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So, yeah. Getting a bit tired of the ol' job hunt. Figuring it's my resume that's killin' me.

What am I doing wrong here?

That blue flower graphic showing what software and social media you have experience with has to go, IMO. I know the trend more recently has been to include flashy little things to help your resume get noticed, but to me it looks unprofessional and like you are trying to pull the attention to that rather than your experience.

I agree with Wasabi, as does my ex-girlfriend who works HR and sees resumes alllll freaking day long.

Are you writing cover letters when you apply? I find I get about 50% more responses when I do.[DOUBLEPOST=1357794149][/DOUBLEPOST](Actually, if I can get in touch with her, I'll see if she can offer her criticism. She's done so for me before.)

The first sentence, at minimum, should only highlight newsroom or corporate videography. Putting both in there will look bad to either side. Honestly, though, I'd put an objective there. Rather than saying, "This is what I do" say "This is what I want to do." Make two (or more) separate resumes that are targetted at either the newsroom or the corporate needs - and go through the whole resume and make sure all your skills and experience are relevant to the job that resume is meant for. Right now you're waffling, and are not going to look as good as a person with just as much experience that only has one or the other on their resume.

I'm not a big fan of the graphic, but I don't think it's a bad thing. Same for the graphic font choice - I could see it as a stylistic choice. However, it's going to copy and fax horribly (the dark areas will bleed into the light areas on successive copies/faxes, rendering them useless and unreadable). Not that big a deal these days, but some companies still deal with printed resumes, faxes, and copy machines.

The action verbs you're using under each work experience are good, but you can improve those statements by telling them not only what you did, but how it impacted the company, or why it was important that a particular task be done.

"Social networking" <-- bad - doesn't even say what you did
"Managed social networking" <-- ok - it at least tells them you did something to do with social networking
"Managed social networking strategy which increased viewership" <-- good - it tells them the work you did had an impact
"Developed and implemented social networking strategy that increased viewership by 15% in three months" <-- excellent - you didn't just do a task, but you took ownership of it, developed it into something that would have a measurable and long term impact

Two or three "wow" tasks are better than a laundry list of mundane tasks, so don't worry about converting every piece of experience into an "excellent" experience (especially since that can get buzzwordy and sound forced or repetitious), pick those that demonstrate qualities you think will get you the job you want.

Again, consider customizing a few different resumes to highlight your skills aimed at a particular type of job. When you find a job you must have, go through the resume and customize it just for that opportunity.

And, as always, call everyone you send a resume to every week to ask for an interview until they tell you the position is no longer open. Don't wait for them to call you - partly this is "the squeaky wheel gets the grease" but mostly it's a demonstration of your intention and action.[DOUBLEPOST=1357794917][/DOUBLEPOST]Oh, personally I'd remove the references, and have them available on request.

Hi Greg,

IMO, avoid the fancy-schmancy layout, font and other special effects like that wheel to the right. Stick to traditional font of Times New Roman, 9 to 12 point size and black (maybe blue) type against a white paper. You might try a different type size for your name and the companies you have worked for, perhaps your title and Emmy achievement. But try to be consistent. Go easy on boldface type, italics, and underlining.

Begin the resume with your legal name, complete address, telephone number and e-mail address at the top center of the page followed by highlights of your skills & qualifications in point form.

Make sure your resume is in Word format. HR dept tend to be behind the times.

Don't add your references. Replace with "Will be provided upon request".

Cover letter is a must. Create a few templates. Make sure to cater it for the position you're applying for.

A lot of employers like to read about your objectives. Some don't but I've always been asked what my objectives are in interviews or they mentioned it.

Use more action verbs to describe your tasks, you require more Gusto


Remember that you have an average of 15 seconds to impress your employer.
They look at the top third of the page.
That should be your focus.

Sample :

Thank you all! I'll start tweaking in the morning.[DOUBLEPOST=1357796249][/DOUBLEPOST]...and then I'll change my resume.

So, should I put education over work experience? Or other way around?

Work experience goes over education, unless you feel your education is a better indicator of your ability than your work skills.

Hah. State Schools. Goin' on the bottom.

Okay, so I fixed it up a bit.

I mean, it isn't as flashy as my first which could be a good thing. I think the formatting came out okay...

Also, feel free to stalk I guess.

What's with the one page resumes?

I like that a lot better. I'd still like to see an objective statement at the top though - right now you're expecting people to know what you want to do based on what you've done. An objective statement would help set the stage so they know what they're about to read.

stienman said:

I like that a lot better. I'd still like to see an objective statement at the top though - right now you're expecting people to know what you want to do based on what you've done. An objective statement would help set the stage so they know what they're about to read.

Click to expand...

"Excelling in creating promotional materials foor small and large businesses alike"?

To expand my career in video production and marketing and constantly finding new ways and techniques to better my expertise in this ever-changing field.

That's a good start. Now that you know what you want, rewrite it so the person hiring you knows that they want you because you want to do the task they need done.

It's a fine line between a sales pitch "Make your business one hundredy billion times better" and a personal goal "Improve myself so much that I would feel cramped in your squalid job".

Some also use that simply as a personal statement of who they are and what they do.

I've gone back and forth. Here are a few versions of what my opening statement looks like. Early on it was a simple single sentence, but eventually my resume needed two pages, and online career systems encourage a longer opening statement:

http://careers.stackoverflow.com/cv/employer/2191
http://www.linkedin.com/in/madavis

And about 6 years ago this is what my resume looked like:

http://ubasics.com/resume/resume.pdf

Every time I come back to this thread to give more advice stienman already has covered everything I want to say. lol

I think the new format looks much better. The resume looks more like you want to be taken seriously and it's better organized.

So today I learned that my ex-girlfriend and I are not on the relatively good terms I thought we were

But anyway, steinman's and Jay have got a lot of good advice there.

