Some example/advice on resumes

[PurpleVeggie]

Haldo everybody! I've been wanting to get a normal job and have been considering formats for resumes for a while but seem to have trouble actually creating a satisfying layout. I have plenty of experience to put on it, dog walking buisness, kitchen work, volunteering at festivals, babysitting, paper job ect. but I don't know much about conveying my experience and traits on to paper in a way that will "sell me"

any advice on resume writing or examples of your own you could give me would be muchly appreciated! I'm sure other people could benefit from a discussion on resume writing as well so really, if anyone's got something to say please do! :3

[mediar]

MY resume goes as followed

Name, contact info, email address (make a good looking email address not "yosuggadaddy@hotmail.com"

My Work experiences in a paragraph. 4 -5 sentences long.

My skills set, listed in category and in point form

Each of my past jobs RELEVANT TO WHAT I AM APPLYING FOR. (you don't want to have waitering experience if you are applying for an IT job)

Then I list my schooling.

Then I list my certificates. (again keep it relevant!)


Good rules of thumb, no more then two pages long. Have decent spacing and don't increase font size to make your resume look fuller.

[zenia]

I didn't have anything on my first resume except babysitting and volunteer work. I tried applying at this one grocery store like, three times. Then I went to one of those youth employment centers. They had a book of sample resumes there. I just picked ones whose style appealed to me (it was simple and to the point). I reapplied and they called me a half hour later for an interview. I had the job three days later.

[Tony Greyfox]

Simplicity is usually a good thing, I've found. If you get too fancy, employers tend to get lost and might think you're trying to hide behind the pretty pictures, or whatever you're doing.

My resumes are quite basic:
- contact information
- three point-form lines describing your strengths and your goals
- employment, most recent first; keep this relative to the job you're applying for, if possible
      - if you're looking for a first job, listing volunteer, babysitting, etc. is fine - even better if it's long-term
- education - if it's specific to the job you're looking for, get into detail, but otherwise don't linger
- special skills/hobbies/certification - keep it specific to job-related stuff; first aid training is always good to list here
- references, or a note that they're available on request, whichever you prefer

Two pages, tops, is best.

One important thing to consider is a covering letter - just a few paragraphs saying who you are, why you want that specific job, and why you're a good choice for that job. It gives a bit more of your personality.

[terutt]

LONG POST AHOY!

My father did a lot of hiring and HR consultancy a few years ago, this is his advice:

***COVER LETTER. COVER LETTER. COVER LETTER.***

You'd be amazed how few cover letters employers get, especially since it's almost mandatory. Make a cover letter personalized to every position you apply for. Make one good template, and change it up a little. If it's a big company, butter them up, show them that you've done some research.

Address box top right corner: your name, address

one line down, aligned to the right, the date

One line down aligned to the left, the name of the manager hiring you, the name and address of the business.

Dear Hiring Manager's name, or else To Whom It May Concern

Paragraph 1: What the specific job you are looking for, where you found the posting if there was one, set up the next paragraph saying that you've outlined some background information about yourself. About 2 sentences

Paragraph 2: Sell yourself. Tell them who you are, what you do well, what you've done well, how good a fit you'd be for the position and so on. About 5-7 sentances. Use "I" a lot but not too much

Paragraph 3: FINISH HIM! Thank whoever is reading for their time. "Please find enclosed my resume, for your perusal. I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience so we may further discuss...."

Sincerely,

{Fancy signature IN PEN}

Your Name Typed

Resume

Rule 1: If the job you're looking for is paying less than 60k, you're only allowed one page. You're allowed one more for every 25k on top of that. One dinky little line cook job in nameless cafe can get 30 resumes from a craigslist post. Good jobs will get hundreds. Keep it short, concise and don't bore the hiring manager.

Name: First Last, easy. Number, easy. Emali, mediar hit it on the nose. Get a professional looking email. try every combination of your name and initials you can, dots underlines, etc. If you're name isn't john smith, you'll be fine.

