Posts Tagged ‘resume’

Significance of the Resume Summary

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

The Resume Summary is more preferred than the underlying objectives. The objectives look more superfluous and sometimes exaggerating.

The Resume Builder would effectively highlight the importance of a resume summary that needs to be more prioritized than an objective. There are a few important points that the Resume Builder has identified which outlines one’s accomplishments, future goals, etc. They are:

1. The resume should determine very clearly about the qualifications of the candidate that match with the job description. In a simpler way, it means a synchronization of the job specification (qualifications, experience, accomplishments, etc) with the job description (the job requirement, nature of the job). This makes the employer efficiently look for the actual keywords required for the job, for effective sorting.

2. The resume should hold the employer’s interest in a short span of time, so that it highlights your whole personality in a glimpse.

3. It should precisely outline what and how well you can contribute to the company rather than proclaiming false statements.

The Summarization details

1. You should describe yourself in a very subtle way, by keeping your description concise, substantial and meaningful. Avoid using the letter “I” for describing yourself in any part of your resume. For instance, if you say “I was the Operations Manager for 5 years”, it sounds a bit clichéd. You can rather use a different terminology by saying may be, “Worked as a senior Manager in the XYZ Bank with more than 5 years of specialization in Retail Banking Operations, Financial analysis, Public relations.”

This gives a rather positive view about your assets, to the employer while hiring you, making him feel that you would be able to handle the other required things in the job more effectively. It is very important that the candidate’s qualifications befit the employers’ job description perfectly. That makes the actual difference, as how the Resume Builder expressed. They form the initial keywords to hold their attention.

2. The resume should hold the employer’s attention somehow. It should appeal to them and 3-5 sentences should suffice. The Resume Builder explicitly shows how to write a resume summary effectively without compromising on the resume quality. You can take the help of company’s keywords, or figures, and this eventually demonstrates a lot about your working ethics and corporate achievements. The Resume Builder stresses on the use of the action word only once initially and the rest is taken care by the company’s keywords.

3. You should have a clear presentation of what you can do for the company. One cannot simply say, “I require the designation of the Senior Manager for XYZ Corp.” As said earlier, your qualifications should match the company’s needs that are more relevant. You might have an innumerable knowledge about the different areas in the industry, but concentrate on that position for which you are applying in a particular field- for example, for a position of a Senior Manager in Sales. So one should build it from here. The Resume Builder recommends one to avoid wastage of time and energy by talking of all the things you did or knew about.

The advantages of using Resume builder

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

What an irony it is when you go out looking for a job to gain experience but unable to get a job because you don’t have any previous experience. Don’t be disappointed. Not having any prior experience is not the end of the world. You can still try for the job and give your best and the best way to start is by making a winning resume.

Use Appropriate Format

Functional and combinational resume formats are the two most effective resume builders for the entry-level workers. They don’t have to follow the strict chronological order of the other resumes which place more emphasis on work history.

Functional resumes put more emphasis on the skills while overshadowing the work chronology. This resume builder format highlights your aptitudes and abilities rather than citing the dates of employment. For instance, you are applying for a secretarial position and you don’t have related experience. Then you can create few categories like “Computer Skills,” “Interpersonal Communications” and “Office Management Abilities.” By office management you can present your home management skills.

In a combination resume you will see a chronological format which leads with a Qualification Summary. In this resume builder you may have to emphasize more on the credentials that qualify and fits you the most for the job you are trying. Go with a strategy and order the sections in your resume which suits your qualifications. Place the most relevant categories first, for example Education, Key Skills, Volunteer Work, etc. before mentioning your work experience.

Evaluate Yourself before Presenting

It is very important to judge yourself as what you lack in the real-world experience can be made up with your motivation to excel. If you were the hiring manager then you would ask yourself that why I should hire this person when there are 100 other applicants with more experience.

Before you confirm on your resume make sure that you go through the job websites such as Monster and review the job descriptions. Check the skill sets required, abilities and credentials which are listed as desired. If you are lacking work experience then what special quality you have to compensate whether it is your competency, personal attributes or unpaid experience. What benefit will the employer have from you when they hire you?

