50 resume questions answered by Yana Parker, author of The Damn Good Resume Guide

LIST OF ALL 52 QUESTIONS

Questions 1-10 -- 11-20 -- 21-30-- 31-40 (below) -- 41-50 -- 51.. 52

31. Which tense do I use, past or present?

32. What salary do I put on my resume?

33. Should CPR certification go on my non-medical resume?

34. What do I have to do to make my resume faxable?

35. Isn't it LYING if I change my job title to fit my job responsibilities?

36. My resume makes me look overqualified, how do I tone it down?

37. What advice can you give me about advertising my new resume service?

38. Does your resume software have any graphics?

39. My dad has worked in other countries all his life, what do I put on his resume?

40. I worked at one job for 9 years and have no other job experience, what do I do?

31. "I have been writing resumes for family and friends for over fifteen years. I have enjoyed using your books as a guide over the years. In reviewing other resume books, I am confused about the grammar hang-ups on resumes. I have always been taught to use the same "tenses" within the resume, whether the job is current or not. My questions is as follows:

Should the current duties be in the past or present tense?

a. past tense:

1994 - Present Gold Productions, Inc. (i.e. Served as on-call counselor....)

b. Present tense:

1994 - Present Gold Productions, Inc. (i.e. Serve as on-call counselor...)

Is it okay to switch tenses within a resume? How do employers view this major grammar hang-up among resume writers?"--Deborah

Dear Deborah, This is One of Those Questions! I have an OPINION and a PREFERENCE, which is that everything on the resume be in PAST TENSE, even if it refers to activities one is CURRENTLY still doing. To me this just seems like "common sense" but clearly there are equally as many folks who believe the CURRENT job should be described in PRESENT tense. I think that approach gets confusing, because SOME of the things you do/did on the current job may actually be in the past and not part of your current duties, while others ARE currently active duties. In EITHER case, you HAVE DONE them--ALL of them--in the past even if the past is yesterday! In cases where it's important to distinguish which is which, you COULD say, "Currently managing a team of ..."

So that's MY view. It's not the RIGHT view, it's just MY view.

But how do EMPLOYERS view this "grammar hang-up among resume writers"? My experience with employers is that THEY CAN'T AGREE ON ANYTHING any more than WE can.

So do whatever feels right to you. Somebody will agree with you, and somebody won't. -- Yana

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32."I read your excerpt on "salary history" and I found it very helpful. My question is, would it apply the same for salary requirements? I'm just starting to apply for "real" jobs (since I'm about to graduate) and really don't have much experience with a job that will actually offer a salary and benefits, so I really don't know how to answer this question. I don't want them to think I'm clueless about this. When in fact, I am.

Another question would be, what is the format for listing salary requirement?

Where should I include it? Is it part of my cover letter? I really couldn't find anywhere a sample "salary requirement;" maybe you can help.

The reason behind the question is just about the same whether an employer inquires about your "salary history" or your "salary requirements." Either way, you put yourself at a great disadvantage if you respond with a dollar figure, especially without having a clue about what the "going rate" is for new graduates in your field.

So the FIRST thing you need to do is eliminate the guess-work with some hard research, the more the better. The more you prepare for the interview, with knowledge about what is reasonable to expect for a starting salary in your field, the better you'll fare in salary negotiations. (And remember, stall and hedge and make THEM state a dollar-figure FIRST.)

Where to find out about salaries? Check out the info on the internet at the JOBSTAR website, which has one of the BEST collections of salary surveys available anywhere. It's at http://jobstar.org and the salary info is accessible right from the top page.

AND of course check with your college instructors and fellow-graduates and anybody you know (or can get referred to) who works in that field. Salary is just ONE of the questions you can ask such a person, in what is popularly called an "informational interview"* -- where you aren't fishing for a job, but you ARE asking for help in demystifying the employment conditions in your target field.

*Be sure to look at my Guidelines for Informational Interviewing.

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33."Is CPR certification something that should go on a non-medical resume, and if so, under which heading?"--Kelley

Kelley, the key point is:
EVERYTHING on a resume is there for a reason.
Everything, however small and insignificant, creates an impact and has a message.
So the question isn't a matter of "What's the RULE here?", but what works and what doesn't.

In GENERAL, most of the time, if an item is NOT RELEVANT to the job objective, it probably doesn't go on THAT resume. (For example, my son is a plumber and also a rock musician. He has two TOTALLY DIFFERENT resumes and nothing but his name, address, and phone number are the same on both resumes! It's an extreme example, but you get the point.)

SO ... ask yourself, "What am I saying by putting "CPR" on this non-medical resume?" (or hoping will be read into it?)
It says several different things IN ADDITION to "this guy can get your heart jump-started if need be."
Depending on the context, it COULD be saying, for example:
"This person takes an interest in his community and is available for community emergencies."
Or it COULD be saying:
"This person is interested in continuously upgrading his skills." (especially if there are more such things on the resume)
OR, it could be saying:
"This person doesn't think they have enough qualifications for the job so they're putting in everything they can think of."

So .. IT ALL DEPENDS. Generally, probably leave it off.
BUT, if you think it conveys something that would favorably impress the recipient (perhaps indirectly) to call me in for an interview, then go for it.
That's MY opinion. For what it's worth. Back to the top of this page
34. "What do I have to do to make my resume faxable? People are telling me it doesn't come out well on their fax machine -- they don't like the graphic boxes and they say the font is too small. What are the guidelines about this?"--Patricia
Patricia, you have to keep in mind that fax machines can be set for high or low resolution, and the receiver of your resume may have their machine set for the lower resolution. Also, on the other end, your resume may get photo-copied as WELL as go through the fax machine, so you want your original to be as clear and easily-readable as possible.

