Putting Together A Resume..ADDED .. I need an Office disc.

Enough is enough.


Where do you start? The economy isn't that great.


I'm working on listing everything I've done (including being on the BOD of many horses clubs, Past President of a few, etc) plus my work experience. Same job for 25 years, customer service, running a business, putting out fires... I'm a damned good right hand but it's time for me to make the change, me thinx.

Name and contact info at the top . . . work experience, education and relevant certifications or training to the specific job you are applying for . . . small section on outside activities/interests (i.e. Clubs, civic organizations, committees, etc.)

I generally have one resume that I continually revise (even though I've ben here at the same job for 15 years) -- I would recommend trying to customize each resume to the specific job. I.E. if the job one is applying for is customer service based I might try to highlight or expound a bit (more likely in the cover letter though) on my experience with regards to customer service.

Dixie,

I have to agree with Jake here. A resume and not just a cover letter needs to be tailored to the job you are applying to. If you are applying to a customer service position and you have 15 years experience that is wonderful, but you should also list 4 or 5 bullet pointed achievements/responsibilities that you have done in the last 15 year. Did you have a 95% customer satisfaction rating? did you lead training of other customer service reps? were you promoted? how did you go above and beyond? DO NOT BE HUMBLE! All an employer has is a piece of paper to judge you by at this time. I cannot emphasize this enough, do not make spelling errors.

The order I use goes: Education, Experience, Seminars, Computer Skills (I work in an office). I would be happy to help if you want to PM me. I can also send you my resume for an example if you want.

Don't forget to clean up your Facebook thingy, if you have one.

Thank you all so much


It's going to be a process. Luckily I have 2 jobs, so while the first one cannot be contacted the second one can, and I know it will be glowing.


The Dixettes GF is head of HR at her company, she's offered to write it up for me once we get everything itemized. Sweet :coolsmile:


Thanks for the Facebook tip, Hoss. Appreciate it ;-)

Any one have one that they can send to me?

It's for a bold and noble cause !!

Shameless morning bump.

Hey Dix,

Good luck with the resume..I know you are waiting for the disc..wish I had one to send ya..In the meanwhile jot down ideas throughout your day when they pop into your head...That's something I couldn't do since it would be lonely in there

What are you asking for here? An MSOffice CD? Not likely to happen, but good news! There's a prefectly good, free option.

OpenOffice.org. Go there, download the thing and install it. Its not Office, but its fully compatible and has every single tool you're going to want to make a great resume.

Resume is about ready to rock & roll. I have it in OpenOffice.org, but it's a pain having to make a new copy, then edit revisions (I am applying for "specific type" job, and had to customize it to fit the bill). Figured an MS Office disc would make it easier.

Oh well, soldering on

MS Office for personal use is only $130 or so, and job search expenses I'm pretty sure are tax-deductible. You can also find earlier versions than whatever the latest is on eBay for a bunch less money. If you mostly just need basic Word without all the newest bells and whistles, Word 2003 and later does a good job. OTOH, if you're emailing a resume file to a big corporate employer, they will see it's a .doc file and not .docx, which is Word 2010, and it might well be worth the extra bucks to get the later version. Employers are using very tiny things to sort out job applicants these days. A smaller outfit is more likely to have older software themselves, so make sure you send those folks a .doc file so they can read it in their software!

And by all means do a Google search for your name and see what turns up so you can be prepared for that possibility.

Also, if you're applying for non-horse-related jobs, don't list every position, make a short paragraph that summarizes your activity.

Keep in mind that employers are going through piles of resumes (even 5 or 6 is a "pile" if you're the one doing the reviewing), so try very hard not to give them a reason to toss yours aside three sentences in. If you can summarize the most important and compelling stuff in a paragraph at the top, then list your experience in order in more detail below, you'll have a better chance of capturing their attention.

Lastly, DO NOT use humor unless you know the person reading your resume/application shares your sense of humor!

gyroforkin gives a good rundown of the basics. You won't go wrong with that advice.

Job responsibilities and accomplishments should be in concise bullet point format- NOT paragraphs. I look at a lot of resumes and I will ignore many with rambling paragraph formats- mostly because this (somewhat ironically) conveys poor communication skills; brevity is the soul of wit. Bullets get single important ideas across that will stick.

A resume should be no more than 1 page long (plus the cover letter of course) unless you have advanced degrees and publications. Concise is better always- a reviewer that has to fumble through lots of info to get at what you did and can do will sometimes just use the circular file.

The most effective cover letter that I ever saw listed the requirements that we posted in the job ad and their experience or education that directly addressed the employer need point by point (in bullet point format). It may be the only cover letter that I can still remember.

For something horse related you might have an intro few sentences introducing yourself at the top level, including total years of experience and what your major duties have been. "I have been a horse owner for xx years and have extensive experience in equine handling, health, and business management..."

edit: I do recommend having a section at the very end that is "personal".

It might say "Personal interests: dressage, camping, wood stoves, cooking, devil worship"

This gives the reviewer an ice breaker during an interview and may relieve some awkwardness. I would prooobably leave out anything political or hot button (like devil worship) that could get you ignored flat out.

More people lose jobs for personal reasons than for technical/knowledge reasons! If they don't think that you will be responsible, personable, easy to get along with then all of the know-how in the world doesn't matter. I only say this to defend the idea that the personal impression made is important and maybe one of these ice breakers could help.

I'm in the same boat, have one resume that I tailor for the job. I'll second open office as well.

The secret to job hunting is balancing tailoring and sending out in volume. It's a number game, you want to have the best resume and ,much more importantly, cover-letter/introductory email (simple, tailored, and easy to read/eye-catching) sent to the largest amount of people.

Best way to do that is find a really good headhunter. I haven't looked for jobs in a few years so I have no idea if they still use headhunters.

Using Word won't make document revisions any easier than Openoffice. Open the doc, click file, save as and create a new rev and edit it to your heart's content. I may be misunderstanding what you're doing here, but this process is really easy no matter what word processor you use.

Awesome post! Just printed this for future reference. Excellent insight on how a resume is analyzed. Thank you.

Good luck Dixie Cup..Will talk to ya soon...

I would suggest using a well liked, current boss as a reference. Starting with this one. Good luck with the search.

He's to stern of a task master, to be honest %-P

Thanks for the laugh !

Eileen, on top of all the great advice you have received already, Hoss makes are great suggestion about Facebook that I would like to take further. Join Linkedin once you have your resume made.

It is a great way to find people you know now and from the past. It allows you to start to build a network of friends and professional acquaintances that better places you in a position to hear or be considered for a job opening.

It takes a little time to connect, but it is constantly out there, so you always have a presence, and if there is a job opening that fits your skills, people call. Good luck.