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A good resume?

ShaneC

ShaneC

Super Member
I can usually BS my way through the written word, but a resume is not my forte'. I'm horrible at writing these things. Would anyone be willing to look over what I have so far? Offer some tips on making it look good?

The formatting still needs some work, but I'm hoping some one can tell me if the content makes sense, and/or how I can make it flow a bit better.


ShaneC
 
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PM me Shane - I'll take a shot at it.

I've written BS reports for 20 years of my life and written a few
resumes for myself or others.
 
Don't BS anything, just leave off anything that might be negative. Stay positive in what you are seeking
 
Doctordirt said:
Don't BS anything, just leave off anything that might be negative. Stay positive in what you are seeking
Click to expand...

by "BS" I mean more "detailed filler".

If I could pull it off, my resume would just read "fixes things when they break", but I'm not sure that's quite descriptive enough.
 
If you are older than you look, as you see yourself, you may want to consider detailing only the past 10-15 years of experience, depending on the circumstances. It's against discrimination laws to ask your age.
 
beans said:
If you are older than you look, as you see yourself, you may want to consider detailing only the past 10-15 years of experience, depending on the circumstances. It's against discrimination laws to ask your age.
Click to expand...

I'm only 27!

But I've been in this industry for 10 years, but 10 years of experience *should* mean that I'm too old to be crawling through ceilings running wire and crap. (All IMHO of course)
 
I might have some time to do that... definitely don't "BS" as in making up crap (but you knew that). But there are ways of saying things that get you the interview and ways of saying things that get you the round file. That said there are lots of books and websites out there with good advice.

What industry?

Michael
 
My take: Show your resume to 10 different people and you will get 10 different opinions as to how to set it up. Of course there are some universal rules- start every bullet point with an action verb- but a resume IMHO is the snapshot of you that you are comfortable with.
 
I read a lot of resumes. I can tell you what I think. All I want to see is relevent experience. If you start off with something else I figure you haven't done anyting. I don't need a lot of detail, just what jobs you've done and what your duties were. That tells almost all I need to know.

Remember that a resume doesn't get you a job. It gets you an interview. Write it with that in mind. It's more than ok to leave the details for the interview. If I have a question, I'll call you. That's good for you. Gets you a foot in the door.

I don't care that you worked at McDonalds when you were 17. If that's still on your resume, take it off. I don't really care where you went to school. I sugest you put it at the bottom. If you GPA is 3.5 or better, it's ok to include that. Leave it off otherwise.

(edit) Oh! Almost forgot!

I run a department, have won many, many regional and national awards. I make six figures and work for one of the largest companies on Earth. My resume is one page long. If yours is longer you're wasting my time. One page.
 
ShaneC said:
I'm only 27!

But I've been in this industry for 10 years, but 10 years of experience *should* mean that I'm too old to be crawling through ceilings running wire and crap. (All IMHO of course)
Click to expand...

Sorry... didn't mean to insult you... I don't know you so I wish I hadn't sounded like I was making any presumptions about your age. Never mind! And good luck:yes:
 
ShaneC

I have in my career ( supervisor carestaff education district) 25 years and counting, gone through thousands of resume. I have listed below some tips that are general in nature but applicable to anyone.

1. Do not just have one resume but gear it to the job you are applying for. For example (in my situation) if it was a carestaff position list the cleaning you have done. Now you may be the worlds greatest maintenance person but l'm hiring cleaners. This idea can be applied to any job, computer softwear technician stress that aspect etc. My point do not be limited to one resume be flexible and able to adjust skills to position applied for.

2. Make it easy for your employer to check references. Make sure the phone numbers, contact address etc are current.

3. Make sure your references are supportive. Often in checking references l have found the applicant did not have permission or the reference was negative.

4. Explain any long gaps in employment history for example no employment for 2 years etc.

5. Not too long a page and a half to two.

6. Neat, typed and free of spelling errors.
 
Lots of good advice so far, but let me zoom in on a couple things:

If you've got experience in the field you're looking in, it won't be enough for a resume to be simply a work history. It also needs to be a highlight reel of sorts. Think back to some past jobs where you got managerial attention for doing something good: saving the company money somehow, developing a new, cheaper, easier way to do something, or catching and preventing a huge mistake before it snowballed into disaster. Add a few of those things in, but don't go too crazy.

Don't discount the importance of a cover letter. It's the appetizer that gets HR hungry for your main course - the resume. And just as on a menu, the more appealing the description of the item, the more likely someone will be to order it.

