In this article, it will describe about important elements to create a perfect resume for oilfield employers. Let’s get started.
Developing a Resume Outline
Now that you have organized your career goals, career path, and the professional and personal attributes that make you special, you are ready to write a resume outline. Your resume will contain:
- Your contact information (i.e., name, address, phone, email address, and website address)
- A defined job objective
- A work history
- Educational history
- Affiliations
- References
Now that you have a resume outline, you are ready to brainstorm content ideas.
Time to Start Writing a Resume
Wow the Employer
First of all, who are you writing this resume for? Your prospective employer will be the one who oversees the day-to-day operations of the company you want to join.
They make the hiring decisions and they are entirely invested in ensuring that you are the right one for the job. This person will care about whether or not you can do a good job for that company and so this is the one you are writing your resume for. ??
You want to be sure that you are the right candidate for the job. You want to be sure you know everything there is to know about this company. You want to understand exactly which qualities are needed to be the right candidate for this job.
You want to be sure you are not a good candidate for this job, but, that you are the best candidate for this job.
Creating the Ideal Job Candidate Description
This is the time to put pen to paper and to clearly lay out what your prospective employer is looking for in an ideal candidate. You need to be able to solidify what it is that you bring to the table, even before you begin.
Jot down every fine point about your training and experience, your unique characteristics, special talents, even your attitude – everything that shows you are the most qualified for the job you seek.
If you are new to the job market, be creative and draw on your upbringing, life exposure and anything that can account for your unique experience and qualities.
You will begin to be able to connect the dots during this process. Simple statements will turn into sentences and sentences into paragraphs. Keep this information in a safe place. You will use it later to be incorporated into your resume and cover letters.
Writing Resume Content That Sets You Apart
Your resume should be impactful. Your best experience and attributes should jump out at the reader. The prospective employer should immediately grasp your meaning and have a good idea of what you have to offer in the first scan, before reading entirely through it.
Your goal should be to write a resume with no filler. You will only highlight your best accomplishments, and they will be expertly conveyed through the use of strong, clear wording and phrases that are descriptive and colorful. Your resume writing should persuade and cause your employer to want to know more. You want your employer to feel compelled to bring you in for the interview.
Following items are the resume writing content techniques used in resumes that get interviews:
• Use powerful words and statements that will convey a message of impressive credentials and experience. Show you will get the job done better than anyone else.
• Write about your qualifications through clear statements about what you have accomplished. Do not bore them with long-running lists of your potential, talents, or previous job responsibilities.
• Show the exact results of your targeted accomplishments. Make good use of adjectives to show the extent of your skills and experiences. This will show you are results-oriented.
• Write concisely and keep to the point. Be as direct as possible and avoid complex sentences. Use short and direct sentences. Eliminate all repetition.
• Do not use several examples when one example has the same impact. Avoid trying to impress by using larger words.
• Use good language and style variety by offering short and punchy sentences along with sentences that are longer.
• Do not repeat a power verb within the same paragraph.
• Punctuate throughout for easy reading.
• Use professional grade printing and paper to create a professional resume, you should
Elements of A Resume That Will Impress The Employers
The primary elements of an ideal resume contain powerful and assertive statements about your talents, characteristics and accomplishments. No need to be shy. You are going for the gold so sell yourself with all that is in you!
The secondary element of an ideal resume will show “you know your stuff” and know it well! This will be proven by education, experience, work history and any other relevant affiliations that show the prospective employer that you are a person of substance and not only of design.
Keep in mind that the more standard resume is simply a chronological account, a very boring read for most people, and hiring managers will not give it a second glance. Write your resume to be interesting and even impressive, and then watch as your phone rings for that important interview!
You will write a resume that does much more than just inform; you will write a resume that compels a hiring manager to action! Your resume will become a good bargaining tool! Your prospective employer will be interested and will stand up and take notice! This is exactly what you want.
Be bold about your assertive statements, but not too bold. Leave them wanting more. Tease a bit with nuggets of enticing information and leave them wanting more.
State a Clear Career Objective
After starting your resume with your contact information, your next section will clearly state your Career Objective. Once your prospective employer can see that what you bring to the table is what they want, they will continue to scan for more.
