Cloud Resumes

I have recently discovered some "Cloud Resumes" and wonder what on earth these people are thinking!

A "Cloud", in case you are unfamiliar with the term, is a graphically pleasing way to illustrate a list or large group of words.

In the case of a cloud resume, it involves writing out a list of your skills and personal qualities (so far I'm with you - you need this for your resume), then you graphically arrange them in a "cloud" or roughly cloud shaped grouping, with each item in a different size, font and varying shades of black through grey, sometimes colored.

It looks very attractive. But it is not a good representation of who you are or what you can do, unless you are looking for a job as a graphic designer!

So whether it's a cloud or some other creative form of resume, stay away from it - again unless you are looking for a job in the creative, artistic areas of work. Most employers would perhaps be amused, perhaps be exasperated, but either way it is highly unlikely you would land an interview.

Looking for a job is a serious business, so stick to business and keep ultra creativity, no matter how visually pleasing, for a more appropriate place and time.

Here are some really great products to help you with your resume:

Amazing Resumes! - Hugely Popular Software

Guerrilla Resumes - Authors Are Regularly In The Wall Street Journal, Ny Times, And Other Media

Need individual help with your resume?

IDENTIFY YOUR SKILL STRENGTHS FOR YOUR RESUME

Write list of all the things you can do relevant to the workplace. You need to know what you've done, and what skills you have to write a resume that will get you in the door for an interview.

Analyze the jobs you have had, both paid and unpaid. What did you do?

Then for every thing you did, write down what skills that duty involved.

What you have done that gave you a real sense of satisfaction?

If someone were to follow you through an entire week, what positive things would that person notice about what you do well and enjoy? What do people comment to you that you are good at doing? What do they ask you to help them with? What do they ask your advice on?

Check out the National Occupational Classification (you can “Google” these words, or try the O*Net site, www.onetcenter.org ) for whichever jobs you are considering.

Carefully read the job description and the skills and qualities required. Write down everything mentioned that you can honestly say you have.

Use word lists to help you identify and describe your skills.

If you were asked to list all your skills, you, like most of us, would be hard put to come up with 20, certainly 50 would be a challenge, And yet, the average person has 500 -70 skills.

Is there anything that you think “everyone can do that! That is a strong, special skills of yours, because there is nothing that “everyone” can do! You need to know what your special skills are.

How do you identify your skills?

Out of every activity you do well, you can identify skills. Make a list of them.
Why do you need to know your skills?

Your résumé should show your strongest, relevant and most marketable skills and accomplishments. They are what make you stand out in the crowd.

So work on identifying your skills, and market them front and center to employers, on your résumé, cover letter and in the interview.

What is the initial amount of time an employer takes to review an applicant’s resume?

What is the initial amount of time an employer takes to review an applicant’s resume?

Answer: 30-45 seconds

Is your resume good enough to "hook" the employer is 30 -45 seconds?

The first half of the first page is all the average employer will see when making an initial scan of your resume. Make sure it has your main attention grabbing point in it.

What do you have to offer the employer that s/he most wants? What can you do for him/her that other applicants probably can't? What special skils, experience, personal qualities do you bring? What makes you a good fit for this job/ company?

You only have one chance to make a first impression, and with your resume this first impression is created by the first half of the first page.

Make is strong.

A note on cover letters ... only 50% of employers even read your cover letter, so for those who don't, the first page of your resume is your initial introduction.

Think like an employer. What does s/he want? Do you have it? If so, tell 'em!

Resumes: Don't bend the truth on your resume

It would seem an obvious statement but here it is. Don't lie on your resume.

Don't "bend the truth" either.

I had a client recently who was finishing a training course. He had finished the actual courses but still had to complete a certain number of hours practicum before he would have his certification.

On his resume he wrote that he was fully qualified, and was most annoyed when I told him he should not put that until he actually is qualified.

It would seem an obvious statement, but I come across it so often.

Misrepresentation doesn't work in the long run.

It may get you an interview and if you lie well enough at the interview it may well get you the job.

