Resume Rough Draft

Questions for Response
1. What can the writer do to make the resume better tailored to the specific job being applied for? For your professional objective you could regurgitate some specifics from the company’s mission statement in order to personalize it more. Other than that it’s great.
2. Is the layout and design pleasing to the eye? Make at least one suggestion for improving it. The layout is simple to read and easy to follow.
3. Does the resume fit comfortably within the page (as opposed to being squished in or stretched out)? What can the writer do to improve it? This particular resume fits perfectly into the page.
4. Is it easily readable (no confusing fonts, clearly marked sections)? What improvements can be made? I would probably make the personal objective, education, work experience and honors and activities titles a little bit bigger. Other than that it is an easy read.
5. Does it use typography (including headers and bold and italics) appropriately and effectively? Yes it does.
6. Is the most important information located on the left side of the page and near the top whenever possible? Identify at least one part that could be better placed. Yes, there is nothing to suggest.
7. Does the content of the resume support the objective (if there is one)? Explain. Yes.
8. Is the resume too short? Where can it elaborate? Job skills? Responsibilities? Education? The resume is not too short.
9. Is material sequenced in order of importance and relevance? Yes.
10. Do bulleted items begin with action verbs? Are list items ordered in terms of importance? Yes each bullet starts with action verbs and they go in order of importance.
11. Does the resume avoid generalities and focus on specific information and professional terminology? Yes, however it is a little on the lengthy side when it comes to the bulleted items. There are too many of them, I can suggest that you pick only the ones that you think the company will be looking for and stick with them.
12. Does the resume pass the Quadrant, Column, Squint, and Distance tests (See attached document below for help with these tests)? Explain how the author might make improvements based on your test results. It passes all tests except for the column test and the squint test. The columns for the dates you are working are a little overlapping for the laborer column. The font is just a tad bit small and tends to blur at a longer distance.
13. What other observations can you make about the resume? All in all it was a great resume, I just suggest trimming down the bullet points and increasing the font size. Other than that you have a great resume.

1. What can the writer do to make the resume better tailored to the specific job being applied for?

Your objective statement does not demonstrate any 'gimme' for the company. Essentially you are requesting charity from the company. They aren't going to be interested in helping you utilize your experience and knowledge to its fullest potential. What's in it for THEM? Where's the GIMME? Ask yourself: what are the company's needs? Does your objective statement prove that you are the guy who can meet their needs? As for mentioning your previous stuff in the objective statement, that is unnecessary - you are about to talk all about it in the resume.

2. Is the layout and design pleasing to the eye? Make at least one suggestion for improving it.

Your layout is pleasing to the eye. One suggestion: Consider putting your bullet points under 'Honors and Activities' on the same alignment as all of the other bullet points. They look weird where they are, with solid bullets. Try putting them on the alignment with your other bullet points, with the hollow bullets. What do you think? Better?

3. Does the resume fit comfortably within the page (as opposed to being squished in or stretched out)? What can the writer do to improve it?

For the most part, yes. The "Honors and Activities" section looks a little squished. You should be very proud of your accomplishments in the Intravarsity Christian Fellowship - but it is 100% irrelevant to your job. You should consider deleting it from your resume. It will free up some much needed space in this section.

4. Is it easily readable (no confusing fonts, clearly marked sections)? What improvements can be made?

No. All fonts should be at least 11 pt. 10 pt. is too small.

5. Does it use typography (including headers and bold and italics) appropriately and effectively?

Your use of typography is strong. Good work here.

6. Is the most important information located on the left side of the page and near the top whenever possible? Identify at least one part that could be better placed.

Make sure that the items under "Steel Dynamics" are listed in order of importance.

7. Does the content of the resume support the objective (if there is one)? Explain.

Since the objective statement has virtually no content, the rest of the resume seems disorganized. Remember, the objective statement is the glue of your resume. Think of the objective statement like a 'thesis statement' - the gravitational center around which everything orbits.

8. Is the resume too short? Where can it elaborate? Job skills? Responsibilities? Education?

Your resume is not too short.

9. Is material sequenced in order of importance and relevance?

It's hard to tell with so many bullet points. Try to condense some of these. You should maybe go for FIVE bullet points, max in each section. It seems to me that some of these bullet points are not going to help you. For example, "Filed prints." Is this a big deal? Is your reader going to be impressed? Furthermore, with so many bullet points, do you think your reader will even READ them all? Remember: 10-30 seconds.

10. Do bulleted items begin with action verbs? Are list items ordered in terms of importance?

"Progressed jobs" makes no sense. How do you progress a job?

"(mechanical) seems unnecessary.

"jobs being estimated" makes no sense.

Why is "Roll-up" capitalized? Why is "Extra Work Order Forms" capitalized?

Why introduce the abbreviation "RFI"? You never use it after this, so it seems unnecessary.

Should "estimators" be possessive (estimator's)? If so, this is a major error.

"walk throughs" should be hyphenated: "walk-throughs."

Grammar error: "Dry walled" is not a real verb. Try using an action verb.

11. Does the resume avoid generalities and focus on specific information and professional terminology?

Other than the dangerously vague objective statement, you nailed this.

12. Does the resume pass the Quadrant, Column, Squint, and Distance tests (See attached document below for help with these tests)? Explain how the author might make improvements based on your test results.

Quadrant: yes
Column: yes
Squint: yes
Distance: yes

13. What other observations can you make about the resume?

Writing "email" above your email address is 100% unnecessary.

"(summer/winter breaks)" is unnecessary, especially because it is the only time in the resume that you make this kind of point. It stands out.

Since you write out the word "Indiana" in your resume at least once, you should consider consistency: Elsewhere you abbreviate: IN.