Archive for the ‘Samples’ Category
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Tuesday, June 10th, 2008
by Darlene Zambruski, ResumeEdge.com Managing Editor, CPRW, SME
At first glance, your resume should answer two important questions for a hiring manager:
1. Who You Are
2. How You Can Be Contacted
Who You Are
This includes your name and any professional designations you have obtained, such as an MBA, Ph.D., RN, MD, or any of a number of professional distinctions. By including these designations with your name in the header you are providing the hiring manager with immediate and valuable data regarding your candidacy and career level.
The manner in which you present your name is also important. Including familial designations such Joe Jones, III may very well be seen as pretentious by a hiring manager. Using a “Jr.” after your name may be applauded by your family, but it could give a hiring manager the wrong first impression – that you are young and inexperienced. Caution is always advised in these instances.
A word about nicknames:
Nicknames can work for you or against you given the circumstances.
If you were named “Kendrick,” but go by “Ken,” use of your nickname would be appropriate as Ken is more modern and sounds more youthful than Kendrick.
However, if you were christened “Barbara,” but are known as “Babs” – even at work – it would be best to err on the conservative side during your job search, especially if the targeted industry is a traditional one such as banking, accounting, or education. Once hired, you can then decide whether using your nickname is appropriate.
How You Can Be Contacted
This data should be instantly obvious to a hiring manager.
Your phone number and email address are your most important contact data. For easy access by hiring managers, phone numbers and emails should be bolded and in a larger type than the physical address, as hiring managers rarely, if ever, contact a successful candidate by “snail” mail.
A word about phone numbers:
Although you may be tempted to list numerous phone numbers, including fax numbers, don’t.
Work Numbers: Never include a work number even if your boss knows you’re searching for another position as this sends the wrong message to a potential employer. He or she will wonder about your loyalty and whether you’ll be using company time at your new job to speak to prospective employers.
Cell Phones: Never include these because you may just be contacted while you’re in traffic with its intrusive background noise, or where the phone signal is weak which could irritate a busy hiring manager when neither of you can hear each other speak above the static.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
· I have numerous professional designations – should I include all of them after my name at the beginning of the resume? What is too much?
The key here is to target your approach and to include only what’s germane to your current job search. If you have a Ph.D. in Biology and an MBA, you would only list your Ph.D. in the heading when applying for an academic position.
· I’m planning to relocate to Georgia from California and am currently seeking employment in the Atlanta area. Should I list my California address on my resume?
As previously stated, physical addresses aren’t as important to hiring managers as phone numbers and emails. In your case, your physical address should be removed from the resume and replaced with “Relocating to the Atlanta, Georgia area.” It would be well advised for you to provide a time frame for this move so that a hiring manager knows you’re serious.
· My name is foreign-sounding and it’s not immediately apparent to a U.S. hiring manager whether I’m a “Mr.” or a “Ms.” Should I just use an initial for my first name?
Use of an initial would do little to clarify the matter for a hiring manager. Many overseas clients use their given names. then add – in parentheses – the U.S. or European equivalent – i.e. Étienne (Stephen) Dore.
· Is there a negative connotation to using a P.O. Box rather than a street address in the heading of a resume?
Absolutely not, especially in these days of heightened security, and when responding to “blind” postings on Internet job sites.
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008
by Darlene Zambruski, ResumeEdge.com Managing Editor, CPRW, SME
Generally speaking, hiring managers expect resumes to be focused towards business-related activities that can indicate to them your potential on the job. However, hobbies and interests that show leadership, technical skills, commitment to community, or team-playing capabilities may also enhance your candidacy. These might include:
1. Volunteer work for such organizations as Junior Achievement, the “Y”, Girl or Boy Scouts, being a Big Brother or a Big Sister, etc.
2. Clubs that enhance skills and test proficiency, which can be useful on the job. These would include Computer Clubs, Language Clubs, Toastmasters, International (public speaking), etc.
3. Participating in events to help a good cause (eg: 10-K run for cancer research)
A Word About Hobbies and Interests that Should Not be Included in Resumes
Avoid mentioning those with:
1. Political overtones (eg: The Young Republican Club, volunteering for an individual seeking public office)
2. Danger (eg: skydiving, racing cars, mountain climbing, motorcycling)
3. Expense beyond your means (eg: coin collecting, European travel, buying antiques)
4. Unusual (eg: collecting Elvis paraphernalia, attending Star Trek conventions)
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
· I’m a female company vice president whose only hobby is knitting. Won’t that make me seem old or too female?