First, get rid of any shading and graphic elements. Stick to TEXT only. Then pick a highly readable, crisp font in a size at least 11 points. (Ten-point Times, for example, is very tiny and very condensed, and will NOT work at all well in a faxed document.)

If you think the receiver may ALSO be interested in SCANNING your resume into a database, avoid any fancy formatting such as multiple indentations, and omit italics and underlining. Bolding is usually okay, though some folks even say to avoid THAT.

It's painful to give up all the lovely formatting and graphics that make a resume attractive to the human reader, but we DO have to accommodate technology here. The trade-off is, you don't have to try to squeeze everything onto one page for the scannable resumes because the computer doesn't CARE how long the resume is. For the faxable resume, I'd stick to a MAXIMUM of two pages, a minimum of 11-point font, and lots of white space. - Yana Back to the top of this page
35. "I believe on Tip #12, you said, "When you list your job title on the resume, either replace it with a more appropriate job title (say "Office Manager" instead of "Administrative Assistant" if that's more realistic) or use their job title and your fairer one together, i.e. "Administrative Assistant (Office Manager)". Is this an industry practice in resume writing? Isn't this like telling a lie? Just curious."--David C.
Good question!
Okay, No I did NOT mean to LIE. I meant that if your job title in effect does NOT TELL THE TRUTH about your level of responsibility, then you could modify it so it is MORE accurate, more fair to you.
Say, you have an Administrative Assistant job title, and in fact you are responsible for running the whole office -- I think it would be more informative and HONEST to say: Admin. Asst./Office Manager or Office Manager/Admin. Asst. on your resume. This may well not be "industry practice," but when industry practice is not fair or reasonable you have to take the initiative to look out for your best interests and assert your value.--Yana Back to the top of this page
36. "I've been in human resources management for 12 years in the San Diego area. I want to stay here, so I'm willing to take a lower level job in my field, since that's all that's available right now. But people tell me that I look overqualified when I apply for a lower-level job and list my most recent position of "Consultant" on my resume. What should I do?"-- Sherwin

Dear Sherwin,
You could keep your resume honest yet toned-down by changing the "Employment History" section to "Relevant Experience" and then listing the job titles a little differently.

Let's say the job you're applying for is Recruiter, and that's ONE of the areas of work that was included in your "Consultant" job. You could list THAT position (under your "Relevant Experience" heading as:
Recruiter/Consultant. Then you could look at each of your earlier jobs in the same way, pulling out whatever function of each job was most relevant to your new job-target, and modify the way you list each job as you modified "consultant." Then the whole impact will be toned-down a bit, and you can defend this tactic by pointing out that you were focusing on what was RELEVANT to the currently sought position.--Yana Back to the top
37."I recently re-started my writing service in the Buffalo, New York area. Advertising through posting flyers at colleges has been very effective for me. I do not have any employees and I am a single mom watching my finances. I am now looking into advertising in small local weekly newspapers. I was hoping to get your advice before I pour money into it. I would appreciate your professional opinion."--Denise
Denise, What I hear from my colleagues is that the Yellow Pages made the most dramatic difference. For me when I started out, that was too expensive so I never did it (and then my books came out and I didn't need the ads anymore.) What worked for me in the beginning was a very SMALL ad -- one of those Back Page Ads -- that I repeated every week. Apparently REPETITION is more important than SIZE. Use the key word RESUMES, however, as big as possible in the ad.
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38."Does your resume software have any graphics, clip art, borders, etc. as part of its format? I am looking for something with choices for innovative design/layout.--David

Hi David, My Ready-To-Go Resumes does not include clip art or borders. It does include some variations of horizontal lines and horizontal shadings. and several of the examples are particularly crisp and effective graphically.

If you are doing a resume where creative graphics is APPROPRIATE -- say, you are going for a job in a graphics arts position, then of COURSE your resume should be innovative and "hot" -- you might want to check out a book by Crisp Publications. I can't remember the EXACT title, and it's not available in bookstores (out of print), but MAY be in a public library. I think the title is DESIGNING CREATIVE RESUMES.--Yana

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39. "I am writing a resume for my father who has worked in a different country all his life. What is the most effective way to write his resume? What format should I use?

What is the best way to write his experience, since he had work in different companies doing the same thing? So his job description on the recent four companies is exactly the same. --Rommel

Rommel, use the terms that are used in this country, to describe the work in that country, as well as the equivalent American job title (rather than the foreign job title.) The only place the difference will show up is in the actual location of the work place. Make a notation of his citizenship and eligibility to work in the U.S., at the bottom of the resume, in small letters. Stick to a standard chronological format; his experience was in a different country and you want the resume to look uncomplicated and conservative, to minimize the possibility of rejection.

For each company DON'T JUST FOCUS ON THE JOB DESCRIPTION. Describe what your father did for that company that helped them meet their goals (say, production goals, profitability goals, customer service goals, etc). Describe how your father performed in his job that was BETTER than some other co-workers who didn't do as responsible as job as HE did.

Try hard to find a very short term temporary job of any kind for your father, even if it is unpaid, just so he will have some experience to add to his resume, something that he did in this country. That will make it easier for the new employer to accept him. Also, the employer from the short term job can give him a good reference. This could even be a volunteer job--just so he can prove he has some work experience in this country.

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