RE: Updating Resume?

["Jones, Donna" <DJones -at- zebra -dot- com>]

-----John Posada wrote:-----

I say let the content of the resume reflect your expertise...not have
your expertise conform to what can fit on an arbitrary
measurement...the space of two pages.

If you need four pages to properly describe what your strengths are,
so be it...and maybe sometime in the future, you'll have done enoughy
to fill six pages...like me.
----------------------------


Six pages? Wow! That's a lot for a recruiter/manager to have to weed through
to decide whether or not to call someone. John, I'll bet I could edit your
resume down to a couple of pages without losing anything crucial. Yes, you'd
lose some of the finer details, but that's that stuff you can talk about in
a cover letter or during an interview. 

I worked at a print shop ages ago, and part of my job was helping clients
develop or update resumes. I got pretty good at knowing what to include and
what not to. One rule of thumb is, if it isn't directly related to the job
you're trying to get, don't include it. For example, the number of words per
minute that you can type matters if you're applying for a job as a typist.
It's assumed that a tech writer knows how to type, so don't clutter your
resume with it. A second rule of thumb is that, if you have a lot of varied
skills, you should develop more than one resume based on different skill
sets. That will keep each version shorter.

Instead of repeating a lot of the basic stuff under each of my jobs, I
created a heading called "Communication Skills." There, I summarize all of
my relevant skills, including things like FrameMaker. I also summarize my
work history, including just a brief description of each job. Things that
seemed important long ago (like the drawing program Canvas) are no longer
important enough to warrant a mention on my resume. That's lumped under a
bulleted item that says "Experienced with various drawing packages,
including Adobe Illustrator and CorelDraw." If someone asked, I would tell
them about Canvas, but so far, no one has. Oh, and that job at the print
shop fell off my resume several years ago because it just doesn't matter as
far as technical writing jobs go. No one has ever questioned why I don't
have anything listed prior to 1990.

I manage to keep my resume to one page (bordering on needing to go to two),
yet I rarely fail to get calls when I post it or send it out. If anyone is
interested in talking more about resumes, please contact me offline at my
home e-mail address (DLJones3423-at-comcast.net).

Have a great evening--is it Friday yet?

Donna


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