Re: Resumes - writing your own

["Thomas E. Potter" <TPotter243 -at- AOL -dot- COM>]

In a message dated 95-12-23 02:54:17 EST, sea -at- NETCOM -dot- COM (Sue Ellen Adkins)
writes:

>Each counselor insisted my resume be no longer than one page. That length
may
>be fine for new graduates; however, during my twenty years with one
employer,
>I had changed jobs every two-three years.  The counselors condensed my
>experience until I appeared as bland and interesting as distilled water!



I ran into the same problem. After 20+ years in the job market, I had a
accumulated a varied range of experience. Just summarizing the different
positions which I was qualified for ran to over five page. The problem is
that all reviewers (be they harried secretaries or the actual hiring entity)
looked for buzzwords (a human scanner, I suppose). I was forced to reduce my
resume to three pages, and I'm sure I lost some positions because of the
deleted material.

Since I have had experience on the other side of the desk, I feel I can give
some sound advice about resumes. Of course, this I my personal opinion and
not that of all who hire. Everyone has their quirks (notice the
gender-sensitive pronouns).

Don't worry about the length of the resume; those who told us to hold it to
one page never hired anyone. At least they never tried to determine the
actual qualifications of anyone who had been in the job market more than a
year. I suggest strongly that a summary (synopsis) of experience be included
first after the personal data and the EDUCATION section. After all, if your
experience has been limited to the fishmonger trade it is nice to know that
up front if I'm looking for a shepherd. I call this the SUMMARY OF EXPERIENCE
section (what else). After this your resume should go into as much detail as
you think necessary for each separate job. Don't go into minute detail;
however, make sure you describe the position held and the separate duties you
performed. Don't forget the hardware, software, and equipment with which you
have experience. This section is (of course) DETAILED EXPERIENCE.

Remember, the object is to make it easy for the person doing the hiring to
select you. The SUMMARY OF EXPERIENCE  will help them immediately decide if
you are even in the game. Keep all sentences short and to the point. DON'T
write like you did for your English literature essays (unless you are seeking
a professorship). Bulleted lists and phrases do just as well as clauses, as
long as they get the point across.

One section which I think is very important and one which most resume writers
omit is the HOBBIES AND INTERESTS section. I never thought about this until I
ran across some resumes in which the applicants had the same hobbies as I. It
made me take a second look at the resume. After all, someone who shares your
interests will automatically get your attention.

If you are looking for things to delete, what about those jobs you don't ever
want to do again. You can also safely delete redundant or obsolete hardware,
software, etc. experience.

Tom Potter
Houston, TX
TPotter243 -at- aol -dot- com