Unless the hobby enhances your candidacy, it probably shouldn’t be included on your resume. However, if you’ve donated articles you knitted (to a local woman’s center or perhaps for preemies at the hospital), mentioning this indicates to a hiring manager that you are a well-rounded individual capable of running a business, while also attending to ‘people’ issues.
· I really don’t have any hobbies other than watching television at night. Should I just make something up?
Hobbies and interests are not required on a resume, therefore it’s advisable to exclude your television viewing habits. It’s always best to remain truthful so that you’re not surprised by any questions during the interview process.
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008
by Amrita Douglas, ResumeEdge.com Editor
So you’ve finally rendered every last trim and run Compressor with your fingers crossed for the last time. After weeks of being a slave to cornea bending slices of time, you are very wisely stopping just before you ruin your work. You would trade two weeks in Tahiti for two weeks in REM, easy, but before you go anywhere, you have to remind the world you’re still in it. Your reel is up on blogspot, but then so is everyone else’s, and the videos still take a while to load—are you going to hand out business cards with your blog address and hope for the best? Wait until someone kindly offers you a few hours of work in Dreamweaver for free so you can finally get your web site up?
Better to illustrate your resume in Word! As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, especially if any old mail program can open it. These days, Word can perform all sorts of tricks that once only Quark could do. You can import pictures and resize them in place, run text around images, over and under them, distort them and add animations. But it’s best not to get carried away, because your resume should be about what you can do, and not about what the application you write it in can do.
Choose your text carefully. Keep it spare and simple, and make its content traditional, because this time the pictures are going to do a lot of the talking. If you position an image right by the relevant text, it will illuminate the text. But if you list your work for the Discovery Channel, don’t place your favorite, most recognizable frame from A Clockwork Orange next to that listing. Overall, make sure that the images you select are in keeping with the work you’re applying for. If you badly want to work on John Waters’ next film, it’s better to show that you made a promotional spot for the BBC version of Life and Loves of a She-Devil or even Teletubbies than to put in a frame from Army Wives. If you have a special hand with certain kinds of transitions, select a frame that shows an actual transition to show what you can do.
Make a folder and fill it with images that you have grabbed out of halted footage. Assign a key in Photoshop to cut down on time when reducing the file size of each image to just short of thumbnail, and don’t bother with anything bigger than 72 dpi—it needs to stay small. When you have the text saying exactly what you want, avoid using text boxes and start positioning pictures straight into the text using the commands under Insert and the Formatting Palette under View. Click on the image to start manipulating it in the Formatting Palette. You can do more positioning manually if you go to Wrapping then Style and select Through. Once you have the pictures positioned as you want in order to project a particular overall concept, save the document as a PDF and then use Acrobat Pro to optimize and further reduce the file size, ready for deployment at any time. You can go back and re-illustrate the same text with different sets of images to highlight different aspects of your work experience and save different versions ahead of time so you can respond to openings immediately.
By all means, display the url for the site where you have posted your reel in a prominent position. After looking at your resume, people should be tempted to move on and check out samples of your work in action.
Amrita Douglas is a writer and an editor of both text and footage, with an academic background in Psychology, Biology, English Literature and Design. She lives in New York City and has transliterated research papers from many parts of the world into Standard American English. Culturally omnivorous, she draws on her background in India, Britain, the East Coast of the United States and other places, to reach out to others from beyond those parts of the world. As an editor, she takes particular interest in the ways that English is developing in different countries and in learning about the concerns and values of a wide variety of clients. Request Amrita for your ResumeEdge.com product by keying in her last name only, no caps (douglas) in the ‘request your editor’ field of the ResumeEdge.com online form. http://www.resumeedge.com/
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
by Darlene Zambruski, ResumeEdge.com Managing Editor, CPRW, SME
As recently as five years ago, many trade and vocational positions (eg: auto mechanics, beauticians, plumbers, etc.) did not require that an applicant produce a resume with relevant professional and vocational history. The interested party simply approached the individual in charge of hiring and asked for a job. In today’s tight employment market, with many of the local operations being absorbed by corporate-run chains or franchises, a resume is an absolute must. And like all resumes, the content must be tailored to the appropriate audience and contain relevant candidate skills.
