Been looking for a job for forever now.. Had one for a week a few months ago, but it turned out to be a shady telemarketing place and they hired and fired a bunch of people for a week during a bad month. About 9 months ago a professional interviewer told me that my old resume needed a lot of work and gave me a bunch of pointers. I don't think it really helped to be honest. To be fair, the old one was doing just as well in this economy (CA unemployment rate is 2nd highest in the US at 12.1% as of 08-2011).
I'm literally willing to do anything to get a job at this point. I'll even leave the state/country on some temporary thing just so I can do something and get back on my feet (I lost pretty much everything in 2010). I've been on countless interviews, phone interviews, submitted 100s of applications, resumes, cover letters, and filled out those dreaded online job applicant tests that take forever. Its just so frustrating and I've been at it for over a year now. Which is why I've sort of started to do my own thing on the side to see if I can get anywhere with it but it doesn't seem very profitable so far. I will make another post about that maybe tomorrow and see what you all think about it.
Anyways, Here are my resumes. First my latest one, and then I'll show you the first page of the old one for comparison.
On October 08 2011 21:24 zeru wrote: Be more consistent with fonts, and sizes. The layout differences between technical skills and experience sections where you go from bullet list style, to table and back to bullet looks bad, and different indents depths on bullet lists doesnt look good either.
You mean that its arial font size 10 bold and italic, while the job informations are times new roman size 10 plain?
An important point to keep in mind is that in the current economic climate, these companies will be receiving dozens if not hundreds of resumes. As such, it needs to be short and straight to the point. The main issue here is your detailing of past jobs. I would say that the level of detail you have provided should only be used for the three most important or significant jobs in terms of highlighting your relevant skills. For all the other jobs, just list them as dot-points with a time frame, or don't mention them at all. This more limited amount of information should boost your chances, since it will make it more likely for them to skim over the parts which you want them to read, rather than a random part which may not be as impressive.
On October 08 2011 21:37 CortoMontez wrote: An important point to keep in mind is that in the current economic climate, these companies will be receiving dozens if not hundreds of resumes. As such, it needs to be short and straight to the point. The main issue here is your detailing of past jobs. I would say that the level of detail you have provided should only be used for the three most important or significant jobs in terms of highlighting your relevant skills. For all the other jobs, just list them as dot-points with a time frame, or don't mention them at all. This more limited amount of information should boost your chances, since it will make it more likely for them to skim over the parts which you want them to read, rather than a random part which may not be as impressive.
But I thought most resumes were filtered with key words by a bot before anyone even bothers looking at them? The more buzzwords I can fit in the better right?
I did just notice though that the first job listed on there is 10 years ago. Is that too far back? Where should I start?
I'm not an expert on this but your resume is LONG. Three pages? If I got hundreds of applications I'd be tired as hell, and having three pages in my hands would make me grumble. It's also really dry stuff.
Yea you might want to leave out the walmart and bowling alley jobs (basically the jobs you could train a monkey to do) since they add nothing to your resume but another page, the platform and application lists are also very bloated, keep it to the specifics for what you are applying for.
I am being honest here. The number one problem why you haven't found a job is not your resume's fault. As it stands, the current climate for employment is absolutely horrible. It can take individuals with graduate degrees, months or years to find a job. So, when you go to apply for any position, say it's 9 bucks an hour or more, you're competing against individuals with more experience and (more importantly) college degrees. The job sector has widdled down most who would expect higher-tier jobs to the point where it's so very competitive that they have to make ends meet, pay the bills and house payment--to get that, they must compete for any job.
Second, after the horrible market, the reason you are not receiving employment is because you are looking in one of the most affected industries, I.T. Because this market is flooded with individuals with 10, or 20 years of experience at top-tier companies, who now are begging for help-desk jobs. Adding to that, most I.T. jobs are outsourced or contracted by Indian companies. That sweet admin job that used to pay 50k a year with benefits? Not any more, it's 10 bucks an hour, sourced from an Indian staffing company, and pays $11.50 per hour. Although nearly equally depressing, the web industry may have a few peanut shells left for employment--as nearly every web company needs a guy who can do it all, for 9-10 bucks an hour--and you can fit that bill.
