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#513305 07/22/10 02:22 PM
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I'm putting together my first resume in about a decade and I thought I'd throw it out there to you folks...

A lot of you, seemingly, make the decision to hire someone or move on to the next applicant with your respective companies or businesses. My question to you is what are you looking for? What's important to you? What's a "killshot", lol, in regards to a resume?

I know you can buy books and different things for help on the subject - just wanted to get some thoughts from actual people. I also know that putting one together at age 30 is a lot different from putting one together at 22 which was the last time I did it - so any help is appreciated.

Thank You.


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I'm no expert by any stretch, but I've written and seen quite a few resumes in my short career.

1. You need customized resumes. Don't just write one and keep using that. You need to reword your bullet-points to each job description. This is because you need the correct...

2. Keywords. Most, if not all, companies use software to read and filter resumes. These are set up to scan for specific keywords in your resume. Read the job description and figure out the keywords, then make sure they make it into your submitted resume.


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What kind of companies will you be applying to? An architecture firm is going to look for different things in a resume than an engineer.. trust me, I'm an engineer.

Are you going to be applying to mega corps that have huge HR departments and use OCR to scan resumes or will you be primarily applying to smaller firms where a person, like me, is going to read it?

Even without those answers I can tell what I look for..

1. You are 30, nobody cares that you were captain of the high school football team any more.. that stuff needs to go.

2. Focus as much attention on you can on your past experience and use action verbs.. you "managed", you "networked", you "processed".. etc.

3. This is a big one for me.. spelling, grammar, and formatting.. I can usually tell in 20 seconds if I'm going to have any interest or not. If I just gaze at the page does it look balanced, are the margins right, if you have bullets are they lined up.. but then I'm an engineer.. that kind of order and attention to detail is what we do.. it's important. Architects tend to look for more artistic attributes.

4. Write a killer coverletter and show them that you have read up on their company and you know what they are about and you already know how you can help them.. you have to come across as informed and confidant but not cocky...

Good luck.


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Quote:

I'm no expert by any stretch, but I've written and seen quite a few resumes in my short career.

1. You need customized resumes. Don't just write one and keep using that. You need to reword your bullet-points to each job description. This is because you need the correct...

2. Keywords. Most, if not all, companies use software to read and filter resumes. These are set up to scan for specific keywords in your resume. Read the job description and figure out the keywords, then make sure they make it into your submitted resume.




The only thing I would add is this: for 99% of the people, there is no "killshot". Especially today, there are many people looking for the same job you are looking for - with probably the same qualifications.

Follow up, follow up, follow up. Be a pest without being a pest, if that makes sense.

The interview is where you shine. Small things matter.

For example - my son just had an interview tuesday. He has not heard if he got the job, but the HR person at the hospital told him "wow, it's been a long time since I've seen someone come in here with a tie on. " (interviewing for a nursing position).

He finished the interview by saying "what shift are you most interested in?" My son said "any, but if I had a choice, I'd say nights). Bam - because that is the opposite of what most people would say, and, lo and behold, that is where most nurses start off anyway.

Also, he was asked "do you have any vacations planned in the near future?" His reply? "none that I NEED to go on. Next week I CAN go with my family to northern michigan, but I don't need to go".

"Ah, okay. Well, we'll schedule you for a drug test after next week so you can go on vacation, and we're looking at Aug. 9th as a starting date. Would that work for you?"

Again, no job offer, yet. But he surely didn't get that far by having a knockout resume.

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trust me, I'm an engineer.




Amazingly, (or not) I had you pegged as an engineer or an accountant, without ever knowing for sure what you were.

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Arch is right and I should have pointed this out.. as a person who reads a lot of resumes, I'm not looking for a reason to hire you when I read your resume, I'm looking for a reason to throw it away. If you give me a reason to throw it away.. like you don't have experience in what we do or you don't know a darn thing about my company or you have 10 typos which proves you don't have a good attention to detail.. then I can toss your resume out and move on to the next one.

Do not go for the kill shot in the resume, the resume is just to get you to the interview.. that's all.

It's like golf, they say you can't win the Masters on Thursday but you can lose it.. same goes for job hunting. You can't get the job with your resume alone, but you can lose it.


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Big colorful lettters with sparkling Glitter!!!!!


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Quote:

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trust me, I'm an engineer.




Amazingly, (or not) I had you pegged as an engineer or an accountant, without ever knowing for sure what you were.




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Big colorful lettters with sparkling Glitter!!!!!


and plenty of Comic Sans


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Well, I am an expert at this.. I read about a 1000 resumes a month,, and I know what I like and don't like.. And I'm pretty aware of how clients view resumes also.

