Resume Help and Examples

As you start to put your job-hunting action plan together, it can be helpful to get some resume help and examples so you can decide what will work best for you.

Where to Begin

The level of resources you need depends on a number of factors:

• Are you a new grad embarking on a new career?
• Are you returning to the regular workforce after being in the military or raising a family?
• Are you changing careers?
• Are you an active professional still making your way to the top?

This article will point you in the right direction.

Resume Help and Examples

The New Graduate

If you’re a recent graduate, you probably have the best advantage, as there is an entire staff completely dedicated to launching your career.

After all, colleges and universities market themselves with their post-graduate work placement statistics, so it's in their best interest to cultivate relationships with companies and search firms that want fresh young recruits.

The best source of resume help and examples for graduates is the institution: go to all the campus resume seminars and job fairs; work one-on-one with your advisor or job placement coordinator to enhance your resume; arrange a conference with the associate dean. Through your tuition, you’ve already paid these people to help you.

Recent high school graduates also have similar resources available to them. Counselors can provide a wealth of information on job opportunities and help with creating a resume and application completion tips.

A helpful book might be Resumes for College Students and Recent Graduates by textbook publisher McGraw Hill.

Reentering the Workforce

This may not be a spur-of-the-moment decision. Perhaps you’ve always known you would return to work when the children entered school, or planned for what you’d do when your career in the service was over.

Either way, prep by studying the industry or profession you're interested in through newsletters and trade magazines. This will give you a good idea as to what’s changed and current expectations. A book to put you in the right mindset is America's Top Jobs for People Re-Entering the Workforce by Ron Krannich. Krannich and his wife Caryl have written more than 70 career books. This one offers advice, thoughts to consider and resume help and examples.

A resume service may be a good partner to review your skills and write them in the most marketable way.

Changing Careers

The biggest challenge for professionals changing careers is how to demonstrate that all the experience accumulated so far will be attractive to a prospective employer in a new field.

In essence, you’re reentering the workforce as well. Only you’re probably doing a bit more soul searching than the average person looking for a new job. Again, prep time is important. Consider the following books:

• Career Change by David P. Helfand.
• The Career Change Resume by Karen Hofferber and Kim Issacs.

Standing Out from the Pack: The Active Professional

Whether you’re an instructor or machinist, fundraiser or lawyer, fry cook or sales director, presenting yourself with confidence and professionalism help you come alive on paper. The research you do ahead of time aids in crafting a targeted resume that sells your skills and accomplishments to a company in a way that they envision you putting all that to use for them.

Trade magazines and networking are two of the biggest tools used by active professionals to gain information about a company and its hiring expectations. This is valuable information to transfer into the resume and cover letter.

Competency-Based Resumes: How To Bring Your Resume To The Top Of The Pile by Robin Kessler and Linda A. Strasburg is just one of many books that help you zero in on your best qualities.

What Matters at the Upper Management/Executive Level

Honestly, I don’t suspect anyone at the upper management or executive level is reading this article, and here’s why: their job search strategies are on a completely different plane than most.

Committees and boards make most of the hiring decisions at this level, and executive search firms are the ones culling for talent. It's all about relationships and how news of leadership ability has traveled through the grapevine. No one on executive row is surfing Job Bank USA for his or her next gig.

However, the rest of us can still take away some tips from their process:

• Make sure the resume is built on marketable facts and results.
• Create a resume unique to each position for which you're applying.
• Keep networking skills sharp and stay on top of the industry.
• It’s not personal: it’s business.

Make no mistake: conducting a successful job search is hard work, but if you’re prepared, professional and have a positive attitude, you’ll craft a resume that best represents you and gets you in the door.