Hi Ozbargainers,
I'm in the middle of trying to write a resume but I honestly don't know how to write one! So If you have have any tips on writing a resume I'd love to hear them (I'm sure there are a lot of Ozbargainers who'd love to know too), if anyone knows of a good site to use for resume outlines/layouts please share them :)
Thanks everyone and have a nice day :)
Thanks for that, but the podcasts don't seem to be playing?
Are 1-page resumes the norm in AU? The podcast is US-based.
It has worked for my last three jobs, and got me to other interviews. Do it right and you stand out from the crowd. Padding with extra words or irrelevant background just hides the good relevant stuff.
I don't have a lot of job history which I think is the problem, and I've got truckloads of awards from school, which I don't even list on my resume, so I don't know why I tried so hard in school.
@pyro love bird: A short job history is not an issue fixable with a resume, and it will make the one pager all the easier.
There are some other podcasts that cover resumes for the school/uni graduate, but I don't have easy links to them. Try searching the podcasts.
It depends on what kind of job you are applying for.
Currently odd casual jobs, mostly retail as that's the only area I have experience in
Try a different browser, or try right-click, save as, on the download mp3 icon. They also have an iTunes app that you could use.
I'll give that a shot, thanks.
My advice is to worry about the stuff that actually counts. I'm not a manager or anything, so haven't read too many resumes, but my personal experience is that the most important thing if you're switching jobs is previous experience, the most important thing if you're looking for a graduate position is your uni marks, make sure they're loud and clear, list unique things that will be relevant to the job you're applying for and don't write the same generic random stuff.
Actually research the job you're applying for, talk to people who have performed similar jobs, look at the skills you have and select skills which would actually make you an attractive prospective employee for that job. Sure, talking about personal stuff is good, but I doubt an employer actually cares about what your personal interests are or whether you play sport or a musical instrument. Good things to have, but they won't earn you a job.
I've seen resumes where people just blabber on about how they're good at X and Y and Z whilst none of those things are actually applicable to the job they're applying for. Make sure your resume shows off that you are competent and have the skills required for the job, everything else about your personality is for the interview.
Thanks paulsterio, I'm just applying to odd casual jobs (I tend to work part time hours for casual pay, works out better for me that way). I have lots of sales experience and have a bit of a knack for it, which is why I've been meaning to apply to a few, but they're needing resumes, which is where I'm struggling a bit.
You should have no trouble selling yourself then.
In your resume cough
have lots of sales experience
As in check out chick or actually selling stuff by liasing with customers e.g. the floor guys at Harvey Norman?
Check out chick isn't really sales I think
As in, practically running a business, and yes, I actually sell stuff not just at the checkout. Small business, but I actually speak to customers etc
This website has good sample cover letters and resumes for little or no experience. My niece used these templates (when she left school) and got interviews for both jobs she applied for . She then chose the job she wanted. http://infoglue.youthcentral.vic.gov.au/infoglueDeliverWorki…
Her friends (3 that I know of) have all got the first jobs they applied for from these too.
Thanks maximum, I appreciate your help :) I'll give that a go, I've found that lots of sites require you to pay when you go to download a copy of your resume, editing it and viewing it is free, actually accessing it isn't :(
I'm an old guy that has written loads of CV's used loads of other people's CV's in large bids to win contracts and has hired loads of people from CVs. My recommendation is to look closely at the selection criteria for the position and then rather than list a historical account of your qualifications/job history, try to relate experiences and achievements to the criteria. It matters less that you dont have 10 years of experience, if you can show in a paragraph or so an achievement or a qualification and relate that to the criteria this will work wonders.
Sometimes a shorter CV can be an advantage. I once gave a junior in the office a load of over 200 CVs for one position. No way I was reading them all so I gave him my 5 key criteria and told him to find me the best 20. I read those 20 and, along with the HR folks narrowed it down from there. Unless those candidates had something that caught my guy's eye i didnt even read their CV. If your CV was concise and said something very relevant upfront I reckon you had a better chance than some long rambling personal history.
End of the day this is all about convincing them you are worth the effort to have an interview. Once you get to the interview the CV has done it's job, it is now up to you to impress personally.
Thanks so much! I wasn't sure if it was too much, but is it okay to have dot point type summaries of the responsibilities I had during that role, for eg, I've got 10 years retail experience (can use POS systems and EFTPOS) + promotional sales and worked at an event with high traffic and I was doing the cashiering there as well as promoting products etc. The role I'm currently looking at is a casual sales position, currently for an upcoming event. Or would that be too much? I thought it was a bit vague if I just listed where I worked and how long for.