Employers have also upped their staffing standards, because in a down economy a company be extremely choosy when it comes to who they bring on--they also can fire 20-30% of an entire group and either force the remining employees to work harder, or bring on half new people and pay them much less (but expect the same quality work). Needless to say, I have some advice for you.
• Make your resume 1 page. Look up advice, if you don't trust me. But, anyone with (essentially) a high school degree, only needs 1 page of resume material. H.R. will scan your resume, see you only have high school education, notice it's way too long and then trashcan it. Simply put, list name, address, education and work experience. Don't be long winded, because it's hurting your chances.
• Find a job at a web design company, small company, work as an intern, start your own business or go freelance with web work. These are where jobs still exist. Interning is highly wanted right now, as companies know people will work for free, for any kind of recognition.
• Go back to college. You have to be competitive. I will tell you right now that with a college degree it is hard enough to find a job, so at least try to place yourself on a more equal playing field.
Yea I agree shorter would be better. List less jobs. Reduce the amount of detail... but make sure whatever details you do give are specific.
I think things like "expert computer technical knowledge" are too vague.
Try to add any brag details you can (things like gpa if it's pretty good, tough classes you aced, awards received, etc) and remove details that aren't good brags (48 wpm isn't a brag these days and the accuracy measurement isn't necessary: clutter).
Given your lack of success with this resume I would also consider using a whole new format.
Consider two resumes; one for jobs similar to the ones you recently worked, and another one for basic jobs that don't require many skills and experience.
What other people and I suggested is probably a lot of work but should be worth it.
I assume this is literally everything you've ever done, so that you can give us the most intel?
Keep in mind that a normal, solid resume is fit onto about one page, and only has relevant information (and most recent experience generally trumps older jobs, unless you have an amazing story to tell). So if you're applying for a job relating to your computer technical knowledge, you're going to leave on your tech support stuff and get rid of Wal-Mart man and cashier boy.
Also, you totally don't need a trillion bullet points for each topic. I'm falling asleep reading your resume. I'm putting it in the pile labeled "boring worker". That pile's in the trash, by the way, because I don't want to hire those. Think of the three or four most important bullet points (you can combine a few if you want, but don't make each bullet point any longer than two lines), and just use those. I'm sure being a tech support guy does many things, but pick the most important ones and list them. You can talk about the rest in an interview. Downsize this whole resume.
And also... your summary... literally every person can put generic things like that. You need to put interestings things on here, or nothing at all. You're supposed to *not* be like everyone else. What makes you special?
You really need to find some way to spice up your resume and make it one page long. You need to catch your future employer's attention and not bore him to death. You need to fit a lot of information and still get the point across.
You really don't want to make an overly lengthy resume. What specific position are you applying for? Including antiviruses and mobile devices under technical skills doesn't exactly impress, it clutters more than anything. You should be more concise, specific and relevant. And also focus on listing ACHIEVEMENTS you've made for the companies you've worked for rather than the tasks that you did.
You do this more in your revised resume but you can do a little more to make it more achievement based and concrete. So instead of "Ordered and negotiated merchandise from various sources, often finding the best deals and saving costs and increase revenue" you can write "Cut costs by 10% and increased total revenue by 15% by searching for five other vendors and negotiating the best possible savings with them."
So make resumes for specific positions, for specific companies and lean it out by excluding all your skills and achievements that aren't relevant. And add specific, measurable things to your points.
If you're still going to make your resume as long as it is you can at least organize your exp points by categories, like int, vit, and str (or sales, supervising, IT).
Also, you have a graphics design degree? Why aren't you applying for jobs like webdesign and stuff? Have you tried freelancing on the side?
Your old resume reads like a list of stuff you were responsible for - not what you brought to the job, what you achieved or what you gained from that experience. Your new resume has a cleaner format but is still just a list of responsibilities.
You were in sales, try replacing your dot points with a paragraph about your single biggest achievement at that job, the biggest new client you brought in or biggest sales figure. Hiring managers can't be bothered reading a dry list of shit you were made to do at your last job. That stuff is only relevant if you're in a trade, scientific or engineering discipline.