However, if you don't have what you claimed to have, sooner or later that is going to become apparent and it is grounds for instant dismissal.

I can appreciate how hard it is to know that you could get a job "if only...", especially in the tough job market we are experiencing just now. But lying is not the way to go.

Tell the truth. Make the truth sound as appropriate for this job as you possibly can, without exaggeration and without 'bending the truth'.

Need help writing an effective resume? I offer one on one assistance online and locally.

Or try this great tool.
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Resumes: Don't overstate your abilities

One of the things that turn employers off is a resume that is so overstated that it's hard to believe anyone could be that good.

Even if it's not, even if it just stated you are really good at this type of work - make sure it's a genuine representation of what you can do.

You are not doing yourself any favors by getting into an interview for a job you couldn't cope with if you got it! Be realistic and truthful.

It's good to show how good you are in your resume, but don't overdo it.

No-one is "excellent" at everything. In some things we are just "competent", we may be "effective", or "proficient".

However, if you are "outstanding" at something, then you can say so - just make sure you really, really are that good before you write it.

Stories help.

If you have a one liner in your resume that tells of a time you totally reorganized the structure of the sales department, or that you were promoted withing 2 months of being hired because of your excellent communication skills ... if you have a story to back it up, then the employer can instantly see that yes, you do appear to have very strong skills in this area.

It's a tough call for most people to make themselves look as good as they really are (this is not the time for modesty) but not overdo it.

Take an objective look at what you can do, and be prepared to sell that, but know your limits. Keep it real.

I work one-on-one with job seekers to write resumes.

Target your Resume

One resume will not work for different types of work.

If you are applying for several jobs, say, in office administration, then one resume for all might do (although taking the time to target each more precisely to each job would be better). But if you are applying for office administration jobs and also for retail customer service work, the same resume cannot possibly demonstrate your strongest skills for both types of work.

Your resume does should only have the skills you can use in the job for which you are applying.

So if you are applying for office admin, where you will have no, or miminal contact with the public, your skills in handling cash, debit and credit will not be needed so should not appear in that resume.

On the other hand, when going for retail, minimal computer skills will be required, and those that are needed will not include using MS Word, Excel, Simply Accounting and other basic office software.

So when applying for the retail position, putting in your resume that you are very computer literate is good, but your skill with office software is redundant and should not appear.

It is one of the hardest things for a job seeker to do when writing their resume - to elimiate skills of which they are rightfully proud, but which will not be valid in the job for which this resume is intended.

So streamline your resumes to include only the skills for that specific job.

You'll find the employer rewards you for your clarity and relevance by inviting you in for an interview more often.

Need more help one on one writing your resume?

Avoiding repetition in your resume and cover letter

When you write your resume and cover letter, the same words keep cropping up.

I know for me, I always want to have several "excellents" and "effectives", and a few other of my favorites.

So how to avoid them?

There are several ways.

One of the most obvious is to use a Thesaurus, which is a list of other words to use to mean the same as the one you are searching.

Microsoft Word has one in the "Tools, Langauge" menu. If you highlight the word you are concerened about, it will automatically show you alternatives. Likewise, you can "Google" for an online thesaurus.

Alternatively, almost every job search book has word lists to help you. These word lists will give you other descriptive words, and also suggest action verbs to make your resume more dynamic. They can be very useful.

Again, using Google, search for "word list for resume." I just did it as I write this and a great variety of helpful sites came up.

The other time you need "new" words, is when you want to show that you have whatever a job ad is asking for.

You can't just take what the ad says and copy it into your resume and cover letter, no matter how close a match it is for you. Or at least, you can't do that if you want to be taken seriously as a job candidate.

Instead, go back to the thesaurus and find other ways to express that you have everything the ad is seeking.

That of course is not the total content of either your resume or cover letter, but it's something to bear in mind as you "tweak" your carefully prepared material for each individual position.

Your job is to show that you are an excellent fit for this position.

More help with resumes and cover letters...

