Ralph Andersen & Associates -- executive recruitment, management, finance, and personnel resources -- primarily serving local government

How to Prepare Your Resume
(Professional Resources > How to Prepare Your Resume)

After more than 30 years of providing executive search services to the public sector, we have seen résumés of every type and quality. Our recruiters are frequently asked to critique résumés or to provide advice on their preparation. This report offers general guidelines outlining what we have found important in creating a professional reflection of your experience and abilities.

Employers, and recruiters, want to know about you, not your position. This report suggests that a résumé be factual, impressive, and readable. It should also be tailored to the position you are seeking. It should describe your experience and achievements to stimulate a positive response.

Your résumé is an important item in getting you the position you desire. We hope this report is helpful. Good luck!

Preparing a Résumé

Preparing and submitting your résumé is usually the first step in the recruitment process and your initial opportunity to compete effectively for the position. Remember - you are in competition with others. To help ensure your chances of success, you must present your work experience and personal characteristics in a manner that is both honest and captivating.

Why is Your Résumé Important?

As your first contact, your résumé gives the prospective employer their first impression of you. It is often the primary written vehicle for communicating your experience, accomplishments, and qualifications. Whether it is right or wrong, fair or unfair, the employer or their representatives will draw conclusions about you from your résumé. It will be used to compare you with other applicants and to compare your qualifications with specific criteria for the position. It will leave that critical first impression with those reading it. Your résumé must be effective to make the most of your competitive position.

What Should a Résumé Do?

Your résumé should help you get to the next step in the recruitment process. Your objective is to get the job and, to do so, you need the personal interview step in the recruitment process. Often, the résumé is used as a screening device to narrow down the total applicants to a smaller group. To get to the interview or the next step of the process, your résumé needs to create a favorable first impression and convey specific information about your background and experience.

The appearance of your résumé is important in creating a positive impact. It will suggest whether you are organized and businesslike. It can give indications of your leadership abilities and if you are current in your profession. It will show if your work experience is broad or narrow and if your efforts have resulted in significant accomplishments. It will also give clues about your management and supervisory capabilities and the extent of your career orientation and stability. Your résumé can also provide insights into your personality and perhaps, most important, it can give a clear indication of your interest in the particular position under consideration.

Your résumé needs to give the person reviewing it some reasons for giving you further consideration compared to other applicants for the position. It should put you and your background into perspective for the position. Your résumé should provide a clear, consistent, and understandable profile of your education, previous employers and positions held, other work-related activities and accomplishments.

Why Conduct Initial Research about the Position?

To get the job! The more you know about the position, the better your chances of preparing your résumé and cover letter in a way that best communicates your background and qualifications.

When you do your initial research, your objective should be to develop an understanding of the nature of the community, the scope of the position, and particular issues the organization is facing. No one will expect you to be completely knowledgeable about these matters but gaining insight into them will put you in a better competitive position and will enable you to decide whether to apply for the position.

If it's convenient, you can gain information about a position by making a visit to the community. You can also talk by phone with individuals in the organization or others who may be familiar with the organization. If an executive search firm is involved, you can discuss the position with the recruiter. Any of these methods is appropriate. Exercise good judgment about whom you should talk with in the community or organization. In these conversations, you should leave the impression you are simply collecting information to help you consider the position.

The Résumé

There are some important things to consider as you prepare your résumé:

Using the Résumé Submittal™ feature - We do not anticipate that your professional skills will ideally match multiple positions for which we are currently recruiting. We ask that you be selective in your career search. For this reason, our Résumé Submittal™ feature, allows you to create and store only one version of your résumé at a time. Should you consider more than one position, consider using your cover letter to further tailor your experience to the position. Or, alternatively, use other conventional methods to submit more specific information to us (i.e., e-mail, fax, US Postal Service, or courier service).

Length - How long should your résumé be? There is no right answer; but one page is probably too short and ten pages too long. Depending upon the position, your career experience and background, a résumé of two to four pages is probably about the right length to effectively convey your qualifications.

More important than length, your résumé needs to express in sufficient detail your current and past work experience, education, accomplishments, and personal data so that you leave a favorable impression and that you are an apparent "fit" for the position. After reviewing your résumé, the person doing so should have no questions about how to contact you; where you went to school and what degrees you received; what your current and past work experience consists of, including the name of your current employer, job title and base salary; professional and related activities; and who may be contacted to obtain a current work-related reference.

Content - What you put into your résumé should be based on what questions you anticipate the employer may have. You need to strike a balance between too much and too little. The following rules may guide you and are described in suggested order for inclusion in your résumé.

