June Campbell asked:




Learning how to make a resume or curriculum vitae is a skill that will serve you well for your entire working life. This indispensable document is your means, sometimes your only means, of showing a potential employer what you bring to the table. You may have only one chance, so put considerable thought into how to make a resume that demonstrates your accomplishments in the best possible way.

Always remember you are competing against other job seekers. As an employer sorts through perhaps dozens of resumes, how can you ensure your resume stands out and get noticed?

It goes without saying that your resume must be neat, attractively formatted, easy to read and free of punctuation errors, spelling errors and typos. Anything less tells the employer that you do sloppy work and have put little to no effort into learning to how to make a resume.

When you develop your resume, you want to write it in such a way that the employer immediately can identify your skills, abilities and work history. There are two accepted approaches to how to make a resume. The first involves listing your jobs in chronological order, starting at the present and working back. The second approach to how to write a resume involves listing and describing your skills. The best type to use is the one that will present you to the best advantage. This will differ from employer to employer. For best results, plan to modify your resume to accommodate each job you apply for. This requires a little extra effort, but it is not a huge challenge when you use a computer and Word Processing software.

If you have been out of the labor force for a period of time, this will require some particular thought when you plan how to make a resume.

Homemakers who have taken time away from the workplace to raise children will want to give some thought to how to present this. Remember that raising a family and caring for a home require skills that can generalize in the workplace. Undoubtedly, you have organizational skills, budgeting skills, communication skills and more. Your task is to find a way to present these facts in your resume.

Have you done any volunteer work while you were out of the paid work force? Did you organize a bake sale or car pool? Did you participate in clubs, organizations, church groups, community organizations or similar? In what capacity? Did you find a way to bring in extra money while you were a homemaker? Did you have any part time jobs?

Think about these things carefully, always remembering that the skills you needed to carry out these activities are skills that are valued in the workplace. This is not the time for false modesty. If you can chair a darned good meeting and you know Robert’s Rules of Order like the back of your hand, find a way to portray this when you decide how to make a resume.

Learning how to make a resume requires more than writing skills. It requires some soul searching and the willingness to acknowledge your hidden talents.

How would you like to get your dream job? Sounds perfect, but too good to be true? Well it all begins with a well written cover letter. I’ll show you how…

Follow these great tips on composing a winning cover letter to accompany your resume:

Believe it or not most mistakes in the covering letter are made in the address line.
If mistakes are made in the address line, this will ruin your chances of even getting an interview.

Take careful note of the following three most common mistakes made in addressing your cover letter. Triple check your cover letter address line to ensure you get your foot in the door for the interview.

1) Not addressing the letter to a person. It only takes a couple of minutes to get the correct information.
Call the organization and find out who is the hiring or recruiting person for the job, then address the letter directly to them.

If for some reason you cannot find out who the correct person is, do not assume that it is a good idea to start your letter with a generic greeting. Rather leave out the greeting altogether and simply begin your

2) Not spelling the name of the organization correctly.

A very common mistake, yet so easy to avoid. When your potential employer receives your letter, with the incorrect spelling of the company name, rest assured you won’t be interviewed.

3) Not giving your reason for contacting the company.

When making contract with the company be specific — give the title of the job you are applying for and how your qualifications make you the ideal candidate for the position. Keep the tone of this sentence positive and energetic to cause the employer to want to go through your resume in detail

We’ve all heard the sayings about how important ‘first impressions’ are. Your cover letter is exactly that…the first impression your potential employer has of who you are.

So, don’t make the mistake of messing up the first line –’the address line’ — of your chance at creating a good impression and getting the the job you want.

By: Jerry Pohn

About the Author:

As a young ambitious engineer who wanted to break into management the prospect of trying to do a first resume was something of a trial. Numerate rather than literate with no idea of format or content it was a challenge.

What do we mostly do when faced with such a task? Buy a book. Armed with this new friend my first resume took the whole of one weekend to complete. On completion the application was sent off.

Out of 64 applicants ten were called for interview. This went well and the final short list of three included me. At this point the application failed. Trying to move to a more commercial role there were other candidates better suited.

That first resume could be thought of as a success and over many years it was used in refined and updated form to apply for progressively more senior posts.

However at age 50 and ‘let go’ for the second time in my career a new challenge had to be overcome because of ageism. As part of the termination settlement the company was persuaded to pay for an out placement course. This was revealing.

The main thrust of the service was guidance and help in producing a powerful resume as the central piece of a personal sales package with cover letter and the provision mail out services to target businesses using a variety of marketing techniques. This did produce a powerful resume that was used successfully for number of years. If faced with such a situation it’s well worth taking advantage of such services.

Many people do not consider producing a resume until forced to by circumstances outside their control. This means a first resume may have to compiled under pressure, which is not the ideal. Visit any forum relating to employment and jobs and you will find there are a lot of people who need help with their resumes and cover letters.

You can find more help with resumes at the link below. Don’t leave it until you are forced to do it.

By: Michael Harrison

About the Author:

www.esqresume.com – Need help of a lawyer resume company? This site offers effective lawyer resume writing services to teach the aspiring attorneys make a good impression when applying. Since recruiting starts with the resumes, applicants must consider its value.