Resume writing for computer jobs is a bit different than for other jobs. Find help here...

Other articles on this blog to help you are:

Cover letters to suit each job

Questions about resumes and cover letters

Resumes need action verbs

What does the employer want?

Should you get your Resume professionally written?

Should you get help writing a resume?

Well firstly, I don't like the word "should"! Is getting help writing your resume a good idea?

If you don't know how to write a good one, or writing this type of thing is not your strength, then yes, it is.

Is getting your resume professionally written for you? That is a more difficult question.

It depends on how the process is done.

If you just fill out your work history and information on a form and hand it in for a resume to be written for you, totally by someone else, without your input, then, no, I don't recommend it.

Why not?

Because then you will have a resume that is totally impersonal and describes you in someone else's "voice."

An example of someone else's voice, in the world of books rather than resumes, would be to imagine Dr. Seuss writing (in his usual style) a horror book. It might be very amusing ... or not ... but it would not be in the same "voice", or feel the same, as a horror book by legimate horror book best selling author.

The reason is that these two people have very different styles of writing, and are satisfied with totally different output.

I am not suggesting that either you or your resume writer are into either horror or Dr. Seuss. My point is that the resume will not sound like you if someone you have probably never met before writes it alone.

If you need help with your resume, the best way to get one, is to find a professional resume writer who will work with you.

You are present when the resume is being written. You will be asked questions, and although the resume writer is the one who can turn the phrases, and knows how to draw out your skills for the specific job, you are there being asked if you feel comfortable with what your resume says.

After all, if the resume succeeds and gets you into an interview, you are the one who has to live up to it in front of the employer.

The employer has "got to know you" through your resume. It's all s/he knows about you. It should have given him or her a taste of who you really are, and you should feel comfortable sticking up for everything your resume says.

So yes, by all means, get help to write a dynamic resume that will present you in the best possible light for each job for which you apply. But make sure you are part of the process. Not just supplying information ahead of time - be part of the process of creating the resume. It makes a huge difference.

I assist people, individually, by distance and locally, to write effective resumes. We work together on the process. If you would like to learn more about how....

If you prefer to learn how to write your own resume, I recommend these resources:

The Best Resume And Cover Letter Step By Step Secrets Exposed. This Resume And Cover Letter Step By Step Guide Creates Amazing Job Offers In Less Than 33 Days -- Guaranteed!

Guerrilla Resumes. Gets You Hired For The Job You Want, In 45 Days. Or Your Money Back! Written By 2 Employment Pros With 30+ Years Of Experience

How To Write A Professional Resume. Learn The Secrets Of Writing A Professional Resume Fast! Step By Step Guide Shows You The Way. Written By A Human Resource Professional. Excellent Resume Advice!

Never mention negatives in your resume or cover letter

In a nutshell: It's your job to tell the employer what you DO bring to the job. It's the employer's job to work out what you DON'T bring!

So, let's say computer skills are required. You have great computer skills, but there is one piece of software listed in the job ad that you have no experience on.

Your resume and cover letter should tell in great detail what glorious experience and expertise you have with the software you use. They could also mention (assuming it's true) that you are a quick learner on new and company-specific software.

If the employers looks closely enough at your written material to work out you don't have one experience with one specific piece of software he needs you to use, this mention of learning quickly can help.

However, you then have to be prepared to support that in the interview, with a story of how you learnt some software very quickly, and perhaps, without formal training.

But, to get back to the point, your job on cover letter and resume, is just to list the skills you DO have. Do not mention anything you lack.

After all if you we introduced to someone and they were asking about your work history. You would tell them what you had done only. You would not be likely to say "I am a computer programmer. I have not been a rocket scientist, an astonaut, a personal trainer........" They can work that out from what you tell them you HAVE done.

The same goes for the resume and cover letter. Give all the benefits of what you have done and can do, and leave it at that.

I assist job seekers with resumes and cover letters (USA & Canada).

Chronological or Skills Based Resume - not sure which to use?

