Resume Writing Blog: Creating Prints

Does Your Resume Tell Your Story?

Are you confident your resume outshines by promoting your candidacy in a style that is coherent, deliberate, and especially engaging by revealing your value-laden career story? When your prospective employer reads your resume will it convincingly tell your career adventure? Have you guided them in imagining you...at work...for them?

What story? A substantiated tale of how with enthusiasm you launched and sculpted your career; how over time you have exponentially flourished; how your contributions have been unparalleled; how painstakingly you've worked; and how you've been successively "morphing" into the invaluable producer you are today! Hmm...think you may have some rewriting to do?

I guarantee you have a pick-me story. You've just discounted it by narrating the mundane and not accentuating the phenomenal. Eradicate "just-my-job" descriptions from your resume and tell your story -- but, tell it like no one else's business!

Resume Tips:

As always, if you have any inquiries, I am at your service: rvargas@creatingprints.com

Rosa Elizabeth Vargas
Master Resume Writer

Resume Writing: Ready, Set, Go!

There is major trouble ensuing in the job market! The problem? No, it is not the lack of jobs, the competition, or the unpredictability of the jobs you can find! Oh no, the issue I'd like to bring to your attention is the haste in which job seekers are approaching the writing of their resume. In turn, sabotaging their job search and creating conflict in their career plans! 

Whatever you think resume writing is...it is not a race, people!  In order to overcome the challenges I mentioned above, you must mesmerize your new employer and hold their attention long enough to brew in them the desire to call you. So, before you put pen to paper, contemplate the following:

Self-Reflection before Resume Writing

What do I want in a job?
How would I describe my ideal job?
What has my career progression (or lack of) been like?
What have I learned from my experiences?
Who am I at work and where/how do I best succeed?
What are my marketable skill sets?
Why are these skills marketable?
To which companies would I be and asset and why?
What do I need to sidestep?
(Ready for the most important question?)
What benefits do I offer employers over other QUALIFIED candidates?

There you have it. Please, before you rush into resume technique, layout, and race to the finish line of a completed resume, invest time in the resume prep and research process. Reflect on who you are, what you want, and where you would like to navigate with this new resume.  Employers and recruiters will connect with the person behind the resume--if you can show them there is one! Boring, mundane, and hastily written resumes sound generic; but you are distinct! Become strategic in your job search.

The result will be a targeted, well crafted, and amazing resume that attracts interview calls in a tough job market...and brings a smile to your face in the process (just an extra little benefit).

 

Rosa Elizabeth Vargas
Creating Prints Resume Writing Services
Master Resume Writer

Are You Properly Leveraging Your References?

All job seekers want to know how to properly list references, how many references should they provide, how much detail is needed. I came across this excellent post on the Career Management Alliance Elist and I thought it was extremely insightful and informative... Thanks to Don Orlando for his permission to share with you...

By Don Orlando, MBA, CPRW, JCTC, CCM, CCMC

Employers will want three to five professional references. A professional reference can speak about your performance on the job. Good professional references may be recent supervisors, co-workers (not subordinates), customers, vendors or suppliers, pro-bono clients, or volunteer committee members. Use friends or members of the clergy only as a last resort. They cannot give employers much of the information they need to decide if you should be interviewed or hired

After you get the references’ permission to serve (their willingness to be contacted by prospective employers), please give me (email preferred) the following information about each one:

• Full name and title, if any. (Titles would include Colonel, Doctor, Professor, Judge)

• Phonetic pronunciation of the reference’s name (if required). For example: "Sienkiewicz" is pronounced: "sin’-cavage."

• Job Title

• Organization’s name

• Full business mailing address (try to avoid post office boxes) including ZIP

• Daytime phone number including area code and the best time to call (if applicable)

• The reference’s private e-mail address (if available)

• The reference’s professional relationship to you (former supervisor, current vendor, colleague, and the like) and the number of years you have known each other professionally.

You may improve your chances greatly if you have a powerful LinkedIn page, particularly if your page includes recommendations and endorsements. If you have such a page, and you are satisfied it represents you powerfully, please include the URL to your page when you email the other information listed above. If you are not confident about your LinkedIn presence, or you’re not yet on LinkedIn, I can help.

