Resume: Your Foot in the Door

The resume is still a valuable part of your job seeking, promotion or job changing arsenal, as much as this archaic entity sucks. This is your showcase; I?m better than everyone else so hire me, advertisement.

Types of Resume

Resumes come in flavors more to confuse then to provide valuable substance, here they are for you to fumble through.

Chronological

Avoid this look

This is a laundry list of where you?ve worked before and what you did or was supposed to do that you didn?t and that?s why you are looking for a job. This is the most popular and easiest resume to lie your way, I mean present your history.

Functional

Skills, hmmm ? for most reading this I would guess this is a stretch. In case you?re a rare breed, then here highlight your skill set and how it would benefit the company you are applying for.

Combination

As you might guess, this style mixes your work history with your skills and concentrates on one to compensate for the other. If you?re strong on work history start chronological and sprinkle in functional or visa-versa.

Header Information

Here put your name, address and contact information such as phone number (yes, cell number), email account (something appropriate) but please leave your social network locations off unless specifically requested.

Objective

This is a short description of what you want to be when you grow up. Not childhood fantasies or the name of the girl you want to go around the world on. Just a description of the job relative to the place you?re sending the resume to.

Education

Whether you have any or not it will become apparent when you list what you?ve done. If you?ve an impressive portfolio of nerdy high school or college accomplishments, parade them. If you?re the average Joe with a 1.9 GPA it is best to move on as quickly as possible.

Job History

List your employers, period of time you spent with them and the location. Then you can use either a bullet list or paragraph to speak to what you did for this employer. Keep it concise and pertinent. No one cares that you are prompt or that you routinely hit the head at 8:30 each morning. The prospective employer is more concerned with your tasks, projects and level of responsibility.

References

This is the trickiest part of the resume. Although you will list here ?Furnished upon request? you will be called on it eventually. Make sure you have three non-family members as references (sorry, mom is off this list). Choose wisely, your prospective employer will call them as ask about you. So avoid people who you owe money too, whose wife or girlfriend you banged, parole officer or the bouncer at the local club.

That?s it, your resume. Get to the point. Don?t worry if your resume is a page of three-quarters of a page long. It is presentation; the important piece is being able to speak to it during an interview.