Resume formats may be similar from country to country, but the acceptable content can vary depending on where you live. If you are a foreign citizen looking to work in the United States, check out the resume differences before you send a resume to a US company. What you put on your resume may inadvertently cost you a job because employers may make negative inferences about some of the information that does not need to be on there.
For example, putting a picture of yourself on the first page of your resume may be done in several European countries, but it is not the norm here. Even if you are an actor or a singer, a professional headshot usually accompanies the resume instead of being placed on the resume. Decisions about you as a candidate should be made based on your skills, not your degree of attractiveness.
Leave off your marital status and the number of children you have. It is illegal in the US to ask if you are married or if you have children. This information could imply that you may have competing needs between work and family. For example, you may need to call in sick because one of your kids is sick and you must stay home with him. Or you may need to leave work early on a regular basis to pick up your daughter from daycare.
Religious and political affiliations do not belong on a resume unless they directly relate to the job for which you are applying. For example, stating your religious affiliation on your resume if you are looking for church organist jobs may help you. Or, showing that you’re a Democrat on your resume would be appropriate if you are looking for a position on a Democratic campaign.
Hobbies and interests used to be sections on a resume used especially when a resume was pretty short and needed filling out or when the hobby or interest directly related to the position. They are not used as much now on American resumes. Be careful if you do use these sections. The information you share can damage your chances of getting a position. For example, if you belong to Insulin Pumpers Group 75 of Detroit because your child uses an insulin pump, a potential employer may think you have diabetes. This could be used to discriminate against you, even though discriminating against someone with a chronic illness is illegal in the US.
Many college students join the Greek systems on their campus for housing, a meal plan and a place to socialize. Some also realize that it is a great way to build a professional network before they have to start the job search process at the end of their college years. Even if you are long out of school and in what career development theorists call the “maintenance stage” of your career, you should still put your Greek affiliation on your resume. Fraternity and sorority membership benefits go way beyond building a professional network. Your affiliation helps reach out to hiring managers who have either been a member themselves or who know the value of participation in the Greek system. This could be the tipping point in your favor for getting that first interview. The Greek bond of fraternity brothers or sorority sisters may be enough to get a hiring manager to want to help you. Greek system participation on your resume is a plus because it demonstrates that you know about teamwork. Many Greek organizations also participate in public service projects or what is known as philanthropic work. This shows your willingness to volunteer and give back to your community. Get involved with the alumni group associated with your Greek chapter. Look for all of the places your alumni group may have networks set-up-your alumni association, Facebook or even on LinkedIn. People often feel uncomfortable networking with friends and colleagues with whom they have not spoken in many years. However, these types of alumni groups are set up to make networking easy. They also give an opportunity to help the active student chapters on campus, giving you more public service points on your resume.
A hiring manager may look at your resume and see that you’ve switched jobs every couple of years. Some would see job hopping or frequent career moves as a sign of a restless employee, one who cannot commit to one job and doesn’t stay in one place long enough to be properly trained. Others may look at you as a go-getter who job hops to acquire new skills in a fast-paced industry. Job hopping is not for the faint of heart in a weak economy. Sometimes it is difficult to find that next job or change careers. However, if you do job hop for new skills, new projects, more money, more experience or to progress to the next rung on the career ladder, you have to make it clear on your resume why you are changing jobs so often. A functional resume which lists a skills summary, professional experience summary and your employment history may clarify your job hopping for a hiring manager. Noting (briefly) in your cover letter will let them know as well.
If you are job hopping to acquire new skills, list those new skills on your resume in your skills summary, in the job description and also in the training section if appropriate. Highlight new projects and show how they build on previous projects listed on your resume, if appropriate. While more money may be a motivator to switch jobs, stating that fact on a resume is not appropriate. You can illustrate that you received more job responsibility by a higher level title, more responsibility and more complicated projects. All of these may indicate why you are job hopping. However, you still need to show potential employers that you are a dependable employee by being dependable in all previous jobs. Show up on time, finish all projects by their deadlines and before you move to a new job. Contribute in meetings and one-on-one sessions to add value to your present company. Good career management is obvious when your previous employers are willing to give you a good recommendation.
As hard as it sounds, many employers look at you as an asset rather than a person. This doesn’t mean that they don’t appreciate you – but it means that they look at what you can offer to the company as a whole rather than an as an individual. This means that you need to look at your personal branding methods and how you can make sure that you are seen as the best possible asset for a company to have. There are different ways that you can do this, but the whole point is to look at what you do as a whole rather than the individual aspects that these offer. This means that you need to look at your resume and your cover letter, and even what to wear to an interview – to help make sure that you are seen as a valuable asset to any company. You need to make sure that a company sees you as a must-have brand, something that they feel their business can’t do without! Sell yourself and create a little bit of a buzz about you, so that they are curious about what they are missing out on – which will encourage them to employ you! Personal branding is easy to implement, especially if you take a sensible approach and make sure that you think about what an employer is looking for and how you can accommodate this.