How do you know which resume to use? Chronological or Skills Based. And what do you do when you don't know which it best?

In general government jobs, and more conservative institutions such as banks, lawyers offices etc will probably prefer the chronological resume. Again, in general, most other jobs will accept the skills based resume.

If you are writing a skills based resume, it's easy to know what to put. Analyze what skill groupings, and what exact skills that you have will be most useful in the job for which you are applying, and write them into your resume. (More on writing a skills based resume can be found in other posts)

A chronological is a bit trickier to deal with, especially since your last job may not have been the one that highlights the skills you need for this job.

So it can be a good idea to use a combination chronological resume.

This means that instead of putting your most recent job first, you may choose to write a heading of "Relevant Employment" and list the jobs you have had, with dates etc as usual, that gave you skills and are relevant to this job for which you are now applying.

Then after that section you will have another one entitled "Other Employment" and here you will list, also in chronological order, the other jobs you have had that you did not include in "Relevant Employment."

The other trick here is, after each job title, company name and dates, put a one liner that basically covers your job duties. Then put your bulleted list of skills and accomplishments for that job immediately underneath.

A formal chronological resume will have all your job titles, companies and dates listed in reverse chronological order (ie beginning the with most recent and working back to the oldest), with, under each, just a list of job duties.

However, this is not to your advantage, since it does't display your skills.

So if you are writing a chronological resume, consider this adaptation as it gives you more chance to sell yourself, while staying within the basic chronological format.

If you would like one on one help to write your resume, I offer individual coaching, in person, or by phone.

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Resume Presentation

You can learn all you want about the best way to write content for your resume, but if it is not presented well, you may still not be on the interview list.

Paper: forget all the pretty pastels, shun any fancy or brightly coloured paper. A simple white or off white is best. If you want to go upmarket, try linen textured paper. It looks just like "regular" paper, but it has a lovely soft feel to it.

But, really, just regular 20lb copy paper is fine.

Make sure it is clean, uncrumpled and unsmudged.

Do not staple your resume. Busy employers often want to make a copy of incoming resumes, and a staple then becomes a nuisance as it has to be removed before automatic feed copying.

Do not fold your resume. Buy 9"x12" brown envelopes (very cheap in the dollar store)and use these for resumes and cover letters.

Use only one, or at the most two, fonts for the resume. You may use one for heading and another for the body. Or you can just use the same font, bolding, enlarging, or perhaps capitilization for the headings.

Your name should be the largest item on the page. Headings should all be the same size, and all body text should be the same size.

Only use italics or capitals for headings. They are more difficult to read than regular text, so should be used sparingly.

Leave lots of white space. An over crowded sheet of paper is not enticing to read. Give the employer the basic information of your skills and experience. If s/he wants to know more, s/he can invite you to an interview and ask you in person!

Remember that employers are people too, and when faced with a mountain of resumes in application for one job, they are not going to wade through anything that appears ill prepared or distasteful.

Make your resume and paper representation of yourself: professional, efficient and easy to deal with!

Need more help writing your resume?

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Fonts and Formats for your Resume

What fonts and formats you use for your resume can make quite a difference to how it is received.

Your resume is a business document and should be written as such. So use a "business" font. Times New Roman or Arial are both accepted business fonts, and if you stick to either of these you will be fine.

10 to 12 point font size is good. If your resume is rather brief for whatever reason, then 12 point will fill the page up better. If you have more to put in than you can easily fit, use a 10, or 10.5 font. Normally, I use an 11 point font.

Times New Roman is known as a "serif" font, and the serifs are the little lines at the bottom and tops of the lines in the font. Arial is known as a "sans serif" font, which means without serifs, becuase it does not have these little lines, and capital "I" for example, in Arial, is just a straight stick line with no extras.

Which you choose is mostly a matter of choice, although if you will be faxing your resume much, the clean lines of the Arial font tends to come out clearer at the other end.