Things should be printed in order of most impressive to least impressive. About 90% of jobs want to see your work experience first.

Objective: Fuck the objective, you already stated it in the expertly written cover letter. It was the first damn thing you wrote.

Certification: If the job you want requires certification, get this out of the way first if you have it, in fact, declare it in the 2nd paragraph of your cover letter. If it's food safe or serving it right, closer to the bottom. Don't bother if it's inapplicable to the job.

Work experience: The name of the place you worked at, which city it was in, the approximate dates worked, your official title. Underneath, put, in full sentences what you did at that job. If you did anything special, put that too. Keep it short. 2 or 3 sentences tops for each job.

On the note of dates worked, there are tricks to it. If you only worked three months at a job, "Jul 03 - Sep 01, 2008" looks less impressive than simply "Summer 2008". It's not lying, you did work during the summer of 2008.

Education: Put only the latest form of education reached, if you're in the middle of a degree, indicated how far along you are. If you're in uni, no one cares about high school. Only put your GPA on there if it's impressive. Impressive is more than 3.5 (B average or higher)

Volunteerism: This could be put up near work experience depending on how heavy duty it is. Treat it like work experience, because it was just that, with less pay, an likely a nobler cause.

Hobbies: Only if you have room. No one cares.

References: Have at least one or two people to vouch for you that you're not a fuck up. Put their full names and contact info on there if you can fit it, if not, put available upon request, and bring a separate sheet with you to the interview with the info, requested or not.

Skill set: Depending on how strong this is it can go anywhere. But no one likes to see it before the work experience. I like to put it just before the references. Don't put "Good listener, works well in a team" and all that bullshit, that's what everyone puts.  Put actual specific skills and talents you posses that could be applicable to the job you want.

***GENERAL TIPS***

The point of a resume is to get an interview, not to get a job. Remember this.

If at all possible, walk in there like John Wayne and hand it to the manager. It must be the manager, don't give it to some girl who says she'll forward it. Not because she won't, but because handing it to the man himself makes you look like a boss.

Make it look nice. Learn how to table things in word. Give it to your employed friend to format. Hell, I'll format it if I'm bored enough. Use a serif font that is not Times New Roman. Or a sans that is not Arial. Seriously. It makes a difference. Managers eyes get tired looking at the same fonts.

Your resume should ideally be in an envelope with the name of the manager on there or "Manager". Obversely, it's also a good idea to have a bunch of them in a flat manila folder, but this appears to some people that you're carpet bombing. Whichever you prefer, it's more about protection of the paper than impression for this tip.


On the point of interviews

Dress nice. Clean, dark jeans are okay if it's blue collar, retail, or food service. Wear a shirt with a collar, try not to make it plaid. Tuck it in. Wear clean shoes, polish them if they're dress.

Know the answers to the obvious questions. Be ready to spiel on previous jobs. Never talk about other people, only you.

Have some questions ready. And one of them will not be "How much is the wage." Questions like specific tasks on the job, likely hours, coworkers, equipment, things that you actually want to know, but haven't thought of.

Don't rehearse too much, your answers will seem canned. Take it easy. Breath. Smile. Take off your watch, you'll check it for sure. Smoke after the interview

On the topic of smiling, brush your teeth, clean your hair, shave for fuck sakes (unless your beard is manly, then simply have it neat and trimmed)

Begin and end the interview with a handshake.

That about sums it up. Happy hunting!

TL;DR No. Not TL;DR. That's why you're unemployed. Read it. I'm trying to fucking help.

[RainRat]

There's lots of job advice sites that give general resume advice.

My personal advice is: Have a "real name" website. Put your best work there, whether it's art, software, writing. Have a page on your site where you say you're looking for a job. Might not want to put your full resume public like that, but your website should be the hook.

There's so many ways to social network and research companies now, just sending a generic resume blindly doesn't work anymore.

BTW: I'm pretty good at proofreading, and I can also share my opinion on how a third party might see your resume.