Resume Writing Tips
Make sure that your Resume is up to date with your latest job
experience and educational accomplishments. Have a friend or
relative evaluate your resume to see if it is clear, consistent,
and fairly represents your skills and experience. Is your resume
in a high impact format? Be sure to do a spell check on your
resume. Misspelled works can reflect negatively on you and
diminish your prospects. Many companies have a form on their web
sites for submitting electronic resumes. Have a version of your
resume that you can cut and paste into submittal forms. Create
one that doesn't have columns and indents as these do not work
well when pasted into a form. Let your family, friends, alumni
groups, and industry contacts know you are looking for a job.
Send them your resume. Many jobs are unadvertised and these
people may know of potential openings. Also many employers would
rather hire someone suggested to them by a person they trust.
Summit your resume electronically to companies rather than via
paper if possible. Check out their web sites to see if they have
a resume submittal form. Submit it through the form, if not send
them an electronic version in Word or as a text file. Many large
companies put electronic resumes into a database which then can
be searched by managers looking to hire additional people. Using
the database managers can do keyword searches to quickly find
candidates. Most managers do not want to take the time to wade
through hundreds of paper resumes looking for candidates. Most
paper resumes never even get looked at in some of these large
companies. A local large airplane manufacturer and a local large
software company rely heavily on their resume database for new
candidates. Post your resume to resume databases. Generally the
posting is free. This is a lot more cost effective then spending
hundreds of dollars in printing and postage costs blindly
sending out resumes to companies. Recruiters search these
databases looking for candidates to fill positions..
A potentially even more effective approach is to use a resume
distribution service. For a small price you can blast your
resume out to 1000's of recruiters. This can be more effective
than waiting for a recruiter to stumble across your resume in a
database. It also only costs a fraction of the amount it would
for printing and postage to do a mass mailing of your resume.
Most of these services give you some control over what
industries and geographic regions your resume is sent to. Many
jobs are unadvertised as employers don't want to be bombarded by
thousands of resumes. Therefore it is important for you to get
your resume in the hands of your contacts. Also get your resume
into the databases that potential employers can search.
Look in the job databases for potential openings. You can search
through thousands of potential jobs using field and location
selection criteria.. Many local employers post job openings in
this database because the state does not charge a fee for the
service.
If you are in college or have graduated from a local college
check out their career services department. Many have web sites
with links to recruiters, upcoming recruiter visits, job
postings, and much more.
Most major and even local newspapers have online editions with
help wanted sections. These can be superior to paper editions
because you can often do keyword searches allowing you to zero
in on potential jobs. This is much more efficient than reading
hundreds of job ads in paper editions. Landing that first job
can be hard. Many employers look for "experienced" candidates.
If you have had internships be sure to emphasize them in your
resume. If you have assisted a professor in research or teaching
emphasize that in your resume. Many of your smaller companies
feel they don't have the time or resources to train you. They
need someone that can be productive now! Generally your larger
companies have resources and internal training programs to get
inexperienced employees up to speed. Your may have a better
chance getting on with a larger company. Your first job may not
be your "dream" job. Look for one that can give you experience
and make you attractive to an employer a few years down the
road. Large companies are often a great place to start because
they tend to be the most willing to hire and train new
graduates. Unfortunately they are often not the best place to
have a career. Many large companies are stagnant or grow slowly.
Promotions and career growth is often slow and you have to wait
for someone ahead of you to retire. If you go to work for a
large company do it for a few years to get some practical
experience to add to your resume. If your career has not
advanced significantly after a few years look for new
opportunities. It is often easy to get stuck at a large company
because they offer stability, decent salary, and good benefits.
Once you have some experience look for a young fast growing
company to join. Often you can ride their success upwards to a
much higher position and salary compared to staying with an
older slow growth company. Look at what happened to the people
that joined Microsoft early on. If you have visions of having
your own business some day find out who is the best company in
your industry. Go to work for them and learn what they have done
to be successful. Also look for how you could do things better
than they do. Then after a few years take the plunge and start
your own company..