Thread: making a resume

I dont know about websites, but i will say that people usually comment on how organised my resume is.

Just have separate sections and sub sections for everything, and keep the same format throughout the document.

Keep it simple and readable, organised doesnt = fancypants.

I have a sheet at the front for my personal info (name, address, dob, phones, email etc etc).

Next page is qualifications separated by the level they are (not sure what it is in the US, but ive got it organised in ascending chronological order with most recent at the bottom).

Next few pages are work history organised in the same chronological order as the quals with a reference (boss) for each job, with a list of duties going from most important to least important for each job.

Then after the work history if they ask for it, a short personal statement detailing hobbies, lifestyle, any personal merits (punctuality, dedication, etc etc) just kiss your own ass basically.

I've always used that layout, and the last job i got hired for called me in for an interview about 2 days after i handed in my resume. Even more awesome was that they called me up about 10 seconds after i got home from the interview asking when i could start.

danke

But Step-by-Step Resumes. I own a copy. The book is incredible in its ability to help you create a targeted, professional looking, resume. The list price is only $20. If money is really tight, you can buy it used for as little at 68 cents (according to Amazon).

Also, have some people, whose opinion you trust, take a look at your resume. If you'd like, I'd be happy to help.

Print it on nice quality paper, but not pink sprinkled with perfume you fufu poofter.....

Originally Posted by maniclion

Print it on nice quality paper, but not pink sprinkled with perfume you fufu poofter.....

Good luck with printing. Most places want you to email me them your resume, not bring it in.

However...you should always try to get an appointment, even if only an informal one, to drop off your resume. That way you can make a good first impression.

Lie.

Or maybe not lie, but certainly exaggerate and hype up any achievements - big time. They expect that. Use "buzz" words, they love that.

Also, I'd reverse what gazhole said and have the most recent job at the top, with the most 'achievements' centred on this. Have an abilities/skills section to. Also, unless really technical, try to keep to 2-3 pages.

Originally Posted by DOMS

Good luck with printing. Most places want you to email me them your resume, not bring it in.

However...you should always try to get an appointment, even if only an informal one, to drop off your resume. That way you can make a good first impression.

Even after faxing or emailing a copy I would mail one and bring one in for the interview. I was taught they could never have too many copies and having one on a good stock of paper would help it stand out against all of the ones faxed or printed from email on regular paper.

Ill give you some advice. DO NOT USE A FUCKING MS WORD TEMPLATE. They are absolute garbage.

Make a simple plain text one with these headings

OBJECTIVE - one sentence, "Obtain a full time position as an XXXX with XXXX". You can usually omit this if its obvious which position you are applying for.
HIGHLIGHTS OF QUALIFICATIONS - 5 or 6 item bulleted list, which will summarize your strongest points based on work experience/education/achievements
EDUCATION - one or two sentences. DO NOT MENTION GRADES IF YOUR GRADE SUCK BALLS. IE, you arent mentioning your grades if you dont have B+s/3.5/85%
WORK EXPERIENCE - chronological bulleted lists using action words, see below. 3 or 4 employers only that ARE RELEVANT to the position being applied for. The project manager of Schlumberger doesnt care that you did auto detailing for hyundai back in highschool.
OTHER SKILLS - bulleted list mentioning computer skills, driving skills etc
INTERESTS - simple fun normal hobbies (ie nothing weird like fucking goats or killing hookers)
REFERENCES - the best thing to do here is to simply put "available upon request" and then make another sheet with your references on it, and bring it to the interview. The reason for this is once your potential employer has seen your resume, put you through an interview, they pretty much have a good idea of whether or not they want to hire you. A reference check is just a last ditch security check.

Use action words AS THE FIRST WORD of every bullet when mentioning work experience ie demonstrated, improved, obtained, revised, created, expanded etc.

It should be tailored to your level of experience...If you are young with little work experience (less than 5 years) and you have a bachelors degree or more you might want to beef up the "education" section. Don't place your GPA unless its above a 3.5 IMO...some people go as low as 3.0 but whats the point of writing something if its just average?

I'm a big fan of having an objective and characteristics after that...at least until you have a substantial amount of experience. Templates are just general ideas...generic guidelines to follow.

One question for all: whats with some employers still wanting prospective employees to include their MS Office skills? Isn't kind of given these days that people know how to use Excel, PP, Publisher etc?

Use buzz/keywords.

One of the things one of my professors explained was that many big companies HR departments use software in order to filter through the thousands of resumes that they receive.

As an example for me, I included a lot of networking and systems administration terms and acronyms like "CCNA, CCNP, Linux, NAT, PAT, BGP, OSPF, s390x" and so on. Don't just cram them in there randomly, but fit as many keywords in as you can.