As far as nutsy-boltsy stuff, remember:

One page cover letter, one page resume. Be neat with page setup: 10-to-12 point type, even margins all around the page. Bullet-point any lists. Bold good, italics bad. Punctuate, punctuate, PUNCTUATE! And spellchecking isn't enough: you can do it, but read it again afterwards to make sure you're not embarrassed out of the HR office over a contextual error like this one that spellcheckers don't catch:

"I'm looking for work because even though my company was profitable last year, this year they are expecting a large defecate."

Because most of all, you don't want them to think you're full of....
 
beans said:
Sorry... didn't mean to insult you... I don't know you so I wish I hadn't sounded like I was making any presumptions about your age. Never mind! And good luck:yes:
Click to expand...

No offense taken. I was just playing my wife in a game of Pong over on the Tee-Vee. (Seriously, she'd never played Pong before...My Wii rocks!).

-------------------------------------

I'm an alarm tech by trade (electronic security or whatever they're calling it now - just no fire alarms). Low-Voltage Integrator perhaps? Access Control, Burglar Alarms, cameras, etc.

I'm way ahead of the curve compared to most other techs I've met. Unfortunatly, I'm behind compared to the few guys who get the really eccentric customers with big money to spend on full blown integration/automation systems. :no:

Anyway, I've got the resume out to a few places. 3 pages long as it stands, with a lot of garbage (useful to the right people) detailing what all equipment and systems I've worked on over the years and what I know how to do.

Probably too technical for the average HR person, but good if it falls in the right hands. *shrug*

Thanks to Monster.com I've had 2 phone calls and a few emails already today, though most were in the wrong areas. Northern VA/DC seems to be a good place for consistent work, but we're trying to get up to PA.

We'll see....
 
I hear where you're coming from on the resume thing.

I had a phone interview today for a different position within the same company and hadn't done a "real" interview for more than 20 years (yes, I've been with the same company for 20 yrs in various capacities).

Yikes... was I rusty. Didn't totally botch it, but I definitely feel I could have done better/differently. It was scheduled for 1 hour, and we went about 50 minutes and seemed to come to a natural end, nothing seemingly cut short so I take that as a good sign.

I guess I'll know in a couple weeks if I get the invite for a face-to-face at HQ.


Anyway, good luck on finding something to your liking and that suits your career path!!
 
whoaru99 said:
I had a phone interview today for a different position within the same company and hadn't done a "real" interview for more than 20 years (yes, I've been with the same company for 20 yrs in various capacities).
Click to expand...

:ntwrthy:

I didn't know companies still kept people that long! Wow.
 
At one time that sort of longevity was looked on favorably and respected.

In today's business world, I'm not so sure that's the case.

And, to clarify, I have weathered two acquisitions and a couple other lesser levels of merger type stuff. So, technically, it's not the same company, but I somewhat view it that way as our core business is still the same as it's always been and I still travel the same path to get there.
 
I used to suck so bad at resumes. It used to cause a lot of anxiety for me to write them. A couple years back I took a college course and part of it was on writing resumes. It really helped me A LOT! One of the key things is to plagiarize what they are asking for in the ad. On the resume, you put 5 to 7 key skills at the top and then under that you elaborate on them. Always word them as accomplishments, for example, word it like "designed and installed computer networks", not "have computer network design and installation skills". Also, I like to keep things short, neat and easy to read. Write it so that an employer will get a good idea of what you are capable of just skimming over it. Also, for the "objective" in the resume, be sure to personalize it to the company. This is just an example, but instead of putting "custodial engineer", put "custodial engineer for jim's custodial services, inc.".

The last resumes I sent out, I had a 3 paragraph cover letter that detailed my interest in the position, the training that I took, and the duties of my current day to day position. This seemed to work very well, and got me 2 interviews out of 4 resumes. I was offered a position but didn't take it, because I was offered a pretty killer raise to stay at my current job. Even the losers get lucky sometimes!

Interviews also were a big cause of anxiety for me (socially retarded), and still are to some extent, but practice makes perfect. I've gone to interviews for jobs I knew I didn't want just for practice. If I concentrate on how much I want or need the job, it kills me every time. I try to get in the mindset that I am just hanging out with this interviewer for a bit and shooting the breeze about the type of work that I do. If I bomb, or don't get the job, I don't beat myself up. I take a casual approach; maybe try to crack a joke to break the ice. If the employer is too serious or formal, I take that as a sign that they would not be a good match for me.

I'm no resume expert, but I could send you a sample resume if you'd like.
 
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