Resumes
http://www.myperfectresume.com/ (free resume service)
There are two basic résumé types: chronological and functional The type you use depends on your work history, job objective, and skills.
Chronological Résumé
Do you have a long and steady work history? Do you want to stay in the same field? If so, a chronological résumé is a good choice. It says what you have done, where, when, and for whom. Here's how:
*List your recent work experience in reverse chronological order. Start with your most recent job and go back only 10-15 years. List job titles, name of employer, and dates of employment (in years only). Ideally, your history will show an increasing scope of work and accomplishments.
What should I include in my chronological resume?
A chronological resume contains the following components:
1. Personal details: Your name and contact information, including mailing address, telephone number, and e-mail address.
2. Objective: This is an optional section where you can briefly define your career objectives.
3. Work experience: Start with your most recent position. List all of your work experience, even if it wasn’t employment based. Use bullet points to describe your duties and responsibilities; provide the most information about your current position and less for each remaining one. Try to begin each bullet point with an action word (e.g., consulted, organized, or built).
4. Education: Begin with your highest degree and work backwards. Include all schools you have attended and list any diplomas, degrees (including majors and minors), and awards you’ve received.
5. References: It is best to simply state that references are available upon request, unless they have been specifically requested.
What is a Functional Resume?:
Before you begin creating a functional resume, you may want a better idea of just what a functional resume is, what purpose it offers, and what kind of candidate it serves best. Basically, the functional or skills based resume is one that highlights the skills and achievements of the candidate, instead of the actual chronological employment history of the applicant. The functional resume format is the best choice for someone who has a lot of skill sets and achievements to offer a company to which they are applying, and a somewhat disjunctive or inconsistent employment history.
There are a number of steps involved with creating a functional resume that showcases your best career strengths and value, and downplays the weaknesses in your application for a job. We offer these steps below:
1. Contact Information: Just like with any career resume, you must begin your functional resume with one of the most important parts: the contact information. This will offer the employer or hiring manager a reference if how to get a hold of you, if they are interested in your qualifications. Include your full name, your mailing address, your phone, and your email address-as you would in any standard resume.
2. Objective: Next, include an objective if you would like-which is a 1-2 sentence statement about what your career goals are and how you hope you achieve them.
3. Skill and Achievements: While, in many resumes, the skills and achievements section exists as well-in a functional resume, you must highlight this area of expertise by including it first and also, expanding upon it. There are two basic ways that people using functional resumes will address their skills:
a. As a box: Create a box that shows five impressive skills on one side and five impressive skills on the other in a formatted box that you have inserted for this purpose. This should be stellar skills and achievements that you want to grab the employer’s attention right off the bat, and should not be ordinary skills and achievements. One good way to approach this is by giving them exactly the skills that they requested in their job posting in this box, but expanded upon with a specific experience of achievement in your career life.
b. In sub categories: Another way to create a skills section that is successful is to list the skill sets you have in sub categories, and list bullet points below which showcase times when you proved these skills and achievements. So, the sub categories would be something like “Communications Skills”, initiated with an underline, and the bullet points underneath would show a time in which your great communication skills brought about positive results.
4. Summary: Another aspect of the resume that many people using a functional resume format include to make their resume more powerful is by including a section entitled summary which is like an objective, should come first, and gives a summary of the best achievements, experience, and skills listed in the resume below it. It should be no longer than a paragraph of 3-4 sentences, and is worth considering, as many employers appreciate it for its convenience.
5. Experience: Though the main purpose of using a functional resume format is to underscore your employment history, employers do want to see that you have been employed in a brief review of your employment history. In the case of a functional resume, you may include the past five years of your employment, and list it in a list manner. Include the employer, the dates employed, and your position title-with no extra details.
6. Education: The next section in a functional resume is that of your professional education, which should be addressed in the same way you would in a standard resume. Include education from most recent to least, and if you have higher education to offer-do not include high school details. In each statement about your education include the following details: name of school, dates attended, degree obtained, city/state of school, and any special related achievements such as a high GPA or the like. Also include any related coursework that you have taken with bullet points or in a paragraph form.
http://www.myperfectresume.com/ (free resume service)
There are two basic résumé types: chronological and functional The type you use depends on your work history, job objective, and skills.
