Landscape Architecture Resource

I asked Elaine McEwan of Talentbird.com recruiting agency for her advice to landscape architects when writing a resume and working with a recruiter. Here are her suggestions:

"Your resume should be straightforward and factual:

• Name
• Contact Information
• Education
• Experience (most recent first)
• Skills (AutoCad, SketchUp, hand Sketching, etc.

Don’t get carried away in cover letters, objectives, or personal profiles. State clearly and concisely your career objectives and what you have to contribute. Don’t include motherhood statements about saving the world. And please – use spell check!

In your 'Experience' section, identify the name of the company, the duration of the employment (from when – to when), your position and a concise description of what you did.

If you are an intermediate or senior candidate with extensive experience, consider adding a project list rather than including all of them in the resume.

Don’t get fancy with the formatting. As a recruiter, I prefer a Word document – no formatting, no bullets. This is because I may be creating a different document with it that I send to potential employers. I will be removing your name and contact information and adding my logo and my own “candidate identification” for the employer. After the client expresses an interest, they will of course be provided with all of the necessary information."

Recruiters will take your info and make their own document out of it, as Elaine states above. This is because the recruiter is operating as a middle-man between you and the firm. They present you to the firm as one of their candidates, so your direct contact info gets replaced with the recruiter's info. It sounds fishy, but with a good recruiter, it's worth the work they do in helping connect you with a good offer.

If you are not working with a recruiter, you should write a concise goal statement near the top of your resume. Since you will not have a spokesperson working on your behalf, your resume needs to speak for itself. It's a big help to the potential employer to state what you are looking for so they can gauge if there might be a place for you at their company.