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Need Resume
Help?
Here are Some Useful Tips
Ready for some resume help? Now that you've spent a ton of
time coming
up with a career plan
and searched for a job,
you're ready to write
your resume.
Great. Well, if you're like I was, you might not know where
to begin. As I
mentioned before, I didn't write my first resume until late in my
career.
I thought it would be a piece of cake. But after a hundred
versions later, a lot of research and a bunch of great resume help and
feedback, I think I have it down.
Let's first take a look at the overall resume format. There are many
different types of resumes to choose from.
Should your resume
format be in chronological order or functional
order? Or both?
As I stress throughout the job hunting advice website, I am a big fan
of using the best of all worlds.
I found career help from many
different sources. But I ended up using a combination approach. The
important fact is to use a that works for you.
Once you have your basic format in mind, you can next focus on writing
a resume. Resume
writing is an art form, and like all art, it is open
for different interpretation.
Resume
Advice - No matter how you chose to write your resume, there
are certain details
that should (and should not) be included on every resume.
If you find that you are still struggling with your job resume and need
some expert resume help, you might want to consider a professional
resume service.
This usually involves a fee, but you might find it
money well spent.
CV
writing - Ever come across a CV? This is the acronym for
Curriculum Vitae. If you
care to know, it comes from Latin meaning "Life Story".
But what the heck is it? Good
question. I received an email from a
recruiter once asking me for my current CV.
I'm not embarrassed to
admit, that I had no idea what one was.
Here is what the big
brains at MIT say about writing a CV:
- "Curriculum
Vitae (CV) resembles a resume in many ways, but is more specifically
focused on academic achievements.
- A
CV summarizes educational and
academic history, and may include details about teaching experience,
publications (books, articles, research papers, unpublished
manuscripts, or book chapters), and academic honors and awards. Use a
CV rather than a resume for teaching or research opportunities..."
I found what a CV was years after my first real job search and hundreds
of resumes later. I realized one thing...I didn't need one!
I'm not
saying you won’t, but stick to fine-tuning your resume for now unless
you are specifically asked to provide a CV.
Key Resume
Advice and Tips:
- The primary purpose of the resume is to get you
in for a job
interview.
- Don’t make it hard on the eyes to read. Use a
lot of white space.
- Don't try to put your entire life history into
it.
- Never more than two pages. One page is fine.
- Review resume help links above for more
details.
Once you have created your resume, you are not completely done. You
still need to write an effective cover
letter to go along with it.
For
me, it was a lot less stressful than writing the resume.
For additional resume help, please check out the resume
format, general resume
advice, resume
writing tips, cv
writing and professional
resume advice sections.
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