Best is to analyze yourself and think of top 5 reasons you think that you should be selected for the interview. This will help you in differentiating yourself from other candidates.
Mention Your Unique Qualities in Your Resume

Irrespective of the resume builder you have selected, whether it is functional or combination resume, what attracts the employer is the compelling content which will convince the hiring manager to give you a chance.

Concentrate more on the areas such as the Experience, Skills and Abilities. Students and the new graduates can describe their course and school projects, internships or any other extracurricular activities which are relevant to their career goal.

It is always important to have a cover letter along with your resume. So in the letter you can mention the other benefits such as whether or not you are willing to work in the graveyard shifts, whether the salary is negotiable or you are willing to take classes at your own expenses to give your interviewer a boost. These tips will act in your favor.

Three principles of resume writing from resume builder

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

An appealing resume is very important to market yourself effectively in the job market. Many fresher job hunters are puzzled as to why so much emphasis is given to resume. They often crib that although I have particular skills and am fit for job, I was not even called for an interview. They just looked at my resume and rejected me.

This essentially is because you did not portray yourself properly in your resume. How will a person know about you without having to learn about you? The first time employer comes to know about you is through your resume. So unless you properly communicate yourself through the resume, do not expect much from them.

Many job hunters have a misconception that if they have enough credentials on resume, it will easily fetch them job. This is totally wrong understanding of the entire process. The fact is that unless you write your credentials properly on the resume, no one will value it. There are many individuals who may not have enough credentials, but the way they present themselves on resume gets them job immediately. Resume builder has pre-defined formats that can be customized easily.

To come up with an effective resume, there are three basic steps which holds good for every job seeker and which can make him get a proper job.

Firstly, you should target only one kind of job per resume. Do not stuff your resume with every detail of irrelevant job experience. If you are applying for a Computer related job, do not write about construction and real estate experience. Employers generally get annoyed with such resumes that do not hold relevant experience as per the job requirement. So what do you do in case you get two job opportunities and both are from different fields? Well the best way is that you submit two different resumes written separately for each job requirement.

Secondly, don’t write endless stories in your resume nor write words that are only understood by you and no one else. Your resume is a gateway towards your job. The language should be very simple and to the point. Don’t repeat same information again and again to make your resume look big. Running around the bush will not lead you to any fruitful result. Ensure information in this resume is to the point only. Resume Builder gives you well built sentences which can be used in your resume.

Thirdly, give your resume a neat outlook. Shabbily formatted resumes directly go into dustbins. Resume builder provides you facility to format the sentences by properly aligning them. The information should be properly placed in the form of bullet points wherever required. Use good font and proper spacing between

Although resume builder works on these three principles, there are many more options in it. These are some of the steps that play major role in building up an impression on the employer. Although there might be many more ways in which you can prepare your resume, these three steps remain time tested.

Tips from resume builder to make Resume writing easy

Monday, November 9th, 2009

The resume writing task can make many people go nervous in the first instance. It brings a lot of confusion initially while jotting down the points, classifying the important and the least important matters, drafting the final text and more. It sometimes seems to be an unachievable task. But a few tips by the Resume Builder mentioned below can surely leave your apprehensions behind and ensure a winning resume for you.

Firstly, be clear with the objective of the job, before you actually write a resume.  Well-defined objectives should be laid down first around which all the contents of the resume revolve. Use your resume as a tool for marketing yourself as a product in the market and your resume stands here as an important link between you and the different employers. It just works as a market brochure highlighting your positive attributes. It should ignite in them a force to look at you in person ultimately. It should make them think how you can be beneficial to their organization. Your resume should be a powerful display of your personality.

Secondly, the main purpose of a resume is to land you for an interview and not job. So do not focus on job achievements and specifications in detail. Be precise about what you are looking for, in a concised way. Leave the details for the actual personal interview. It mainly generates employer contact with you for an interview. Use bullets wherever required if you are elaborating on points. The Resume Builder do not suggest you lengthy paragraphs but instead it would advise you to use small sentences or to-the-point statements. Bulleted statements make the resumes read easily.

Thirdly, focus on functional style and action words like monitored, organized, prepared, developed, accomplished, presented, etc in the bulleted sentences. These action words work as booster for the resume. Use numeric, alpha-numeric symbols and signs. The numbers, percentages, dollars, etc stand out in the resume and show the precision more effectively.