Keep it simple, keep it honest...

Here is a format I like.


Name
Address
Phone
Alternate phone (like Cell)
Email address

Education

Objective

Chronological review of your experience

Dates of Employment: 6/20/95 to 7/3/2004 etc.

(don't try to hide anything, even an average interviewer will catch it anyway)

Title:

Job Duities or Responsibilities: (I prefer responsibilities, but either will do)

(repeat as needed)

References: Available upon request.


DO NOT put your references on your resume.. I guarantee you that every employment agency you send it to will use the professional references as a potential sales call.. That could end up bugging your references. I doubt you want to do that. Be prepared to offer a seperate sheet of paper with your references on there when they request it.

Last but not least, Try to keep your resume to no more than 2 pages.

Because many recruiters today are not really versed on some of the more technical things, you may want to make sure you add buzz words,, for instance

If you are a programmer, list the languages you have experience programming in and the ones you have been trained on but not used professionally.

The reason for that is many recruiters use systems that work like Hotjobs, Careerbuilder and Monster. You put a few buzz words or phrases in a search engine and resumes that have those buzz words on them pop up. Those are the only ones they end up reading.

Not all recruiters are that way, some are quite talented, others,,,not so much.

If you would like, PM me and I'll give you my email address to send your resume to me.. I will be glad to offer suggestions.

Good luck


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i should note, this is just my opinion and there are plenty of ways other people look at things.

i've interviewed many engineers and business development candidates. the first, and most important, point is this resume is only a screening tool. no one gets hired from a resume. it means i don't want to see 5 pages unless it's absolutely warranted, which it probably isn't. i'd want to see

- contact info
- education info
- job experience w/ brief desciptions (if you can quantify any accomplishments, that's the best you can do, such as 50% increase in efficiency, raised profit by 20%, etc)
- any skills that you think would be valuable to the employer
- you can throw in some interests in hopes of striking some common ground with the reviewer (or especially if your hobbies generally relate to the industry they're in)
- a notice that you can generate references.

the next big piece of advice i can give you is to know what you're applying for and reflect that in your resume. if someone applying for an engineering position and wanted to mention his retail sales experience at best buy, for instance, he might stress the need for him to adapt and learn new technologies quickly and be able to communicate the pros/cons of that technology to people with limited technical understanding. if he were applying for a sales position, though, he might say that still, in an interview, but highlight that he was consistently one of the top sales performers at his branch.

one random note: i hate objectives. i think it's an outdated thing to include on a resume that most people agree typically does more harm than good. not because of what they are but because of how people use them. they oftentimes sound too broad, as if to cover everything but not be tailored at all to the person reviewing it. example:

"I hope to join an organization who will nurture my strong inter-personal skills while exercising my proven technical abilities."

it just doesn't say anything and it wastes people's time to read it (even if only a few seconds).

finally, i think just as important is a great cover letter. that's where you will tailor your experience to the job description by a company. give an example of a problem related to the company's business and how you solved it. depending on the job, emphasize prioritization ability and ability to multi-task. etc.

as an additional throw in, just because of my and my colleagues' recent experiences, when you're at the interview,

- always have copies of your resume. sometimes we have it, but it's still a test to see if you're prepared.

- obviously show up early

- do some research in the company before interviewing. know what the company does, know what you'd do, know how the company is doing. obviously, it's ok if you don't understand everything but it's unacceptable to not do that research at all. if it's performing poorly, come with some ideas as to how you can help improve things within the responsibilites of the position you're interviewing for.

- biggest thing, for me, is if a candidate (after taking my card) will follow up with me. i've been very surprised to see how few candidates will email me, despite having my contact info, to thank me for my time and briefly review/reinforce some of the things we talked about. i found out years after joining my company that, in my interview process for this position, one of the things that helped put me over the top was my individualized emails to the three different VPs that i interviewed with, each thanking them for their time and reinforcing specific topics we discussed and why i felt i was good for the job. they knew they weren't getting copy/paste generic emails.

best of luck to you

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Quote:

I hope to join an organization who will nurture my



I'm not hiring any man that expects me to nurture anything...


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Quote:

Quote:

I hope to join an organization who will nurture my



I'm not hiring any man that expects me to nurture anything...




What a about a woman though?


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I hope to join an organization who will nurture my



I'm not hiring any man that expects me to nurture anything...




some boss you are

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HR people look for buzzwords, and it's doubtful they know anything about your positions, unless you're applying for a HR position.

I have a section of my resume under my name that contains nothing but buzz words. They're as simple as "LAN, WAN, Ethernet, etc." This way, I don't bore some poor HR parasite that has no clue what I mean by "Configure access lists, object groups, TACACS+ and RADIUS".