Be very clear in defining the name of the job or job title you are so qualified for. Be specific. Avoid general terms such as: I am seeking an engineering position. Well, OK, but what kind of engineering position are you looking for? Marketers signal in on one product at a time and so will you! Importantly, an electronic search, which is how most resumes are scanned today, will use specific position titles to find you.
You will hit the bull’s eye when you define your precise career direction, capture the right title, and put it down on paper. When prospective employers read your resume, they should have no doubt that you are seeking the exact job that they need filled.
Employers separate the wheat from the chaff very quickly. They look for career objectives that meet with their own expectations. They know there are many prospects out there who really do not have what they want.
Employers are not looking for close matches. Your Career Objective will convey that you will make the kind of contributions to the company that they need and want.
Keep in mind, too, that an employer is looking for a candidate who will meet their own needs, and not one who is looking to meet his or her own goals and agenda.
Your goal can be to offer this company your unique skill set and experience, but, the key is putting that across in a way that proves you are there to service them and not the other way around.
Your resume must grab them within the first few seconds, so, your Career Objective must be dynamite! Clearly state the job title you are going for and then add a few key phrases to show you have the skills to meet their exact needs…more on this later.
Develop a Professional Summary
The Professional Summary needs to pack a punch to be effective. It highlights the key credentials and experience that show how and why you qualify for the job.
You want the employer to focus in quickly on this section because it showcases your most important accomplishments, talents, and qualities.
After reading your Professional Summary, the employer should know, without any doubt, that you are the best man or woman for the job. This is where you will shine! This will be your moment to show your stuff. After being impressed by your summary, the employer will be compelled to read more!
In writing this section, you will not only use colorful and descriptive words but those that provide qualitative and quantitative evidence of your abilities. For instant, if one of your best talents is rig safety, write that you are one of the best safety men on the rig who greatly improve rig safety culture. Additionally, if there is any statistics support, you should add it into your resume because it will make you look so professional for the job.
The Professional Summary only contains information about you that is commendable and will set you apart from the crowd. Using the right kind of descriptive and complimentary words, especially if they contain quantitative information, you can easily achieve this. Your summary will show your prospective employer that you alone are the best fit for the position needed to be filled.
Tailor Your Professional Summary to Your Prospective Employer’s Needs
Before writing your resume, you wrote notes on what makes you the best candidate for your intended position. You will have looked at the many characteristics and qualities that you believe your prospective employer will be looking for in the ideal candidate.
Now is the time to tailor your professional resume summary to match those specific needs. Every statement made in your resume summary will be targeted to show the employer that you have what it takes to fill that position.
Work on writing positive and affirming statements that exemplify your unique abilities and talents and convey that you will be highly effective in the intended position. Practice using descriptive words. Use quantitative data – show rank, order, and volume, and qualitative data – show the type and breadth of your experience.
If you want to write that you are a good leader, write instead that you are a “proven leader” with initiative and motivational skills that cause others to act! Describe why you are good at what you do and leave no room for interpretation.
Words like “good” and “competent” are general terms. Expressions of success such as top revenue generator, most awarded by customers, and thrice promoted impel a hiring manager to take action on your resume. Describe how you excel and you will have done your job well!
Below, you will find a variety of suggestions for composing a professional resume summary. You can select those that best suit your skill-set. Experiment a bit, first, and then zero in on those that best reflect what you have to offer a prospective employer. Remember, your resume summary is critical to your resume’s success.
Few people will use all of the suggestions. Doing so might be seen as overkill. You are encouraged to say the most, while writing the least.
- Start with a concise phrase that describes your profession.
- Next, another concise phrase showing your broad or specialized experience.
- Make a few more concise statements to show the following:
– the full extent of your skill-set
– the variety of your skills
– diversity in your experience
– an accomplishment worth noting
– anything remarkable about your accomplishments.
Optional
- Professional achievements
- Personal characteristics worth noting
- Concise statement to highlight professional objectives
Promote Your Skills and Accomplishments
In the summary section of your resume, you can brag a little. In the Skills and Accomplishments section you can brag a little more.
Citing your job Skills and Accomplishments will cap off all that qualifies you for your intended position. You will show your prospective employer that there can be no better person for this job and the journey stops with YOU!