Fourthly, Highlight your strengths in a hierarchy, with the most strong ones first that suit your job requirement best. Bullet those strengths so that they can be quickly reviewed as the resumes are normally reviewed in 20 to 30 seconds. Use key words in your resume picked from the reviewed ads, for the designations you are interested in. These key words help them to understand your level of interest and sharpness. Try to use the buzzwords in your resume that show your competence in a specific field.

Fifthly, Emphasize on the positive things. Ignore the negative aspects of your personality or your job experience and even the irrelevant points from your resume. Concentrate on those duties that are required for the current job objective. Suppose for example, if some duties of the earlier job do not match with the current job objective or specification, you might simply ignore mentioning that. Also do not mention the irrelevant personal information on the resume like your height, weight, color, marital status, class, etc.

Sixthly, Display only that knowledge of what you know. Don’t be explicit in describing details of things. Interview takes care of that part. Always keep in mind, that resume is an interface between the applying part and the actual interview. It already does your initial work for the upcoming interview. Display the names of important persons you know. You might know the Branch Manager or the Regional Manager of a bank, a Vice-president or any board member of a software firm, etc. With this you actually make the employer infer about you as an important person too.

Lastly, Structure your resume formally with easy-to-read statements. Use white space and font size normally of 10 point and not less than that. Restrict the number of pages and do not let them go beyond 1-2 pages. This should just enable the employer scan your resume swiftly and effectively, as how it is stressed by the Resume Builder.

Make someone else go through your final resume. Since its your resume, there is a possibility for you to miss out on some points here and there and having someone else review your resume, your job objectives, your way of listing positions that interest you and other things would enlighten you with some more required inputs or deletion of some points, etc. Try to discover from them the pros and cons of your final draft and based on their queries, you can progressively work out more on your resume.

Send or hand over your resume to the potential employers. Your resume submission at different places is like a game where your chances of winning increase with every submission. All the best for your dream job search..!

Choose the right resume format through Resume Builder

Sunday, November 8th, 2009

Today being employed is one of the most crucial achievements of life. With the world submerged into high unemployment rate, its becoming tougher and tougher to find a job, irrespective of which part of the globe you belong to. Every person who applies for a job and gets rejected, pose the same old question, “why was i rejected”? Most of the times, people overlook certain very small factors that might have led to them getting expelled from the interview process.

The first and the foremost factor that plays a major role in giving an impression to the employer is your Resume. This is the first thing you send to the employer, who after going through it, calls you for an interview. Even during interview, your resume is scanned completely by the employer, mainly posing questions based on what you mentioned in it. Therefore, it is very important to have a very effective and impressive resume.

So how do you go about making a resume? What is the correct and most effective format? Do I use software like Resume Builder to create my resume format? These are some of the questions that most of the people have in their mind. Let us go through different formats of resume and try to understand what effect each has.

First of all we will discuss the “Reverse Chronological Resume format”. This resume format is best for those who did not have gap in their work experiences. Someone who did not sit idle in between their jobs. This resume is also generally preferred by most of the employers because of its ease of presentation of the candidates work experience history. In this kind of format, the work experience is presented in a chronological order, starting from the most recent one and going back into the past. If you strictly want to stick to the norms of “Reverse chronological resumes”, then you will have to start from the last professional or educational happenings in your life going way into the past. Resume Builder can be used to make this format.

Second type is the “Combination Chronological resume format”. It is also known as Hybrid resume format. In this type, a small summary of job experience is provided just before the reverse chronological work history. This summary talks about the functional skills and abilities of the candidate. After this summary, the work experience is presented starting from the most recent ones going backwards. After this comes the educational information and other details. This format can also be easily developed in Resume Builder.

Third type of resume format is the “Functional Resume format”. This type of resume is generally preferred by those who have less experience or those who have gaps in their jobs. Through this type of resume, one can easily bring the employers attention towards the skills and what the candidate can do towards achieving goals. The work experience and its history are left far towards the end of the resume. This format is commonly used by the fresher’s and is the first option in the Resume Builder.

Fourth type of resume format is the “Alternative Resume format”. These types of resumes are generally not used by the regular job seekers. This format is mostly used by those who advertise themselves and want a brochure type of resume built. Professionals use this format for marketing purposes and develop such resumes via Resume Builder.

