So I am looking at my resume and I’ve been updating the same exact format for more than a decade and I am kind of tired of that particular resume. Does anyone have any advice for formatting a resume? Tips and tricks you like to use?
A friend of mine in the entertainment industry asked me to put together a resume for his field, and I realized that my resume is actually not pathetic in that regard, but it’s a lot of contract work and such. When I did IT I generally put down the company I worked for and not the contracts, probably a mistake. In this case it’s definitely the contracts that will look impressive and not who I subcontracted for.
So I am specifically looking for how to format it in such a way that it highlights both the vendor that employed me as well as any contracts.
Have you considered paying someone to write it for you? I suppose you may have to talk to a couple of different people before you found one that understood your field, but it might not be a bad idea.
I have an online resume and I did a lot of cool things, in both HTML and Flash formats.
Virtually no one everr looks at it. I send my text resume they look at that, and on it and my cover letter I encourage them to take a look at my online resume. It’s mostly just bells and whistles, but I can tell from my logs that I don’t even think five companies in the past five years have bothered to look at it.
They just rely on good old text.
So many H/R people use computers and they have so many formats I found it’s OK to use different things, but if your sending it online you HAVE to make sure it formats easily on all types of systems.
For instance, if you save your resume as a MS Word document, which most offices have WordPerfect can open it and convert it, but the H/R manager usually is totally lost.
A lot of companies have gone to using key words. The H/R person opens up the document and hit “Ctrl+F” and looks for key words
Or worse they use online applications. They often use tricks that allow the companies to reject things automatically.
Like if you are convicted of a felony, a “trick” is to simply say “Have you ever been convicted of a felony?” Check Yes Or No.
Then that’s it.
With a written application you can skip it and explain later or there is usually a box to “explain.” But online it often just say “Yes/No.” So if, for instance, you put Yes the online application goes into rejects and is never looked at.
And other fields are like that. They require exact answers.
Not for formatting but one suggestion for mailing; use stamps and if possible older commemorative issues related to the position you are applying for. Most coin and stamp shops have a surplus of obsolete postage that are perfectly good stamps but not the perfection collectors are looking for. Often they are sold at a discount - $12.00 face value for $10.00 or something like that. Two or three stamps will catch the attention of someone handling the mail and it WILL get your application/resume noticed.
Ages ago I was graduating college and trying for my first job as a teacher. The stamps I used were related to education or child welfare. And the school that hired me, the person who handled my application, was honest enough to say that the stamps got his attention enough that he stopped to read what I had written. Sometimes that’s half the job of getting hired.
PS – I know charities that use the same trick for getting donation letters read. And I can see why. Metered mail I usually pitch without opening but put some stamps on it and I’ve just got to see whats inside.
For the contract work - you definitely want to start with the name of the company you worked for, and the time period. Contract work can make you look like a job-hopper, and that’s the #1 reason it goes to the bin.
Give the employer name and timer period, then use a sub-bullet for each of the relevant projects. Bold the name of the company the first time it shows up int he text, but don’t lead with it, as that woudl be confusing.
i.e. “Performed XXwork on XXtype system for XXCompany with 99.9% accuracy rating and completed the project 17% under budget . . .”
Another “trick” is to lump things together, especially if that experience is not particularly relevant to the job you are applying for.
For instance, if you have 10 years experience working in restaurants (but are NOT applying for another restaurant job), you would write:
Food Service Industry 1995-2005
Hired personnel, worked in service and prep, made bank deposits, dealt with customer complaints, (etc. etc. from ALL of the positions you did) at Bob’s Steak House, Jim’s BBQ Hut, Olive Garden, Red Lobster and Jake’s Diner.
The above is far better than putting down each restaurant separately, with different dates and skills. The potential employer can see you have other skills, but is not forced into thinking that is all you know. Again, “lump” these kind of jobs together only if they are not particularly relevant to the job you are applying for.