Adam said:

What's with the one page resumes?

Click to expand...

Isn't this standard? I'm under the impression given the short amount of time resumes are examined, one page is what people want to see.

Seriously? Shiiiiit. I've always done 3 pages and I felt bad dropping down to 2 pages recently. Maybe entry level positions at one page? As a hiring manager, I would be hard pressed to choose candidates based on a one pager.

Chad Sexington said:

Isn't this standard? I'm under the impression given the short amount of time resumes are examined, one page is what people want to see.

Click to expand...

Most job centers and resume reviewers will suggest you stick to one page, and it is relatively standard as things go.

However, if you are looking at an executive position, or a well paid professional position, two pages is not a problem. You can't contain all this awesome in one page.

My most recent printed resume is two pages, partly because I've maintained my consulting throughout my other jobs, and I've been changing jobs about every two to three years, so if I want to contain my full relevant career experience it's going to result in at least 5 different companies. If I don't include them, the HR person will report that I've only been in the industry for 5 years, and that there was a huge gap between graduation and my first relevant job.

Don't be afraid of a two page resume, but absolutely cut down if you can. You shouldn't be fluffing things up just to fill two pages, but you also shouldn't cut things that are critical to your career or particularly formative to your skills just to stay on one page.

Adam said:

Seriously? Shiiiiit. I've always done 3 pages and I felt bad dropping down to 2 pages recently. Maybe entry level positions at one page? As a hiring manager, I would be hard pressed to choose candidates based on a one pager.

Click to expand...

Hm, this makes sense. I am not in a professional field yet, though I'm doing better than entry-level positions (finally!).

Two pages:


I guess I've been fairly far away from entry level for a while so I'm a little out of date on resumes:/

So you don't want us to know where you live, but you're ok with us calling or emailing you...

stienman said:

So you don't want us to know where you live, but you're ok with us calling or emailing you...

Click to expand...

Look again at the phone number

And the email, pfft. email addresses are a dime a dozen.

1 page is always best imho. Unless you have 30 years under your belt or are applying for something that needs a C.V. (w/ publications etc.) there is little reason a resume should be larger than 1 page.

If you can't effectively summarize the topic you know better than anyone else in the world, you probably aren't what I am interested in hiring.

Edit: Also I like to include a couple of lines at the bottom that simply cover technical proficiencies (SQL, Java, UV-Vis, AFM, etc...)

So I went and talked to our HR department. And fuck it if you guys aren't right. For entry level positions, 1 page is the de facto standard. For specialized positions, two pages is pushing the envelope, never 3. For CxO level positions, maybe 3, but resumes aren't really important there.

And now a message from The Department of Unhelpful Trolls:

I just want to thank y'all for helping me out with this. My resume looks so professional now.

Adam said:

For CxO level positions

Click to expand...

It's not what you know, it's who you know.

stienman said:

It's not what you know, it's who you know.

Click to expand...

My first ever job was thanks to my dad's connections.

My second ever job was thanks to my uncle's connections.

My third ever job was me getting a call after posting my info on a jobhunting website. Only lasted four months before I moved on to...

My fourth ever job and current one, which I'm very happy at, was thanks to the connections I built up in graduate school.

Bear in mind I live in Taiwan, and Chinese culture tends to focus a lot on guanxi, which is basically connections. If you know the right people, life's a dream. If you don't know the right people, have fun being the dirt beneath the boots of the people who do have guanxi.

So I don't know if this applies to the western world. But I think the principle is still a good one to keep in mind.

stienman said:

It's not what you know, it's who you know.

Click to expand...

What's wrong with this? Busnesses are made up of people and it's that interconnected nature of networking that allows businesses to function.[DOUBLEPOST=1357875657][/DOUBLEPOST]

bhamv3 said:

My first ever job was thanks to my dad's connections.

My second ever job was thanks to my uncle's connections.

My third ever job was me getting a call after posting my info on a jobhunting website. Only lasted four months before I moved on to...

My fourth ever job and current one, which I'm very happy at, was thanks to the connections I built up in graduate school.

Bear in mind I live in Taiwan, and Chinese culture tends to focus a lot on guanxi, which is basically connections. If you know the right people, life's a dream. If you don't know the right people, have fun being the dirt beneath the boots of the people who do have guanxi.

So I don't know if this applies to the western world. But I think the principle is still a good one to keep in mind.

Click to expand...

I have a feeling I might have trouble leaving asia.

The_Khan said:

What's wrong with this? Busnesses are made up of people and it's that interconnected nature of networking that allows businesses to function.

Click to expand...

Nothing's wrong with it. Most of my jobs were from knowing someone, and all of my consulting was knowing someone who knew someone.

Networking is absolutely key to professional careers.

stienman said:

Nothing's wrong with it. Most of my jobs were from knowing someone, and all of my consulting was knowing someone who knew someone.

Networking is absolutely key to professional careers.

Click to expand...

Sorry, I've met a lot of people leaving the country recently who don't seem to understand this.

Resumes should be 1 pages for entry level positions and no more than 2 pages for someone with 10+ years of experience. This is why a personalized custom made cover level per employer is imperative to stand out from the others. Also, make appropriate changes to your resume to showcase your assets for specific jobs.

I have never gotten a single job from knowing someone. My industry is composed of companies so large that their hiring process is almost entirely divorced from 'who you know'. A lot of science is like this (start-ups and phd level stuff aside.)

I really like the format of Adam's resume especially with the "highlights" type section at the top.

I guess it all really depends on what you're applying for. Two pages is the standard when I'm screening and I make sure mine is no longer than that either. I like to see personalized resumes as well as much as possible that demonstrate how someone meets our needs.

Personalized cover letters are a must.