Don Orlando, MBA, CPRW, JCTC, CCM, CCMC

One of America's first personal, professional executive career coaches Member, Board of Directors, Career Management Alliance Monthly columnist: Professional Association of Resume Writers; regular
contributor: Netshare.com
Published in more than 56 collections of the best resumes in the United States, Canada, and Australia 334.264.2020 - 334.264.9227 (fax) yourcareercoach@charterinternet.com

Email: yourcareercoach@charterinternet.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/donorlandocareercoach

What Kind of Mistakes are You Making on Your Resume?

Avoid making the wrong impression AND completely annihilating your chances at a brand new job with embarrassing and costly mistakes!

Subscribe to this feed as later this week I will post advice, stories, commentaries by resume-writing experts and job search coaches who belong to the National Resume Writers' Association and Career Director's International. These experienced career professionals will share some of the worst mistakes they have seen job seekers make on their resume. Some of these mistakes -- are jaw-dropping!

Care to predict what some of these mistakes will be? Want to share some that you have made? Post now and come back later!

The Experts Share Their Stories and Advice -- Next Post!

 
 

It's Not "Just a Resume"

Spoke to a potential customer today who had paid someone else for resume writing services and was now looking for additional help because he was not happy with the results. To keep his identity confidential we will call him Harry.

Harry emailed me his resume and we reviewed it online while we spoke over the phone. When I opened his email attachment, I was not immediately impressed, because his resume was a plain, black and white, nothing-special-to-offer type of resume. It did not pop. The position he was seeking was not clearly visible to me, the bulleted points had no quantifiable information, and the resume content was a weak attempt to promote skills in various different with no personality jumping out at me.

As I communicated to Harry all the problems with his current resume and how he and I could solve each resume issue, I grew increasingly animated (not kidding). I hadn’t realized that my voice got stronger, more energized, and I was literally coaching him on how his resume is not just a resume but an account of his career life!

Harry became very motivated and eager to work with me. He said (and I quote), “I want your enthusiasm to transfer onto the page of my resume—that is what I want.” That is when I realized, I had entered that zone, again, during my conversation “THE ZONE WHERE EITHER I SCARE CLIENTS AWAY OR CAPTURE THEM AS LIFE-LONG CLIENTS.” Harry was not scared away. Good thing.

After our conversation, I reflected on what transpired during this call between Harry and I, and here is what I deduced and now would like to turn it into some value for you:

I write resumes because I sincerely and passionately believe a resume is so much more than just a resume. A resume is your life history, account, biography, story, script…whatever you want to call it -–it is a synopsis of what your career life has meant to you, has produced for your bosses, how it has helped your colleagues, your customers, and without documenting it on paper, how it has played a role in your family life. Think about it.  Your resume needs to reflect how well you have invested 40+ hours a week, on average of 50 weeks a year, for as long as you have been working. Therefore, you need to create a document that motivates, inspires, makes you proud, and more importantly-- excites and convinces your new employer to call you in for an interview.

This resume balancing act of making you feel confident while first targeting the needs of your new employer is a very fine line to walk, because, as I have said before, if something makes you proud, but is meaningless to your new employer—then your resume lacks functionality and purpose. Yet, I assure you, you can create a document that reflects your accomplishments, tells your unique story, and is relevant to your new employer.This is where all that talk about finding your niche, your brand, your unique selling proposition, and targeting your job search will come in handy (more on this in another post. Stay connected).

My point? Don’t approach the writing of your resume as “it is just a resume.” Sit down, reflect, be your own cheerleader, and write your resume with a focus on the new job target while omitting your weaknesses and  promoting relevant value. Whew! You got some work to do.

When you are finished (now this is really important) go over the resume again. But, this time, ask yourself what the last 10 years or so have meant to you (focusing on the positive). How have you grown? What did you take away from each job? What connects each job to the other? Who is this person on paper and would you be interested in meeting this person?

If you feel just a tiny bit moved or proud when you read your polished and heavily edited resume, then you can at least be certain your resume does not come across as just another resume in the sea of resumes submitted daily during this tough job market phase. Oh! Make sure your resume visually pops... immediately!

Good luck,

Rosa E. Vargas
Certified Resume Writer

Transform Just-My-Job Statements into Resume Accomplishments

You Don't Have Any Accomplishments to List on Your Resume?!

You have no idea how often one of my clients will utter "I have no accomplishments to give you — I just did my job." You also have no idea how many times they were absolutely wrong!