Also, any advice on cover pages? Or even interviews for that matter?
Thanks so much 2ndeffort, I really appreciate it! :)
I've got 10 years retail experience (can use POS systems and EFTPOS) + promotional sales and worked at an event with high traffic and I was doing the cashiering there as well as promoting products etc.
That's 90% of your cover letter right there. Make it a bit more formal, chuck in a sentence somewhere about how this would make you suitable for the role, point them towards your resume and say that you'd welcome the opportunity to talk further in person. Cover letter done. It's really that simple.
Something like this would work for me:
Greetings
Why you're writing to them (mention the role you're applying for).
That stuff I quoted above (pick out some skills you learned from it that are applicable to the role you're applying for). Me fits role good.
Resume's attached, let's talk sometime.
Regards
pyro love bird
Obviously it should be more professional than that, but there's your format right there.
Ah, thanks for that porkandbeans :) doesn't actually have to be a whole page then? Something like a paragraph?
@pyro love bird: Well personally I believe a paragraph is enough if you can make a convincing argument why they should consider you. A cover letter won't get you a job, it will get you an interview, so you really only have to pique their interest with it, not win them over entirely. I wouldn't want to read a page long cover letter if I was sifting through applications. But that's just me.
Hi Pyro, apologies for taking so long to get back to you. Dot points are OK but I would caution against a list of generic qualifications/experiences. When I've been looking for somebody to hire there is normally specific skills/experiences in the back of my mind. If I read something that matches up with that scenario/skillset it normally catches my eye. If you have to read through 200 CVs with the same generic list of things (MS word skills, creative thinker, reliable, team player etc etc) it gets boring after a while. If I read something that matches the scenario in my mind it generally takes hold.
I have done this with my CV where I try to relate a quick paragraph to the criteria. I was approached by a headhunter a week ago and asked to give my CV for an interesting job. One of the criteria was evidence of being able to build a sales pipeline. I could have listed some academic quals, some training courses etc or listed 3 or 4 senior sales positions I've had in the past. Instead I wrote a brief paragraph about my involvement in getting some large sales opportunities into the pipeline for a multinational I used to work for. There was some impressive numbers in there, some evidence of my efforts to uncover good opportunities and a good outcome at the end (obviously!). All of it totally true and verifiable if they want to check up. I think the scenario will resonate more with the folks reading it than listing some qualifications would.
The sort of thing (adding some creative licence here) .."I was the senior retail assistant representing company X at the Chadstone Mercedes Fashion Week Spring extravaganza. During the 3 day festival our team served approximately 300 customers etc etc etc. I was responsible for customer service, POS/Eftpos……. At the end of the period our team was awarded….. (or something about a great outcome).
You could write 2 or 3 paragraphs with a couple of experiences that showed the breadth of your skills and covered off on the criteria they've listed for the job. I've never worked in retail so not sure what they look for.
In terms of the Covering Letter my advice is to have 3 paragraphs:
Para 1 a greeting thanking them for giving you the opportunity to apply. If you can drop a name here about how you were referred etc, do it here.
Para 2 a para relating your skills and experiences to the position, ie I think I am extremely well suited to the position advertised. I have excellent customer management skills, blah blah blah a CV is attached for your consideration
Para 3 Thank you for considering my application, my contact details are contained below. If there is any process or addition detail around their selection mention it here ie, I am looking forward to my interview on the 9th etc or please find enclosed your employee information proforma/medical form etc
Signature Block including contact details for them to arrange your interview time!
Buy champagne and start thinking of how to spend the extra $$ from your new job!!!
Less is best in regards to resumes, it's always cover letters I get stuck on
Make sure you put down your ozbargain credentials in there…
Especially if you are applying to work for Europcars :P Jokes aside, put it down if you want to land a sales, marketing or customer service job. Might just work wonders.
