job seekers start their rsums, fteen examples from the rsums

in the survey are listed below. Each example is the rst sentence from a rsum.

Diverse experience in business strategy, operations and project management.

15+ years of experience of leadership, in diverse operational environments

including production control, procurement, transportation, logistics,

manufacturing, and maintenance.

Supply chain professional with numerous years of global experience withcompanies in chemical, container, packaging, and steel industries.

Accomplished, goal-oriented supply chain management professional with over 25

years of proven success in roles of increasing responsibility.

APICS certied professional with more than 25 years experience in the areas

of supply chain management, purchasing, planning, sourcing, forecasting, and

operation.

Dedicated management professional eager to contribute extensive supply

chain, logistics, and procurement expertise toward supporting the employer in

optimizing bottom-line performance.

Distribution manager with extraordinary achievements in operations, cost

reduction, and project management.

Highly accomplished manager with over 20 years of experience leading all

aspects of manufacturing and operations.



Highly accomplished supply chain management professional with a successful

track record of contract negotiations, organizational needs assessment, strategyexecution, new supplier implementation, and supply chain improvements.

Results-driven operations leader and APICS Certied in Production and Inventory

Management (CPIM) with extensive experience developing and implementing

strategic supply chain solutions.

Seeking a challenging position in the field of supply chain, logistics, or operations

management.

Senior leader with an MBA, APICS CPIM and CSCP designations, and 20 years

of materials management experience in start-up and high growth biotech and

pharmaceutical manufacturing environments.

Supply chain professional with 20 years experience with companies ranging from

Fortune 500s to start-ups in procurement or materials management.

To find a strategic position improving functional processes through an end-to-

end supply chain utilizing my hands-on experience and ability to analyze and

summarize large data sets.

Visionary leader and manager with more than 20 years of hands-on experience

contributing to better corporate performance by building effective teams, solving

complex problems, improving processes and skillfully aligning resources with

corporate objectives.

Of these fteen examples, which grab your attention? This question cannot be answered

with a single right answer. Any of these lines could be effective, or ineffective. For example,

the third line lists the industries chemical, container, packaging, and steel. If the hiring

manager is looking for someone with a chemical and packaging industry background, this

will grab their attention. If the hiring manager is looking for someone out of the medical

device industry, the candidate is likely to be rejected because the candidate does not have

the proper industry background.

The same thing can be said for virtually every word in the statements above. If your

rsum reflects the profile the hiring manager is looking for, you will be successful. If itdoes not, you wont be successful. This prole will combine your experience, skills, and

education.

Your goal with the rst line of your rsum is to start aligning your background to the

goals of the hiring manager. You need to choose the elements to emphasize that will

resonate with the hiring manager. This requires researching the position as much as

possible. The more you can learn about the position and the hiring manager, the better

your odds of making a strong impression.

FIRST LINE



First WordEach person will bring a different combination of skills, abilities, and talents to a job.

This combination will include dozens, if not hundreds of qualities. Your choice of what

to emphasize will influence the overall impression you want to create. Do you focus

on your analytical or leaderships skills? Your technical or communications skills?

Your lean experience or your negotiation skills? Your cost improvement experience

or your work ethic? The choices are too numerous to list.

You do need to focus and specialize. You cannot claim to be exceptional in everything

or you wont be credible.

The first word or two of a rsum gives some insight into the qualities that jobseekers believe are important. Below is a list of some of the words used to start

rsums. Use this to help brainstorm about what you want to emphasize in your

rsum. There is no right answer. It is your choice as to the brand you want to create.

Just remember, the brand you create will be effective when it matches the image the

hiring manager has for the ideal candidate for the position.