Some of you may not have extraordinary accomplishments to include on your resume. Let's be frank and admit that some of you did not achieve employee of the year; did not become top 5 in your region in sales; did not devise a strategy that brought in millions to the company (stick with me. I am going to a happy place soon) and did not become the youngest executive in your company. Yes. Some of you "just" did your job. But, you did it right! Am I right? And if you did your job correctly you are a key constituent in a functioning team, you are valuable to your co-workers, and you are an essential part of your company.

As a former senior manager who has supervised more than 50 direct reports, I assure you, you are important to the success of your organization. Yes. I had my star performers who brought in massive amounts of revenue, enamored all customers (even the most difficult customers), and conceptualized revolutionary ideas. Yet, my team would not have worked as efficiently without the employees that performed their job right; because of these employees, we were able to maintain operations, administration, employee relations, customer service, and even sales at a functioning and workable level. (You know who you are and you know what I am talking about). You silently come and go, you stay out of the way, you don't create trouble, and you execute your job perfectly. I have deduced that this type of worker often has plenty going on out outside of work (perhaps attending school, family issues, or second job).

Now, this post does not apply to everyone and I am not promoting that you do not over achieve—my point is that in order to have leaders we need to have team members that are cooperative and willing to follow. (These folks make up a big part of our workforce and they need jobs as well). So, listen up. I am going to teach you how to highlight the value you bring your team in your supporting role. You will see how you can take a "just-my-job" statement and transform it into a hire-me achievement. Whala! Just like that. It is most magical. : - )

The Magical Transformation of Just-My-Job duties into Accomplishments

Study the following list and pay close attention to the verbs I used to position the accomplishment (formerly known as just-my-job (JMJ) descriptions). No. I won't be angry if you steal some of these verbs. I paraphrased statements that often short change clients. Don't ever use these horrible, value-stripping JMJ statements or I will be just a bit angry.

1. Entrusted with additional and more valuable accountabilities. (Before JMJ: I received sort of a promotion. They gave me more responsibilities that they did not give everyone else, but did not pay me for it)
   
   
2. Earned a salary increase for meeting all expectations. (Before JMJ: they gave me a raise once because I did my job correctly and performance reviews were up)
   
   
3. Alleviated under-staffing by working extra hours during holiday and peak times. (Before JMJ: they always asked me to work longer hours when things were really busy. They did not offer this to everyone)
   
   
4. Communicated with superiors and customers in a friendly and positive-oriented disposition, adding to a cohesive work environment. (Before JMJ: I got along well with colleagues, customers, and bosses. I was never a troublemaker)
   
   
5. Contributed to team efficiency by training and guiding new hires. (Before JMJ: I often helped new employees. They thanked me but there was no additional pay as I did not have to develop a training program. It was more side by side training)
   
   
6. Offered colleagues words of encouragement, nurturing company culture. (Before JMJ: everyone always came to me with a gripe about our leaders. I usually calmed them down)
   
   
7. Selected to help at another location or department. (Before JMJ: they once sent me to another location to help because I was a good employee)
   
   
8. Developed a reputation for consistency, reliability, and integrity. (Before JMJ: my boss once told me that everyone should be as easy to manage as I am. That she appreciates my work ethic)
   
   
9. Sustained work flow by maintaining an impeccable attendance record. (Before JMJ: I was always on time to work and never called out)
   
   
10. Saved the company time /money by preventing errors. (Before JMJ: One thing I always did is I made sure I did things correctly and did now screw up)
    
    
11. Aided coworkers by stepping up and working their shift, helping preserve a working schedule. (Before JMJ: my colleagues often asked me to work for them when they could not come to work and the schedule had already been established. It would have gotten them in trouble and our whole department schedule would have been out of balance)
    

Of course, the above are a few examples of how you can transform an ordinary-sounding sentence or comment into an accomplishment / achievement. These achievement statements are not 100% ready to become resume statements--a bit more polishing is in order. But, I hoped to quickly demonstrate the spin strategy. Now that you have been introduced to a different perspective, do you still think you just did your job?

Next week's post will begin something like this:

Help for the less-than-perfect Job seeker: If you fall in this category, you know why. You may have a track record of lateness; have been reprimanded or written up; and you have job hopped often. Sure, I will provide you some damage control and resume writing advice as well—we all need a job; don't we? But it comes with some good-old-fashioned talk to!