If you wish you may have your heading within your resume in the which ever font you did not choose for the rest of the text. Personally, I don't like this, since when I go back to edit the resume to target it for another position, the change of fonts tends to get mixed up and I end up having to format the entire resume again for the appropriate fonts in the appropriate places. However, when done properly, it looks just fine.

No more than 2 fonts through, per resume. And make all your bullets the same. It does no make some stand out more if you choose one type of bullet for the highlights and another for the other bullets further down. It is merely distracting and fussy.

So keep your creativity for the words you put in your resume, and let the format be simple, clean and professional.

And of course, what goes for the resume, goes for the cover letter as well.

Need more help with resumes and cover letters?
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Cover letters to suit each job

A cover letter should be unique to each job. A generic cover letter cannot possibly represent you fully for any given position.

Here are two formats to consider, depending upon how well you believe you fit the advertised job.

If you think you are a great fit for this one, and really want to have the employer zero in on that instantly, write a cover letter that has bullet points in the middle paragraph.

* with bullets you will draw attention to this text
* you can just list the main skills or experience you bring
* and make sure to include at least some of the skills requested in the ad

Your list of bulleted items can be as long as 5, but no longer. Then return to normal paragraph style of writing.

The other format is to be used if you either think you are just an OK fit for the job, or if you realize that you don't have one requirement.

Then you will just write a cover letter in paragraphs, highlighting what you think is most likely to win you an interview.

But don't forget the bullets when you see a job that a great fit. They really draw the eye and get read.

Write great cover letters with the help you can find here.

Need help with a professional resume and cover letter?
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Do you feel good about your resume?

Once your resume is written up, you should feel both comfortable and good about it.

A good resume will not only outline you previous experience, but also highlight your personality and personal qualities that will make you a good employee.

If you don't feel good when you read it, something is wrong.

Does it not outline who are you, but only show what you've done for a living?

If so, it's time to think about what you, as a person, bring to the job, other than past experience and the skills developed through that.

Or do you feel uncomfortable about it because it's gone too far in outlining how wonderful you are, and you are doubtful if you can live up to it?

Either way, it needs changed.

Your resume should outline honestly who you are a person and what qualities and benefits you bring to the workplace, within the bounds of what you are comfortable living up to. But it should highlight them to an extent you look at it and feel pretty good about yourself.

Gut feeling works just as well for resumes as for anything else. Don't go on gut feeling alone, obviously, but if you are feeling not good about your resume, it needs some TLC.
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Do have questions about Resumes & Cover Letters?

I will be posting answers to readers questions regularly on this blog.

Send your questions to:

resumequestions1@gmail.com

Resumes need action verbs

When you write a resume and cover letter make sure you include action verbs.

Activated, initiated, created: these are all action verbs. They state that you DID something.

Was taught, was given: these are passive verbs. They state that someone else did something and you benefited. Why should an employer be interested in you because someone else did something for you?

Here are a few more action verbs.

• accomplished
• achieved
• adoped
• adjusted
• advised
• assessed
• assisted
• attained
• audgeted
• calculated
• completed
• contributed
• decreased
• reparied
• delivered
• designed
• developed
• doubled/ tripled
• elimiated
• established
• executed
• improved
• increased
• inspected
• installed
• maintained
• obtained
• operated
• organized
• persuaded
• prepared
• proposed
• realized
• reduced
• saved
• selected
• sold
• solved
• succeeded
• upgraded
• won
• instructed
• trouble-shot
• uncovered

These are just a few to get you started. Remember employers want employees who take action themselves, not rely on others to do it for them. So use action verbs in your resume and cover letter to show the employer what you have done so s/he gets a good idea of what you can do for him or her.

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Keep your resume to one or two pages

How long should your resume be?

One or two pages.

Exceptions are:

• when someone has a great deal of relevant volunteer experience
• has written papers on their subject that are important to mention
• has the type of job where many short term projects are the norm, and consider it vital to let a potential employer know of them

In those cases, the resume should be written one or two pages as normal, and a third page added to list the extra information about the voluteer work papers or projects.

