<--- This icon feels very appropriate

[locker_monster]

(Please feel free to ignore all of these work woes posts. I just need somewhere to vent)

Ugh, I'm trying to update my resume right now. I haven't worked on it in years, not since I got hired on with the company about seven years ago. I hate doing these things. How do you market yourself so that you sound completely awesome, but not totally pretentious?

And do you refer to yourself in the first person or the third? Point form or complete sentences? I'm under the belief that you should be succinct, because your resume will be included in a pile and the person reading through all of them doesn't have time to read over everything in detail. I vaugely recall from my high school CALM (Career and Life Management) course that your resume shouldn't be more than a page (double sided I presume).

At least for right now, I can gear my resume for internal use within the company and my manager can provide some feedback, but I should be prepared to hand these things out to a wider audience if I do get let go.

Oh, and as I was covering reception yesterday, two guys from HR came in and turns out that they were there to let two people go. It was really horrible, just sitting there and seeing these two employees come in for their meetings. I suppose you kind of expect these sort of meetings while in a downturn, but it still sucks.

Comments

[browncoat2x2]

As someone who has to look at a lot of resumes in order to determine who to interview, I will tell you what I look for.

1) Tailor your resume to the job you're applying for. I know, it's a pain in the ass, but if I see the very skills I'm looking for in my job posting looking me in the face on your resume, in the same language, I'm going to zero in on that, and you're going to get the interview

2) Point form, keep it succinct, you're right on that. huge blocks of text, I don't have time to read that. I need to be able to scan through it quickly and see what I need to see. Put more detail in your cover letter if you feel your resume doesn't go into enough details.

3) No spelling errors, no formatting errors

4) Tailor your cover letter. Do not send a generic cover letter, put the job you are applying for right in the letter, and reference the skills you have that directly match what I'm looking for, use the same language


In this day and age of getting hundreds of resumes for one posting, hiring managers are often looking for literally any reason to put you in the 'No' pile, so don't give them a reason.

Hope that helps a bit!

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

Actually, this helped a lot. My manager sent me an example resume and it was just blocks of text and I thought to myself "This doesn't look right", so I'm glad to know that my first instinct to go with point form was right.

I forgot about cover letters. Ugh, I haven't done one of those in, well, ever. I got my current job without one. Damn, I never thought that CALM course would actually be useful in life.

[browncoat2x2]

I'm glad it's of some help. The job hunting/hiring landscape has really changed in the last 10 years. Sometimes cover letters are not necessary, but if you do send one, make sure it's not generic. All that says is, if you can't care enough to send me a tailored cover letter / resume, why will you care enough about doing work for me? Into the goodbye pile ;)

I hope you find something rewarding and in a timely manner!