Come back—this should be fun and enlightening and if we are lucky, a bit controversial. Click Download Transform Just-my-job Sentences into Powerful Resume Accomplishments-print  if you would like to download this post in PDF.

Rosa E. Vargas
Certified Resume Writer
Master Resume Writer

Resume Writing Clinic is Open

Ok. So I am working on a post to help you all "grab the bull by the horns" or is it "pull the bull by its horns"? I can't remember. You get my point. I want to help you take control of your job search. While I roll out this new post (hopefully by the end of this week); I wanted to offer my assistance, FREE. That's right! Take advantage.

Let me know what obstacle you are trying to work out as you create your resume. What are you trying to hide? How can I help you sidestep it (politically correct way to say avoid). What are you trying to balance? Promote? Common, don't be shy. I am here to help.  

So what can we discuss? To name a few: avoiding age discrimination, hiding gaps in employment, not enough experience, too many unrelated jobs, been fired many times, have been out of work for a long time, etc. Perhaps how to post your resume on-line? What format to use? How to increase your resume hits? I am all ears!

Rosa E. Vargas
Certified Resume Writer

Resume Update for Career Changes in 2009!

Are you thinking of changing careers in 2009 in fear of your own industry's downturn? Before you commit to a new industry, please extensively research. According to Miriam Salpeter, Career Builder forecast a less gloomy job market than expected (check out her post "Best jobs for 2009"). She further references other great sources for career enhancement / job searching. One of the many things in her post that made me truly hopeful is the prediction that Green jobs will be in the rise! Great news for job seekers and the environment. Alright!

About Updating Your Resume for a Career Change

The following instructions will help you edit your resume for a career change:

1. Remove all the words (verbs, nouns, and phrases) that brand you in your current career. Of course, be careful not to remove too many nouns or your sentences will make no sense at all. Keep in mind that because resume writing is telegraphic, you don't need complete sentences and so sentence fragments are acceptable (so don't worry about the wiggly green lines in your MS Word doc.); however, you still must make sense. If you find you need to keep some verbs/nouns in, replace them with words less relevant to the industry you are trying to get away from. The ideal situation would be to use words that are closer in relevancy to your new career goal. But if you are new to this industry, this will be somewhat difficult to do; in that case, use more general nouns.

2. Create a Qualifications Highlight, Summary, or Strengths section. Before you get into your work history, since all your work history will be outside of this new target career, create a Highlight section so that you can list vibrant, action-oriented, and convincing sentences as to why you would be a great candidate for this new job. To create this section, reflect on why have you pursued this new career. Is there experience in your past that has prompted you to seek this career change? What skills are transferable into this new industry?

I love to create Qualifications Highlight sections because it allows me to bring my clients' most qualifying information to the forefront, even if that experience happened a long time ago.Take a look at this nursing resume sample and see how key qualifications were introduced immediately: http://www.creatingprints.com/Resume-service/Review-Resume.html

3. Be brief about your non-relevant experience.The more you elaborate on achievements and experience not related to your new career, the further away from the ideal candidate for a career change you will become! Still, infuse your resume with achievements--just put a spin on it so your new boss can envision you working for them!

4. Be creative. Use a graphic, logo, design, style, fonts that will help create that new image. I am strong believer in creative, yet professional resumes. All my clients receive something visually dynamic. Occasionally, I will have a client who wants no color or graphics on the resume -- yet, I still create something a bit on the modern side. Of course, content is king! And, I am not suggesting that the format replace the message. All I am saying is that dressing up counts. Take a look at this resume I created for a student with no experience in non-profit http://www.creatingprints.com/Non-profit-student-resume.html

I know times are a bit scary and challenging -- the most honest advice I offer you is that you must be resourceful, creative, persistent, prepared, and try and keep a positive outlook. Below I have linked back to a few post from last year that will provide a bit more helpful information. If you have any questions, please call me at 407-802-4962 or email me at rvargas@creatingprints.com

Keep Your Cool While You Job Search

Don't Miss Out on Job Opportunities...

Regards,
Rosa E. Vargas
Certified Resume Writer

Tips to Help Students Gain Experience to List on Resume

As a student, there are ways that you can give rise to a powerful resume in order to win the attention you deserve. By taking action, you will gain ammunition that will help you annihilate your competition. And, you will propel your resume from the bottom to the top of the pile! 