1. For candidates who are High School Graduates
High school vocational classes such as typing, data entry, word processing, auto mechanics, and the like should be stressed on the resume, in particular if there is no accompanying professional experience. A detailed listing of the coursework can be provided, and if the final grade was stellar, this should also be included. In many positions open to high school graduates, hiring managers want to know about expertise in computer software (Word and Excel lead the list) or speed with 10-key.
Additionally, if a candidate has excelled in English or math during high school, this should clearly be stated in the resume as these skills are required for administrative assistants and in other entry-level positions. The key is to match the employer-listed qualifications (math skills, writing skills) to what was learned in high school.
2. Trade School Graduates
If the trade school attended is a leader in the field and recognized for producing outstanding graduates, then the name of the school should be stated in the Qualifications Summary (eg: Recent graduate of the Bates-Fowler Beauty School in Hollywood, California. . .). This provides immediate and relevant information to the hiring manager, while substantially enhancing an applicant’s candidacy.
Next, a listing of all relevant certifications and coursework (with hours completed) should be provided. If the candidate was a recipient of an academic scholarship or received an award for outstanding coursework, this should be appropriately showcased.
Again, the key is to tailor what was learned in trade or vocational school to what the employer is seeking in terms of qualifications and skills.
3. Emphasizing Technical Certifications
This data is crucial to a hiring manager and can be showcased in two ways.
A. If the certification has an accompanying icon or logo (eg: a Microsoft or Oracle certification), then that image should be placed in the header of the resume where the candidate’s name and other contact information is provided. This provides visually-arresting and immediate data to the hiring manager. Within the resume, the date the certification was received and the granting institution should be provided.
B. If there are numerous certifications, then a listing should be showcased within a special section directly beneath the opening summary. The date the certification was received and the granting institution should be provided in this section.
4. Using Temporary (Contract) Jobs to Downplay a Spotty Employment History:
In modern resumes, hiring managers generally prefer a reverse-chronological format with the most recent job presented first, followed by the next most recent, etc., so that they can track job history and spot any gaps in employment. In today’s job market, however, the reality is that many workers are making do with contract jobs until a permanent position comes along.
To downplay numerous jobs of short duration, it’s always wise to list the temp agency as the employer along with the total dates of employment. The actual place of employment should be listed after the job title and followed by the exact dates the candidate was at that location.
For example:
JOHN JONES EMPLOYMENT AGENCY, Boise, Idaho 1999 – 2003
Administrative Assistant, Fred Ware Industries (2002-2003)
Data Entry Clerk, Trent Howard, Inc. (2001-2002)
Receptionist, Phillips Tools (1999-2000)
The above accomplishes two things:
A. It shows consistency of employment with the agency. Hiring managers are aware that the economy is producing more and more temporary/contract workers, rather than permanent employees. The above listing shows that the worker did well enough with the agency and the contract employers to be sent on numerous positions – therefore, the worker must have performed well.
B. If the contract jobs were of increasing responsibility, this will clearly be shown in the titles held – receptionist to data entry clerk to administrative assistant. Hiring managers take note of this upward progression, even if it were done on a contract basis.
5. Breaking into a Male-Dominated Trade for Female Trade Professionals
In today’s workplace, a woman’s place is everywhere as long as she has the skills and qualifications to meet the demands of the job.
In building the resume for a traditionally male-dominated field, it’s important for the female candidate to showcase the following:
A. Certifications or licensure required for the position – always include dates of attainment and the granting institution. If the final grade was stellar, include that as an inducement to the hiring manager. All academic scholarships and honors should also be listed.
B. Physical qualifications: Some male-dominated jobs require lifting loads of 50 lbs. or more in addition to the general duties. It’s important for a female candidate to state in the opening summary that she can meet the physical demands of the job. Additional physical information can be given regarding the candidate being a non-smoker, non-drinker, and free of substance abuse.
C. Willingness to engage in business-related travel and ability to relocate. In many male-dominated fields, hiring managers may still feel that a female candidate will be tied to a certain area because of family concerns. If the candidate does not have these restrictions, they should be noted in the opening summary of the resume.
Additionally, the overall tone of the resume should be as businesslike as possible, and should market whatever capabilities the female candidate has that can get the job done.
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