resume

Reconsidering Your Resume: Five Ways to Sell Yourself Better

October 14, 2014 by Tim McMahon

When you are trying to construct a good resume, you need to make sure you are using your resume to speak to your skills and attributes and sell yourself to a new employer. The five ideas below are all designed to make your resume look better, and you need to be certain your resume features as many of these ideas as possible. Don’t be afraid to stand out.

One Page
It is definitely better to limit your resume to one page long. Today’s world is simply too busy for you to send out resumes that are several pages. When you getting ready to e-mail your resume, you need to make sure they are confined to one page. Unless you are applying for a high level management position, human resources people won’t [Read more…] about Reconsidering Your Resume: Five Ways to Sell Yourself Better

More Ways to Improve Your Resume

October 10, 2013 by Tim McMahon

Life Experience

Make your resume interesting by including some unique facts about yourself. If you start off with a small section called “Life Experience” and include a few interesting things you’ve done like hiking the entire Appalachian Trail or catching a 50 pound fish or whatever, it will make you memorable and give the recruiter something to ask you about if they call you in for an interview.

Choose Your Words Carefully

The right words can make a resume stand out, while the wrong ones can make it doomed for the trash. Use action words to allow you to be seen as a can-do person, and keep everything concise.

Bulleted lists are great for emphasizing skills while making your resume easy to skim.
Instead of just listing facts about yourself, show an employer how you got results in your previous jobs.
Use good grammar, check your spelling and have at least one other person read over it to look for mistakes.
~~See how many words you can eliminate to give the same information in a concise organized way.~~
Eliminate words to present information concisely.

Layout

Many job seekers make the mistake of trying to make their resumes stand out by using unusual fonts or layouts. However, this usually has the opposite of its intended effect. A resume that’s too distracting to employers often winds up in the reject stack. One thing that can be done to improve the looks of a resume is to save the file as a PDF document. That way it will always appear the same no matter what kind of computer or type of software the recruiter is using to look at it. Once it is saved as a PDF document if you want to make changes normally you would have to go back to the original document and edit it and then save it as a PDF again. But now there is software that allows editing PDF files directly so you can skip that extra step. Sending a resume to an employer in PDF format not only shows you know your way around a computer, but also presents the resume in an easy-to-read format.

Focus on the Job

Too many resumes are generic, rather than being tailored to the job for which a person is applying. In the old days, when resumes were run off in mass quantities on a commercial “off-set” printing press, you couldn’t customize it, but these days with word processing software and even electronic resumes there is no reason you can’t customize your resume for each job (except laziness) and every reason why you should take the time to do it right.

Many people think if they list all their previous jobs, that will make them more appealing to employers. However, if you’re applying to be a computer programmer, it’s a good idea to focus on why you would make a great programmer. So you need to tailor your resume to that specific programming job using the exact keywords used in the job description. But you don’t want to leave gaps in your employment history either, so only include the bare minimum about the fast-food job on the resume. Focus instead on skills, certifications and knowledge that can be applied to the specific job at hand.

By following these tips to improve your resume, the dream job that’s been waiting for you can become reality in no time.

See Also:


Resume Paper	Resume Magic, 4th Ed: Trade Secrets of a Professional Resume Writer	Knock ’em Dead Resumes: How to Write a Killer Resume That Gets You Job Interviews	Resumes For Dummies

Training and Certifications: A Leg Up in a Tough Market

June 21, 2013 by Guest Contributor

The job market is tough. Even though the unemployment rates are slowly improving, there are still hundreds of applicants clamoring for every available job opening. Thousands of people who were unemployed one month are still unemployed the next.

Training and certifications could give you the edge in the job market

In such a competitive market, job seekers need to do whatever they can to make themselves stand out to employers. For some, this could mean bolstering their resumes with additional training and certifications.

But many of these certification programs are not cheap. There’s an old saying: “You have to spend money to make money.” But if you’re living on unemployment and you’re savings are gone, is it really worth it to spend money you need to live, on additional training? [Read more…] about Training and Certifications: A Leg Up in a Tough Market

How College Students can Write a Powerful Resume

September 26, 2012 by Tim McMahon

Resume Writing for College Students-

Gather the info: Get all of your data, such as your grades, main courses, projects, internship details, achievements and experience. With all the information in one place, you are ready to start your resume.
Understand the Job Needs: Read the job ad carefully and find out what skill and experience it needs. If you feel you are a good fit, begin to build a resume.
Tailor Your Resume to the Job: Employers only spend about 30 seconds on each resume unless you catch their attention. You need to make your resume look like you were custom tailored for the job. Explain how your specific experience makes you the perfect fit for the job. With the ease of Wordprocessing software, each resume should be [Read more…] about How College Students can Write a Powerful Resume

Resume Writing Tips When You’ve Been Unemployed

August 23, 2012 by Guest Contributor

Resume Writing Tips-

During this world recession, unemployment is commonplace. That doesn’t mean the recruiter or hiring manager will look favorably upon your unemployment though. Being unemployed shouldn’t bar you from ever working again so, I’ll share CV and resume writing tips for those who have had times of unemployment. Here are five resume tips for re-entering the working world.

