Results tagged “resume samples” from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters Tips Blog

Avoiding Being a Cookie-Cutter Job-seeker In Your Resume and Throughout Your Job Search

on October 8, 2009 1:57 PM | Permalink

As a member of a new community of resume writers, career coaches, and other career experts called the Career Collective, I am posting this entry as one of many responses to the question, “Are you a cookie cutter job seeker?” I encourage you to visit other members’ responses, linked at the end of this entry. Please follow our hashtag on Twitter: #careercollective.

When I think of “cookie-cutter job seekers,” a couple of scenarios come to mind:

Do you use a Microsoft Word template as the basis for your resume? There’s nothing inherently wrong with these templates, and they can be useful to get started on your resume if you’ve never created one before. But consider how many thousands of people are probably using the same template. If you use one, your resume will not stand out. And, as useful as a template is for prompting you to plug in the appropriate information for your resume, I’ve found that these Microsoft templates are rather inflexible if you want to try to customize them to create a standout resume.

If you need prompts and organizing tools to get started with your resume, consider looking at samples created by talented and effective resume writers. You can find samples in many resume books, all over the Internet, and of course, here at Quintessential Careers. See our resume samples here. Also think about using worksheets, such as those we offer here to develop your resume. (But don’t be a cookie cutter by copying every aspect of a sample resume!)

The Cookie-Cutter syndrome is not limited to resumes. Take this story about a former student of mine who graduated last year. She is bright talented, had two majors and minor, and had completed several excellent internships. Alas, she graduated right about the time the economy melted down and struggled mightily to find a job.

I told her the best thing she could do is conduct informational interviews. Informational interviewing is a subset of networking and a highly effective way to get your foot in the door with an employer.

Several weeks after I gave her that advice, I asked her if she was doing informational interviews. She said she didn’t put as much stock in them as I did and wasn’t doing them.

Why? Did she have any real experience doing them? No. But because informational interviewing is not a well-known job-search technique and is out of the mainstream, she thumbed her nose at this approach.

How’s she doing now? She’s struggling to make ends meet by working a retail job and an entry-level office job. Both are far below the kind of job her college experience prepared her for. Sadly, she preferred to be a cookie-cutter job-seeker and simply employ the same methods every other job-seeker uses.

More Career Collective thoughts on avoiding being a cookie-cutter job-seeker:

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.

Basic Primer on Writing a Resume

Katharine

on July 20, 2009 2:58 AM | Permalink

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

James writes:

I’m searching for a guide on how to write my resume, but I can’t seem to find anything. If you could give me some tips, or a site that I could go to, that would be greatly appreciated.

The Career Doctor responds:

Can’t find anything on resumes? Wow. There’s tons of stuff available on resumes — in magazines, books, and on the Web… but I’ll give you a quick primer.

Your resume is a critical marketing tool. Your resume has to entice a prospective employer enough — through its focus, content, and style — to first consider your qualifications for the job at hand and then to invite you for a job interview. A resume is a statement of your unique mix of experiences, education, and skills. You must not lie on your resume, but you must always remember its goal.

I think the most important thing any job-seeker should do before attempting to write a resume is to first sit down and make a list of your skills and accomplishments from all your previous experiences (work, volunteer, school, etc.) because you will take from this list those critical skills and accomplishments — not your duties and responsibilities — that highlight your fit for the next job you are seeking.

The next step is researching and identifying the job — and all the requirements of that job — that you are seeking because it is critical that your resume is focused on specifics. You should also research the potential employers that may have jobs that you seek so that you can incorporate some of their keywords into your resume.

Wait! Does this advice suggest that job-seekers need to have a specifically tailored resume for every single job they apply for? Yes! There is absolutely no reason for you not to develop a different resume for each job and employer. For most job-seekers, this task will simply mean tweaking small parts of your resume for similar jobs.

Once you have the content down, you should focus on the style and look of your resume. Do not use a template; design your own. Follow a consistent style. Use normal fonts and sizes. Use bullets rather than paragraphs. Do not use personal pronouns. Consider using a career/job objective or profile section. Always list education and experience in reverse chronological order (starting with the most recent stuff). Do not list any personal information (such as age, marital status, weight). Do not include controversial information. And ALWAYS, ALWAYS, spell-check and carefully proofread your resume for any and all errors.

Read our articles published on Quintessential Careers: The Scoop on Resume Length: How Many Pages Should Your Resume Be? and 10 Resume Mistakes to Avoid.

You can gets lots more advice, including resume samples, resume-writing tutorial, and more, in this section of Quintessential Careers: Resume and CV Resources.

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.

Basic Primer on Writing a Resume

Katharine

on March 24, 2009 9:41 AM | Permalink

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

James writes:

I’m searching for a guide on how to write my resume, but I can’t seem to find anything. If you could give me some tips, or a site that I could go to, that would be greatly appreciated.

The Career Doctor responds:

Can’t find anything on resumes? Wow. There’s tons of stuff available on resumes — in magazines, books, and on the Web… but I’ll give you a quick primer.

Read our articles published on Quintessential Careers: The Scoop on Resume Length: How Many Pages Should Your Resume Be? and 10 Resume Mistakes to Avoid.

You can gets lots more advice, including resume samples, resume-writing tutorial, and more, in this section of Quintessential Careers: Resume and CV Resources.

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.

Summertime, Sluggish Economy Provide Strong Motivation for an Updated Resume

Katharine

on June 12, 2008 7:00 AM | Permalink

While job-seekers may resist crafting a new resume because they suspect employers aren’t hiring during the summer — especially in a recession — those are exactly the reasons workers need to keep their resumes polished and up to date, said Quintessential Careers’ Founder and Publisher Dr. Randall S. Hansen.

Hansen explained that summer is an excellent time to seek a new job as “competition is minimal because job-seekers assume that hiring decisions will be postponed until fall.” He added that current economic conditions dictate that workers be ready with effective resumes in case of unexpected layoffs.

Hansen suggested that job-seekers use summertime to fine-tune their resumes and lay the groundwork for future hiring. To help job-seekers in this quest, Hansen noted, Quintessential Careers has just added 100 new resume and cover-letter samples.

Visitors to Quintessential Careers conduct more searches using the terms “resume samples” than virtually any other type of content, Hansen said. “That’s why we’re delighted to provide more of what users are looking for.”

The new resume and cover-letter additions include samples in these categories:

Quintessential Careers has also added two new sets of resume tips, here and here, Job-Seeker Career and Job-Search Worksheets to help build resumes, and a new e-book, The Quintessential Guide to Surefire Resumes for New Graduates and Other Entry-Level Candidates. The site will add several new resume articles in mid-July.

As with all the other tools and resources on Quintessential Careers, there is no cost for these new samples and tools, said Hansen.

Hansen emphasized the value of improving one’s resume and job hunting during the summer. “Vacations can be planned around the possibility of relocating to another city. In addition, fiscal years often begin in June or July, making new hiring possible,” Hansen said.

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.

Tags:

Have health goals in 2010, but no time to exercise and eat right?
Propose a flexible work arrangement and you'll have the margin of time to prepare healthier meals, work out more often and lose weight as a result. Learn more.