Some advice I can offer is that you should really think of a resume and cover letter as a way of getting yourself an interview. Nothing more, nothing less. What that means is keep it appropriately brief and on-point. Don't worry about trying to cram every little bit of information about yourself on there, chances are you'll get to discuss it in the interview anyway. One page is fine, the chances are the person reading it won't even bother to flip it over anyway. But if it does get to the point where they wish you had written more, then they'll probably call you in for a chat anyway. I wouldn't bother putting any of that flowery interests nonsense down unless it's actually relevant to the job you're applying for. It's a popular thing to include and it's nice that you like canoeing, but how does that help you sell bananas? Well, I suppose you could paint your canoe like a banana and paddle down the Murray on it stopping at every town, but I digress. Better to put the effort into layout and flow.
Something I can't stress enough is to be truthful. Never underestimate an interviewer's ability to sniff out bullshit. There's a reason they're interviewing you. If you make a claim on the resume, make sure you can back it up (either through referees or your own knowledge). It only takes one little white lie and you're out of the running.
Don't try and get too fancy with the design of the thing. If you can't do it in Word then you probably shouldn't be doing it. Word is pretty powerful these days, but stick to words, lines and shading. No one likes long paragraphs, keep it to dot points. All this stuff is pretty intuitive, but make sure it flows naturally and is easy to read.
Easiest thing to do is post what you've got up here (minus anything that would identify you) and we can critique it.
Hi Pyro
Do a little bit of reverse psychology into the job that you're applying for from the hiring manager's perspective.
There are 3 things that are very important for a hiring manager to consider:
a) Functional Technical skills / Can they do they job?
b) How will they fit into the rest of my business & existing team dynamics?
c) Do they want the job for the right reasons?
If you're looking to address the initial screening process, it's important that your resume addresses the selection criteria, but it must be pervasive so it's not blaringly obvious that you've tailored it so much.
Remember to include soft skills as well as achievements. If in your retail job, you were able to achieve your sales targets 6 months in a row - list it! If you were able to train your staff to become managers - list it! Just think about the extra value that you're presenting to this client and why they should bring you in.
I'd suggest against the idea of a one-pager. To me it's indicating that you think that the resume vetting process, is a waste of their time, and that you're presuming that you're going to interview for the position.
The devil is in the detail, so if you make stuff up in the resume and can't have a back story, it'll absolutely show elsewhere in the process.
Good Luck!
I once was on the dole at Centrelink and passed onto one of those employment agents under the dole scheme. They grabbed my resume and turned it from 2 pages into 5. having said this, they couldn't help me get a job as I was a uni grad with a civil eng degree (very different to those others on the dole).
Over the years, I have kept to that format and it seems to have worked, but maybe it's just in my field of work.
My current resume is around 6 pages; even being concise (due to the many projects that I have worked on).
Most recruiters like my resume, but I have found that for overseas applications, 2 pages is max. This comes from someone who has worked in 3 states and overseas…
Pyro - I am sure you are a great Asian chick really sticking it out by helping your parents with the Asian grocery store, just hang in there - some employer will snap you up. And for "f's" sake, get some more sleep! :)
My 2 cents.
I forgot to mention that in my working life, I have receieved/reviewed/interviewed/employed a fair few people. So, based on some of the stuff you have said, the format I would use are as follows:
Name
Address/Email/Phone
Age
Marital Status
Picture (optional)
2 line intro about yourself
Key skills/attributes (bullet points of no more than 10)
Education (I would swap this around with "work history" when you have a few more years in the workforce on your belt)
Work history
Hobbies/Interests
Referees
Of course, there is no "right" or "wrong" to resume writing, but make sure you stick to some basic rules and you should be ok.
If you do get an interview (whether phone or physical meet) and don't get the role, always ASK for FEEDBACK!!! Especially for comments to your resume. This gives you a feel on what to improve for next time.
As usual, my 2 cents.
You are not required to put your age into a resume. However, do you believe it significantly influences the employer's recruitment decision?
Age
Marital Status
Picture (optional)
Those three are not be necessary, especially material status. Age and picture would depend on job, like if youre applying to be a model.
a picture would be good, especially if you are hot…
You don't need to include personal details such as dob, age or even address. If you use a recruiter, they usually remove contact details from your resume before forwarding it to the employer.
Thanks so much SLB! I appreciate your 4 cents :)
Unless you're very experienced in the field, one page resumes work wonders. I've cut mine down from 3 pages to 1 and have been applying for internships for next year and have had a great success rate of them calling me back for interviews. Just make sure you tailor it to the job, have a cover letter that addresses all if not most the key success criteria for the job and just very briefly explain how you've demonstrated those skills in your previous experiences. It needs to be just enough for them to be interested in you and get you in for an interview. Only include the things relevant to the job, they don't want to hear your whole life story.
