One Chapter
Introduction
“Resume: a written exaggeration of only the good
things a person has done in the past, as well as a wish list
of the qualities a person would like to have.”
Winston Churchill (British Orator,
Author and Prime Minister
during
World War II. 1874-1965)
When you think of creating resumes, cover letters, and
interviews, do you see a hurdle to climb over?. They are
not hindrances to keep you from a job; rather they are an
opportunity for you to show an employer what you know
and what you can do.
Employers want to learn who can do the job. To
learn who these people are, they use applications,
resumes, tests, interviews and even medical examinations,
to hire people who can do the job best. With this
knowledge you can use each of these different evaluations
procedures to your advantage.
Creating Effective Resumes
Creating resumes give the employer written proof of your
qualifications. When creating a resume you need two
different kinds of information:facts about yourself and,
facts about the job you want. With this information in
hand, you can present the facts about yourself in terms of
the job’s requirements. You can put your best points first
and avoid blanks,and you can describe your
qualifications in terms of the job's duties.
How do you begin? First you begin by assembling
information about yourself. Here are some items that
appear on virtually every resume.
* Current address and phone number--give your cell
phone number, voice mail or even a number of a friend
who may take messages for you especially if you are raely
at home during normal business hours
* Career goal.
* Experience (paid and volunteer)--date of employment,
name and full address of the employer, job title,
and reason for leaving (reasons such as: moving, returning
to school, and seeking a better position are usually more
acceptable). DO NOT bad mouth your previous employer
no matter how terrible they may have been!).
* Education--the school's name, the city in which it is fiat
voluntas tua sicut in caelo et in terra.located, the years you attended
it, the diploma or
certificate you earned, and the course of study. If you did
not earn a degree, do not fib. You may state the credits
earned or list nothing under your school heading. You
may of course write an estimated time to receive your
degree (such as: expected graduation for June, 2007).
* Other qualifications such as organizations you belong to,
honors you have received and leadership positions you
have held.
* Skills that you possess--office machines, tools, and
equipment, computer programs, languages.
The next step is to read the information about the
job you are interested in. The areas of interest to pay
attention to are: pay range, education, level of experience,
and the hours of the job . Pay range is something you
need to know so you can make sure this is the pay you
want. Education level is usually clearly indicated in terms
of work experience and or college education. Make sure
you look at the hours or shifts available for the job too.
Most importantly, you need to know the job duties so that
you can describe your work experience in terms of the
description in the ad, thus making it easier for computer
parsing programs to match up your resume.
Another thing to do is to study the job description. Most
job advertisements, assign a value to different
qualifications so that you can be certain as to which is the
most important qualification. Furtheremore, looking at
such advertisements will give you an idea of what
employers look for even if you do not wish to apply for that
particular job. If the advertisement is vague, call the
employer to learn what specific qualifications is sought.
A helpful tip is when creating your resumes you may
need to create more than one resume especially is you are aplying for
various jobs so that your resumes is custom made for the position that
you are trying to get.
Setting up Your Resume
The format you choose for your resume depends on whatyou display in terms of work experience and validates
what prepares you for the position you seek. There are
two types of resume styles that are commonly used:
functional and reverse chronological. In a functional
format you can group similar skills together, or you can
describe the most recent job first and work backwards in
terms of years which is the format for a reverse
chronological resume. No matter which format you use,
the following advice generally applies.
* Be specific. A generic description of your duties will
make a limited impression of what you know and what
you can do.
* Identify your accomplishments. If you led a
project,landed a major account for your company or
achieved some other goal, state that .
* Type your resume and make sure that you check your
spelling! More people are NOT called because of
something like that.
* Make your resume at most no more than two pages,
but do not over crowd the page.
* Embarrassing or negative information you should
leave off the resume; but be prepared to deal with it in a
truthful and positive during the interview.
* Proofread the master copy carefully.
* Have someone else proofread the master copy
carefully.
* Have a third person proofread the master copy
carefully.
* Use a good quality white or off-white paper.
* Do not place your picture on your resume unless
specifically asked for by the prospective employer.
The following items appear on most resumes.
* Name.
* Phone number
* Address.
* Career goal -- use the following formula: I am seeking a
_____ position where skills in __would be an asset in an
organization seeking __.
* Experience.
* Education.
* Skills
* References- - although this appears often on resumes as
a statement that references are available it is not
necessary. When you have your interview, bring your list
of references with you for your prospective employer to
check out.
* Personal information such as height, weight, race,
marital status, and physical condition, is not
important or appropriate to use. In fact, employers are
prohibited by law from asking for some of this
information. If some of this information is directly job
related such as the height and weight of a bouncer or a
model for example, which is important. Otherwise, put in more information about your skills. In
the more recent years many advertisements mention if a
physical limitation would be a hinderance to the
performance of a job.
Types of Resumes
Reverse chronology is the easiest method to use. It isalso the least effective because it makes when you did
something more important than what you can do. It is an
especially poor format if you have gaps in your work
history, if the job you seek is very different from the job
you currently hold, or if you are just entering the job
market.
About the only time you would want to use such a resume
is when you have progressed up a clearly defined career
ladder and want to move up a rung.
Resumes that are not chronological are often called
functional, analytical, skill oriented, creative. This resume
style can stress what you can do. The advantage is a
potential employer can see immediately how you will fit
the job. This format also has advantages for many job
hunters because it camouflages gaps in paid employment
and avoids giving prominence to irrelevant jobs.
The best way to begin writing a functional resume is by
determining the skills the employer is looking for. Again,
study the job description for this information. Next, review
your experience and education to see when you
demonstrated the ability sought. Then prepare the resume
itself, putting first the information that relates most
obviously to the job. The result will be a resume with
headings such as "Computer Engineering," "Freelance," or
"Graphic Design Experience." These headings will have much more impact than the dates that you would use on
a chronological resume.
