Thursday, August 19, 2010

Web sites for the best advice on resumes?

What is the latest when it comes to resumes? Are one pagers with a picture still recommended. If you can refer to reputable web sites for this information that would be great.Web sites for the best advice on resumes?
Besides setting all margins to 1';, the most important criteria for setting up a professional resume besides relevant text, is ';scanability.'; Here are some helpful tips:





1. Place just below your identification header [your hame, address, phone, email address] any Conditional Warning Statement such as ';Confidential Resume,';Do Not Contact Current Employer,'; etc.


2. Always fill-in an Objectives category [just below the Conditional Warning Statement] and make sure that he Objective will contribute to the profitability of your future employer;


3. Select a mono-type font such as Helvetica, Arial, Courier or Times Roman; do not select any cursive handwriting styles which cannot scanned;


4. Keep font sizes within a range of 10 to 12 pts.;


5. Avoid styling text with a justified alignment, keep it flushed left;


6. Instead of using tabs to set up blocked text entries, generate a table and use the column and row settings accordingly;


7. Do not place an i.d. picture anywhere on the resume, this is a major taboo due to discrimination issues;


8. Do not place any graphic text [saved as .gifs] onto the resume since it may be overlooked during the scanning phase;


9. List at the very end of the resume your interests which should include travel experiences, language skills, social interactions such as golf, team sports, tennis, etc.





In conclusion, the above helpful hints were designed to allow ease of scanning of your resume into PDF which can then be text captured for seach purposes by your potential employer. Failure to conform the resume to appropriate fonts and styles as outlined above will result in rejection of the resume simply due to the inability of the scanning device to properly index relevant resume entries.





Good luck!Web sites for the best advice on resumes?
The latest is really the same is should always be, but most folks do a poor job of it...





You must format your resume in a way that directly matches your skills, abilities and accomplishments to those being sought be the employer. Depending on your experience and length of employment, there are some different formatting options available to you.





Above all, realize that your resume is a ';marketing document'; (an advertisement for you) and NOT just a record of your employment history. An employer want to see in your resume what you can do for him!





So don't just put down things like:





';Managed sales department';...





It is better said as:





Reorganized sales department, resulting in 37% increase in gross sales over a 12 month period';.





These are just examples of course, but it is that kind of marketing and comminication that gets one candidate a job over another. If your resume was going to be a 30 second ad on TV, what kind of message and information would you want to get accross? That's what you want to get accross in your resume and cover letter.





For a bunch of free information on how to do this with samples and examples, go check out this site:





http://www.job-winning-resumes.com





Cheers
I've never heard of putting a picture on a resume. Usually you want to do a cover letter addressed to the specific person hiring you, and then a one page resume highlighting skills/experience that you feel is applicable. Start perusing college websites like www.ucsd.edu and see if you can get onto their career counseling sections to see what tips they give new graduates.

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