I keep the body of the resume simple and not overly descriptive. I give them enough information so they know that I know what I'm talking about, and they want to call me for the details. I've almost always gotten an in person interview once an employer talks to me on the phone. If you're in a technical position and try to bamboozle them with BS, your resume will get round filed.

Keep your experience limited. If it's over 10 years old, get rid of it. You can explain how you got your start in the interview if asked. If you've been in the job market for 30 years, you might not want them to know how old you are. Taylor your resume to reflect how old you want them to think you are.

Don't lie or embelish your resume. It's better to let them know you are ignorant of something, than to look a fool when you don't live up to your resume.

Granted, this is what I think is best for a technical resume.


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For example - my son just had an interview tuesday. He has not heard if he got the job, but the HR person at the hospital told him "wow, it's been a long time since I've seen someone come in here with a tie on. " (interviewing for a nursing position).




See this is where I have heard a completely different story from my college advisers and HR people. Everyone I have talked with about interviews said you should never overdress for an interview. Basically unless you wear a shirt and tie daily for the job then you wouldn't wear a shirt and tie to the job interview. For example a lawyer applying to a law firm would wear a suit and tie but a guy applying to be a McDonald's cashier shouldn't wear a tie.

Has anyone else ever heard this?


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Yes, that's mostly true. For most techie/engineering jobs, the official uniform of the geek is a black collared shirt and khaki pants. Wearing a tie won't hurt, if that position could call for it. Wear something slightly above what you expect to wear daily.


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Quote:

Quote:



For example - my son just had an interview tuesday. He has not heard if he got the job, but the HR person at the hospital told him "wow, it's been a long time since I've seen someone come in here with a tie on. " (interviewing for a nursing position).




See this is where I have heard a completely different story from my college advisers and HR people. Everyone I have talked with about interviews said you should never overdress for an interview. Basically unless you wear a shirt and tie daily for the job then you wouldn't wear a shirt and tie to the job interview. For example a lawyer applying to a law firm would wear a suit and tie but a guy applying to be a McDonald's cashier shouldn't wear a tie.

Has anyone else ever heard this?




Don't know. I told him, monday night, he didn't need to wear a tie. He talked with my dad, his grandpa, who knows just a bit about hospitals, and grandpa said "wear it".

2 things here - he has not been offered a job yet, and I anxiously await any word from him, as any father would, and secondly - OVER dressing is probably a bad thing. But by that I mean "overdressing", i.e. dress slacks and a shirt and tie for a burger flipping position.

Who knows......

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I'm supposedly a resume expert because of how mine looks.....however an entertainment resume is drastically different so I couldn't be of much help, lol. It is darn near IMPOSSIBLE to keep a resume on one page and it is more of a list of shows you have done rather than descriptions. My CV has three pages of just Lighting Designs alone in a list format, let alone other positions.


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Quote:

I'm supposedly a resume expert because of how mine looks.....however an entertainment resume is drastically different so I couldn't be of much help, lol. It is darn near IMPOSSIBLE to keep a resume on one page and it is more of a list of shows you have done rather than descriptions. My CV has three pages of just Lighting Designs alone in a list format, let alone other positions.




But, you have a very narrow field you're looking at, right? A very specific area.

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DO NOT put your references on your resume.




Boy, how different our world's are. I would NEVER send out a resume without mine on it. I've even caught some flack for not listing them on the copy of my resume that you can download on my website until I explained why. Listing AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST is the number one reason to not get a followup call in my industry. Then again, I can have up to 10 to 15 different employers a year....(that is until next year, because I am settling down and taking an professor job).


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Not really, mainly I look for Lighting Design jobs for theatrical shows or concerts, but it can be a WIDE range just in lighting alone.

Some theatre's want a designer to work alone, some want you as an assistant designer, some of them want you to work with an assistant. Some of them want you to also work as your own Master Electrician and some of them only want you to act as an electrician. Then, there's the question, can you work a lighting console and program it? If it's a union gig, you aren't allowed to even touch the console, you have your own programmer for that. Others, it's rare that you have one, but could you work with one if needed? Concerts and Sporting Events need followspot operators. The list goes on and on. I send out at least 100 resumes a year and I highly doubt 2 of them were alike. It's always tweaking and showing previous gigs worked based off of the work that the company is looking for.

And that is just in lighting, I also do Sound Design and operation as well as working in scene shops and pyrotechnics/special effects. And then from there, it's thinking outside of the box to find other jobs that use those related skills.


