Your Resume - selling yourself

Hi again -

So you have networked and found out about a great job. Now what? You either mail or drop off your resume. What?!? you don't have a resume?? You don't even know what a resume is??!??

Relax, a resume is just a list of where you worked and what you did at each job. It can take the place of an application. The sole purpose of a resume is to get an interview. It is your sales tool - something to make the employer want to talk to you to learn more.

Creating a Resume

There are 2 basic formats for resumes - chronological and combination.

The first is Chronological. Jobs are listed in Chronological order with the most recent job first. This is a great resume if you are going to stay in the field you have been working in and have made progress in your career (moved up the career ladder).

(If you don't have a resume, it is pretty easy to create a basic chronological resume. Just go to the MN Job Bank at http://www.minnesotaworks.net/ (or click on the link on the right) You will need to create a user name and password if you haven't been there before. Click on the resume tab on the left side and it walks you through it.)

Combination is a better choice for people who are going to be changing their careers. Instead of listing your employment history first, you list skills. That way, the first thing that employers are going to see is your skills and then they can see that you can do the job. You still list your jobs, but under the skills. So employers are seeing that you have the skills to be in customer service or maintenance even though your last job title was accounts payable or assembly.

Here is a quick example or the differences:

Chronological
Contact Info (name, address ,etc)

Objective: (what type of job you want)

Employment History:
Job Title #1 Employer Location Dates worked
-bullet points of duties and accomplishments
Job Title #2 Employer Location Dates worked
-bullet points of duties and accomplishments

Education:
degree school location dates (only if in the last few years)

Combination
Contact Info

Objective:

Employment Skills (or Professional Profile - however you want to word it)
Skill Area #1
-3 or 4 bullets of duties and accomplishments
Skill Area #2
-3 or 4 bullets of duties and accomplishments
Skill Area #3 (I would only do 3 or 4 skill areas)

Employment History:
Job Title #1 Employer Location Dates
Job Title #2 Employer Location Dates

Education
degree school location dates (only if in the last few years)

Tweaking a Resume

Here are some tips to make your resume a better sales tool...

- Use bulletpoints and short phrases instead of paragraphs. Most resumes only get a 10-20 second scan.
- Only go back 5 - 10 years in your experience. Go back further if you have worked somewhere for longer.
This will help with age discrimination. And technology is changing so fast that older than 10 years almost becomes irrelevant.
- Use plenty of white space. If the resume looks too crowded, it may not even get looked at.
- Proof read - and have a friend proof read it also. This is your first impression, you don't want the employer to think you make mistakes or are messy.
-Be relevant and truthful.
- this is a sales tool - you don't need to include that temp job that only lasted 3 months.

Remember the hardest resume to write is you own. Just get started.

Good luck!