Articles Comments

America's North Shore Journal » Me and Mine » Your Advice Requested



Star of Hope is a nondenominational Christian organization that equips children across the world with knowledge, physical well-being, spiritual growth and social skills through educational programs and local and international partnerships. Please donate!

Your Advice Requested

Please take a moment to review my resume. Your input would be greatly appreciated.

Another style.

Filed under: Me and Mine

One Response to "Your Advice Requested"

  1. Barbara Skolaut says:

    There’s a comment (discussing formatting, bullets, and white space) on Rantburg that’s pretty good, Chuck. It’s important to make the resume easily read for a quick skim. If you don’t want to do the bullets, try putting a line space between each paragraph under a heading, and then (if necessary to keep the resume to one page) manually change the font size on the line space to 8 to make the line smaller but still give some visual separation. (For that matter, don’t worry so much about going to a second page with as many years of work as you have. You can at least let Education go to the second page.) I do think the Rantburg poster’s note about adding “-Present” after 2007 is a particularly good one; it conforms that entry to the other Experience entries.

    Without completely rewriting the resume, I would move Education to last. And under Education, I would explain how you got the listed skills with just a Management BS from 1977 (before there was any public Internet and damned little computing in private business). (I’m assuming it wasn’t self-taught or on-the-job; you can just say various computer (accounting, whatever) continuing education courses at (list a couple of schools and years, say, “XX School, YY School – Continuing Ed courses in A, B, C – 19xx – 19yy”; probably no need for a formal, list-every-school-and-type-of-certificate entry). You also need to explain what you were doing between 1977, when you graduated, and 1985, your first listed year with a job. Looking at the resume from a hiring perspective, those two things jumped out at me immediately; most hiring folks won’t think “I’ll ask him when I interview him” – they’ll wonder what you’re hiding, toss the resume into the round file and move on.

    You might want to consider putting a “Memberships” or “Volunteer Service” section at the end (after Education), depending on what you can put there. If you’re a member of a trade group or association, note it. If you’re a volunteer with Big Brothers, note it. It’s not necessary, but if you do have something, it can often attract the potential interviewer’s attention.

    You shouldn’t put “reason for leaving” on the resume beside each job, but be ready to explain when asked (and use a positive explanation, such as the next job was more responsibility, moved for spouse’s job, company closed or job eliminated, whatever).

    Lastly, it’s smart not to put your address and phone number on the copy you posted here, but don’t forget to put it on the resume you send to potential employers, even if you deal with them strictly through e-mail. And if you KNOW something about a particular job you’re applying for, consider revamping the resume you send them just a little to emphasize your skills/achievements that will best mesh with what they’re looking for.

    Good luck in your job search. Tell everyone you know that you’re looking – the best jobs come through personal recommendations, not personnel offices. :-D