FIRST LINE

AccomplishedAchievement-OrientedActiveActively

AdeptAdvanceAdvancingAmbitiousAnalyticalAssistBilingualConsummateContinuedContinuousCorporateCurrentlyDedicatedDemonstratedDetail

Detail-orientedDistributionDiverseDrivenDynamicElectricalEnergeticEnhanceEnthusiasticEntry levelEnvision

ExcellentExpandExperienceExperienced

ExpertExtensiveFastFinancialFocusedFortune 500Forward-thinkingFull-timeGlobalHands-onHigh-ImpactHighlyIndustrialInnovativeKnowledgeable

LeadingLogistics/supply chainManagedMasterMemberMotivatedMRP/ERPOrganizedOutstandingPolishedPrinciple

ProfessionalProgressiveProvenRecognized

RespectedResponsibleResultsResults-drivenResults-orientedS&OPSavvySeasonedSelf-motivatedSelf-starterSeniorSolidSolutionsSolutions-focusedSpirited

StrategicStrengthsStrongSuccessfulSuccessfullyTalentedVersatileVeteranVibrantVisionary



FIRST LINE

First Line Recommendations1. Design the first line of your rsum to provide an overall brand for you.

It should summarize the most important elements of your background.

2.Focus on skills and experiences that are most important to

the hiring manager.

3. Emphasize qualities that relate to the core of the position you are seeking.



MISTAKES TO AVOID

Many of the rsums in the survey contained mistakes. This is typical. Few jobseekers devote significant time and energy to developing their rsum writing skills

over their careers. They write a rsum when they need a job and forget about it the

rest of the time. A consequence of this is that rsums typically contain mistakes that

hurt the effectiveness of the rsum.

Some of the mistakes should be obvious after reading this survey report. The

major focal points of the benchmarking survey identified common mistakes and

recommendations. These have already been covered throughout the report. There

are other mistakes that were noticed during the survey. These related to details that

were not surveyed across all rsums. Instead, when a mistake was identified that fell

outside the scope of the survey, it was noted. Some of these are listed below.

Pontificating:Several of the rsums included statements in the summarysection detailing how the job seeker thinks a business should be run. For

example, one rsum detailed the priorities the hiring manager should use

to make a hiring decision. The rsum explained the proper prioritization

of experience, education, and skills for the position. It is never a good idea to

start your sales pitch by telling the hiring manager how do their job. Focus on

what you bring to the table.

Hiding dates:Some job seekers omitted critical information such as datesof employment. These omissions tended to highlight the information that

was missing. If the job seekers were trying to hide a gap in employment, they

ended up doing the opposite by drawing attention to the omitted information.

Objective too detailed:If you choose to include an objective, do not make alot of demands. Some of the rsums provided a long list of requirements the

job seeker wants in a position. Its okay to describe a career field, but you do

not want to appear demanding or unreasonable.

Accomplishments without results:A number of rsums startedwith an accomplishments section. This can be very effective, since the

accomplishments show specific contributions and successes. Some of these

sections failed to include results. For example, one rsum starting with an

accomplishment section had seventeen separate bullet points. None showed

a tangible, quantified result. All of them were of the form proven ability to

lead projects on time and under budget. This may imply past success, but it

doesnt specifically show past success.

Colored text:A few of the rsums used colored text or highlighting. In everycase, the formatting was very distracting. Stick with black text and a white

background.



Too many short phrases:One rsum used short phrases exclusively. Therewasnt a line on the entire rsum that was more eight words. Being conciseis essential in a rsum, but carrying this too far will lead to a rsum that

doesnt say anything. There are experiences and accomplishments that

cannot be fully explained with a ve to eight word phrase. For these, adding

more text is essential.

Class listings: For recent college graduates, it can be difficult to providereasons why you are better than other recent graduates. Without work

experience, there just isnt a lot to put on a rsum. Many of the recent

graduates listed noteworthy classes. This can be very effective, but it

requires adding why the class is noteworthy. One rsum listed a dozen class

numbers. MGT540 doesnt mean anything without an explanation of whatthis class is. If you list classes, provide some detail as to why the class is

important starting with the class title. Listing class numbers by themselves is

a waste of time.

Check spelling for text in all caps : In Microsoft Word, the spell-checkerfunction does not work when the text is typed in all capital letters. If you use

all caps, make sure you check the spelling of the words. Some rsums with

all caps contained numerous spelling mistakes.

Acronyms: One rsum included 19 different acronyms in a list at the top ofthe rsum. A few of these were recognizable, but many were not. Even for

the acronyms that were recognizable, there was a chance they could havemeant something else. Virtually every three- or four-letter acronym will

have more than one meaning depending on the industry. Listing acronyms,

especially 19 of them at once, is at best a waste of time. Anyone can list

a bunch of acronyms on their rsum. Doing so will not impress a hiring

manager.