So choose the best resume format as per your profile. Someone has rightly said “First impression is the lasting impression”.

Writing an online resume – a brief guide

Saturday, November 7th, 2009

Looking to make a killer online resume to help land you a new job?  There are some “rules of the road” to make sure your resume writing efforts are compensated in spades.  Just follow this brief guide and you’ll be on your way to crafting a coherent, powerful resume to post online.

Step 1:  Choosing a layout

The layout of your online resume will either attract or repel potential employers.  If your resume looks cluttered or if it’s hard to find pertinent information, most employers will just move onto the next resume.  Your chances of landing an interview just went out the window.

Using one of the top three resume layout formats is usually the safest bet. FYI – they are known as “chronological”, “functional” and “combination” if you are interested in doing some research about them.

Step 2:  Gather your relevant personal information

Writing your online resume becomes much easier when you have easy access to the personal information your potential employer is going to want to know.  This means things such as specific dates at previous positions, official titles you have held, and relevant professional certifications.

Step 3: Write out your qualifications into “bite size” bullet points

Your potential employer is only concerned with what it is that you bring to the table.  They aren’t looking to hire an incapable employee. And the only way to express your qualifications is with the facts you write into your online resume.

You want your qualifications to be quick and to the point.  Stay on focus throughout the entire resume.  This means cutting out any flowery words and keeping every bullet point laser focused on the position you are looking to fill.

Step 4: Proofread your resume.

Before you post your online resume, make sure to proofread it to iron out any grammar or sentence structure mistakes.  With the help of Microsoft Word, this should be easy.

However, it’s usually a good idea to read through your article a couple of times as sometimes the automated software misses mistakes. It is best to wait for the day after you wrote the resume to actually sit down and review it.

Step 5: Post it.

Your new resume can’t help you get a new job if it’s just sitting on your computer hard drive.  You have to get it in front of as many as possible, as quickly as possible!

The best way of doing this is by utilizing job banks.  These are basically just websites where you can put up your online resume. Employers can run searches across the available resumes and contact candidates for follow up interviews.

Step 6: Collect additional materials

Although you won’t need more than a resume for most job banks, you should start putting together the extra material you’ll need if/when you make it to the interview process.

This includes things such as letters of recommendation, professional references, letters of introduction, etc.

Of course, there are easier ways to put together a resume, none of which are free.  The most common solutions that cost money are to employ a professional resume writer or use resume builder software.

If you want to save money and feel confident in your own writing abilities, then it can’t hurt to write your own resume to post. Just follow this guide; it’s all you really need to craft a good resume.

Why online resume samples may be your most powerful tool as a job hunter

Friday, November 6th, 2009

The fact of the matter is that the best online resumes follow a formula. This writing formula gives the resume poster (read: you) a competitive advantage in the job market.

Fortunately, weaving these formulas into your own resume is easier than it might seem.  You don’t have to go as far as hiring a professional writer or buying resume builder software.

Instead, you can leverage online resume samples and their inherent benefits.  By using online resume samples as a guideline, you’ll have what you need to build a professionally written resume without the time and hassle of becoming a pro resume writer yourself.

But the benefits don’t end there.  Here are a few other compelling reasons to use samples in your own resume writing efforts.

  • Commonly used structure and layout is built in

One of the biggest stumbling blocks for those putting together an online resume is getting the layout and structure right.  A lack of “white space”, confusing allocation of facts, or a less than ideal online resume length can all sink your chances of getting an interview quickly.

These considerations become a non issue when you’re using an online resume sample as a guideline when crafting your own resume.

  • Easily accessible

By using any of the major search engines (MSC, Yahoo, Google), you can easily find online resume samples free of charge.  Simply run a search for the term “free online resume samples” and you’ll be bombarded with potential websites.  By last count (as of October 2009), there are over 12 million results on Google alone.

  • Gets rid of writers block

Many professional writers will tell you that the first sentence is the most difficult.  Most job hunters find this true when it comes to writing an online resume as well.

When you have a sample to work with, knowing where to begin gets much easier. In addition, seeing the words that professional writers use is a great source of inspiration and direction.