How do you do this best? You continue to show that you are the right one for the job by going into more detail about all that you wrote of in your resume summary. This requires careful wording so as not to be repetitious. If you can pull this off in a professional manner, using words that glow, you will have the attention you are looking for!
The key point about writing about job Skills and Accomplishments is to remember you are not going to inform. You are going to highlight in more detail what your prospective employer already believes to be true about you as an ideal candidate.
Writing About Job Skills and Accomplishments
This is your opportunity to distinguish yourself from other job candidates. To do so, you should:
- Present any benchmarks or accomplishments achieved as a result of your unique skill-set.
- Use facts, figures, and statistics to show how your best efforts showed the best results.
- Highlight your specific talents and unique gifts as they relate to your job.
- Provide any and all accomplishments that set you apart.
To be the most effective, you will use clear, crisp writing that sums up. You are going into detail here, but not so much that this section reads like a story.
Key Point – Write so that you give hints and not complete details. You want your prospective employer to call you in for the interview to learn more! This is critical.
Present Your Professional Experience
You can use a number of headings here: “Professional Experience,” or “Professional History”; they both work well. Shy away from using “Work History,” or just “Employment.” These are not as effective and they do not look as professional.
To focus your reader, list all jobs held in reverse chronological order. Concentrate on giving good detail about your most current positions and offer only limited information about the jobs held earlier on. In many cases, you can write a simple statement to sum up holding several jobs earlier on.
Decide which you want to highlight more, your job titles or the names of the companies you worked for. The one you wish to highlight is listed first and then the next follows.
Example:
Shell Exploration and Production, Ltd. – Drilling Engineer
OR
Drilling Engineer – Shell Exploration and Production, Ltd.
For this section include all service work and internships as well as any key volunteer experience. Professional Experience is not only for paid experience.
List Your Education
As with your Professional Experience section, list your Education credentials in reverse chronological order. Show your completed degrees or licenses first, and then present your completed certificates and key training. Follow by listing Education in progress with a proposed date of completion.
Bold type anything you wish to highlight, such as your completed degrees. No need for too much detail here. Be concise by showing only your majors as well as any awards and distinctions received.
To be impressive, list grade point averages of 3.5 or better and highlight any courses of study engaged in currently as they relate directly to the position you seek.
If your awards and commendations are impressive, give them a section of their own. Always quote sources to substantiate your qualifications.
Sell Your Professional Affiliations
Under Professional Affiliations, show your community involvement and highlight current participation, especially in an area that might impress the employer as being relevant to key work issues. Give detail to show your abilities within specific areas, such as: “Initiated leadership role in the drilling organization bring the business unit to the next level”.
Hold back when stating political involvement as this may be judged negatively by an employer or company.
Impress With Publications
If you can offer a list of Publications, your employer will be impressed! Only highlight published material and summarize any credits you may have. Include stellar critiques and comments of your work and include only the most impressive.
The example of publication likes this:
“Experimental of cutting dryer in oil based mud to improve the mud recovery process in Gulf of Mexico SPE No 234567 – James Robert, BP”
Connect Through Personal Interests
This can be a tricky call for someone who does not have a lot of job hunting experience.
Do you or do you not write a Personal Interests section?
In most cases, you DO NOT unless your personal interests are related to the job position.
Those with targeted personal interests and skills that relate directly to the job sought can take advantage of Personal Interests to highlight how their hobbies and interests relate to the position they seek.
For example, a geologist who is applying for a chef geologist position might present a prospective employer with a recently published geologist journal. This showcases talent, creativity, and ability! An employer would like to see this!
On the other hand, a production engineer seeking a reservoir technical advisor position within a large oil corporation would not be smart to include a personal interests section to highlight his interest in collecting 18th century currency from India.
This becomes a judgment call on your part! In most cases, candidates opt to forgo this section.
Supply a List of References
The final closing statement of your resume can read, “References on Request,” or “References Available Upon Request.”
Some candidates do not use this as a close, however, and the prospective employer generally will assume you have references to offer. An employer will not hesitate to ask for references when needed, and they most always are.
Consider writing a separate page listing a few really good references. Include contact information, as well. If you can hand this page to your prospective employer when asked, you will appear organized, so it is always good to have references on hand.
Thanks for reading this article. In the next article, there are 3 resume styles that you can adapt for your one.