Basic Information - Make it as easy as possible to contact you. Put your name, address, and home telephone number at the top of the résumé. If we may contact you at work (confidentially, of course) please supply this information. A personal e-mail address is very helpful and cellular phone numbers and pagers are also useful. We no longer request a social security number until later in the process and prefer not to be supplied with this information at the onset of your candidacy. At a later point in the selection process, this information is used to confirm your college degree(s) and obtain other pertinent information.
Work Experience - This is the most important part of your résumé. In general, you should list, in reverse chronological order (starting with the most recent), each position you have held, including your employer's name, position title, dates (month/year to month/year), a brief description of your position, and accomplishments. You need to devote little space to explain commonly known responsibilities for positions such as city manager, police chief, or public works director. You will probably devote more space for positions such as assistant city manager, city engineer, and similar jobs. You should also indicate the size of the budget and number of employees for whom you were responsible. Give brief, illustrative examples of your responsibilities and accomplishments. This is where you have the opportunity to tailor (while being accurate and truthful) your résumé to what the employer is seeking. Indicate your base salary, not the top of your salary range.
Education - Summary information about your undergraduate and graduate education should be included in your résumé. List the name and location of the school, time period or date of degree, the degree received, academic honors, and significant scholarships or fellowships. You may also list any continuing education and significant professional training, but do not list every course or seminar you have attended. In general, the more recently you have attended college, the more education-related information you may want to provide, as you will most likely have relatively less work experience.
Professional Activities - This part of your résumé offers you the opportunity to provide insight into your career development. You should be selective and complete, listing such items as memberships in professional associations and offices held, professional registrations, honors received, and major articles or publications you have authored. Do not list every article or every speech you may have given or every conference you have attended. Emphasize quality - this section of the résumé should help you to demonstrate that you are current and active in your profession.
References - Your résumé should include five current, work-related references. They should include the name and title of the reference, relationship, and their current telephone number. Work-related means they should have some ability to comment on your skills and capabilities. Most often they will include individuals who have served as your supervisor. Friends, relatives, neighbors, and ministers are seldom helpful. Unless you are on a first-name basis and the person will immediately accept reference calls, do not include the President of the United States, Director of the FBI, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, or the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. It may be nice for the search consultant to talk to these people and others with similarly impressive titles, but they are typically not work-related references. If you do not want your references contacted without first notifying you, clearly make that indication (you might also mention it in your cover letter.) Typically, it is our practice to notify you in advance before contacting references and you will be asked to sign a release form giving us permission to do so.
Military Service - Your résumé should include your military service, if any, including rank and the dates you served. If you have had a first career in the military, you should clearly state what your rank and positions were. Trying to "civilianize" a military career is next to impossible.
Miscellaneous - You should use your own judgment about including other information. Some applicants include a listing of their hobbies, membership in service or charitable organizations and similar information. This information can be helpful in giving the reader a more personal view of you, but it can also make you look foolish. Be careful!

Attachments - It is not necessary to attach anything to a résumé if you have prepared it properly. If you decide to attach items to your résumé, you need to be very selective. Letters of reference, transcripts, certificates, newspaper articles, and similar items generally should not be attached to your résumé unless they are particularly appropriate to the position for which you are applying.

Other Information - Do not include a picture on your résumé or as an attachment. Also, you should not give your age, religious affiliation, race, marital status, number of children, or similar information.

Printing - With the almost universal availability of personal computers, laser printers, desktop publishing and the like, nothing short of a customized, error-free résumé is acceptable. Remember, your résumé needs to make a favorable and professional impression with the reader. It should not be commercially printed as this limits your flexibility to tailor the content to each opportunity. An original or clear copy is acceptable. White paper is always appropriate; light gray and beige may be acceptable. Avoid extreme colors, graphics, clip art or non-standard fonts.

Electronic Submittal - If using an electronic submittal (e-mail) for your résumé (other than Ralph Andersen & Associates' Résumé Submittal™ feature), be mindful that the end product may not print or be formatted in the same fashion as you originally intended.

Why Have a Cover Letter?

The cover letter gives you an additional opportunity to tailor your experience and background to the position for which you are applying; don't miss this important opportunity. If you are using our Résumé Submittal™ feature , which only stores one version of your résumé, your cover letter is the place you can tailor information specifically to the position. Your cover letter should address several points: it should clearly express your interest in the position; summarize the relationship between your experience and the position; and leave a positive impression. The cover letter should be no more than two pages in length.

We have prepared this brief summary as a service to potential candidates and to assist you in preparing your résumé as a valuable tool in your job search. A companion report on interview skills is also available. See "Interviewing Tips and Techniques".

Good luck!

For more information call Heather Renschler in the Sacramento Office at (916) 630-4900 or e-mail at heather@ralphandersen.com

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