  • Gives your resume focus

It’s hard to know what to include in your online resume, and what to omit.  Most online resume samples are focused solely on what is important and by using the same approach your resume will be more provocative for employers.

  • Makes life easier for hiring managers

Sifting through a job bank full of online resumes is one of the most boring things one can be tasked with.  For this reason hiring managers tend to look for ways to rip through resumes as quickly as possible.  This means using familiar layouts to speed up the resume reviewing process. One could assume that unfamiliar layouts get ignored without stretching the imagination.

By using an online resume sample you are effectively improving your chances of getting your resume read, since most of them use the most common resume layouts.

For these reasons and more I strongly feel that every job hunter should use online resume samples. It’s the only way to write a killer resume while also making the most of your time.

So, before you fire up Word and start banging on the keyboard, make sure to look up some samples first to make sure your resume is as strong as it can possibly be.

Top 4 places to post your online resume

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

Looking to get your online resume up and running, but not sure the best websites to post to?  Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered.  Here are the top 4 places to post your online resume for maximum results.

Monster.com

By far the most popular and fastest growing job board on the internet, Monster.com got their start back in 1999 and has grown to over 20 million visitors monthly.

What has made Monster such a huge success and a great place to put on an online resume is all of the additional benefits that they offer.

For example, you can also run queries for job opening. Some of the best employers in the nation post new openings daily, along with specific descriptions of what they are looking for in a candidate.   There is usually over 1 million such job postings at any given time.

Craigslist.com

The best thing about using Craigslist is that it is completely free.  There are separate sections for every major U.S. city and the largest international cities.  This makes it easy to get your online resume in front of employers in the area you would like to work.

The downside is that Craigslist is usually plagued with spammers that will send you emails about bogus jobs (i.e. –work from home courses you have to buy).  But the shear level of employers that visit Craigslist is more than enough reason to give it a go.

If you are to use Craigslist, I would highly suggest setting up a new email account just for the online resume you post there.  This way you can protect your main account from being stuffed with emails, both legit and spam.

Careerbuilder.com

Very close in popularity to Monster.com, CareerBuilder has a monthly visitor count of around 12 million… and that number continues to grow.

There are some cool features in addition to simply posting your online resume.  For instance, you can search for job opening by location and/or keyword.

You can also browse by category, which run from accounting to warehouse and everything in between.  They even have an online resume builder which you can use to make crafting the perfect resume that much easier.

Posting your resume on CareerBuilder is free, which is a definite benefit in my book. Just submit your resume to the site and interested employers can contact you directly.

Hotjobs.yahoo.com

Yahoo, the second biggest search engine on the Internet, also offers a great online resume posting portal.

You can post up to 10 different versions of your resume, in order to appeal to as many different employers as possible.  There is also an extensive education center to give you the advice you need to make your online resume and interview as successful as possible.

There are mountains of other smaller websites where you can post your online resume for free, and I would highly suggest posting to as many as possible.

Also, you can find plenty of websites that are catered to specific verticals (such as technology). Employers usually love these types of sites, since they don’t have to wade through irrelevant resumes to find the best possible candidate (read: you).

Here’s a tip: do a search in Google for “monster.com”.  When the results come back, you will see a small blue link called “similar” below the listing for Monster.  Click on that you you’ll have a list of other similar online resume websites you can post to.  Repeat this process until you have a nice long list to post to.  Good luck!

Effective resume writing for attractive salary

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

Many applicants come across this situation where their resume get those interviews but not offers. A candidate should actually analyze if after a row of interviews he is still not being selected. The Resume Builder has determined five job interview errors that could possibly be the causes of not getting selected.

1. Even if you are an active participant in the interview process, you should be careful in not taking over the whole interview. The interviewer only can be the real holder of the whole meeting. You only ask appropriate questions.

2. Be careful with the sentences’ formation and the vocabulary usage during the interview. If they do not meet the interviewer’s expectations, it might ruin your chances of getting selected. Recall the questions asked and how you answered them. Avoid passive phrases like “I think” or “I believe”.

3. Many candidates do not concentrate on the dressing part. They dress up either too casual or too conservative. Your attire reflects your attitude and this needs to be kept in mind while appearing for the interview. Too casual might give them an impression that your attitude towards job is casual as well and vice-versa. It is better to ask the recruiter or can find out by visiting the hiring organizations to see how the employees dress up there, as how the Resume Builder suggests.

