There are many reasons why a great resume is crucial for your career. It highlights your skills and expertise as a mining professional while helping you stand out amongst other applicants. Therefore, taking the time to develop a strong resume is important. Here are some tips to help you along the way.
What Recruiters Want
The first thing you will want to consider is what information the hiring manager is looking for. When a hiring manager reviews your resume, they’re searching for specific items that will determine whether you’re a good fit for a specific mining position.
They’ll consider several factors including your work history and degree of experience, education, career achievements, and attained certifications. In some cases, the size of the companies – large or small – publicly held or private – you have worked for may have an impact in terms of how the hiring manager believes you will “fit” in their culture. To get a better understanding of required details within your resume, take a look at the information below.
Previous Positions
One of the most critical areas of focus on your resume is your experience section. Spend time detailing the operational and work environment for each role. For example, you’ll need to list whether your position was serving an underground or surface operation or even a combination of the two. The number of sites and the tons per year produced are also key pieces in painting a picture of your work environment.
Likewise, hiring managers are interested in the material deposit type you’ve worked with before such as limestone, coal, copper, granite, silica sand, etc., so make sure you list it with each position held. If you have experience managing union operations, detail this on your resume to highlight knowledge of managing in a union environment, negotiating union contracts or related skills.
Job Descriptions
Start each job description with a quick paragraph detailing the work environment. You’ll want to include the deposit type, TPY, whether it was a union or non-union position as well as the number of direct and in-direct reports you had for the position. Afterward, list 3-5 bullets highlighting specific achievements you had in the role. Wherever possible, adding quantifiable data to back up your achievement claims is a must.
Drafting your resume in this fashion (a general job description followed by bullets highlighting specific achievements) breaks up the format, which helps to both maintain the reader’s attention and keep the information easy to follow. Bullet point details should be concise and include quantifiable data wherever possible. To say that you “Increased plant uptime” is pretty vague, whereas to say “Increased plant uptime from 82% to 91.3% by doing x, y, and z” gives more credibility to your claim.
Education
While your previous work experience is the most important factor on your resume and should be listed first, education is also an important factor. Some roles require extensive education, so listing your formal training is critical for many mining positions.
Don’t forget to include any additional training, including management training, mining-related software training, maintenance training, MSHA safety certifications and other technical training.
Avoid Mistakes
Finally, spend time checking the grammar and spelling on your resume. These types of mistakes make a more significant impact on the success of your application than you might think. Making sure all your included information, grammar and spelling are accurate will help create a good first impression.
Also, personalize your resume around the position you are applying for. Avoid copying and pasting job descriptions from one position to the next. Since each position has unique needs, you should also taylor the information you share to highlight experience and achievements in areas that will be beneficial to your success in this specific role.
Putting these strategies and tips to work for you and your resume will help you develop your credibility as a strong mining professional. Be sure to keep them in mind whenever you are applying for a new mining position.
If you want to learn more about how you can improve your resume, give us a call today.
