Feature Article: The Top 10 Things You Need to Know about E-Resumes and Posting Your Resume Online
Special Feature: What Resume Format is Best for You?
Bonus Feature: Resume Critique Worksheet
Extra Feature: How to Handle a Gap in Your Job History
Quintessential Site: Featured Career Web Site of this Issue
Latest Additions: What's New on Quintessential Careers
The Career Doctor: Answering Your Questions
Q TIPS: Quick and Quintessential Tips to Guide Your Job Search
Notes from the Editor: About this Issue...
Welcome to our Third Anniversary issue of QuintZine, in which we are celebrating by
bringing you FIVE features on resumes.
The topic of resumes is one we're asked about perhaps more than any other. Folks
want to know what the latest trends in resumes are. Technology is responsible
for many emerging resume trends. The fact that the vast majority of large employers
place resumes directly in keyword-searchable databases has changed the whole resume scene.
Resume formats -- both the way your resume is organized and the way it is prepared for delivery
to recipients -- could not be more important. This QuintZine covers those issues and much more.
We're excited about our third anniversary. Since March 2000, we've gone from a list of about 50 folks who
received a pre-QuintZine mailing about new features on the Quintessential Careers site to a list of nearly
7,000 subscribers, and we continue to grow.
Thank you, readers, for making QuintZine a huge success.
Take our "Real World" Survey and be Eligible for a Prize Drawing!
If you've graduated from college in the last three years or so, we encourage you to complete our quick, 12-question
Real World survey to assist us with a couple of upcoming articles. (You can be quoted completely anonymously if you choose).
Those who complete the survey by April 21, 2003, will be eligible for a drawing for a complete Resume or Resume
Makeover and Cover Letter Electronic Package (a value of up to $165) and from our sister site, Quintessential Resumes
and Cover Letters. Winner will be drawn at random on April 22, 2003.
The Top 10 Things You Need to Know about E-Resumes and Posting Your Resume Online
by Katharine Hansen
The e-resume, short for electronic resume, is a vital tool for today's job-seeker. But what
exactly is an electronic resume? Even among career experts, opinions vary about what is or is not an
electronic resume. It's a broadly used term that covers several types of resumes. What ties these resume types
together is mode of delivery. Rather than traditional modes of resume delivery -- snailmail, faxing, and
hand-delivery -- e-resumes are delivered electronically -- via e-mail, submitted to Internet job boards, or residing
on their own Web page. Then there are sort of middle-tech cousins of e-resumes, scannable resumes -- used less and
less frequently these days -- that are in print format but are ready to become electronic resumes through optical
scanning. To learn more about the many forms of e-resumes, see our accompanying article,
Your E-resume's File Format
Aligns with its Delivery Method.
Chronological. Functional. Chrono-Functional. Hybrid. Combination. Print. Formatted. RTF. Electronic. Text.
Scannable. PDF. Web-based. All of these are terms that are tossed around when people talk about resume formats.
How is a job-seeker supposed to know the best resume format in any given situation? Do you need more than one
format? Just how many formats do you need?
First, it's important to note that the term "format" has a couple of different meanings. When people
talk about resume
"format" they may be referring to:
The way the content of the resume is organized.
The technological approach to the resume's preparation according to how it is intended to be delivered to its recipient.
Both of the above.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of different types of resumes? What are the common elements of all resumes?
This article addresses these issues, giving you all the information you need to write
the best resume for you --
given your job history and job-search strategy.
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While it is always a good idea to get numerous people -- career professionals, former bosses and colleagues,
mentors, and the like -- to review and evaluate your resume, you might want to first consider reviewing and critiquing
your resume using the simple table presented in this article. The most important thing to remember is to be sure you totally
understand each criterion -- and then be completely honest on how your resume rates. (If you feel you cannot possibly be
honest with yourself, then get a professional critique.)
Our Resume Critique Worksheet,
offers a review of the 10 factors you should use to evaluate your resume.
Quintessential News: Improved Resume Samples
We've been working hard to spiff up the look and content of our Web-based resume samples.
These samples had their origins with our students and were produced at a time when, frankly, we knew a lot
less about resumes than we know now. But these improved resumes reflect the knowledge we've gained since those
days and are some darned nice examples of what you can do with a Web-based resume. Check out our
free resume samples.
We also offer free samples of the resumes prepared by our
sister site, Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters.
Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is required for viewing these resumes, can be downloaded free at the above address.
Extra Feature: Handling Gaps on Resume
How to Handle a Gap in Your Job History
by Cynthia Wright
When you think of The Gap, we all think of the clothing
store with the super skinny models and cute ads, right?