Social media sites are an effective way to brand and market your work. Pinterest is one such site where you can create boards onto which you can pin examples of your work. It is especially effective for those with visual careers such as filmmaking, fashion, illustration, photography, or graphic or product design. A group of boards can function as an online portfolio where you can send potential employers or customers to view your work. This free, online portfolio can be paired with a creative arts industry resume to give an employer a complete view of your work and career. It is easy to get started on Pinterest. You can have a friend send you an invitation to join Pinterest, or go to pinterest.com and click on “Get Invitation” at the top of the page. The Pinterest invitation allows you to create an account by using either your Facebook or Twitter accounts. You then choose a user name and fill out and save a profile. Create your boards from your Pinterest home page by clicking on “Add” at the top of the page and then on “Create a Board.” Name the board, choose a category, provide a brief description for it and then click “Save.” You can then upload your work to your Pinterest boards. You can add and delete pictures at any time, including moving pictures from one board to another. Add captions or pin pictures with no captions. Once you have your career portfolio set up on your Pinterest boards to your satisfaction, you can send your Pinterest URL to potential employers and clients. For example, if the name you chose for your Pinterest account is cameraman, your Pinterest URL would be pinterest.com/cameraman. Be sure to list your Pinterest URL on your resume under the Online Career Portfolio section and also mention it in your cover letter.
If you are serious about job hunting, then you need to make sure that you approach it from every direction. It is all well and good checking job websites and applying for vacancies, but this isn’t always enough when it comes to finding your perfect job position and resume distribution might be able to help! When firms are looking for people to join their team they don’t always go via job vacancy websites and newspaper adverts. They are often in a rush to find someone or feel that they need someone with the right skills so they tend to go via agencies to find who they need.
Of course, if you are out of work then being head hunted probably won’t happen, which is why you need to make the job vacancy opportunities come to you!
There are companies that specialize in getting your resume out there to the relevant people. This means that when big companies are searching for people, you can ensure that you are at the top of the list. When you contact a company about resume distribution they can usually make sure that your resume gets out there to the right people at the right time. This means that your resume goes to the right industry people and therefore you have the best possible chance of being successful when it comes to your ongoing job hunt. Inquire about targeted distributions, not just distributing to anyone. Our resume distribution process asks for specific industries, desired positions and salary ranges so we can get the most targeted distribution possible. We don’t want to waste your time OR the recruiters time.
Just make sure that the resume distribution service you sign up for has the resources to get your resume out to the right places so that your skills are showcased to the right people!
Online media is growing and with it so is the opportunity to apply for jobs online. Many companies now opt to advertise their job vacancies online as they know it will reach a massive range of people and they have every chance of finding someone perfect for the job – and much quicker than old fashioned methods of newspaper adverts and classified adverts.
For some reason people often feel much more relaxed about applying for a job online and assume that emailing a resume in order to apply for job doesn’t need the same attention to detail that a posted resume does. However, this isn’t the case and you should make sure that your resume and cover letter are perfect, even if you are applying via email.
Just because you are attaching your resume to an email that doesn’t mean that the cover letter shouldn’t include all of the relevant details. Your best bet is to treat the email body as you would a cover letter. This means that you need to make sure that you include all of the relevant details – the position you are applying for, why you would be perfect and how they can contact you for example.
When you are searching for jobs online they will often have a reference number attached to them. It is essential that you include this reference number in your email cover letter. Also make sure that your email has a subject to it – even if it is just “Job Vacancy Application” so that your email doesn’t get over looked and pushed to one side.
Most people use the Education section of their resumes to list their degrees to show their qualifications for a particular position. This section of the resume seems pretty cut and dried. List schools, cities and dates of attendance and move on to distributing the resume. However, in today’s difficult economy, being competent may not be enough to land you that coveted first step to a job: being named as a candidate. You need to show the potential employer how you are going to wow them, exceed their wildest dreams, and how you will solve their most difficult problems. You can do this by showing the employer that you are a life-long learner.
By all means, list your degrees on your resume and leave off their dates of completion if you feel that it dates you. But make an effort to keep learning and to update your skills. Add related skills to your professional resume that will build on your primary skill sets. Go to workshops. Take continuing education classes, set aside time for informative webinars. Knowledge becomes quickly obsolete in this age of technology; those who keep learning and use that knowledge in their careers are the employees who will be most productive and get noticed by management. It isn’t as difficult as it sounds. Yes, learning does take time, but you get the opportunity to experiment during work and see which skills work in a given situation and which don’t. This is valuable knowledge, and it deserves a place on your resume, right under your degree list. Make it snazzy. For example, don’t just list “Internet Search Webinar.” Make sure you list the appropriate webinar name such as “Weddles Guide to Internet Searches.” Weddles is a respected and known name within the job search industry. The name signifies that you learned valuable information by attending this webinar. Above all, be prepared to talk about any new experiences you listed on your resume with an interviewer. Tell how this new learning can resolve employer problems and how it can be used to train other employees. Make a case for life-long learning, and you may just start a trend at your new workplace to give employees funds and time off to pursue new learning.
Resume formats may be similar from country to country, but the acceptable content can vary depending on where you live. If you are a foreign citizen looking to work in the United States, check out the resume differences before you send a resume to a US company. What you put on your resume may inadvertently cost you a job because employers may make negative inferences about some of the information that does not need to be on there.