Ways You Can Gain Experience Right Now

1.     Join affiliations, groups, or organizations. Experience either in your school or off campus will help you tremendously. This experience will market you and demonstrate that you are involved in the industry, even before you attain your degree.

 

2.     Volunteer! Find an organization you can volunteer to before you graduate. Experience does not necessarily have to paid experience.

 

3.     Sign up for magazines, newsletters, and mailers. Nurturing knowledge of the industry you are

 going to enter is priceless.

 

4.     Get involved in school projects / presentations. Getting involved in any school project that is related to your intended field will help you when preparing your resume

 

5.     Pay attention to what you do now. Many students find that while in school preparing for their careers, they begin to assert themselves and exercise skills and qualities that are similar to those they will contribute once they graduate. Pay attention and keep notes of ways in which you are already acting like that professional you are studying to become. 

 

Further, try to gain experience by involving yourself and participating in any organized program that is related to your career objective. If you currently have a job and it is not related to your new field, you might find that you excel at work in areas that are not so far off from your intended career objective. For example, if your major is nursing, do you always seem to step up to aid those that need help at work? Are you sought out for your advice or coaching skills? If you are in an environment where people could get ill, are you charged with addressing their needs?

 

Begin to plant seeds!

 

Rosa E. Vargas
www.creatingprints.com

 

 

 

 

Keeping Your Resume Effective by Developing a Sharp Resume that is Concise and Interesting!

Many professionals prepare a resume that is so lengthy and detailed it fails to quickly capture the new employer's attention. Let us go over a few key strategies that will help you understand why your new resume must be a summary of your career history and not a report!

1.     Your resume, as a marketing tool, must be very succinct. Know that the purpose is to capture attention quickly by promoting relevant skills you bring to the position and netting you an interview in which you can further elaborate upon your experience. Therefore, don't discuss every job, every project, and every task, instead be very selective.

 

2.     Yes, details are a good way to validate your achievements; however, when you have too many details, your resume becomes a real drag to read, especially so for very busy people. Don’t misconstrue what I am saying, if your resume needs to be two pages long because it is just necessary – great – but, make sure it is really imperative and that the resume reads vigorously. If you have been selective as to what you will discuss, also be selective as to how much you will disclose. 

 

3.     Grouping ideas together for conciseness is a great way to streamline your writing. You will find that when ideas are introduced together, your reader will better grasp your message and it will clearly promote how you are qualified. In other words, avoid touching upon a subject in one area and then, again, discussing the same idea a few lines below the first mention.

 

4.     What you allude to or introduce on the resume, you will be able to elaborate upon during an interview. Introduce your qualifications and experience, provide some examples to substantiate your claims but don’t detail all. If you detail everything on your resume, you will find yourself narrating your entire resume during an interview – which is not interesting!

Bottom line is you have to keep your resume as concise as possible in order to communicate energetically and directly by grouping ideas, removing unnecessary details, and summarizing your career while incorporating substantiating achievements to project credibility. As you create your resume, please remember that your resume is a summary of your career history and not a report! :-)

Thank you,

Rosa E. Vargas, NCRW, MRW
Certified Resume Writer

Electronic Resume: How to Create an Electronic Resume

An electronic resume is the best format to use via the Internet and paste your resume into an online job bank (like the ones sponsored by employment or job search companies) or into the body of your e-mail.This format is also called Plain Text, Text File, or ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange).

Have you ever tried to copy and paste your resume as you complete online job forms only to find that it looks distorted? The electronic resume is your solution. More importantly, your electronic resume will survive a Keyword scan and make it to the "view" pile.  You see, when you send a resume via the Internet, a computer scan is performed to sort qualified candidates from non-qualified candidates and if your resume is picked up during a Keyword search, an actual person reads it. It is much like the process used to surf the web: you type in a keyword, the search engine selects websites that are relevant for you to view. And so, if you don't have those Keywords (nouns and noun phrases),you are invisible in cyber space!

Keywords are industry buzzwords, jargon, skills, and phrases that are relevant to that specific industry. How do you prepare an electronic resume? View these online instructions

Any questions?  Email Rvargas@creatingprints.com | Rosa Vargas, Resume Writer at Creating Prints

Resume Writing Help for Career Transitions

Resume Writing Strategies to Help You Make a Strategic Career Move

  Today I’d like to take a different direction from the topic of Nursing Resume Mistakes (will be sure to continue soon). I would like to provide you assistance with something that is urgent right now, especially in the current job market – Career Transition Resumes!