4. There is also a possibility of landing up at the wrong organizations. For instance, if you are applying for the post of a bank cashier, then the job responsibilities (like executing cash transactions, maintaining vault records, etc.) are the same irrespective of the place. But what differs is the culture of the organization you fit in.

Suppose, a normal conservative bank like Corporation bank may prefer reserved candidates, where as a modernized fast-growing bank like ICICI bank may prefer more approachable individuals. So it’s just not about the open position that is available to match your qualification or experience, the organizational environment also matters in which you can fit best.

5. Candidates commit another mistake by not doing follow-ups. The hiring managers look for zeal in the candidate so that they get back to him. It is not simply about the job-related skills as how the Resume Builder points out, it is also about the soft skills like communication and integrity that matters. Just an acknowledgement letter would suffice.

It is really difficult to examine the exact error(s) that you may commit without witnessing your interview process. The Resume Builder has underlined some additional points for self-analysis apart from the above:

- Did you ever feel a sense of disappointment on the interviewer’s face or through his expression? If yes, then recollect the question and analyze how well you could have answered it.
- Did you any time feel that you stammered with the interviewer’s question? If yes, recall that question and assess how well you can readdress it.

Pondering over your mistakes by critical analysis and rectification would surely take you one step forward as mentioned by the Resume Builder.

Tips for a more successful online resume

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

Before you post that online resume, you need to make sure you are as prepared as possible. Just like most things in life, there are tricks and tips to making your resume as successful as possible.  Keep these things in mind, and your resume will have a marked advantage against competing resumes.

Don’t depend on the pronoun “I”.

It’s implicit that your resume is about you; using the pronoun “I” takes away from the flow of the resume and clutters up the layout with unnecessary words.

Instead of writing something like “I was in charge of coordinating various multi team initiatives”, your resume will read better if you wrote something like “Responsible for multi team initiatives.”

Run from ugly fonts like they were the plague.

When online resume professionals say that you should think outside of the box, they usually aren’t referring to things like layout and font.

In fact, font style and size is where most job candidates usually mess up.  Just because you can read and understand the words on your resume doesn’t mean that the hiring manager will be able to.

The best way to make sure your resume is legible is to stick to commonly used fonts:  10 point New Times Roman is usually a safe bet.

Never use confusing and/or cluttered resume layout.

There are certain resume layouts that just simply work.  Others… well, not so much.  The best way to make sure that your online resume makes the best impression possible, make sure to stick with the tried and true resume layouts.

For the record, the top two resume layout formats are “chronological” and “functional”.

Use specifics.

Use as many specifics as possible when describing your skill sets and professional qualifications.  After all, anybody can plug in a bullet point that says “highly accomplished salesman”.  You add a level of credibility when you specifically state something like “beat my KPI by 40% for three consecutive years.”

Proofread it.  Then proofread it again.

Sounds like common sense, but more than one candidate hasn’t even made it to the interview room due to grammatical errors.  Before you post your online resume, make sure that your spelling and sentence structure is perfect.

Bullet points are your friend.

Let’s face it: everybody has 26 hours worth of things to do.  Of course, we all only have the same 24 hours.  Don’t waste your resume reviewer’s time with bulky paragraphs.

Instead, be generous with bullet points.  They are a great way of getting across information in quick, easy to digest facts. An added benefit is that they make your resume more appealing to the eye.

Get to the point.

You don’t have to (and really shouldn’t) write a novel for a resume.  That is, unless you are looking to be an employed writer.

Instead, keep your resume to as few pages as possible.  This means keeping the focus of your resume relevant to the position you are looking to fill.

Apply like a mad man (or woman).

Your resume could be absolutely perfect, but you can’t get a job if the right people aren’t seeing it.  This means posting your online resume on as many websites as possible.

But don’t stop there. Use every last every distribution method at your disposal.  Send your resume via mail to potential employers.  Get some new business cards made up with the URL of your online resume, and pass them out everywhere you go.

Stay focused, be assertive and before you know it you’ll be sitting behind a new desk with a smile on your face.