Resume Information

[DILLIGAF]

I am working on putting my first resume together and I'm wandering if anyone can give me some hints on what whould be appropriate to include in it.

One thing that I am thinking about is if I should include martial arts teaching experience or not.

Some people have told me that it would be good to have becaue it shows initialtive and dedication. Some have told me that employer nowdays don't care about what you do outside of work.

If anyone has any idea that could help, it would great.

Thanks.

[gerald]

Dilligaf,

There are many "theories" around that will tell you what (and what not) to put into a resume. Having looked at many resumes in the days when I used to work for "the man", I'll tell you some absolutes:
1) Don't lie...stretch the truth, maybe, but don't lie.
2) Proofread, proofread , and then get someone else to proofread your final copy. Resumes with typos and grammatical errors will probably be scuttled.
3) Keep it short. If you are young, include all experience that shows that you are capable of showing up at the proper place at the proper time with the proper stuff....martial arts training will fit here.
4) Remember that the resume is intended to get you a job interview, not the job.

Hope this helps.

[DILLIGAF]

Thank you very much gerald, that does help a lot.

[Strine]

I am probably of employER age rather than young job seeker age and I disagree with the what you do outside having little or no importance. My resume is littered with what I do outside of work and I get the feeling at interviews that having a wide range of interests and therefore a "perceived" wide range of skills is a good thing.

Experience should rate a mention. Write about how experienced you are at the touchy feely things like teamwork, loyalty, commitment, punctuality, honesty.

Ditto the proofreading. Your resume MUST be grammatically and spellingly PERFECT. Yes that's a real word but don't use it in the Resume

Goodluck

[HWooldridge]

I don't know what type work you are looking for but I am in the ranks of the unemployed for the second time in the past three years and I can tell you what I have observed.

A posted job opening will spark a mad frenzy of applicants. Since I used to hire and fire as a manager, I have been in that situation. It is quite easy to receive hundreds of resumes over a few weeks, so the trick is getting someone to look at yours. The best way is to use proper keywords for the type work you know or want (more on this later). It is also best to place your accomplishments so they are read first but I'm not sure martial arts training will mean anything unless physical prowess is part of the job needs. The only exception to this might be a business owner or manager who also practices martial arts and wants to bring you in as someone with similar interests but this is very unlikely if you can't also do the job. It might pique someone's interest but the space is better spent on other information.

On a hard copy resume that is mailed or hand delivered, printing on colored paper other than white can help - just don't go crazy and use lime green. I went to a job fair a couple weeks ago and used a very few keywords on a cover page with a colored border. A conventional cover letter and resume followed underneath but it was easy to find in a pile of paper because of the cover.

With all this said, a lot of companies are turning to software that prescreens applicants according to keywords in their resume. Acting somewhat like a search engine, resumes that don't have a certain percentage of the appropriate words or phrases are kicked into an electronic wastebasket so no human ever sees them. It pays to cruise Monster or one of the other job boards and see how companies are describing the positions you want then incorporate those words into your resume. Of course, this assumes you do in fact have those attributes or experience.

In general, a good resume opens with either a career objective or goes straight to skill sets and accomplishments, followed by work history and job duties. Education and references can follow that - unless education is a big part of the job (like having a PhD), in which case you may want to mention it earlier. The company wants to know first and foremost what you can do for them, not what you do at home.

If possible, keep your resume to one or two pages at best. You'll be lucky if someone reads past page one anyway.

Good luck...H

[cheftjcook]

I agree with Gerald but differ abit on the personel side. I say bit because I feel a small and I do mean small insight or peek into ones private activites that contribute to who your are can help an employer. I have spent more than a few hours reading over long boring contrived resumes...
It does not work and people will see thru it.
Be as honest and straight forward as possible embelishing but NOT fabricating.
If you are writing this your self there is a fantastic program called
"Win-Way Resume" WinWay Resume Deluxe - the Leader in Resume Software. Thousands of Resume Examples plus Cover Letters, Job Interview Simulation, Salary Negotiation and much more
I think that is an invaluable tool and helps smooth out rough spots...ie you can't think of a proper way to explain a job or situation the software has examples, prompts and hints. It has formats set up for all different style resumes as well a 100 variations. It also does all spelling and grammar checks. Helps you set up cover letters and mailings. For $40-$45 you can't beat it. To get someone to help you on this level would cost a fortune.
Good Luck
TIM

[yesteryearforge]

As a general rule of thumb I take a persons resume and divide it by 2 thats more like the reality of what they can really do.

[son_of_bluegrass]

If your young or inexperienced at the desired job, stuff such as martial arts teaching can show dedication and the ability to be where you are suppose to be when your suppose to be there. If you have a fair bit of experience outside activities will probably not add much if anything to your resume, if you want to add it and there is room at the bottom without starting a page 2 it probably won't hurt.

What others said is good advice, keep it simple, honest, use keywords for the field and don't get discouraged if it doesn't go anywhere.

ron

[SteveA]

It's been years - thanks be to God - since I've had to write a resume. It's been almost as many years since I had to look at resumes. I haven't been asked to interview anyone since I got in trouble for talking about hobbies. They're not considered work related, and so shouldn't be discussed, I was told. That said, I like to see a bit of what you do outside of work. Gives me more idea of who you are, what you can do, and how you'll fit in. Hey, that's why I used to ask about hobbies. For my field, I had noticed, and still notice, a strong correlation between technical hobbies and good performance at the job. That was what I was looking for. Didn't much care whether you pounded iron, worked on cars, tinkered with cameras, or built model airplanes, I just wanted to hear that you liked detailed, technical work enough to do it when someone wasn't cracking the whip. Now that I've been informed of all the things I'm not allowed to ask... I don't know what I'd talk about if I had to conduct an interview. Always figured most anyone could wrap himself in a suit, rehearse some canned answers to standard questions about favorite classes, and generally act civilized for a half-hour interview.

I agree about the experience. Out of school I put a lot of personal stuff on. I had a lot of room on a sheet of paper back then. Now I still think it's important, but the lawyers don't, and besides, I'd have to condense things a lot to get all the direct experience on just two pages...

Okay, I've vented. Don't know if it helped any or not.

Steve

[blkbear]

Computers are great things for putting together a resume. You can tailor your resume to fit the position you are applying for.

Excellent suggestions by all who have replied. Use keywords - words that the company has used in advertising the position and others that can be associated with the work. Keep it on topic and concise. Max 2 pages. If need be you can adjust the line height of spaces using your computer to squeeze maybe another line or two but don't be frivilous with what you include.

As for outside work activities sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I know that it is annoying to get this kind of wishy washy advice. Do some research on the company before you finalise your resume and send it in. Besides finding out more about the company you can find out about the company's employees. Do they participate together in company sponsored bowling leagues? Softball? Other sports? If so that mey be part of a compnay's strategy in team building. here it may take a bit more digging and asking around. At one point in the past 3M looked for people who worked good in teams and used the outside work to develop a sense of belonging to a team.

I dunno. Just suggestions but doing research on the company can help with building a resume and impress an interviewer when they ask if you have any questions or if you incorporate company info in answers. Show individual initiative.

Good luck

Brian