Posted by: Darlene Duncan, CWDP, JSS, CCC, JCTC, JCDC
Training Coordinator
You’re looking for a job and you need to update your résumé. What do you include and what do you leave out? How long can it be? These are valid questions. I will attempt to answer these questions in this blog.
What do you include and what do you leave out? You include the information about your abilities, skills and experience that are relevant to the job for which you are applying. For instance, if you’re a Teacher and you have worked some summers as a Bartender, should you include the bartending jobs on your résumé? No! In spite of your belief that there is little difference between dealing with a group of inebriated adults and dealing with a bunch of kids on a sugar high, don’t include the information. It will only muddy the waters. Instead, put in the information about your previous teaching positions. Things like, created lesson plans for class of up to 30 students and maintained order in classroom.
How long should your résumé be? Remember, your résumé is the bait you use to fish for an interview. It needs to give enough information to get the reader interested so they call you for an interview. If you can do this in one page, wonderful. If you need a second page, okay. No more than two pages.
Remember, your résumé also needs to be pleasing to look at and easy to read. So if you have a one page résumé with almost no margin and everything is font size 10, increase your margin to an inch and bring your font size up to 12 and go to that second page.
If you’ve been doing your research on résumés I’m sure you’ve discovered many conflicting opinions. Writing a résumé is not a science; it’s an art form. So what does that mean? It means that there are aspects of résumé writing that are strictly a matter of opinion.
If you live in Volusia or Flagler County contact your local One-Stop for the dates and times of their Résumé Writing workshops.
Training Coordinator
You’re looking for a job and you need to update your résumé. What do you include and what do you leave out? How long can it be? These are valid questions. I will attempt to answer these questions in this blog.
What do you include and what do you leave out? You include the information about your abilities, skills and experience that are relevant to the job for which you are applying. For instance, if you’re a Teacher and you have worked some summers as a Bartender, should you include the bartending jobs on your résumé? No! In spite of your belief that there is little difference between dealing with a group of inebriated adults and dealing with a bunch of kids on a sugar high, don’t include the information. It will only muddy the waters. Instead, put in the information about your previous teaching positions. Things like, created lesson plans for class of up to 30 students and maintained order in classroom.
How long should your résumé be? Remember, your résumé is the bait you use to fish for an interview. It needs to give enough information to get the reader interested so they call you for an interview. If you can do this in one page, wonderful. If you need a second page, okay. No more than two pages.
Remember, your résumé also needs to be pleasing to look at and easy to read. So if you have a one page résumé with almost no margin and everything is font size 10, increase your margin to an inch and bring your font size up to 12 and go to that second page.
If you’ve been doing your research on résumés I’m sure you’ve discovered many conflicting opinions. Writing a résumé is not a science; it’s an art form. So what does that mean? It means that there are aspects of résumé writing that are strictly a matter of opinion.
If you live in Volusia or Flagler County contact your local One-Stop for the dates and times of their Résumé Writing workshops.
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