DAY 2
Template, Header, Work Experience: everything you need to know.

Congratulations! You made it to Day 2 of our 7 day Job Search Boot Camp! You're doing a very nice job, and we're proud of your progress.🎊

With 5 days left to go, you're well on your way to crafting a standout resume that will help you land your dream job. Here we'll be tackling 3 important steps: choosing the right template, writing a standout “Header” and “Work Experience” section.

Good Luck! 🍀

Talent Agent Team

📝Template📝

When choosing your resume format, keep an eye out for 5 things: 

• Clear name & PDF format;

For example: Resume Santa Claus Holiday Event Planner.pdf

• Readability; 

The template should have a clear and easy-to-read layout with ample white space, appropriate font size, and a professional-looking font. It doesn’t matter if you choose a Serif font like Times New Roman or a Sans-Serif font like Arial or Calibri, as long as it looks professional. Just avoid Comic Sans unless you're applying to Marvel.

• Style or Design; 

In most industries, the candidate’s resume is expected to be simple. It should use 2-3 font styles and 1-2 colors so it doesn’t look like a festival ad.

• Structure;

Ensure your resume template has all the necessary sections in the expected places. For example, most recruiters expect to see your contacts in your header. If they’re hidden, there’s a chance that the recruiter may throw your resume in the bin. See our resume structure checklist below! 

• Length

The template should allow you to fit all the necessary information on 1-2 pages, without overcrowding the content.

Try using our free ATS-compatible resume template!

📍Header📍 

You may have heard that recruiters spend an average of 7 seconds on a resume screening? Most of this time goes into reading your header. We recommend you put a lot of attention on it.

Your header should include: 

• Your Name 

• Your Job Title/Job Title you are applying for

• Contact information

Include your email address, linkedIn and phone number. Don’t forget that all the links should be clickable.

• Location 

Include your city and country 

• Work Authorization

In other words, do you require visa sponsorship?

• Link to your portfolio 

For example, your GitHub or a link to your professional portfolio.

🎄Example 🎄

Santa Claus

Holiday Event Planner | Operations Manager

North Pole, The Arctic | [email protected] | LinkedIn | 1-605-313-4000 | Green Card

Link to Toy Design Portfolio 

🥉Top 3 Header Mistakes🥉

• Unprofessional email 📬

We understand that the [email protected] email address you’ve created years ago lies dearly in your heart, but we highly recommend making a professional looking email. 

• Including your full address 🏠

This isn’t as much of a mistake as much it is unnecessary. In your resume, every word counts, so it’s best to get rid of any word clutter. 

• Broken links 🔗

So make sure to double-check everything either by yourself, with the help of a friend or a Talent Agent.

Where did the “Summary section go?”

You might be wondering: “Doesn’t the “Summary” come after the Header?”. 

And you’ll be absolutely right! 

However, as our Talent Agents found out, summaries are much more easily written once you have a finished work experience section to base it on.

Let’s begin! 

💼Work experience💼

Writing work experience isn’t a one-size-fits-all technique. It’s a huge job and probably deserves a challenge of its own. We will cover the very basics in 7 steps. 

1️⃣Step 1. Company name

Example: Santa’s Fortress of Solitude 

2️⃣Step 2. Company description…

Is always a good idea! It gives the reader a quick overview of the organization, its size and industry. It’s much easier for the recruiter or hiring manager to understand the scale and nature of the role. 

Example: Global leader in event planning and logistics operations.

3️⃣Step 3. Dates 

Write the month and date when you started and stopped working for the company.

Example: December, 1840 - present 

12/1840 - present 

4️⃣Step 4. Location & employment type 

Location and the employment type gives more context to your reader about your previous experience. For example, if you’ve worked for companies for a short while on a contract basis, but don’t mention the “contract” part in your resume, a recruiter might get the wrong idea that you’re a job hopper. 

Example: North Pole, full-time

5️⃣Step 5. Position 

The first thing recruiters do when scanning your resume is read the titles. So make sure your titles align with industry trends and the job you’re looking for. 

Example: Event Planner / Operations Manager 

6️⃣Step 6. Responsibilities, keywords and wording 

When writing your work experience and summary it is essential to use the same language and keywords of your industry for two reasons: 

1. ATS. The vast majority of companies use applicant tracking systems that scan your resume for keywords. Job postings from the same industry and job title often share the same keywords, so if you’re looking for a one-size-fits-all resume, you can use the ones that pop up most often.  

2. Recruiters and hiring managers. It's much easier for people to understand your experience when you use the same terminology and language as they do. 

What you’ll need: 

• The brainstorming notes you made on Day 1;

• 2-3 job postings relevant to you. 

🤔 What you need to do:

• Read through the responsibilities and requirements listed in the selected job postings; 

• Take note on the job posting’s terminology and common keywords; 

• Compare the language from your brainstorming notes and the job postings and rephrase accordingly;

• Use strong action verbs.

Example: 

Brainstorming Responsibilities 

Job Postings responsibilities 

Determined what kind of gifts children would get based on conversations with the children at malls and the “Naughty and Nice” list. 

Identify stakeholder needs, prepare program outline (topics, content, speakers), identify successful criteria for evaluation of event.

Changed wording

Conducted comprehensive surveys and assessments to identify the gift preferences and wishes of the key stakeholders (children worldwide) for the annual gift delivery event.

Example: 

• Oversee all logistics and operations for an annual global gift delivery event, coordinating with cross-functional teams of 40 people, ranging from juniors to seniors;

• Manage a large team of specialized staff to ensure seamless event execution;

• Determine worldwide eligibility of children for gifts based on their "naughty" or "nice" status through comprehensive behavioral assessments

• Meticulously review and update the master gift recipient list, checking it twice to ensure accuracy
  

7️⃣Step 7. Accomplishments

Writing achievements is, perhaps, even more important than responsibilities: overall, the same jobs have the same responsibilities but have different outcomes depending on the person.

This is your moment to shine! 

To write your achievements, try using the classic formulas: 

• Accomplished {X} +as measured by {Y} + by doing {Z}

• Action verb + Noun + Metric + Outcome = Achievements

Example: 

• Successfully planned and delivered over 7 billion gifts globally in a single night for over 80 years

• Implemented cutting-edge technology and process improvements to enhance operational performance

• Built a highly skilled, motivated workforce of thousands of elves to support event delivery

• Maintained a 100% client satisfaction rating from recipients worldwide

🥉Top 3 mistakes🥉

1. Too much focus on responsibilities, rather than achievements

2. Bullet Points are great, but it doesn’t mean you have to use them 

3. Cliches/weird or unnecessary achievements 

📄You can find the boot camp task in the attached doc. Good luck with it! 🍀
Btw, we also duplicated the resume tips to a separate doc, so you will not forget this info :)

Keep up the great work! See you tomorrow for Day 3 of the Boot Camp.