Sunday, October 14, 2007; K01

Marsea Nelson came to Washington to start a career in the nonprofit field.

Nelson's r¿sum¿ has a common problem: She's "not thinking of each paid (or unpaid) stint as part of a career; she is thinking in terms of a day-to-day job," said Laura Gassner Otting, president of the Nonprofit Professionals Advisory Group and author of "Change Your Career: Transitioning to the Nonprofit Sector."

"Her r¿sum¿ lists tasks and responsibilities, not accomplishments and results. Rather than stating that she 'assisted with the maintenance of the Web site' she should write about the complexity of 'maintaining a Web site with 45 pages visited by more than 5,000 members, journalists and advocates daily.'

"Nowhere on Marsea's r¿sum¿ does she list the impact that she made in any of her jobs. It's not just about showing up to work every day in the nonprofit sector. It's about making a difference."

Think numbers, Otting advised. "Including specific numbers on your r¿sum¿ allows a headhunter or hiring manager to scan through and quickly discern whether you have had the correct level of depth, breadth and scope of experience. . . . List numbers of dollars raised, staff managed, grants written, board members trained, speeches written, press mentions secured."

She said, "Another mistake many young people make is to keep their r¿sum¿ formatted just as the career counselor at college did it. Marsea has had some interesting work experience since graduation, yet her r¿sum¿ starts with 2005's graduation. This only calls attention to the fact that she hadn't had real experience when, in fact, I'd wager that . . . [her internship] looks pretty close to a real first job, even if it didn't have the real first pay."

-- Maryann Haggerty