| | CAREER OUTLOOK
GET THE
f you are after that perfect finance job, your resume and cover letter are your foot in the door. Without them, you can never land the interview, which is the key to getting an offer. So, how do you write an excellent resume and cover letter and land that interview in the first place?
I
Consider the hiring process from the company’s perspective. When a position opens up, a manager has a vacancy to fill. As a result, there are not enough people in the department to get all the work done; if there were, the company would not need you. Therefore, the manager is a very busy person. In addition to his or her own workload, the extra work must get done, and at the same time, the open position must be posted, resumes reviewed, candidates interviewed, and ultimately, an offer drafted. Your job as a candidate for the open position is to make this process as easy as possible for the hiring manager. If the competition for the opening is fierce, the manager may have a number of resumes to review, and is likely to skim them rather than read them thoroughly. Any resume that does not im- mediately answer his or her question, or that provides the wrong answer, will end up in the shred pile.
So, what is this question?
The question is: are you qualified for this position? A resume is a list of qualifications, nothing more, and the list should be clean, easy- to-read, and based on facts alone. Particularly in a large corporation, where hiring managers are trained to read resumes and conduct interviews, comments in your resume about what a team player or hard worker you are are unlikely to garner any kind of interest. All job candidates say that they are team players and hard workers, because they know it’s what the company wants to hear, but a trained hiring manager will want you to prove it in an inter- view. Your resume is not the place. It should focus strictly on what your objec- tive is, and what you have accomplished
24 WOMENOFCOLOR | SPRING 2011
TIPS FOR EXCELLENT RESUMES AND COVER LETTERS FOR FINANCE JOBS so far to make you qualified for meeting that objective.
Job Want YOU
Your resume should include contact information, an objective, employment history, and educational background. Optional sec- tions include volunteer work and special skills. Let’s look at each section in turn.
Your contact information should be professional. If your email ad- dress is
hotstuff@hotmail.com, go to gmail or yahoo and sign up for a free account using your full name, such as
janie.m.smith@
gmail.com. If you list a phone number, make sure it’s one that you answer, or that has voice mail that you check regularly.
Your objective should be specific to the job you are applying for, and it should be as honest as possible. You don’t want to work for a company that doesn’t match your career objectives any more than they want to hire you. If you want to work in a small office managing the budget of a local entrepreneur, say so. If you want to work in a large company that affords you the potential to be promoted into a man- agement position, say that. What the hiring manager is looking for in your objective is the potential to for longevity. Show the manager that if he or she hires you, you’ll stay with the company for the long-term, because it’s what you want to do. Do not list anything about your qualifications in your objective section, such as, “to work for a company that allows me to work hard.” This is an immediate turnoff for the hiring manager, and it’s likely to land your resume in the circular file below the manager’s desk.
Employment history and educational background are the meat of your resume, and the hiring manager’s eyes will drift there first, looking for basic qualifications. He or she will read whichever is listed first, and may or may not bother reading the other, de- pending on how busy he or she is. If you just graduated from college, list your educational background ahead of employment history, because
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