Your Magesty!!!
I have seen that style of writing in proposal text that talks about the various members of a team that is trying to win a government contract. That’s the way those proposals are written.
Well fuck me.
I’ve been pulled in so many different directions now I don’t know who, or what to believe anymore.
Thanks Employment Ontario for making me seem like a complete fucking doufus. They’re also the ones who told me that resumes could be 5, 6, 7, even 10 pages long! Ferchristsakes.
So, revision number 187 of the resume begins now.
10 pages? :eek: I’ve heard one page in general, two pages maximum in certain professions in which I would never be applying so I didn’t bother to remember what they are.
Yeah, well my ancient 4 page, first person, resume has finally had a nibble and I have an interview on Monday. First bloody interview in 6 months. On the upside they’re looking to fill two positions and it’s a government job. On the downside it’s a 2 hour drive from here.
Beggars, choosers, and all that…
One page resumes can be hard to read because people just cram as much crap in there as they can because that is what they are told what to do. Two pages is fine at least when I review resumes and they tend to be easier to read if they use white space. People that review resumes don’t study them like a newly discovered ancient test. Thirty seconds to two minutes is the typical reading time for each one if there is a stack of them so you better make things very clear, very fast. If you make the first pass some people will spend longer looking at it but not very long. When I have interviewed prospects at my mega-corp, I often got handed the resume only a few minutes before I did the interview and I usually had other stuff to finish up before going into the HR interview room. I just looked at it as I was walking to the room and that is what other people usually did too. There are other styles of resumes that are standard for some type of jobs though and government may be a little different.
I’ve worked for the past 9 years in US Govt contracting positions, and was actually told it was a requirement to fill out that style resume for applying for govt related positions. Every contractor had to have an up to date resume on file for the contract they were working on, and the third person style was what was requested.
Strange, I know, but I’ve never gone long enough without employment to know whether it affects my chances of getting a job.
Had an interview today with my “old style” resume. Went over well, but it’s a freakin 2 hour drive from my home! Not insurmountable by any means, but major suckage to state the least.
Anyone else able to share major commute stories? Will I really resent this job after months of a 2 hour drive in each direction? I love driving BTW! This is a Government position and I really feel I could commit to the drive. Of course at this point I could commit to stalking shelves at Wal-Mart; not that there’s anything wrong with that!
Comments and advice?
Personally I couldn’t do more than a 30 minute commute, but I know lots of people who do the 1 to 2 hour thing and don’t mind. If you like driving, that helps. One thing you can do is start visiting the library for books-on-CD/tape/etc. or downloading podcasts to listen to on the road.
Third person resumes are less wierd than third person interviews…
So, I had a call today asking for references for the position, which is a two hour drive away. Barring any insane circumstances I’m going to be hired. The job will pay me about 15% to 20% more than I was making previously. It’s a government job and therefore automatic pension benefits, to which I’ve never been privy.
And so I will need to commute two hours each way per day. Sucks? For sure, but I’ve been looking for gainful employment for 8 months now with no nibbles. I might look at a room type thing during the week. My shoulders are more relaxed today.
I think I’ll take it.
Leaffan
My mother had a 120 mile one-way commute all work days for 4 years. We didn’t see her much and she ran up insane mileage on her cars (that is something you have to figure in BTW) but it didn’t do any permanent psychological damage as far as I can tell. She also worked long hours so she was out the door at 5 am and back at home 9 or 10pm. I doubt government jobs require that. Even without the mileage, lots of people in big cities approach a two hour commute if they have to take buses, trains, carpooling, etc. It can be done.
I have a kind of hate/hate relationship with resumes. Like handshakes and necktie knot techniques, people put way, way, way, way too much thought/time/effort/money into discussing, debating, coaching, training, teaching, authoring, and generally ruminating on the proper-- nay, perfect way to fashion a resume.
It’s a piece of paper that says why you should be hired. It could be a hentai drawing for all I care, so long as it gets the point across and isn’t boring.
If I were a hiring person and I saw something like “Objective: To procure a position wherein I will synergize the market capital dynamic. Trend-setting optimal, outside-the-box strategy, and inverse leverage with application implementation management, aligned with core principal systems in complex, market-driven homeostasis”, or any collection of BS “The Apprentice”-style words, or gold imprint typography, I’d throw the damn thing in the garbage.
But then, I’m not in a hiring position. Some of the people who are tend to be brainless fruitflies whose attention you need to secure via bright colors and the word “leverage.”
As far as the original question, I’d ditch third person. Obviously, you’re the one writing the thing, so it just seems phony. I suspect most people just glance over the objective/profile/skills section and just focus on the work experience and education sections.
*weirdaaron is a leader in today’s forum post marketplace. He has leveraged several key focal strategies to maximize forum utilization. His core expertise lies in forming synergy between multiple demographic target matricies. He further enjoys Mexican food, but tells his associates he prefers Cuban food, and every one of his ties is pink. Sometimes, his lack of satisfaction in the wavering concepts of his own personal identity and sexuality brings him to open-mouthed weeping as he waits for the Lunesta he’s leveraged to maximize effect on his cerebral apparatus. *
So the OP’s not as tense any more? Great news! 
Feeling much more relaxed today Malacandra, thanks. I may even start, nay re-start, posting here for pure pleasure shortly.
I’ve been very absent from the SDMB for a while as I focused my on-line hours looking for work, rather than surfing for pleasure. I sincerely hope to reverse that trend tout de suite.
And wierdaaron I completely agree with you on the resume thing. I’ve had to re-write and tweak mine so many times in the last 8 months that I honestly started to give up on the whole process. Surely the salient job-related information is more important than style and layout? I’ve been stretched in a number of different directions on this, (Up to 12 pages! Third person! No Objective! Table format! No more than 2 pages!) and what got me this job was an on-line application wherein I had to cut and paste career information from my resume into an HTML window tool.
Well, holy shit. The folks who are hiring me actually looked at the job skills and education! (Not to mention that I nailed the interview!)
Think I’ll go have a beer (or 12) now.
Well, damed. I got the job! Finally after 9 months of looking I’ve landed a senior job in the government. Sure it’s a two hour drive, but it opens up a LOT of future possibilities if I can stick it out for a few years.
To say I’m relieved is an understatement.
And I have no idea which version of my resume got me the position. In fact, I don’t believe it was either of my 4 or 5 different incantations, but rather my cutting and pasting of pertinent skills and education into an on-line application database.
Woo hoo!
Congrats!
Congratulations, Leaffan! Pension and benefits, woohoo! I live well north of Toronto on the less populated side of Lake Simcoe. If I kept normal 9-5 hours, it would take me at least 2 hours to get to work. Instead I get up at 5 and drive down and return either shortly before rush hour starts (3 p.m. or there abouts) or wait until after rush hour ends (more or less at 7 p.m.)
I don’t think I’d be at all happy doing the commute from the east or the west - but driving in slightly off-hours makes it a roughly 1 hour trip. There are far too many like-minded workers however and every day brings a busier roadway.
Congrats!
If you’re going to do the 2 hour drive thing, be sure you have good snow/ice tires and have a blanket/shovel/winter gear in the car, although since I seem to remember you’re near Ottawa, you probably know that already! Just drive safely!
Also, if you can afford a room or a studio apartment in the town where you work, I’d recommend it for your own sanity. It will be harder for your wife and kids, but it’s very doable. My father did that for 12 years (although his job was kind of seasonal, so really he only did it from April-October), and none of us suffered too much from it!
Thanks! Already thought of all of the above, including a room.