How do you go about producing an effective career transition resume? First, understand that you will not be creating a traditional chronological resume, because this traditional format will only highlight / accentuate your most recent job experience, job title, and company. What you will need in order to facilitate your career transition is a chrono-hybrid, functional, or skill-based resume. Now, I would normally discourage a skill-based / functional resume because it downplays your career history; but in the case of career transitions, these are the formats that will allow you to revisit your career history, pull relevant information, and promote skills, experience, and achievements that most qualify you for this strategic career move!

Focus your resume on transferable skills the employer needs: Many job seekers become really attached to promoting their main job functions even if those activities have very little relevance to their new job goal. People! Please, let it go… J

In the challenging situation of a career transition, you will usually promote skills and job duties that were secondaryto you. So, take the time to reflect, analyze your old job descriptions, find a connection between what you were doing and what you would like to do. Then, strategize and promote aspects of your old accountabilities that have the most relevance to your new employment target.

For example, if you were a VP of Financial Services and now you would like a Management of Operations position, you would focus on your people skills, organizational skills, and you must be ok with downplaying your executive-level accountabilities such as global-market strategies, market assessment, and enterprise-wide initiatives.

Do list your employers in chronological order toward the end: After you have developed your resume, while focusing on transferable skills, you will list your employment history in chronological order, because if you do not list all the details you will seem insincere and ruin your chances (read below).

At this point, it may be enough to list only your employers name, your title, and years of employment without developing a job summary—this all depends on how well you have written your resume thus far. If you need to develop a job description because you don’t have enough information so far or perhaps prior job task and achievements are actually very similar to your new goal, then select activities that most resemble qualifications for the position you are currently seeking!

Side Note: Developing a job description for career transition resumes is always so with a chrono-hybrid resume format which fuses the strategy of a skill-based / functional resume with a career history in chronological order.

Keywords: You will not be able to list too many keywords for this new field since you are transitioning (and you don’t want to appear dishonest.) Though, you must comb through your resume and remove keywords! Yes, remove keywords associated with your old career! By removing keywords related to your old field, you will assist your new boss in viewing you in a new light and you will not brand yourself as an expert in that old field you are trying to leave behind. Remember that the picture you are trying to paint here is that you are flexible, adaptable, trainable, versatile, and a quick learner who has already gained some exposure or experience relevant to the new industry / career target.

Don’t Exaggerate or Lie: One thing is strategically selecting from your past history and articulating it to help your new employer comprehend why you are qualified for the new role—another thing is overstating, omitting vital information (such as where you worked), and adding skills you cannot support! Play it safe and play it fair… Good luck!

Rosa E. Vargas

Master Resume Writer

Nationally Certified Resume Writer

Resume Writing Services

Ten Professional Resume Writing Tips to Makeover Your Resume

Assuming that you have already created a resume, the following tips will help jazz up your existing resume and transform it from ho-hum to Wow!

