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Posts Tagged ‘Prospective Employers’

Hiring a resume service to put together your resume can be a really good idea – especially if you are not really sure how to make a resume that can accurately convey your experience and abilities.  Hiring a resume service can be a great move to help you project a professional image and help you get the job that you really want.  How do you go about hiring a resume service, though?

First, look in the Yellow Pages and see if there are any businesses that offer a resume service in your area.  You can also utilize the Internet since we are now living in the Information Age.  You can just e-mail the resume service all of your information and they put it together in a gorgeous format that is sure to impress you as well as any prospective employers.  Look to your community college as well for a resume service.  These types of services are often provided for free and are meant to help you craft your own resume with a minimum of involvement and just a little bit of advice.

Keep in mind that if you want to hire a resume service to make your resume, you will have to pay a fee for it.  If you think that the rates the resume service is charging is a little more than you want to pay, just move on to another one.  This writer once had her own resume service.  I learned by trial and error how much to charge people.  I also learned about the headaches of non-paying customers, but that is a different story!  At any rate, while times have changed considerably since I had my business, it is not uncommon to find a service that will ask for anywhere from $25 to $50 for a resume and then another $20 or so for a cover letter.

Now, you might be feeling a little sticker shock here, but realize that when you hire a resume service, you are getting a professional.  That means that the person who is doing your resume has had experience putting together winning resumes and you will have a quality product for your money.

If you are serious about getting the job of your dreams and have little to no experience crafting a resume, you may want to look into hiring a resume service to help you along the way.  All you need to do is give them pertinent information and then wait for the finished product to arrive in your e-mailbox.  After that, you take the beautiful resume that your resume service has provided, send it out to prospective employers and then wait for that phone call!

Back in the Dark Ages, our resumes were carved into stone, but now that we are in the Information Age, you have access to a free resume maker that can be downloaded from many different web sites located all over the Internet.  You may want to try and make your own resume from scratch, but a free resume maker helps you put together all of your information into an easy to read and professional looking resume with just a little effort.

It can be difficult sometimes to make a resume from scratch – no matter how talented you think you are.  Often, it takes a little help and some templates to help you along.  That is where a free resume maker comes into play.  If you have Microsoft Word, they have several resume templates that you can use to make your resume.  All you have to do is fill in your personal information and then you will be given a resume to print out and then send to prospective employers.

But there are other programs that help you make your resume.  In fact, when we did a Google search for “free resume maker”, we found a lot of web sites that can help you construct the perfect resume – at no cost to you!  Check out www.howtowritearesume.com or www.winresume.com to get tools that will help you make a resume you can be proud of!

While you do not necessarily have to have a free resume maker program, they can really be lifesavers – especially when you don’t know what you are doing when it comes to putting together a piece or two of paper that summarizes your job and educational experience in a way that a prospective employer will want to explore further.  Having a free resume maker can make your resume become alluring instead of blah.

Of course, if you think you can make your own resume look professional and alluring, by all means, try.  We all have talents, and maybe your talent is for making a resume.  But if you find yourself staring at your computer wondering where to go after your name and contact information, you may really want to try a free resume maker program.

The bottom line is that you need a good looking and compelling resume to get your foot in the door towards your dream job.  Make sure that whether you write your own resume or utilize a free resume maker, as long as the finished product is something you can be proud of, it really does not matter.  Just put your best foot forward and be ready for the interview.

There really is no such thing as an autobiographical sketch resume per se.  While a resume is a brief sketch of your employment and education history, you won’t want to include any personal information on your resume which is why some companies ask you to provide a written autobiographical sketch along with your resume when applying for a job.  Although they are two different documents, the two collectively together are referred to as a single document called an autobiographical sketch resume.

An autobiographical sketch resume is often used to determine the way you write and organize information and ideas.  Prospective employers are looking for words that flow, ideas that lead smoothly from one to the other, and good use of the English language.  You need to include a lot of information in your autobiographical sketch resume.

First, know that prospective employers are not necessarily looking for personal information in an autobiographical sketch resume.  If you want to offer up that information yourself, you can certainly do that, but, most likely what they want to know about is how you got into the field you are working in or the reasons why you want to work in another field.  They may also be wondering your thought processes regarding the philosophy of the business world or the career you want to get into.

Some things to include in your autobiographical sketch resume would be past work experience, why you decided to work in that field, thought processes about work assignments, any new projects and feelings about how you were going to complete those projects, and interactions with co-workers.  You will want the whole thing to be a page or less and you will also want it to be extremely positive.  Focus on the good stuff, stay away from the bad stuff.

When writing an autobiographical sketch resume, be professional and use good prose.  Make sure the words flow smoothly.  You may want to read it to someone else to get their opinion of what you have created.  Then, you can make any changes you think you need to make to improve it.  This is how your potential boss will get an introduction to you, so you will want it to be a great example of who you are and what you are capable of.

Writing an autobiographical sketch resume is not difficult, but it must be done in a way so that you will represent yourself in the most positive light that will compel your prospective employer to call you for an interview.  After that, you can dazzle them in person and show them that what you wrote in your autobiographical sketch resume really was true after all!

…It’s About YOU!

What you are marketing here is YOU – and your value is entirely dependent on your qualifications for the job. 

The key here is to present yourself in a way that will give these prospective employers the perception that you are fit for the job and the position applied for.  Highlighting your strong points that are relevant to job of concern will increase your chances of getting noticed. 
It’s Also About The Prospective Employer!

While indeed you are selling yourself, it is also about considering and keeping in mind the needs and requirements of these employers. 

If you are able to analyze and understand the employer’s needs, and make your CV with these in mind, you will be able to show that you are deserving of the position applied for. 

They should be able to see you as someone who can be relied upon to do the job well and fit in their organization harmoniously.  They should get the impression that you are their best choice among others. 

Valuable Tip # 6: List the special trainings and short courses you have attended.

Special trainings that are relevant to current job application should be mentioned.  This would most likely involve specialized topics specific to a particular field – and if you have such special knowledge, you’ll have an edge.

It would even be best if you were able to try applying such knowledge on particular job settings so that you can include them in the CV to support the value of the training attended – and to prove that you learned useful stuff on such trainings. 

Valuable Tip # 7:  Forego mentioning of responsibilities and tasks.

Sentences or phrases that mention one’s responsibilities and tasks on previous employments should be avoided. 

Employers are not concerned so much on these things as they are more interested on what you have actually accomplished in the course of carrying out your job. 

The questions that matter most to them would be:  “Were you effective in carrying out your responsibilities?” and  “What were your major accomplishments?”

Valuable Tip # 8:  List your personal traits that will be of value.

Resourcefulness, having the initiative, proactive, honest, loyal, hardworking, smart and results-oriented – these are what you say you are.  And these are better claimed if backed by good and verifiable evidence as well. 

So limit such claims to those you can effectively show proof, otherwise it will just seem that you are feeding your ego, or possibly just fooling the reader.  Prospective employers will put less weight on such claims that are unverified and unproven sufficiently.   

Valuable Tip # 9:  Don’t go too far back in your employment history.

It would not be necessary to list all your employment experiences especially if has exceeded more than years, and you have been transferring from one job to another for several times already. 

An exception would be if these were relevant experiences to the current position applied for – and if your major accomplishments were on these times. 

Valuable Tip # 10:  Provide a summary for the key points of your CV at the top.

A summary of the main points of your qualifications will efficiently help the prospective employers know what you are about and what you can offer. 

So do this part carefully.  It is at this portion that you can choose the best from among your strong points to emphasize the edge you possess over all others applying for the same position.