I haven't finished reading this thread yet though so I don't know if it was mentioned but: Don't forget to ask your references if it is ok to use them! I've gotten a few phone calls myself that I wasn't expecting. Some of them I would have recommended anyways but it is never good to get a call from someone looking for info on somebody that you swore you would never want to work for again!

Last edited by ~Con~Artist~; 07/22/10 10:47 PM.

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Quote:

See this is where I have heard a completely different story from my college advisers and HR people. Everyone I have talked with about interviews said you should never overdress for an interview. Basically unless you wear a shirt and tie daily for the job then you wouldn't wear a shirt and tie to the job interview. For example a lawyer applying to a law firm would wear a suit and tie but a guy applying to be a McDonald's cashier shouldn't wear a tie.

Has anyone else ever heard this?



As a rule, I think you should dress equal to, or one step above, what the person interviewing you is likely to be wearing.. there are exceptions.

We do the whole dockers and a golf shirt at work, doesn't bother me if somebody wears that to an interview, doesn't bother me if they wear a tie (sometimes I have one on myself if I have appointments that day)... if they wear jeans, that bothers me... (even though I wear those once in a while too)... the rule of thumb is that its better to be one step overdressed than one step underdressed.


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OVER dressing is probably a bad thing. But by that I mean "overdressing", i.e. dress slacks and a shirt and tie for a burger flipping position.





For 30+ years, I've been in the employment business. I couldn't disagree more.

Over Dressing for an interview isn't a negative. It demostrates that you have enough respect for the interviewer and the company to want to put your best foot forward. that's not to say you should wear a tux to an interview. That's going overboard. but nice dress slacks, dress shirt and tie,, with or without a jacket,, perfectly ok for just about any job. Executive jobs: put a freakin suit on LOL

I had a guy interview for a job in May,, it's a technician job in the Telecom field. His daily clothing on the job would be Jeans and a company shirt. But for the interview, he wore (without my prompting I might add) a nice long sleeved dress shirt, tie and a pair of dockers.

Got the job after one face to face interview and one ten minute phone recap.

Point is, I've never heard an employer tell me, "I won't hire this guy, he's overdressed" I've never heard that,, I don't expect I ever will.

I have a thousand such stories over the years.


EDIT: Oh and PLEASE, Shine your shoes.....

Last edited by Damanshot; 07/23/10 06:40 AM.

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See my other post - the one loki replied to.

I pretty much agree with you, and I only tried to use an "extreme" example - perhaps it wasn't extreme enough.

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Just want to thank you guys for your input. Some has been helpful, some I don't have any clue what you're talking about, lol.

I'll be in contact with a few of you down the road.


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Definitely some good info in this thread. Thanks to those who shared.

I'm having to re-do my resume now as well due to the oil spill. Good luck with your job search and interviews Bigdatut.


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Quote:

Definitely some good info in this thread. Thanks to those who shared.

I'm having to re-do my resume now as well due to the oil spill. Good luck with your job search and interviews Bigdatut.




Oh Geez man,, there isn't any oil on shore near you is there? I didn't think it hit the keys ......


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When my son applied at the local police department, the first thing he did when he walked into the interview room was walk to the far side of the table and introduced himself and shook hands with all 3 officers doing the interview, then went back to where he was supposed to sit and sat down.

At the end of the interview, they told him he was the only interviewee that shook their hand in the entire process.This surprised me, as I was raised to always greet people with a firm handshake in a professional situation.

We were proud. We raised him to be respectful, professional and well mannered, and it apparently worked.

In the end he didn't get hired because of budget cuts 2 weeks before he was to be assigned to the academy. He has since went through the academy on his own, passed his state exam, and is currently looking for a department with openings.


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It doesn't matter that we don't have oil. I'm much further up near Tampa Bay and the beaches here are great. Yet, they are almost EMPTY because everyone is afraid to go to them because of the oil. We actually visited the Keys a couple of weeks ago and it was dead, I couldn't believe it. I ended up getting a great deal because of how much they wanted the business.


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Good thread - I'm glad you started it bigd

Anyone with input for me would be greatly appreciated.

I have worked for a small company for eight years now. My title is "Office Manger", but I basically do everything. My boss (the owner of the company) golfs and is gone 90% of the time in the summer. Without me he would be screwed - he doesn't even know how to turn a computer on!

My question is when doing my resume do I have to have a descriptive paragraph listing every responsibility I have? I think it just looks cluttered and loses importance of those duties. Is there a format where you can use more Bullet Points when listing those items?

Also, I was a stay-at-home mom for 6 six years before this job. I assume I should list the job I had before I was home...is that as far back as I should go? I'm worried about that 6 year jump in time making a bad impression - not sure how to handle it.