Well, in the wonderful world of resume writing and job
searches, a gap in employment is a totally different ball
game. In fact, it's one of the things that causes the most
stress and fear in the hearts and minds of the job-seeker.
Our article tells you why and tells you how to handle and
minimize job-history gaps. Read the full article.
Ad: Get Help Mapping Out a New Career
Based on years of research, the Jackson Vocational Interest
Survey (JVIS) accurately measures your interests, showing how
they relate to the worlds of study and work, and mapping out
your route to an interesting career.
Recently, we've been spotlighting Web sites that are not only Top Ten Quintessential Careers
job site, but also among the 50 Best of the Best job and resume Web sites as designated
by CAREERXROADS. TrueCareers certainly fills the bill.
TrueCareers is a national career site bringing professional, degreed candidates and the companies that
value them together. Nearly 90 percent of TrueCareers users have a college degree, and average six years of experience.
TrueCareers is affiliated with Sallie Mae, the nation's leader in student loan financing.
At TrueCareers, jobseekers can create and manage resumes manage cover letters, set up job-search agents, search for jobs,
and save their job searches.
The site's Career Resources section, with content provided by WetFeet, contains subsections on Who's Hiring?, Job Search,
Career Profiles, Industry Profiles, Cover Letters, Resumes, Interviewing, Salary Negotiation, Get Promoted, Career Transitions,
and Continuing Education.
A section on hot companies is a nice feature.
A particularly helpful area of TrueCareers is its FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) in which visitors
can find the answers to such questions as "Why Should I Post My Resume On TrueCareers?" "How do I Use Keywords
to Maximize My Job Search?" and "If I don't have time to look for a better job, what can I do to stay up to date
on job openings?"
accjobs.com --
a job site for UK accounting and finance professionals, where job-seekers can
search hundreds of job listings (by keyword, type of job, location, salary), as
well as received new job listings via email. Also includes numerous other
features, including industry news and events, forums, and more. Free to job-seekers.
Allen's Guide to Summer Jobs --
where college students and other adults can browse through job listings for summer camps and
travel programs -- for all types of jobs, from instructors to tour guides, to directors. Free to job-seekers.
4 Labors of Love -- an
Internet volunteer initiative where people looking for volunteering experiences or
internships can register your interests and skills and search the volunteering
database (by location and keyword) for opportunities that interest you. Free to job-seekers.
HireHealth.com --
where biopharmaceutical (pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and healthcare) professionals --
from laboratory technicians to executives -- can search job listings (by keyword, location,
date posted) as well as post your resume. Also features some great career resources. Free to job-seekers.
Find even more career and job site additions to Quintessential Careers by visiting our
Latest Additions section.
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College students and new grads should check out this e-book,
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Mario writes: "I was wondering how to put together a good objective for my resume.... the one I'm using currently says this:
"My goal and objective is to finish technical school get a career in my major. After working that career for at
least a year I will return to the university and get my bachelor's degree in C.I.S and Marketing." I'm personally not satisfied with this
objective. Please revise it for me or tell me what you think it should be like."
Diane writes: "I am currently preparing an educational CV. I see your outline on the
Web site. Do I label each area
and then add my personal data? I'm really confused on how the layout should be, and my CV is due this Friday."
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Q TIPS: Quick and Quintessential Career & Job Tips
ResumeDoctor.com recently undertook the immense project of conducting a survey of more than 2,500 recruiters/headhunters
throughout the U.S. and Canada to find out their "Pet Peeves" about resumes. These recruiters hailed from varied specialties
and industries, including engineering, information technology, sales and marketing, executive, biotech, healthcare, administrative,
and finance. ResumeDoctor.com sought to find out recruiters' resume likes and dislikes and what it takes
to get them to read a resume. Keeping in mind that these are the peeves of recruiters/headhunters, which may, in some cases,
be different from those of HR people and hiring managers, check out the top 20 results of the survey. If you go to the
actual
survey results, you'll have the opportunity to click each item for a detailed discussion:
20. Burying important info in the resume
19. Gaps in employment [Editor's note: See our article on handling
gaps in employment in this issue.]
18. 1st or 3rd person. Resumes written in either 1st or 3rd person
17. No easy-to-follow summary
16. Pictures, graphics, or URL links no recruiter will call up
15. Resumes sent in .pdf, .zip files, faxed, Web page resumes,
mailed resumes and not sent as WORD Attachment. [Editor's note:
Be aware that this peeve comes from recruiters/headhunters, and
that some employers -- and even some recruiters/headhunters
may actually PREFER resumes in some of these formats; see our article,
Your E-resume's File Format Aligns with its Delivery Method,
for a complete discussion of these formats.]