Clean up the tab spacing, fonts and bullet points as well - you're educated in graphic design but it looks like you're not giving a shit about the aesthetics.
I'm sure someone already said this, but with just a general perusal, it's clear that you need to have focused resumes specific to jobs you're applying for; ie - list previous jobs that are relevant to the position you're applying for.
Going for a technical position with a tech company? List those companies you did technical support for, your education, and those technical skills you think might be useful.
Perhaps a sales job is open at a business, you can then list all of those in your history.
Maybe you're throwing your resume everywhere and even going for other stocking type, or entry level positions; then you can remove your sales rep/associate entries and list all of the others that are relevant.
That should clean a lot of it up. As a guide, from head hunters I've talked to and HR friends that I know, your resume should essentially be two full pages. Skills, experience, education and other attributes (relevant volunteer work, references, recognized awards, etc...) should all be listed.
Other notes from looking, it's good that you've put everything in the past tense. A lot of people usually have problems doing that, or don't list their present job in the present tense.
Also, I dislike your date format. It's not conducive to personnel managers that just glance at resumes quickly and decide yes or no on the spot. The change in fonts in the resume is also a bit of a turn off for someone with technical knowledge.
I guarantee half of the people replying to this thread haven't even read your whole resume. I don't say that to critique people on forum etiquette, but to explain to you that your resume needs to be shorter. Generally speaking, you should be able to get enough information on one page to accomplish this, something that is easier to accomplish than it sounds- namely, by use of more than 1 column of text.
Here's one of my favorite professors' resumes, as an example.
It's about one and a half pages, but that's because he has a lot of on-the-job experience. Being as that a lot of your former jobs are likely unrelated to the job you're applying for, you should only have 1 page.
Important things you should have on your resume. These rules don't exist for all resumes, such as those with years and years and years of experience, but for yours its a different story.
1) Personal information. Name, Phone Number, Address, E-mail (and make sure its a professional-looking email, not xxbigdong69xx@yahoo.com). Don't include a website unless you do freelance work and have a personal website worth showing.
2) Objective. Consider this a sentence-long miniature cover letter detailing what you want out of this job, career wise. This needs to be personalized for each job application- every employer wants to know what an asset you will be to them.
3) Education. Obvious stuff. List GPAs if they are good, but maintain a uniform layout. AKA, if your GPA in High School is good and your GPA in College is poor, don't list either GPA. Otherwise, they'll notice the college one is "missing" and assume the worst.
4) Skills. I can do X Y and Z. Rather than write 3 paragraphs per job and hope your "keyword searching robot" finds them, just list them, plain as day.
5) Experience. List a few jobs you had in the past and a brief description of what you did for them. When deciding which ones to list, list the ones that you worked for the longest, left on good terms with, and are as closely related to what you're applying to as possible.
Everything except education/contact info needs to be personalized to each job, really. People want to know that you're in with them for the long haul and are actually interested in it before they're going to give you money.
The exception to this is if you're applying for Radioshack or Burger King or whatever, in which case, giving them a resume to read is probably not even worth it, as all the information they need is on the application form. I worked at a movie theater once and some guy was so desperate for a job that he came in with a resume and a suit and everything. He was trying too hard, implying that he would probably leave as soon as he found something better. Meanwhile, I walked in with a t-shirt (have tattoos on my arms) and got a job offer the following day just a few months before.
cut it down to no more than two pages. don't have time to go in depth on it, but you've got way too much stuff listed for your jobs. no one wants to read all that - cut out unnecessaries
1) The box at the front is useless and ugly as fuck, lose it 2) Nobody gives a shit about what you did, and with that many points, they aren't even going to read it. Demonstrate what you have learned in other jobs, don't just put a job description 3) Only keep your most recent/most important jobs, as has been said it should only fill 2 pages max 4) ...
I don't mean to be an asshole, but there are so many glaring errors that I can't even begin to start making specific recommendations. Use this: http://www.mcgill.ca/files/caps/CV_Writing.pdf as a basis to make a decent resume.
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