Hot Tips on Resume Writing

Article Source:  Yana Parker, http://www.damngood.com/jobseekers/tips.html

1. What IS a resume anyway?
Remember: a Resume is a self-promotional document that presents you in the best possible light, for the purpose of getting invited to a job interview.
It’s not an official personnel document. It’s not a job application. It’s not a “career obituary”! And it’s not a confessional.

2. What should the resume content be about?
It’s not just about past jobs! It’s about YOU, and how you performed and what you accomplished in those past jobs–especially those accomplishments that are most relevant to the work you want to do next. A good resume predicts how you might perform in that desired future job.

3. What’s the fastest way to improve a resume?
Remove everything that starts with “responsibilities included” and replace it with on-the-job accomplishments. (See Tip 11 for one way to write them.)

4. What is the most common resume mistake made by job hunters?
Leaving out their Job Objective! If you don’t show a sense of direction, employers won’t be interested. Having a clearly stated goal doesn’t have to confine you if it’s stated well.

5. What’s the first step in writing a resume?
Decide on a job target (or “job objective“) that can be stated in about 5 or 6 words. Anything beyond that is probably “fluff” and indicates a lack of clarity and direction.

6. How do you decide whether to use a Chronological resume or a Functional one? The Chronological format is widely preferred by employers, and works well if you’re staying in the same field (especially if you’ve been upwardly-mobile). Only use a Functional format if you’re changing fields, and you’re sure a skills-oriented format would show off your transferable skills to better advantage; and be sure to include a clear chronological work history!

7. What if you don’t have any experience in the kind of work you want to do?
Get some! Find a place that will let you do some volunteer work right away. You only need a brief, concentrated period of volunteer training (for example, 1 day a week for a month) to have at least SOME experience to put on your resume.
Also, look at some of the volunteer work you’ve done in the past and see if any of THAT helps document some skills you’ll need for your new job.

8. What do you do if you have gaps in your work experience?
You could start by looking at it differently.
General Rule: Tell what you WERE doing, as gracefully as possible–rather than leave a gap.
If you were doing anything valuable (even if unpaid) during those so-called “gaps” you could just insert THAT into the work-history section of your resume to fill the hole. Here are some examples: 

• 1993-95 Full-time parent — or
• 1992-94 Maternity leave and family management — or
• Travel and study — or Full-time student — or
• Parenting plus community service

9. What if you have several different job objectives you’re working on at the same time? Or you haven’t narrowed it down yet to just one job target?
Then write a different resume for each different job target. A targeted resume is MUCH, much stronger than a generic resume.10. What if you have a fragmented, scrambled-up work history, with lots of short-term jobs?
To minimize the job-hopper image, combine several similar jobs into one “chunk,” for example:

• 1993-1995 Secretary/Receptionist; Jones Bakery, Micro Corp., Carter Jewelers — or
• 1993-95 Waiter/Busboy; McDougal’s Restaurant, Burger King, Traders Coffee Shop.

Also you can just drop some of the less important, briefest jobs.
But don’t drop a job, even when it lasted a short time, if that was where you acquired important skills or experience.

11. What’s the best way to impress an employer?
Fill your resume with “PAR” statements. PAR stands for Problem-Action-Results; in other words, first you state the problem that existed in your workplace, then you describe what you did about it, and finally you point out the beneficial results.

12. What if your job title doesn’t reflect your actual level of responsibility?
When you list it on the resume, either replace it with a more appropriate job title (say “Office Manager” instead of “Administrative Assistant” if that’s more realistic) OR use their job title AND your fairer one together, i.e. “Administrative Assistant (Office Manager)”

13. How can you avoid age discrimination?
If you’re over 40 or 50 or 60, remember that you don’t have to present your entire work history! You can simply label THAT part of your resume “Recent Work History” or “Relevant Work History” and then describe only the last 10 or 15 years of your experience. Below your 10-15 year work history, you could add a paragraph headed “Prior relevant experience” and simply refer to any additional important (but ancient) jobs without mentioning dates.

14. What if you never had any “real” paid jobs — just self-employment or odd jobs? Give yourself credit, and create an accurate, fair job-title for yourself. For example:

 Here’s an example: “Transformed a disorganized, inefficient warehouse into a smooth-running operation by totally redesigning the layout; this saved the company thousands of dollars in recovered stock.”

Another example: “Improved an engineering company’s obsolete filing system by developing a simple but sophisticated functional-coding system. This saved time and money by recovering valuable, previously lost, project records.”

• A&S Hauling & Cleaning (Self-employed) — or
• Household Repairman, Self-employed — or
• Child-Care, Self-employed

Be sure to add “Customer references available on request” and then be prepared to provide some very good references of people you worked for.