14. Font choice. Poor font choice or style
13. Objectives or meaningless introductions [Editor's note:
See our article, Should You Use a Career Objective on Your Resume?]
12. Lying, misleading (especially in terms of education, dates and inflated titles)
11. Employer info not included and/or not telling what industry or product candidate worked in
10. Personal information not relative to the job
9. Unqualified candidates. Candidates who apply to positions they are not qualified for
8. Long paragraphs. No use of bullet-points
7. Long resumes
6. Functional resumes -- as opposed to writing a Chronological Resume [Editor's note: While functional
resumes are a particular peeve among recruiters/headhunters, they still have their uses. See our article in this issue,
What Resume Format is Best for You?]
5. Poor formatting of boxes, templates, tables, use of header and footers
4. Contact information. None or inaccurate contact info or unprofessional email addresses
3. Dates not included or inaccurate dates
2. Too duty oriented. Reads like a job description and fails to explain what the job seeker's accomplishments
were and how they did so. [Editor's note: See our article,
For Job-Hunting Success: Track and Leverage Your
Accomplishments.]
1. Spelling errors, typos and poor grammar
We've mentioned the tax deductibility of resume services in this space before, but at this time of
year, the information bears repeating.
The Career News notes that, according
to Aran Dokovna, partner at Saxe, Roth, Dokovna, Schwartz & Lynskey, a Van Nuys, CA, public accounting firm specializing
in tax preparation and planning, "most of the costs associated with job searching can be deducted." Deductible expenses include
resume-writing services and software, employment coaching services, resume printing, mailing, and other resume posting and
distribution service expenses. The firm further noted that travel expenses to and from interviews, including parking,
gasoline, lodging, airfare, and overnight meals, are deductible but fall under the category of "miscellaneous deductions" and must
exceed 2 percent of your adjusted gross income to be deductible. For more information on job-seeking deductions, see the
section on "miscellaneous deductions" in IRS Publication 17 or contact a professional tax planner.
Is the resume here to stay? Or, in a world where myriad job boards and employer career centers request that
candidates submit profile information in an endless array of configurations, could the resume be dead? Not according
to Dave Lefkow, an interactive solutions consultant for TMP Worldwide.
"The bottom line is that candidates all still have resumes. That will probably never
change unless one system becomes the standard for all career Web site recruiting as we know it and allows reuse among
employers -- a highly unlikely scenario," Lefkow predicts in The Electronic Recruiting Daily. He further exhorts the recruiting
technology industry against making it "harder for candidates to use the information we know they already have." Lefkow asserts that
"creating too much structure for candidates and too many obstacles to applying is, in my opinion, recruiting technology gone bad.
It is up to us as an industry to create a win-win technology scenario that simultaneously eases the burden for recruiters
and candidates."
Read the full article.
If your school, organization, business or other
entity has a Web site, we welcome you to link to Quintessential Careers.
If you already have a link from your site, we want you to know we
appreciate it. If you don't have a link to us, please
send a request to your site's Webmaster to establish a
link to Quintessential Careers. Thanks so much!
For more details (including sample HTML copy), see our
Link to Us page.
QuintZine: Topics in Upcoming Issues
WATCH FOR feature articles on these topics in upcoming
issues of QuintZine:
* The interview as sales call
* Getting the raise you deserve
* 10 things I wish I'd known before starting my first job
* Letters of recommendation
* Employer research: step by step
* Learn about careers through job-shadowing
* 10 job-search reality checks
* Is job flexibility right for you?
* First days on the job: Strategies to get ahead
* Dealing with a bad boss
* Making your case for telecommuting
* Don't wait by the phone: Following up on all job leads
* Dining etiquette
* The relationship between personality and career choice
* What employers are really looking for
* New series: 10 mistakes to avoid in: resumes, cover letters, interviews, salary
negotiation, career change, networking, job-search
* Quintessential Career Profiles of YOU, our readers
* Q&As with well-known career experts
* Book reviews
. . . and much, much more!
Quintessential Careers also offers writing services
for those who have been asked to give a speech and
need assistance in researching and writing their
remarks.
Need a speaker for your career-oriented conference or
event at your college or organization? The Quintessential
Careers Speakers Bureau can help! Our quintessential experts
can provide presentations/workshops on a variety of
career-related topics.
