Results tagged “professional development” from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters Tips Blog

This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:

Yuanjie writes:

I am now writing my resume and cover letter based on your online advice. I am a student and will get my PhD degree in mechanical engineering soon.

My resume is slightly more than one page. Do I have to compress it into one page?

The Career Doctor responds:

I’m glad you are thinking ahead and working on your job-search materials. What do you plan to do after you receive your Ph.D.?

Do you plan to go into business/industry? If so, then you probably do want to write a resume. In this case, I would guess your resume will be longer than a page — just based on your education alone. I believe it’s almost always best to go to a two-page resume than to reduce font size and margins (and readability) just to get your resume to fit on one page. Remember the rule that if you go to a second page, that the second page should have enough content to fill at least half a page.

Or do you plan to go into academia? If so, then what you really need is a curriculum vitae, which shares some attributes with a resume, but which tends to be longer because there is more information is included in a CV. An academic CV would include information beyond your education and experience, including scholarly contributions, professional development, teaching, and service.

That said, the goal of a resume and CV is the same. These are marketing documents designed to help you get to the next step in the job-search process — the job interview.

Learn more about CVs by reading this article published on Quintessential Careers: Preparing a Curriculum Vitae (CV).

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.

When crafting your resume, what if you have no college degree, no four-year college degree, or did not attend college? If you have at least some college, list it. List an associate’s degree or incomplete studies toward a bachelor’s degree. For the incomplete degree, list the college, major, location, span of dates you attended, and, ideally, number of credit-hours completed. Your listing of an associate’s degree, incomplete bachelor’s degree, or no college at all should be beefed up with any training, professional-development, and certificate programs. In the unlikely event that you have absolutely none of these, leave off the Education section. Some employers (and most recruiters) will screen you out, but if you have succeeded in the past without educational credentials, your professional accomplishments will likely be enough to propel you to an interview. Read more in our Frequently Asked Questions About Resumes: The Complete Resume FAQ.

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.