Secure PDF:One rsum in the sample was setup as a secure PDF. Thesecurity made it impossible to print the le or copy the text of the le. This is

a great feature if you want to protect a propriety document, but it is a huge

mistake for rsum. A hiring manager is likely to want to print your rsum

when you go for an interview. Others prefer screening candidates with

hardcopies of the rsums.

MISTAKES TO AVOID



Rsum structure

Use a chronological or hybrid structure. These are the most common and

most effective structures in operations management.

Start with an introductory section, and make sure you have a work

experience and education section. After those, include sections for skills,

certications, accomplishments, or projects. You can also include dedicated

sections for key skills that you want to highlight, such as languages.

When prioritizing your sections, lead with your best selling points. For most

job seekers in operations management, this means starting with a summary

section, followed by work experience, with education and other skills later.

Dont go overboard with sections. Most rsums should have four to six

sections.

Summary section

A summary section should start your rsum. Although this is not a required

element of a rsum, it makes a strong presentation.

A summary section should be a small summary of the rsum, totaling 10-20

percent of the total length (75-150 words).

Include specific accomplishments in your summary section demonstrating

your past successes.

Minimize your objective and focus on details important to the hiring manager,

not you. Often, using a job title as the title of a rsum can be a good way to

brand yourself while conveying your objective.

When listing skills in the summary section, qualify your skill level. This can be

done by showing your years of experience with the skill, projects where you

have used the skill, or with accomplishments where the skill allowed you to

succeed.

BEST PRACTICES



First line

Design the first line of your rsum to provide an overall brand for you. It

should summarize the most important elements of your background.

Focus on skills and experiences that are most important to the hiring

manager.

Emphasize qualities that relate to the core of the position you are seeking.

In addition to these best practices, a few other recommendations were identified.

These were elements that stood out because they were very effective.

Temporary job explanation: One rsum of a job seeker who had been laidoff from a supply chain management position listed the most recent job as an

hourly retail position. Many job seekers will try to embellish such a position.

This job seeker provided one bullet point that was very effective. It simply

said that the position was a bridge position until the job seeker could move

into a more challenging supply chain role. It was a very honest and effective

way of explaining the role.

Multiple summary sections: Including a summary section is a very effectivestrategy on a rsum. Some job seekers took this to another level. They

included more than one summary section. The effectiveness of this varied.

Some were very effective, while others were confusing and ineffective. Theones that were effective tended to have two summary sections. The first

provided an overview of the job seekers background. The second focused

on a specific aspect of the background, such as a few related skills. This

presentation was very effective in some cases.

Bulleted lists:Some of the rsums used detailed bulleted lists in thesummary section, with each list element providing a complete idea. Each

bullet was one to two sentences long. This style provided great detail and was

much easier to read than long paragraphs.

BEST PRACTICES


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About PalladianPalladian International is led by individuals experienced with recruiting and hiring,

both within corporations and recruiting agencies. We understand what makes a job

seeker successful and how most job seekers make mistakes to kill opportunities.

We developed a suite of coaching services to help job seekers stand out from the

competition. We also publish instructional guides to help job seekers learn the skills

they need to be successful in a job search.

Contact Us:

105-A Lew Dewitt Blvd.

Suite 197

Waynesboro, VA 22980

P (866) 766-8447

F (703) 651-3072

[email protected]

www.palladianinternational.com

About APICS

APICS The Association for Operations Management is the global leader and premier

source of the body of knowledge in operations management, including production,

inventory, supply chain, materials management, purchasing, and logistics. Since

1957, individuals and companies have relied on APICS for its superior training,

internationally recognized certifications, comprehensive resources, and worldwide

network of accomplished industry professionals.

Contact Us:

8430 West Bryn Mawr Avenue

Suite 1000

Chicago, IL 60631 USA

P (773) 867-1777

TF (800) 444-2742

apics.org

APICS Mission

APICS builds knowledge and skills in operations management professionals to

enhance and validate abilities and accelerate careers. We help our members and

their organizations successfully compete and build a stronger global economy.

ABOUT PALLADIANAND APICS

11518 Career Whitepaper Dec r05

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Transcript of 11518 Career Whitepaper Dec r05