1. Target your resume to the job title you are seeking: This means you may need more than one resume version. A bit of tweaking here and there to include skills, jargon, and even the actual job title you are applying for will help your resume stand out and increase its efficiency!
2. Use a Profile instead of an Objective if you have strong experience: By creating a Profile that is between four to six sentences long, you will be able to sell yourself over your competition by marketing the reasons why you are the ideal candidate! For example, you may want to discuss your years of experience, your strongest personal attributes, and specific relevant skills that will produce the results the employer needs.
3. List achievements and not job descriptions: When you develop your employment history try to promote results, changes, and benefits. You want to discuss how you made a difference and not just how you performed your job.
4. Create an attractive design: This makes a huge difference! Imagine reading hundreds of resumes all black and white, all the same. It could get a bit boring. Add a bit of color, a graphic, a strong border; when done tastefully it will still be very professional and eye catching. When in doubt, at least bold your name and use a larger font size say between 18 and 26 points to create a captivating header. You may want to use a different font than Times New Roman to create your entire resume. Although I love Times New Roman, and use it, Times New Roman is often the font used by many.  Tahoma, Arial, and Calibri are great alternatives and I use these when I am writing for a very competitive industry in order to give my resumes a creative and unique edge.
5. Avoid too many bullets: Too many times I have rewritten a resume that was submitted to me with seven or more bullets under the employment section; this does not create the succinct, concise, and powerful writing you need in a robust resume. More importantly, your reader may begin to lose interest after the fourth bullet!  Keep it brief; decide what is worth bulleting. If it is an achievement—bullet it. If it is just a job description, put in paragraph form.  
6. A few Don’ts:  (1) Go through your resume and make sure you have not used personal pronouns such as “I” and “me”; (2) also, the resume is written in the first person perspective and so resist the temptation to write verbs in the third person such as accomplishes and communicates as you would not say “I accomplishes”; (3) Keep your employment information to the last 10 to 15 years, unless you are a doctor or in a scientific profession.
7. Relevance: Be sure that everything on your resume is related to your new target. In other words, if you list a skill, job duty, accomplishment -- it should have a purpose and a real good reason for being in the resume! Study the job posting and determine what the employer's need is. This is a very strategic and involved process as you would have to decide what MUST be discussed in the resume now and what can be discussed during an interview. The extra time will pay off! I assure you.
8. Keep it simple but dynamic: Instead of trying to impress someone with the use of superfluous and unnaturally elevated language, impress them with meaning, conciseness, and a focus on measurable (quantifiable) results!
9. Edit, edit, and edit: By the time you have edited your resume for the third or fourth time (smiles), you should have a very clean, direct, and concise marketing document. Scrutinize your sentences and question its meaning. Are you repeating the same point but just in a different manner? Do you really need to talk about everything you did at each employment? Why not describe your employment history briefly, focusing on unique contributions and concise information? Remember that you may create more than one resume and so what might not be good information for resume version number #1, could be great for resume version #2.
10. One page Vs. two pages: This point has spurred many interesting conversations, including among my career professional colleagues. Here is the consensus: whenever possible stick to one page as long as you are not losing any vital information. If you must go to a two-page resume, that is fine, but make sure it is necessary. You would not want your prospective employer to read page two if all you will be discussing in page two is your hobbies or employment from the 80's with no real relevance to your new career goal.

Good luck in your job search endeavor! If you need assistance, please email me at rvargas@creatingprints.com or visit creatingprints resume service. Any comments? Please post as I would love to hear from you.

Energize Your Resume with Targeted Action Verbs

One of the best ways to empower your resume writing is by using action verbs to begin your sentences. With action verbs that bring value to your achievements and infuse your writing with the feel for that industry, you will create a dynamic and robust resume that will quickly capture attention and help you win job interviews!

Be sure to give your action verbs much thought. Of course, there are general verbs that can be used for almost any field such as Achieved, Accomplished, Demonstrated, Displayed,and Created. However, with a bit of brainstorming, you can create a different marketing message (after all, your resume is a marketing tool).

For example, the following are great keywords for someone in the massage field (notice the different images and feelings that arise in you when you read these action verbs): Alleviated, Healed, Massaged, Soothed, Targeted, Isolated, Relieved, Energized, and Stimulated.

The following are great action verbs for a Sales Consultant: Generated, Drove, Increased, Attained, Achieved, Accelerated, Doubled, Grew, Won, Earned, Gained, Netted, Garnered, Propelled, Enhanced, Closed, and Delivered.

You see, by taking the time to select words that paint a picture of your target industry, you will project yourself as a leading candidate. 

For samples, information and resume services, be sure to visit creatingprints.com

Regards,

Rosa E. Vargas

Professional Resume Writer

How to review resume samples

How to distinguish a well-written professional resume from others in order to choose from all the services out there? How do you decipher between a professional resume and just a good-looking resume? How would you know the difference? The following will assist you in assessing.  Certified resume writers have been trained and tested to ensure they produce an effective marketing document (a resume). To guide you a bit, please take a look at the following example.

This example immediately promotes skills, experience, and qualities the employer needs in a qualified nursing candidate.

• Contains many keywords throughout the resume, ensuring that the candidate will be detected via computer scan. Employers receive your resume and scan it into a computerized system that will help them more efficiently screen out non-qualified candidates.
• It is focused on achievements as opposed to job descriptions by bulleting those achievements.
• Has been prepared in an attractive layout, yet professional.
• Contains strong action verbs and written succinctly, getting to the point quickly.
• The rest of the resume strategically reiterates and validates what has been claimed in the first part of the resume.

