Seven Simple Resume Tips

Tis the season for receiving some ridiculous resumes. Recent grads and the growing ranks of the unemployed are flooding a competitive job market. I'm sure shredders have been well fed.

Writing a good resume is a skill, but it's not brain surgery. Google resume writing. Get even more specific and Google resume writing and your field. Better yet, hire a professional resume writer. Don't worry if you've only had one job. They dig deep for good material. It's a small investment in your career. Here are a few free pointers to get you started.

1- Create a new email account. Your college user name doesn't cut it. Lovelyladyhumps1@yahoo.com or kegmaster321@hotmail.com won't impress potential employers.

2- Make sure you've formatted properly and if sending online save as a pdf so that changes across platforms don't occur. Also, follow the employer's instructions for online submissions. If you can't do this correctly, why would he or she hire you?

3- Proofread. Have others proofread it. Mistakes, even a typo, make you look careless at best.

4- Use active voice when describing your skills in relation to your current job. For example, “Expertly handles a wide variety of customer service situations with diplomacy and concern" works better than "Handled customer service issues."

5- When writing your resume, imagine you’re the employer. What would you want to see? Why should he or she hire you versus the 1,000 other applicants?

6- Don't be vague. For example, “Marketed a product within a community” sounds like you're selling illegal goods.

7- If you include an objective, make it benefit driven to the employer. No one gives a rat’s ass about what you want. Except me and maybe your mom. We want you to get a great job.

Who Are You?

While chatting with Archbishop Wood's principal about my speaking on Career Day, she commented on the pressure placed on kids when we ask what they want to be when they grow up. I agreed and offered an alternative. We should be asking them, “Who are you?”

That question gets more to the crux of the matter. Decisions based on personal truths tend to work out better than those based on desire. Our wants can be misinformed and fleeting.

I wanted to be a rock star when I grew up. Never mind that I couldn’t sing or play an instrument. (That hasn’t stopped some.) I've never been one for relentless travel or repetition. So much for worldwide concert tours with night after night gigs. It's no surprise that never worked out.

Who was I in high school? I was curious, communicative and very social. In my spare time, I wrote notes, stories and poems. I’d answer that question the same way today. I do what I am in my job, and not so surprisingly, I’m very satisfied. Do what you are!

Whether you’re an astronaut or laying Astroturf, you can bring yourself into any job. Former QVC host Mike Rowe, who is famous for his show “Dirty Jobs” on the Discovery Channel, once wrote, “Never follow your passion, but by all means bring it with you.”

I think that’s brilliant. He explained it further in an interview for Outside magazine. “If you bring your passion with you, you can apply it to anything that makes sense. If you follow it, you’re going to be miserable until X, Y, Z happens, which might be never.”

Whether you call it fate, God’s plan or luck, life takes many unpredictable twists and turns. The one thing that is stable enough to rest your future upon is you. Who are you?