Re: Having a killer resume
It's not that people are stupid - it's just that
they don't know and have not researched how to assemble an effective resume.
Also, the standards for resumes have changed drastically in the last few decades. My mother used to help people with their resumes in the Sixties and Seventies, and she was recently surprised to hear what was currently expected.
1. Include a profile that describes you as a person and as a writer, and
gets across the point that you eat, live, sleep and breath documentation.
Read books about resumes for some ideas.
I'm not sure about this advice. I used to think that you should only include relevant information.
However, during my latest revision of my resume, I remembered that I got one job because, during the interview, I mentioned that I have parrots for pets; the interviewer had a cockatiel, and the shared subject created a rapport between us. By serendipity, a headhunter recently told me that many hirers look for job candidates who have done volunteer work, on the grounds that this background shows that they are not just thinking about themselves, and might be good team players.
For these reasons, I've decided to briefly list some interests and volunteer work on my current resume. It should be interesting to see what the results are.
2. You may also wish to include a career objective, something to the effect
of "To create great documentation". Note that "To continue a career as a
tech writer" is not a very effective objective - of course that's what
you're trying to do, but what is it you WANT to do that will benefit the
company hiring you?
If I could add to this suggestion: try to be specific about how you will help the company. For example, make sure that your objective explains how creating great documentation will help the company. After all, many hiring managers won't know.
4. Keep your resume to exactly 2 full pages, and not more. People just do
not have the time to read more than this. Think of it as "triage" on your
resume.
On the one hand, in the past, I've found that many people don't object to a longer resume, so long as the extra length is due to formatting. For example,if your three page resume is that long because you've done everything in bullet points that can be easily scanned, you can usually get away with a resume longer than two pages.
On the other hand, you'll probably run into people who will refuse to look at more than two pages. Also, I wonder whether you want people to scan your resume easily; perhaps you'll be better off if your resume has to be read more slowly.
Also, the attempt to reduce everything to two pages does force you to be organized and concise.
5. Use a basic font, like Times Roman. Remember - just because you like
Jupiter Extra Bold doesn't mean most people do.
No, but a well-chosen text font can make you stand out. But, if you use anything unusual,you better send your resume in PDF format.
Include lots of white space.
Bullet your points.
Unfortunately, unless your experience is rather short, this suggestion may contradict the effort to keep to two pages.
Just some random thoughts and additions - in general, the points Andrew makes are well worth taking seriously.
--
Bruce Byfield bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com 604.421.7177
http://members.axion.net/~bbyfield
"Looking back at the long years
All that happened this way and that
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Having a killer resume: From: Andrew T. Brooke
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