Building a Great Resume (Five O'Clock Club Series) [Paperback]

Kate Wendleton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1999

Building a Great Resume includes scores of sample resumes and case studies as it takes you through the entire process of developing a resume that's just right for you. The book starts off with an overview of The Five O'Clock Club approach to job search. Then, you go step by step to the perfect resume as you learn just how to construct your accomplishment statements and enrich them with the Seven Stories Exercise, create the perfect summary, and position your resume to land your target job.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Kate Wendleton (New York, NY) is the author of the best-selling Through the Brick Wall and has been a career coach since 1978, when she founded The Five O’Clock Club, the leading national career counseling network that helps job hunters career changers, and consultants at all levels. She is also the founder of Workforce America, a not-for-profit organization serving adult job hunters in Harlem who are not yet in the professional or managerial ranks. A former CFO of two small companies, Kate has twenty years of business experience and an MBA.

Product Details

• Paperback: 195 pages
• Publisher: Career Press; 2nd edition (September 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156414433X
• ISBN-13: 978-1564144331
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #303,516 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kate Wendleton is a nationally syndicated career columnist and recognized authority on career development, having appeared on the Today Show, the CBS Early Show, CNN, CNBC, Larry King, National Public Radio and CBS, and in The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune magazine, Business Week and other national media. She also advises major corporations about employee career-development programs.


She has been a career coach since 1978, when she founded The Five O'Clock Club' and developed its methodology to help job hunters and career changers of all levels in job-search-strategy groups. This methodology is now used by branches of The Five O'Clock Club, which meet weekly in the U. S. and Canada.

Kate founded and directed The Career Center for seven years, at The New School for Social Research in New York. A former CFO of two small companies, she has 20 years of business-management experience in both manufacturing and service businesses.

She attended Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia and received her MBA from Drexel University. She is a popular speaker with groups that include the Wharton Business School Club, the Yale Club and the Columbia Business School Club.

While living in Philadelphia, Kate did long-term volunteer work for the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Walnut Street Theatre Art Gallery, United Way, and the YMCA. Kate currently lives in Manhattan.

Wendleton is the author of many Five O'Clock Club books on career-development and job-hunting.

The original Five O'Clock Club was formed in Philadelphia in 1883.
It was made up of the leaders of the day, who shared their experiences
"in a spirit of fellowship and good humor."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Resumes that "pop" off the page, March 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Building a Great Resume (Five O'Clock Club Series) (Paperback)

After an unsuccessful 5 month job search, I decided it must be my resume that was keeping me from getting interviews. "Building a great resume" starts with the key fundamentals - how to properly describe your accomplishments. Examples abound! And the before-and-after structure provides an excellent way to truly see how a prospective employer will view your resume. This book also addresses the trends of the 90's and the new millenium -- older employees with multiple jobs.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Insightful!, March 5, 2003

By 

Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Building a Great Resume (Five O'Clock Club Series) (Paperback)

Nationally-syndicated columnist and career expert Kate Wendleton zeroes in on the most effective approaches to resume writing, beginning with developing a compelling statement of your accomplishments. She explains how to show the results of your work, outline the benefits you bring prospective employers and present your strong points effectively. She includes exercises to guide your deliberative process, plus before-and-after resume samples. These makeovers demonstrate how you can turn a routine resume into an interview-generating powerhouse. Much of the book is taken up with sample resumes, which are helpful models for writing yours though they may be pretty dull to read. In addition, Wendleton also provides specific tips on how to phrase and design your resume. While recommending this manual to job hunters, we from getAbstract have determined that if you read these hints carefully, you can just skim the examples until you find one that meets your needs. Wendleton - and you may well say `thank you' here - both shows and tells.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Practical Resume Advice, August 5, 2010

By 

bibliobob "bibliobob" (Northern CA, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Building a Great Resume (Five O'Clock Club Series) (Paperback)

Building a Great Résumé is one of a series of books on career management published by Five O'Clock Club, a network of career counselors. It supports that organization's method of searching for a job, which includes:

* Self assessment: determining interests, values, and a 40-year vision

* Identifying one or more target careers

* Preparing a campaign for each target career.

The self-assessment includes identifying the seven most satisfying experiences of your life, regardless of when they occurred or whether they were job-related. So the résumé advice is particularly appropriate for candidates who are changing careers or returning to work.

Wendleton identifies three purposes of a résumé:

* Marketing piece - to get the job interview

* Sales tool in candidate's absence, after the interview

* Guide for the interview.

Most people need only one résumé, unless their target careers are completely different. Reverse chronological format is preferred, but individual jobs can be broken down functionally. Résumés should have a summary statement that sets the tone, highlights the theme, and positions the candidate. An objective statement is appropriate if targeting a specific type of position and the candidate doesn't want to be considered for anything else.

The top of the first page is the most important part of the résumé. If experience most relevant to the target job is not the most recent (closest to the top of the resume), the summary should include some information about the earlier jobs so an initial screening won't miss it. If you don't include a summary, you're positioned by the most recent experience.

Use the language of your target market. Job titles should reflect the actual job, not necessarily the exact job title. Within each job, state accomplishments in order of importance to the hiring manager. Include facts that help your case; exclude those that don't. A résumé should be concise; it should be as long as it needs to be, but no longer.

Accomplishment statements must be short, measurable, and results-oriented. Unpaid, temporary, and consulting work counts as much as full-time employment.

Wendleton includes a number of case studies that describe a candidate's situation e.g., too many job, gaps in employment, no work experience) followed by a sample résumé that follows the principles outlined in the book. Some of them include before and after examples.

She provides a brief checklist for determining whether the résumé follows the principles outlined in the book. The book includes specific advice for executives, managers and high-level professionals, lower level professionals, those transitioning from non-profit to for-profit organizations, and new graduates. It does not address cover letters. Inspirational quotations are interspersed throughout the book.