Coming from someone who has reviewed a truckload of resumes and undertaken a heap of interviews it firstly really depends on the profession you're applying for. The below views are just my personal take based on recruitment for roles I have done (business/finance related) so it may or not be completely relevent.
I have looked through CVs/cover letters of graduates and professionals and I recall during one process (not HR or recruitment firm filtered) where we received 120 CVs for a junior/graduate analyst finance role. I threw out about 100 of the CVs within about 5-10 seconds of reading them. Why? that's an easy question. You'd think after completing a uni degree (with many of them having Masters' degrees), you would be able to write an introductory paragraph about yourself or a cover letter with no mistakes whatsoever in the first paragraph. I mean it's supposed to be the main doc marketing yourself. These were all things that led to the quick dumping (yes, there were 100 CVs):
- not changing the company name (obviously applying for other companies) got canned immediately.
- spelling and grammar errors (usually in the first 2 sentences there were mistakes).
- being way too verbose and not making sense in the introductory paragraph. I realised that also most people do not know how to write a paragraph.
Of the 20 remaining, 10 got culled pretty quickly after not really giving me a feel of why the hell they wanted the role and how they would fit (e.g. just like scattergun approach).
So there were 10 left and surprisingly (and unfortunately I have a knack for detail), they all had spelling, grammar or formatting inconsistencies in their CV. I had to interview so I picked the top 7 and interviewed them… I could go into interviewing techniques and write what to do and particularly what NOT to do but that will be a whole long new post. Funniest one was when we were interviewing someone and it wasn't going well so we tried to shift it to team fit and what they did outside work, the response was: "I like to go home and read-up on finance books particularly on CFDs and quant mathematics".
Anyway, I will summarise what you should do (2 cents) in my view:
- remember it is a marketing tool for yourself
- get at LEAST 5-10 people to have a read of the whole thing
- be succinct in your introduction, who you are, your skills, goals, etc. Sell yourself, but don't be over the top. A tip is to try and relate it back to the role AND the company. It shows you understand the job and the company and have put that effort in. I have interviewed people who have known nothing at the role and just want to work for the company which I had worked for which was quite reputable. I asked them why they wanted the role and what they could bring to it and it was all about the company - the interview didn't last very long.
- don't have a long CV particularly (just keep it max 2 pages and ideally just 1)
- check your spelling, grammar and formatting (trust me people like me can see if it's double spaced, not consistently aligned etc.) - call me @nal but as I mentioned the CV is to sell yourself and one of the most important docs you will ever write so put effort in.
- KISS - keep it simple stupid principle.
- highlight your achievements, what you learned etc. at your roles - they can be simple.
- show some personality in extracurricular activities - unless you will be working alone.
Anyway that's just a snapshot. Funnily enough, I didn't even care about uni grades when I looked at the CVs. There is a general correlation but you would be surprised how many distinction and even high distinction students I chucked out in the first 100 - I did feel bad but if you cannot write properly then the job is not going to be a training ground for you to learn how to write and you shouldn't be rewarded for being sloppy.
Shi'a guy,
This isn't relevant, but r u asian, son?
Lol - where'd that come from?
I think there's already lots of excellent advice here, so I wont repeat too much of what others have said.
2ndeffort in particular gave excellent advice, with something I often tell to people I'm helping with CVs as well: "Once you get to the interview the CV has done it's job, it is now up to you to impress personally." Just one caveat here, make sure everything on your CV is something you can talk about sensibly. The points on your CV will often be talking points in an interview, so don't embellish skills you don't have.
The only other thing I'd suggest is to look out for job seeking sessions and education seminars which may offer free resume checking. I've been asked to volunteer my time at one here at the end of month in Melbourne, which doesn't help you much except to say I am sure there are similar ones in your city. Just apply your own critical thinking to any advice you get from the CV checkers there.
Ensure the English is good. Proper spelling and grammar otherwise you look incompetent. Proof read it. Have someone else who's willing to be critical of you proof read it. Make it down to earth and make sure your resume matches the criteria you're applying for.
The best thing I ever did was what they told me here:
1 Page Resume:
http://www.manager-tools.com/2005/10/your-resume-stinks
http://www.manager-tools.com/2011/12/resume-accomplishments-…
http://www.manager-tools.com/2012/01/resume-accomplishments-…