Resume tips

[dogdrool]

I'm sure something like this has been posted before, but I've been helping my group hire people recently, and I want to post my tips.

1) Make your resume fit on a single page. Oddly, almost nobody does this, yet everybody should. Employers want an easy to digest summary of your past. They want something they can understand completely in one, quick scan. You can fill in any missing relevant information during the interview process.

2) Don't put stuff on there that you don't know. Either it won't matter for the job, or it will matter, and they'll ask you about it in the interview and you'll immediately get rejected because you don't know it. "So you know Java? Sorta. It says here Java. Well I used it once. I see, bye."

3) Skip the "objective" because it is meaningless and wastes precious space.

4) Put your strongest thing first. Hopefully your strongest thing is what you did most recently. Employers basically want to know "what have you done recently and why are you looking to change and come here?"

5) Have a mix of the typical itemized list and a narrative flow. It will make it easier for the reader to understand the big picture, and also show off your skills at communicating. Half of most jobs is just communicating well with the other drones.

6) Put your name and contact info on it.

[cbloom]

Totally agree accept for this :

[ QUOTE ]

5) Have a mix of the typical itemized list and a narrative flow. It will make it easier for the reader to understand the big picture, and also show off your skills at communicating. Half of most jobs is just communicating well with the other drones.


[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe if it was a customer service job or a writing job or something this would be cute, but when I'm hiring programmers if I see junk like this it's a huge red flag.

The main thing I want to see is a description of exactly what *you* personally did at your previous jobs. I don't care that the company is a Fortune 1000 company or that what your job title was, I care what you actually personally did and you better have done it because I'm going to ask you about it.

[MasterLJ]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm sure something like this has been posted before, but I've been helping my group hire people recently, and I want to post my tips.

1) Make your resume fit on a single page. Oddly, almost nobody does this, yet everybody should. Employers want an easy to digest summary of your past. They want something they can understand completely in one, quick scan. You can fill in any missing relevant information during the interview process.

2) Don't put stuff on there that you don't know. Either it won't matter for the job, or it will matter, and they'll ask you about it in the interview and you'll immediately get rejected because you don't know it. "So you know Java? Sorta. It says here Java. Well I used it once. I see, bye."

3) Skip the "objective" because it is meaningless and wastes precious space.

4) Put your strongest thing first. Hopefully your strongest thing is what you did most recently. Employers basically want to know "what have you done recently and why are you looking to change and come here?"

5) Have a mix of the typical itemized list and a narrative flow. It will make it easier for the reader to understand the big picture, and also show off your skills at communicating. Half of most jobs is just communicating well with the other drones.

6) Put your name and contact info on it.

[/ QUOTE ]

All are good save for #1. I look at hundreds of resumes a day, and I would say that limiting yourself to 1 page is a mistake. I've been told this is a regional phenomena. It also is highly dependent on your field... if you are in IT you absolutely want longer than a 1 page resume. My tip for IT resumes is to include an "Environment: " or "Tools Used:" summary at the end of each position you mention:

example:

ABC Company Dallas, TX March 2003 - June 2006
Responsibilities:
-Fluffed my boss
-Then slept with his wife
-Nailed his daughter when she turned 18
...
...
...
Environment: Java, Swing, Eclipse, SQL, T-SQL, etc etc

It helps both recruiters and primary hirers to get a good idea of what skills you have used professionally and what skills you have used recently.

[DCopper04]

Always round up

[tuq]

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1) Make your resume fit on a single page.

[/ QUOTE ]
Wrong.

[Wes Mantooth]

Many resumes that I have seen that are more then 1 page are too long, they could/should be only one page...though this is not always the case.

[aggie]

[ QUOTE ]
I've been helping my group hire people recently, and I want to post my tips.

[/ QUOTE ]

What you're hiring for is extremely relevant. Different types of jobs require totally different types of resumes. These tips may be relevant for the job you're hiring for but are totally irrelevant and/or wrong for many positions.

[Tron]

Every single one of these tips is wholly irrelevant if you don't follow Tip 0: PROOFREAD.

0a. Proofread.
0b. Proofread again.
0c. Have a friend proofread.
0d. Have a coworker proofread.
0e. Have a mentor proofread.
0f. Have your parents proofread.
0g. Proofread it again yourself.

[ScottieK]

IMO fill in the objective if you are applying for a specific position posted, and list the position number if there is one. That way, if it gets lost in the shuffle at the prospective employer's office, they can send it to the right person. One thing I see on some resumes is education listed before job experience. Unless you're fresh out of college, job experience is almost always more important. Also, type your resume in a sans serif font like Arial, in case prospective employers scan resumes with OCR software...it makes the resume easier to be scanned in correctly.

EDIT: Tron has a good point...few things bury a resume quicker than typos and grammatical errors.

ScottieK

[sonneti]

Print it on good heavy quality paper!