Please leave a post or email any questions to rvargas@creatingprints.com

To view a larger image, please visit creatingprints resume writing service

Different Resume Formats and When to Use Them

If you don’t understand all the different resume formats out there and when to use them – you are not alone!

One of my clients asked me to explain all the different resume formats that were included in her package; she wanted to understand each resume format's purpose and how to properly use it online. I immediately thought I should share this with all of you. Here is my explanation on the different resume formats…

Presentation Resume: Prepared with word-processing software; often created as an MS Word document (although, some are using Word Perfect) is the best-designed format. You will use this format to print and hand during an interview, physically mail, and send as an attachment to an email. Increasingly, it is becoming possible to upload your MS Word file to on-line job banks. Be sure to verify that the website has indicated you can upload a .doc file (.doc is the file extension for an MS Word document).

ASCII Resume: (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) also known as plain text resume or electronic resume. Your ASCII resume is the best format to transmit via the Internet because it is virus proof, can be easily accessed on any computer platform, and does not require that your recipient have the same word processing software (MS Word Program or any other).

Have you ever tried to copy and paste your Presentation resume into an email body or an on-line career site form only to find that it looks distorted? Maybe the bullets don't copy well, the apostrophes have become questions marks, or everything is flushed to different areas of the screen? Well, that is because you did not use a plain text / ASCII resume.

The ASCII resume is your solution. This paint text/ASCII version can be easily copied and pasted with no distortion because it is free of graphics, creative fonts, rulers, borders, shading, etc. I often recommend my clients copy and paste this resume version into the body of an email, even when attaching an MS word / Presentation resume version. The idea being that the resume will be quickly scanned in the body of the email without the need to download the presentation resume.

This ASCII version is not as attractive as the Presentation resume because it is simply a plain text resume providing the content of your resume without elaborate formatting.

PDF Resume: The PDF resume is a backup copy for you to use. It locks the design of your resume and will always look as created. It is not recommended you use this version to answer on-line job postings via email or uploading to online job forms. You may use it to print or share with people who have acknowledge they will read your PDF version for networking purposes. Basically, for your personal use (printing, backup, sharing).

Scannable Resume: This is an .rtf file (Rich Text Format), which is somewhere between the ASCII and the Presentation format as far as design is concerned. This version is easily scannable into employers' databases with an optical character reader (OCR) for the purpose of filtering through resumes based on Keywords and tracking the most qualified candidates. The scannable resume is also preferred for faxing because it is composed with crisp, clean fonts, and formatting (no graphics, logos, or fancy fonts)! Scannable resumes are less common now than MS Word / Presentation resumes and ASCIIs.

Web Page Resume: This is a copy of your resume posted on the Internet; either hosted with its own domain (e.g., yourname.com), or can be hosted by the company that created your Web resume (e.g., www.creatingprints.com/yourname.html).

This Web page resume can be created with HTML, XML, CSS and more or can be created with software that produces Web pages such as Adobe Dreamweaver or even MS Word’s web page saving feature. Although, I have seen Web resumes created with Photoshop and Adobe Acrobat Professional, but these are different files presented on-line and not HTML resumes. More about this another time…trust me!

Web Portfolio: This is a Web page resume that has been transformed into a super deluxe version! Web portfolios look more like actual websites, from elaborate designs to complex navigational links that link to your different resume versions, cover letters, references, recommendation letters, your personal brand statement, mission statement, an album containing samples of your work, certifications, publications, you name it…you can link to it!

The Web resumes and Web portfolios are accessible 24 hours a day, can be elaborately designed including with impressive moving images made with Flash. You can even include a personal photograph and jazz up your Web Resume or Web Portfolio with a bit color and style. Significantly, you can link to your email address for easy contact! With advancements in technology, Web page resumes and Web portfolios are becoming more and more favorable.

I look forward to a future post where I plan to discuss these exciting Web page resumes and Web portfolios in more depth. For now, I hope this post has clarified the different resume formats.

* Your help in creating this blog into an informative one would be appreciated. Leave a comment regarding this topic or topics you wish for me to cover and I will do my best to answer you as quickly as possible. If you wish, you can email me directly at rvargas@creatingprints.com

Rosa E. Vargas, NCRW, MRW
Creating Prints Resume Service