15. How far back should you go in your Work History?
Far enough; and not too far! About 10 or 15 years is usually enough – unless your “juiciest” work experience is from farther back.

16. How can a student list summer jobs?
Students can make their resume look neater by listing seasonal jobs very simply, such as “Spring 1996” or “Summer 1996” rather than 6/96 to 9/96. (The word “Spring” can be in very tiny letters, say 8-point in size.)17. What if you don’t quite have your degree or credentials yet?
You can say something like:

• Eligible for U.S. credentials — or
• Graduate studies in Instructional Design, in progress — or
• Master’s Degree anticipated December 1997

18. What if you worked for only one employer for 20 or 30 years?
Then list separately each different position you held there, so your job progression within the company is more obvious.

19. What about listing hobbies and interests?
Don’t include hobbies on a resume unless the activity is somehow relevant to your job objective, or clearly reveals a characteristic that supports your job objective. For example, a hobby of Sky Diving (adventure, courage) might seem relevant to some job objectives (Security Guard?) but not to others.

20. What about revealing race or religion?
Don’t include ethnic or religious affiliations (inviting pre-interview discrimination) UNLESS you can see that including them will support your job objective. Get an opinion from a respected friend or colleague about when to reveal, and when to conceal, your affiliations.

21. What if your name is Robin Williams?
Don’t mystify the reader about your gender; they’ll go nuts until they know whether you’re male or female. So if your name is Lee or Robin or Pat or anything else not clearly male or female, use a Mr. or Ms. prefix.

22. What if you got your degree from a different country?
You can say “Degree equivalent to U.S. Bachelor’s Degree in Economics-Teheran, Iran.”

23. What about fancy-schmancy paper?
Employers tell me they HATE parchment paper and pretentious brochure-folded resume “presentations.” They think they’re phony, and toss them right out. Use plain white or ivory, in a quality appropriate for your job objective. Never use colored paper unless there’s a very good reason for it (like, you’re an artist) because if it gets photo-copied the results will be murky.

24. Should you fold your resume?
Don’t fold a laser-printed resume right along a line of text. The “ink” could flake off along the fold.

Motivation for Job Search

Article Source:  http://www.cvtips.com/motivation_job_search.html

Entering the world of job hunting for the first time or for the first time in a long time can be quite daunting but at the same time exciting as you anticipate that dream job being yours. You get busy with all the preparation needed to research and apply for vacancies and then of course start sending out applications and eagerly await a reply. You may find you are successful quite early into your job search and are offered employment in your chosen field or you may not be so fortunate and may instead find yourself waiting and waiting and waiting…

Days go into weeks; weeks stretch into months and still no job offer. You may receive replies that say ‘sorry, but on this occasion you have not been selected for interview’ or worse receive no reply at all. This lack of job search success can be very disheartening and you may begin to feel a sense of rejection and hopelessness.

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It is then very easy to become unmotivated, and even depressed as your job search HIGH becomes a job search LOW.

The more unmotivated you become the more difficult it is to push yourself to continue with your job search and so it becomes a vicious circle. It is therefore very important that you do your utmost to remain motivated as any loss of enthusiasm and focus will eventually be reflected in your behaviour, appearance and demeanour.

You may develop a fear of failure that manifests itself as a reluctance to apply for jobs all together. But that dream job will not find you unless you are incredibly lucky so you have to remain motivated and look for it yourself.

There are things you can do to remain motivated for job search, here are some tips:

Think Positive

Negative thinking involves a series of thoughts and repeating patterns whereby you always expect the worst of yourself and future situations. Negative thoughts about yourself and your performance and ability to achieve success will impact upon your chances of success. With negative thoughts comes a persona to match.

People who think negatively exude negativity in their speech, their mannerisms, the way they dress and the way they carry themselves. Employers want confident individuals who will add value to their organization. That is all that interests them, what you can do for them, not what they can do for you. So negative thinking will be off putting. To attract good fortune you need to think positively. This positive attitude will then reflect itself in everything that you do.

Having great credentials will not be enough to guarantee you success without that positive confident winning attitude. Believe in yourself and employers will too!

Some negative thought patterns relating to job search:

• Expectation of failure
• Putting yourself down and being overly critical of yourself
• Doubting your ability to do the jobs you are applying for
• Believing every other applicant is better than you and has more to offer

These negative thought patterns can damage your confidence and affect your performance. If you believe you will do badly in your job interview you probably will, BUT if you believe you will do well in your interview that can work wonders for your chances.

