Help me make a resume

[Valkysas]

There's a big job fair tomorrow that I'm gonna head out to, but I want to have a basic resume on-hand. but I've never written one before (all my other jobs have been gained through applications, or talking with managers 1-on-1).

I tried using monster.com's resume thing, but you need a title for it. I have no idea what mine would be, "inexperienced dork seeks financial salvation"? I dunno. There's also the manner that ALL of my work in the past 5 years has been childcare, and that job field does not exist to monster.com. when citing previous employment, you HAVE to select a field for that job, and childcare is not on the list.

My skills aren't that varied. I've done stocking work, random internet things for agetec (website, forums, game promotion), and childcare stuff. thats it.

So a little help would be appreciated. I need to know how to put this thing together, and not have it look like ass.

OR, if any of you have been to a job fair before, is a resume even neccesary? or could I just go in and talk to people and get applications and turn them in on the spot?

[Kefka Jr.]

Re: Help me make a resume

Man, Monster.com sucks.

Can't you just look at samples resume online and write one in Word? Just listing your previous working experiences, skills, education, etc., whatever? I dunno, I only ever had one job.

Actually, there's a job fair here this week...

[IRC]

Re: Help me make a resume

You should always have a bunch of resumes when going to a job fair. Doesn't word have a resume wizard? If not just do what KJ said and google resumes and create your own. There's no set rule on format.

As for a title just do some kind of administer for the pav. Systems admin, web admin, web designer. Whatever the applicable term is.

[Shard]

Re: Help me make a resume

Resumes vary a lot depending on what type of job you're after. A given employer may put more or less weight on a resume, but you'll need to have some with you "in case". Remember that resumes are "foot-in-the-door" documents so it's not like writing a term paper, 1 or 2 pages max (UNLESS, you have supporting documentation which a particular employer will find relevant). Pay attention to its visual presentation. When someone looks at your resume they're going to be wading through a pile so everything should be clear and easy to read. Your experience should be obvious and succinctly put. Don't make them guess at what you may or may not have done.

Since you're going to a fair and not applying for one job in particular, you should probably write two or three different versions (not drafts, finalized resumes) each of which should focus on different aspects of your job skills. In other words...if you're applying at a tech company, write one focusing on your web skills...if it's a hospital, your childcare services...and so on. If at some point you're applying to a place that is a career goal, it wouldn't hurt tailoring one of your pre-fab resumes for that.

Show your resume to someone who'll give you an honest, and helpful critique. If there's anything left unclear, either explain it or excise it.

[Patryn]

Re: Help me make a resume

Resumes are VERY helpful at a job fair. They may not be necessary, but people will notice if you have a resume. It's also helpful to have several copies.

I wouldn't use Monster's resume maker. I've simply crafted mine with a little help from others and let it evolve from a basic one (although at this point it's 2 pages and more closely resembles a CV instead of a resume).

Some basic things you should keep in mind:

You don't need a title. A title on Monster is to help for companies to search for you online, so don't worry about it. Your name should go on top, in a big font, then your personal information (address, phone number, e-mail, anything else you think is relevant).

After that, if you want, you can throw in an objective line. An objective line should be either a one or two line description of what you're looking for and what you can offer. It should be something like "To blah and blah and learn blah. Hard-worker offers blah and blah and blah." Objective lines are generally specifically crafted to fit each individual job you apply to.

Honestly, I think they're all crap. That's why I got rid of mine.

Next, you have a decision. What do you want to empasize? In my case, I empasize my education, so I put that first. In other cases your work experience may be more valuable so that would go first. Either way, title the section and then list the info.

For education, list the school you went to, the degree you received, when you received it, and then a little about what you learned (this may not apply if the highest you went is high school). For example:

(Dates attended)(--------->)Institution
(------------------------->)Major field of study/Degree
(------------------------->)Short description of what you studied

If your education isn't much throw in work experience first.

(Dates worked)(--------------->)Employer
(------------------------------>)Job title
(------------------------------>)Short description of what you did

Start with your most recent job and work backwards.

After the major empasis put the minor which would be job experience or education. If you put education here you may want to skip explaining what you learned.

After job experience and education it becomes a lot greyer. If you have a lot of volunteer work you can put a section for it, just like the employment section. You can also put in an achievement section if you have received any official recognition.

You can also put in a skills section where you list off any specialized skills you have, such as computer program proficiences, language skills, typing speed, etc. I have that section in paragraph form, but it's also possible to simply use a bulleted list. (For the record, you can rearrange the skills, achievements, and volunteer sections any way you want, I just like the look of volunteer then achievements then finish with skills)

Once you've got that down, do some formatting. Remember that you want it to catch a person's eye. Don't be afraid to bold headings and use italics to break up sections and use different fonts. Don't go too crazy, but don't simply make the whole thing be uniform in size and font style.

Try to keep it to a single page. If you absolutely must go to second page, make sure that all your most important stuff is on the first page, make a footer listing your name and the page number on the bottom, and make sure you fully fill that second page. Creative spacing may help with that. But keep in mind that odds are that people will only glance at the first page for a few seconds so if they don't like the looks of that they'll never look at the second page.

I hope this will help. I'm not a super expert, but that's what I do.

[Valkysas]

Re: Help me make a resume

thanks!