Chronological Résumé
Do you have a long and steady work history? Do you want to stay in the same field? If so, a chronological résumé is a good choice. It says what you have done, where, when, and for whom. Here's how:
*List your recent work experience in reverse chronological order. Start with your most recent job and go back only 10-15 years. List job titles, name of employer, and dates of employment (in years only). Ideally, your history will show an increasing scope of work and accomplishments.
What should I include in my chronological resume?
A chronological resume contains the following components:
1. Personal details: Your name and contact information, including mailing address, telephone number, and e-mail address.
2. Objective: This is an optional section where you can briefly define your career objectives.
3. Work experience: Start with your most recent position. List all of your work experience, even if it wasn’t employment based. Use bullet points to describe your duties and responsibilities; provide the most information about your current position and less for each remaining one. Try to begin each bullet point with an action word (e.g., consulted, organized, or built).
4. Education: Begin with your highest degree and work backwards. Include all schools you have attended and list any diplomas, degrees (including majors and minors), and awards you’ve received.
5. References: It is best to simply state that references are available upon request, unless they have been specifically requested.
What is a Functional Resume?:
Before you begin creating a functional resume, you may want a better idea of just what a functional resume is, what purpose it offers, and what kind of candidate it serves best. Basically, the functional or skills based resume is one that highlights the skills and achievements of the candidate, instead of the actual chronological employment history of the applicant. The functional resume format is the best choice for someone who has a lot of skill sets and achievements to offer a company to which they are applying, and a somewhat disjunctive or inconsistent employment history.
There are a number of steps involved with creating a functional resume that showcases your best career strengths and value, and downplays the weaknesses in your application for a job. We offer these steps below:
1. Contact Information: Just like with any career resume, you must begin your functional resume with one of the most important parts: the contact information. This will offer the employer or hiring manager a reference if how to get a hold of you, if they are interested in your qualifications. Include your full name, your mailing address, your phone, and your email address-as you would in any standard resume.
2. Objective: Next, include an objective if you would like-which is a 1-2 sentence statement about what your career goals are and how you hope you achieve them.
3. Skill and Achievements: While, in many resumes, the skills and achievements section exists as well-in a functional resume, you must highlight this area of expertise by including it first and also, expanding upon it. There are two basic ways that people using functional resumes will address their skills:
a. As a box: Create a box that shows five impressive skills on one side and five impressive skills on the other in a formatted box that you have inserted for this purpose. This should be stellar skills and achievements that you want to grab the employer’s attention right off the bat, and should not be ordinary skills and achievements. One good way to approach this is by giving them exactly the skills that they requested in their job posting in this box, but expanded upon with a specific experience of achievement in your career life.
b. In sub categories: Another way to create a skills section that is successful is to list the skill sets you have in sub categories, and list bullet points below which showcase times when you proved these skills and achievements. So, the sub categories would be something like “Communications Skills”, initiated with an underline, and the bullet points underneath would show a time in which your great communication skills brought about positive results.
4. Summary: Another aspect of the resume that many people using a functional resume format include to make their resume more powerful is by including a section entitled summary which is like an objective, should come first, and gives a summary of the best achievements, experience, and skills listed in the resume below it. It should be no longer than a paragraph of 3-4 sentences, and is worth considering, as many employers appreciate it for its convenience.
5. Experience: Though the main purpose of using a functional resume format is to underscore your employment history, employers do want to see that you have been employed in a brief review of your employment history. In the case of a functional resume, you may include the past five years of your employment, and list it in a list manner. Include the employer, the dates employed, and your position title-with no extra details.
6. Education: The next section in a functional resume is that of your professional education, which should be addressed in the same way you would in a standard resume. Include education from most recent to least, and if you have higher education to offer-do not include high school details. In each statement about your education include the following details: name of school, dates attended, degree obtained, city/state of school, and any special related achievements such as a high GPA or the like. Also include any related coursework that you have taken with bullet points or in a paragraph form.