| There is no such thing! Resumes are a reflection of your
personality and your work experience, so naturally each one will be different. But as a
general rule, we recommend straightforward as the most successful "format". Additionally, many companies today are utilizing scanning technology
to track resumes and job applicants. In this context, any superfluous design or frills are
virtually useless and may in fact be detrimental. Clean, easily read text is much
preferred. Focus on format and content, and keep it simple.
(Of course, an alternate resume, which you may design to
distribute personally, can be as stylish or embellished as you want it to be.)
For a powerful and effective resume, follow these
guidelines:
|
JANE DOE
123 Anywhere St
Anywhere, NY 55888
(555)222-2222
EXPERIENCE:
Responsible for management of the Great Food
convenience store business. Manage and direct broker networks and negotiate with wholesale
and retail buyers and managers. Served as Customer Marketing Analyst. Responsible for
managing special projects and supporting sales systems. Key Accounts: McLane, Wawa,
7-Eleven, Uni-Marts, High's of Baltimore, Exxon, Costal Marts, Star Texaco, FasMart.
- Grew c-store business by 133% in 1996 and 113% in 1997. Grew
single serve business by 123%.
- Gained 19 new product acceptances in 1997, resulting in
competitor’s loss of 14 facings.
- Implemented computerization of sales force, created on-site
sales analysis and presentation capabilities. Prepared for future scan-data capture and
analysis.
| ACCOUNT BUSINESS MANAGER |
1/94 to 4/96 |
Responsible for sale of all dry grocery brands
to Stop & Shop Supermarkets. Accountable for trade spending and promotional
objectives. Coordinated and led cross-functional Stop & Shop sales team. Developed and
presented 1995 business plan, resulting in acceptance of new strategic partnering
objectives.
- Developed and managed category captainship in 2 Great Food
categories. First category leadership role in GF’s history.
- Increased category sales 115%, managed 4% reduction in trade
budget.
- Led team for development of computerized promotional
analysis system. Coordinated promotion timing and inventory control with operations group.
Resulted in 6 new promotion cycles scheduled for 1996.
| THE BEVERAGE COMPANY, Eastwood, MD |
2/90 to 1/94 |
TERRITORY SALES MANAGER: Responsible
for Baltimore/Washington geographic territory. Managed sales and customer support in food
service and fountain outlets. Directed local bottling and store detailing teams.
Customized national marketing programs and promotional events to account needs. Key
Accounts: High's of Baltimore, Red Barn Stores, Manhattan Bagel's, Peninsula Skating
Center, Victory Lanes, Texaco, William & Mary.
- Increase total annual outlets by 259% between 1992 and 1993
- Exceeded 1991 territory growth goals by more than 100%
- Secured long-term partnership by placement of fountain
equipment at William & Mary's new Student Union Building.
- Maximized fountain profits, by location, using market data
to adjust flavor selections, serving sizes, pricing and promotional
activity.
|
Jane Doe, Page
2
FOOD & BEVERAGE BRANDS Of AMERICA,
Columbus, OH |
7/88 to 2/90 |
SALES MERCHANDISER: Managed Ohio
territory. Responsible for all schematic and planogram resets and built major end-cap
displays. Worked with four territory sales reps. Key Accounts: Dairy Mart, Circle K, Farm
Fresh, Food Lion, Albertsons
- Recognized as merchandiser who consistently achieved all
goals assigned – displays built, increased facings and highest percentage of new
items placed.
- Presented white paper to marketing – “Why Not Use
Store Scan-data To Analyze Space?”
- Awarded Unit’s best display and largest display contest
– 1990.
| EDUCATION: |
Bachelors of Science - 1989
Marketing Major, 3.75 gpa
Pennsylvania State University, University Park,PA |
| TECHNICAL: |
IRI InfoScan, DataServer, SalesPartner,
Apollo; Nielson Workstation, Sales Advisor, Spaceman; Intactix, InterSpace, InterCept;
Spectra / Market Metrics; Wal-Mart Retail Link; Word Perfect, Word, Harvard Graphics,
Power Point, Excel, Access, CC: Mail. |
| REFERENCES: |
Available upon Request |
|
|
| FORM We much
prefer chronological resume. Potential employers want to know where you were, when you
were there, what your responsibilities were, and what you achieved. Keep it simple. Avoid
italics, bold face, underlining, borders -- in short, anything at all that will detract
from the text. If faxing or mailing, use plain white paper and be sure your resume is the
sharp, laser-printed original copy -- not a duplicate or dot-matrix printing.
TOP
CONTENT
Be concise. Be concrete. And above all, be truthful. For
each position, provide the company name, dates you were there (or dates in each position
for that company), and your title. Include two or three short lines describing your
responsibilities, as well as another two or three lines describing your achievements.
TOP
MYTH
It is not true that a resume must be on one page. In fact,
provided you have something worthwhile to describe, your resume can be two pages or
longer. Particularly in this age of computerized optical character recognition, it is
better to use a large, more readable font rather than reduce the size of your text to
squeeze everything on one or two pages.
TOP
|