To keep yourself thinking positively you should create positive affirmations that you can use to counteract any negative thoughts. These positive affirmations will help you to build self-confidence and maintain it. In addition to this you could keep small cards that you can carry with you with details of your personal achievements or sayings that make you feel good. The more personal these sayings are the better. They can be sayings from the family, your partner, friends, or an inspiring quote you read in a book. As long as the saying uplifts and inspires you then having it handy for quick reflection is a very helpful.

Accept that you will have bad days and to avoid on those days thinking every day is a bad day on a calendar make a happy face to indicate a happy day and sad face to indicate a sad day. This way when you do have a bad day you can instantly check your calendar and see that not every day is like that after all. Meanwhile if you do find you are having a lot of bad days, you may find a chat with a good friend, GP, counsellor or coach is needed in case you need extra help addressing those feelings and dealing with them.

Know your Value

Employers want to know what how you can benefit their organization and what talents and skills you can bring to the table. Your talent and ability is your ’employment value.’ You need to identify what your employment value is before you start your job search so you can make sure you highlight this value in your job applications.

It will also ensure that you realise your own potential and apply for jobs that you will find rewarding.

Expect it to take time and effort

Finding a job can be a full time job in itself. Expect to devote a substantial amount of time and energy to the process. If you are unemployed, spend at least 30-40 hours per week and if you are employed, expect to have extra work to do when you get home for several weeks/months until you find a new job.

Take care of yourself

Job hunting can be stressful and can lead in some cases to depression. Maintain your health as best as you can by ensuring that you eat regularly, exercise and sleep well. Allow yourself plenty of relaxation time when you are not giving any thought to job hunting!

Set goals

Set clear defined achievable goals and be prepared to review them after a few weeks /months and set new goals. Be flexible and adaptable in your approach to job hunting. If one avenue is not working then try another. Avoid getting stuck in a rut.

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Join a job club

A trouble shared is a trouble halved. Joining a job club can be a great way of remaining motivated as you can all encourage each other and help keep that job search momentum going.

Above all be patient

Press Release: Anti Poverty Crusader Appeals to the Spirit of America

Press Release Source:  http://www.pr.com/press-release/147257

Grass roots nonprofit organization is taking the unemployment situation by storm and has devised five programs to stop and reduce unemployment throughout the United States.

 Goodyear, AZ, April 23, 2009 –(PR.com)– “Fighting Unemployment One Resume at a Time”

Founder and President Joshua Turner of the newly established charitable organization Help My Resume, (www.helpmyresume.org) is considered an idealist for holding to the firm belief that within the hearts of most Americans, resides a traditional spirit of hope and willingness to extend a helping hand to those who need it most. He recently made this comment as he reinforced his organization’s prime mission by announcing that: “We are here to fight unemployment one resume at a time.”

Outlining Help My Resume’s 2009 objectives, he says the cornerstone of his charitable group’s efforts is to fight poverty and the sense of hopelessness that comes with it. They do this by assisting the thousands of newly unemployed persons who are feeling the pinch in light of the recent economic downturn, with a no-charge professionally written resume.

Turner says his organization comes across scores of unemployed individuals from every corner of America, who although they may be equipped with an impressive set of job skills, a great deal of these don’t know how to clearly express and present their uniqueness and value to a perspective employer, via a well written resume. Subsequently, within the ever increasingly competitive job market, invitations from employers to discuss specific employment opportunities remain elusive and out of reach.

To counter this, a team of volunteer expert resume writers and industry specific specialists have been assembled. These volunteers will craft a professionally written resume on behalf of clients who come to them seeking help.

In support of Help My Resume, they are launching a second program entitled the Ready Start Program. “Ready Start furnishes clients who have secured a confirmed job interview with a new and fresh suit of clothes” Turner explains. He believes an individual also has to feel good about themselves in order to come across as someone who is collectively confident, competent and professional.

Other no-charge assistance being offered for the unemployed include a Get Healthy Program, which as the name suggests, gives job seekers a chance to improve themselves physically in a manner and way which also builds up confidence levels. Also in the works for 2009 is a Business Loan Program for persons who want to start a small business of their own.

YOUR #1 SOURCE FOR FREE UNEMPLOYMENT SERVICES

The cornerstone and namesake of Help My Resume is our no-charge professionally written resume rewriting service. Although an individual may be equipped with an impressive set of job skills, many don’t know how to clearly express and present their uniqueness and value to a perspective employer, via a well written and strategic structured resume. Subsequently, within the ever increasingly competitive job market, invitations from employers to discuss specific employment opportunities remain elusive and out of reach.

To learn more about our FREE services including help with my resume, volunteer resume, free resume rewrite, resume rewriting, cover letters free and the help my resume blog follow us on Twitter and become a FaceBook Fan!