Writing Your First Resume
Recently I was thinking about the process of applying for jobs and how for me it started as a trial and eventually became something I enjoyed.
That first resume is a real problem. What format and order do you use? How long should it be? Should you say much about your academic qualifications? You are young and it's likely that your qualifications out way your experience but you know they will be wanting to know what you can bring to the job in terms of contribution. In some ways your are selling what you are going to be able to do in the future.
Getting all of this to balance and get you to interview will mean you will spend a large amount of time trying to get it right and then when you don't get called to interview you start to question how good your resume is and more to the point, do you have what it takes to get that new job that will move your career forward?
I well remember agonising over my first resume but want to reassure you it does get easier and more enjoyable. This is what I was recently questioning. Why does it get easier?
My thinking is that as you gain more experience your hard won qualifications become less prominent in your mind and you have moved on to great job related achievements so that as you update your resume you have more job related experience to explain whilst your qualifications are there from a time in your earlier life.
With this growth in experience your resume becomes more powerful and you can now demonstrate more strongly what you can bring to that next job by drawing on that experience. This breeds confidence and confidence breeds success.
With this success you have more confidence to apply for jobs that take your career forward, gaining more experience as you go. The resume then becomes even stronger and you start to know that with each job application provided you pitch the cover letter so that it ensures your resume is read you will get called for interview. Your cover letter is now key for linking your relevant experience to the needs of the next job.
As your experience has grown you have become a more employable person with attributes across a range of skills. Your cover letter has to link the relevant skill(s) you possess to the needs of the job. You have more options.
When you are able to see yourself in this light as an experienced person capable of making strong contributions you have confidence in every job application you make because you will get called to interview.
This is the enjoyable part and is a long way from agonising over that first resume. But it was worth the initial effort!
How to do a Resume
That first resume is a real problem. What format and order do you use? How long should it be? Should you say much about your academic qualifications? You are young and it's likely that your qualifications out way your experience but you know they will be wanting to know what you can bring to the job in terms of contribution. In some ways your are selling what you are going to be able to do in the future.
Getting all of this to balance and get you to interview will mean you will spend a large amount of time trying to get it right and then when you don't get called to interview you start to question how good your resume is and more to the point, do you have what it takes to get that new job that will move your career forward?
I well remember agonising over my first resume but want to reassure you it does get easier and more enjoyable. This is what I was recently questioning. Why does it get easier?
My thinking is that as you gain more experience your hard won qualifications become less prominent in your mind and you have moved on to great job related achievements so that as you update your resume you have more job related experience to explain whilst your qualifications are there from a time in your earlier life.
With this growth in experience your resume becomes more powerful and you can now demonstrate more strongly what you can bring to that next job by drawing on that experience. This breeds confidence and confidence breeds success.
With this success you have more confidence to apply for jobs that take your career forward, gaining more experience as you go. The resume then becomes even stronger and you start to know that with each job application provided you pitch the cover letter so that it ensures your resume is read you will get called for interview. Your cover letter is now key for linking your relevant experience to the needs of the next job.
As your experience has grown you have become a more employable person with attributes across a range of skills. Your cover letter has to link the relevant skill(s) you possess to the needs of the job. You have more options.
When you are able to see yourself in this light as an experienced person capable of making strong contributions you have confidence in every job application you make because you will get called to interview.
This is the enjoyable part and is a long way from agonising over that first resume. But it was worth the initial effort!
How to do a Resume
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