This allows the busy employer to read this resume as s/he would any others, and if it appears interesting enough for further consideration, s/he may then go on to read the third page.

The cover letter should clearly state that a third page has been added to give more detail on volunteer, papers or projects.

The third page should then be brief with headings only about each item. If the employer wants to know more s/he can invite you to an interview and ask you.

That, after all, if the goal of the resume in the first place!

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Accomplishments and Achievements: how to recall those for your resume

No-one can answer all these questions with strong stories. The idea is to read through them and answer those that fit for you and your experience, and write a short version of the story that comes to mind.

You don't need to memorize it, or write it down in detail. You just need to remember it and then afterwards think through and come up with the major skills that allowed to you do that thing.

Then in an interview, when asked about certain skills, or times when you did certain things, you will have these stories fresh in your mind.

Telling a story is powerful and gives better proof of your abilities than just a list of skills could ever do.

1. Describe a time when you proved your ability as a problem solver. What was the situation, and what was your solution?
2. Describe a time when you realized there was a need for something in a work situation, and then took the initiative to fill that need in an appropriate way.
3. Have you ever helped someone else, at work, to achieve a goal that was important to them? Tell me about it.
4. Employers love people who can save them money. Have you ever come up with an idea, or done something that saved your employer money? What was it?
5. Have you ever come up with something that saved time at work? Explain.
6. What on the job training have you found most useful. Describe it and the difference it made.
7. Have you ever received any award or recognition in the workplace, or for community service?
8. If you have had various different jobs in your life, can you explain how your next employer will benefit from this?
9. Describe a time when you took charge and showed effective leadership at work.
10. The workplace is changing rapidly and employers need employees who can accept and embrace change. Describe a time when you helped introduce something new into your place of work and the challenges that presented.
11. Tell me about time you were involved in a team, and how you contributed and what you thought about it all.
12. What is the think you are most proud of related to work, that could also be a benefit in your next job?

Create one liners from these stories to empower your resume. One story could well give you several one liners in a resume.

Here is great resume writing software to help you land an interview.

Now be willing and ready to share these stories, briefly, at your next interview.

Here is a great tool to help you ace that interview.

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What does the employer want?

How do you know what the employer is looking for? What does the employer want?

If there is a job ad, it's relatively easy as in that the employer will tell you what s/he wants.

But if there is no job ad, and you are putting together a resume to go cold calling on employers, how do you find out what they want then?

Well, one of the best ways, is to search online for jobs of the type for which you are looking. It doesn't matter where they are, you just want to find the ads, so you can see what skills and experience to highlight.

Even if you have a pretty good idea of what to put in, reading a few job ads can help you notice one or two more you hadn't thought of.

Another place to find skills and experience to highlight is in occupational classifications, which most countries, states and provinces have. However, one general site that can be used by anyone anywhere to get good information on what is involved in any specific job is the US Onet site.

This is huge site with very detailed information on a very wide variety of jobs and a good place to start looking for skills to mention in your resume.

More great resume writing help.

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References: who to use

Who should you use for references?

Ideally you should have 3 former employers/ managers or supervisors as your references.

You can have more than one person from any one job. You could have your immediate supervisor, the manager, and a coworker, for example.

Or you can have one person from each of 3 different jobs.

Employers usually like a reference from your most recent employer. If you are still working, however, they don't usually expect a reference from your present employer as they realize you may not want the people at your current job to know you are job hunting.

If there is some reason the obvious person at your previous job would not be a good reference, try to think of someone else at that place of work who would have good things to say about you.

If you have been out of the workforce for a while, or for some reason cannot use previous employers/ coworkers, you can use personal references. These are not as good, but if you need to use them, then do.

A good personal reference could be someone in any kind of professional position: a doctor, lawyer, minister, counsellor etc.

Failing that, just anyone you know who would be able to tell the employer good things about you.

If you have been volunteering, someone you worked beside as a volunteer would be good. You may not get paid for volunteering, but work is work and you were working as a volunteer so the reference is just as valid.

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