Lend a hand

While crafting your perfect resume, volunteering could get the ball rolling in your search for gainful work. Seek out organizations that actively take on volunteers for skill-building responsibilities. For example, are you worried that your office skills are rusty? Offer to do some clerical work for a non-profit. Get back into organizing events, if that is your chosen field, by helping charities put together fundraisers. It will serve as a recent activity that shows you are still in the game and, if you do well, could secure you a strong reference.

Close the gaps

Even though you may have been out of work for a while, chances are you have still been honing transferable skills in stints of non-paid or casual work. Make sure you account for those activities on your resume so that the recruiter or hiring manager knows you have stayed active and, more importantly, weren’t in prison.

Consolidate and adapt skills for each position

It may be tempting to fire off thousands of resumes to countless job postings. One has to stick, right? Unfortunately, probably not. Between the implementation of keyword scanners and the demanding eyes of HR professionals, it is more [Read more…] about Resume Writing Tips When You’ve Been Unemployed

5 Resume Mistakes to Avoid

August 6, 2012 by Guest Contributor

Resume Mistakes

Resume writing is a lost art, especially as we move into an era where we can find anything we may need online. Many people will do a quick search for resume templates to get the basis for their resume and then simply drop their own information into the prewritten template. While this is fine for the bare bones of crafting a resume, it does nothing in terms of submitting a resume that really stands out from the crowd. When writing your resume, keep these five common mistakes in mind:

Resume Mistake #1.

Not formatting everything perfectly. Formatting can be tricky when writing a resume and it’s easy for parameters to get off, which results in your resume looking sloppy and like it was hurriedly put together. Reformatting may be a nuance to do, but it makes the difference between looking like you care about what is on your resume and looking like you just slapped it together.

Resume Mistake #2.

Crafting a general resume. Not every job is a carbon copy of the next, and your resume shouldn’t be either. Your resume needs to be tailored to reflect your skills, attributes and experience for the position you’re applying for, which means you should take the time to beef up the parts that your prospective employer will find most appealing. You can find these in the job description in the Ad you are responding to. If the job requires someone who is “creative” or “detail oriented” be sure that shows up in your resume. [Read more…] about 5 Resume Mistakes to Avoid

Choosing a Professional Resume Writing Service

July 13, 2012 by Guest Contributor

A Professional Resume Writing Service

Hiring an executive resume writing service can often result in more positive application responses than if you write your resume yourself. However, choosing such a service can be a daunting task. Hundreds or more of such services are available online, and it can be difficult to select the right one. Deciding on your hiring criteria before you work with a resume writer will help cut down on the potential stress of paying someone else to write your resume.

Resume Writing Credentials

First, find out whether the resume writer you work with has been certified by a recognized professional organization, such as the Career Management Alliance, Career Directors International, National Resume Writers Association, or the Professional Association of Resume Writers. Several types of certification are available, from basic to master-level.

Additionally, some resume writers possess personal branding certifications, which is important if you want more than just a resume revamp. A personal branding specialist can help you create a professional online presence that can establish you as an expert in your field and help you land your next position.

The Resume Writer’s Background

In addition to having the credentials necessary to write a professional resume, your resume writer should be familiar with your industry. If possible, work with a resume writer who has some work experience in your field.

Resume writers with experience in human resources can also be very helpful. They know what hiring managers want to see. If your resume writer does not have an HR background or experience in your field, it does not mean that your resume will not be accurate, precise or well-written. If you can find one that has one or both of these qualities, however, your resume is more likely to possess just enough of a unique edge to put your resume on the top of the pile. [Read more…] about Choosing a Professional Resume Writing Service

How to Bag your Dream Job

October 31, 2011 by Guest Contributor

With unemployment at a high, it’s tough out there in the job market. These days, employers are playing it cautious when it comes to advertising for jobs, and when they do decide to advertise, they’re looking for the cream of the crop in terms of potential employees, so it’s vital you’ve done your homework.

With that in mind, we’ve come up with a checklist of things you should do if you want to succeed at interview. Read on to discover what tips we think will stand you in good stead…

1. Know Your CV (Curriculum Vitae or Resume)

It might sound obvious, but for many people it isn’t. So your CV and cover letter has gotten you a job interview – great. But do you know your CV like the back of your hand?

If not, you should. It’s often the first thing employers ask you about in interviews. For instance, ‘Oh I see you worked at XXX – so what did that entail?’ It sounds like an easy question to answer but if it was a work placement that was a few years ago you’ll need to make sure you can remember what your role involved. ‘Um’s’ and ‘er’s’ don’t generally make for a convincing answer. [Read more…] about How to Bag your Dream Job