Lastly, is there a way to state how much responsibility I had here? To just list everything sounds like I just worked here, when honestly, the business would not run without me. Our sales average about $800,000 to 1 mil a year.

We just hired a part-time employee so I will finally get to take a vacation day - haven't had one since Christmas, and I haven't taken a sick day in about a year. It's a lot of stress for not much $$$, thus my interest in looking for something else.

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I'm sure other, more qualified people will chime in with good advice, but:

Don't shy away from the 6 yr. "stay at home mom" thing. Especially if, say, you quit your job when you were pregnant, or whatever.......(if you were fired and actively looking for work for 6 years, that's a different story). If your job before that can and will verify that "yes, she quit because of her kids/parenting....whatever, I don't see that as a problem myself. Probably a plus.

If you ran a company of that size, make sure you list the computer programs you used and are up to date on as well.

I wouldn't say "the boss was gone 90% of the time, so I ran the business", but something along the lines of: my responsibilties were: receivables, billing, pay roll, scheduling....etc.

In an interview it will be easy to show/tell your abilities. But remember, you don't want to trash your boss - as he/she will be getting a call if the new place is interested in you.

That's my opinion.

Now, wait for daman, or DC, or any of the other more experienced "hirers" to give their opinion. I was only a "hirer" for about 3 1/2 years, and we didn't have much turnover.

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Oh no...I would never trash my current job or boss. I wish he'd pay me more, I'd stay in a second. Let's just say I haven't received a single raise in the time I've been here. I get bonuses based on sales, but about a year ago he raised the threshold where those bonuses kick in. So basically I make less while my bills keep getting higher.


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No oil down here thankfully. But like was mentioned, the fear has a lot of folks going elsewhere. Our July was down 48% and August is down 67%. So the owner took my job over and is doing it himself. Gave me a termination letter and everything stating it was due to the BP spill.

Taking some classes I haven't had time to take because I was always working. Takes some getting used to for sure. Getting the resume together and trying to get in with a new hotel that's finishing up construction in town. We'll see.

I'll definitely use some of these tips in here.


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Quote:

No oil down here thankfully. But like was mentioned, the fear has a lot of folks going elsewhere. Our July was down 48% and August is down 67%. So the owner took my job over and is doing it himself. Gave me a termination letter and everything stating it was due to the BP spill.

Taking some classes I haven't had time to take because I was always working. Takes some getting used to for sure. Getting the resume together and trying to get in with a new hotel that's finishing up construction in town. We'll see.

I'll definitely use some of these tips in here.




Oh man Keys, I"m sorry to hear that., if I can help in anyway,, Just email me,, you know my numbers and address.


#GMSTRONG

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Much appreciated. =D We'll have to get a beer when/if I come up this year.


KeysDawg

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I've recently been through this as an IT professional, and have gotten a lot of feedback on my resume from various headhunters.

Make sure you list your skills at the beginning. When you do your bullet points for what you did for your previous position, make sure you include how you used the skills listed in your bullet points.

Also, look at the job description. Don't be afraid to customize your resume, based on the requirements of the position. I don't mean lie about your experience, but emphasize the skills you have used in previous positions, based on the job requirements. As soon as I started doing this, I got tons of interviews, even in today's economy.

Also a bit of advice for more "mature" job seekers. Don't list your graduation date on your resume, only where you went to college. Don't list experience that is more than 15 years old. Potential employers are generally interested in only your past 10 years of experience. Don't set yourself up to have your resume discarded because you are more "mature". As a 55 year old job seeker, this was very important for me.


Adding one more thing - I'm a techie, an IT geek. One of the things that really helped me in my resume was my emphasis on people skills - the ability to work with internal and external customers, and to understand business requirements as well as technical requirements. If you have these skills, make sure to include them in your resume.

Last edited by sk8termom; 07/23/10 10:28 PM.

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Quote:

Much appreciated. =D We'll have to get a beer when/if I come up this year.




Absolutly man I'll buy


#GMSTRONG

“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.”
Daniel Patrick Moynahan

"Alternative facts hurt us all. Think before you blindly believe."
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Quote:

Quote:

Much appreciated. =D We'll have to get a beer when/if I come up this year.




Absolutly man I'll buy




Wait.. can I get in on that?


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Quote:

Quote:

Quote:

Much appreciated. =D We'll have to get a beer when/if I come up this year.




Absolutly man I'll buy




Wait.. can I get in on that?




Absolutly...


#GMSTRONG

“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.”
Daniel Patrick Moynahan

"Alternative facts hurt us all. Think before you blindly believe."
Damanshot
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