This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Allison writes:
I thought I’d take a chance and see if I could have a question answered that I didn’t find addressed on your Quintessential Careers Website. (Excellent site, by the way).
I am required to turn in a resume for a school district with whom I am applying. I have been in the same type of position for 9 years, doing relatively the same type of work (counseling). Since each of the jobs I have held have virtually the same description, how do I address that under the work experience?
I wondered if I should do a functional resume and bullet all the skills I have acquired through the years and then just list the schools (or districts) in which I have worked under the work experience.
Kudos first for planning in advance — and for doing the research — with regard to your resume. Resumes are extremely important documents, and I am always amazed at how many bad resumes I see — poor focus, too wordy, ugly/boring appearance, with typos and misspellings. Resumes are one of the main tools with which prospective employers judge you — and help them decide whether to call you for an interview.
The key element of resumes you are missing is that a resume is not some statement of job duties or descriptions. A resume is about showing how you took a job and made it your own — and helped the employer in the process. A resume highlights your key accomplishments in every job. And even when you have held similar jobs over a long period, you should still have quantifiable accomplishments in every position.
So, you certainly could make a chrono-functional resume, where the job-seeker chooses about three broad functional skills areas, but what would you list under the functional categories? Not job duties. But I think a standard chronological resume would work fine for you as long as you take the time to sit back and examine your accomplishments in each job.
Here are some Quintessential Careers resume resources that you may find useful:
- To get some help and guidance in identifying your accomplishments, check
out this Job-Seeker
Accomplishments Worksheet.
- Evaluate your current resume with this
Resume Critique Worksheet.
- For some general tips on improving your resume, read this article: Ten Easy Ways to Improve Your Resume.
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.
This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Allison writes:
I thought I’d take a chance and see if I could have a question answered that I didn’t find addressed on your Quintessential Careers Website. (Excellent site, by the way).
I am required to turn in a resume for a school district with whom I am applying. I have been in the same type of position for 9 years, doing relatively the same type of work (counseling). Since each of the jobs I have held have virtually the same description, how do I address that under the work experience?
I wondered if I should do a functional resume and bullet all the skills I have acquired through the years and then just list the schools (or districts) in which I have worked under the work experience.
Kudos first for planning in advance — and for doing the research — with regard to your resume. Resumes are extremely important documents, and I am always amazed at how many bad resumes I see — poor focus, too wordy, ugly/boring appearance, with typos and misspellings. Resumes are one of the main tools with which prospective employers judge you — and help them decide whether to call you for an interview.
The key element of resumes you are missing is that a resume is not some statement of job duties or descriptions. A resume is about showing how you took a job and made it your own — and helped the employer in the process. A resume highlights your key accomplishments in every job. And even when you have held similar jobs over a long period, you should still have quantifiable accomplishments in every position.
So, you certainly could make a chrono-functional resume, where the job-seeker chooses about three broad functional skills areas, but what would you list under the functional categories? Not job duties. But I think a standard chronological resume would work fine for you as long as you take the time to sit back and examine your accomplishments in each job.
Here are some Quintessential Careers resume resources that you may find useful:
- To get some help and guidance in identifying your accomplishments, check
out this Job-Seeker
Accomplishments Worksheet.
- Evaluate your current resume with this
Resume Critique Worksheet.
- For some general tips on improving your resume, read this article: Ten Easy Ways to Improve Your Resume.
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.
Accomplishments are the points that increase reader’s interest in your resume, stimulate a request for a job interview, and really help sell you to an employer — much more so than everyday job duties. In a study by the former Career Masters Institute (now Career Management Alliance), content elements that propel employers to immediately discard resumes include a focus on duties instead of accomplishments, while documented achievements were highly ranked among content elements that employers look for.
Don’t isolate accomplishments in a section by themselves. Everything on your resume should be accomplishments-driven, and isolating accomplishments suggests that the other things you did in your jobs were NOT accomplishments. For more about how to identify your accomplishments, see our article For Job-Hunting Success: Track and Leverage Your Accomplishments and our Accomplishments Worksheet to help you brainstorm your accomplishments.
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.
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