Tag Archives: work history

Résumés For People With “Nothing To Offer”

First of all, there is no such thing as a person “with nothing to offer.” Recent college graduates and homemakers or anyone else with little work experience often feel that way, but it is an illusion, a negative, self-defeating illusion. Know you are not alone in the misery of preparing your work history, for even seasoned executives have trouble prioritizing their experiences, accomplishments and skills. Chances are, you have skills you don’t even know your have, and the trick is to capture their essence on a tricky little piece of paper known as a résumé. How does one do this, … Continue reading →

Developing Your Résumé: Art In Motion

Creating a work history on paper in a readable fashion can be an overwhelming task. (Or it can be whelming, as Mel Brooks used to say.) In any case, it requires planning and strategy. Guidelines make it easier, and one way to create them is to use an older résumé as a sort of map, with the understanding that the boundaries may have changed. If you don’t have an old résumé, write up your work history, starting with your most recent position and working your way backwards. (Do not pass go and do not collect 200 dollars.) It is important … Continue reading →

Your Résumé and Difficult Questions

It is very important for your résumé to speak for and not against you. Some questions can present problems and need to be handled very delicately. For example, if you recently left a job or know that your job is about to end, should you bring attention to that fact by highlighting an ending date on your résumé? Or should you simply say “to the present”? The answer depends on what feels right for you. You can go “to the present” route as long as you come clean when the interviewer asks you if you are still there. Most résumés … Continue reading →

Still More Résumé Tips

Consider your résumé as a major tool in your box of “job tricks.” There are many aspects to preparing a résumé that will help to get you the job you want. What is the best and quickest way to handle difficult job titles and company descriptions? What about questions you might not want to answer or at least avoid? (The last time someone asked me my age, I replied: “Somewhere between forty and death.”) This may work sometimes, but not on a résumé. Besides, George Burns is dead. Help is on the way. Parentheses help a great deal in setting … Continue reading →

Other Tips for A Power Résumé

Although your résumé may never enable you to run a little faster or lift an extra weight or two, an effective one will give you power where you need it most, namely, the market-place. How so, you may ask. Good question. All of your tools are part of your job campaign, and that includes even those you might not consider as such. Take your phone number for instance. On a résumé, you must list one number where you can be reached during the day. (If you double as a vampire and live from midnight to dawn, this could be a … Continue reading →

Résumé Format: Is There a Right Way?

The answer is yes; there is a right way to present the information on your résumé. For all of the elements listed, one of the most important is where the dates are placed. It used to be more or less common practice to place them on the left side of the résumé. Since the number of jobs the average person is likely to have has increased over the years, there might be many dates, and such an arrangement is sure to attract the reader’s eye. The problem with this is that by setting up the dates in that fashion, they … Continue reading →

How Long Should Your Résumé Be?

The important thing about any résumé if it is to do its job is to capture the attention of a prospective employer in an understated way. It also must be easy to read as lines of type that go across the page from one margin to the other, for example, are very difficult to read. Use bullets to denote your accomplishments, as they will effectively break up the text. Deciding on length may not appear easy, but a rule of thumb which will never lead you astray states that your résumé should be as long as it needs to be. … Continue reading →