Need resume help

LadyM

I want to redo my resume, but I don't know what kind of a template to use. I had a job for six years, then quit to return to college. During college I had a variety of jobs, mostly for six months each. But they weren't just burger flipping jobs, they involved skills related to my current field. But I have to list bullet points to make that apparent, because if you just looked at the job titles you'd think there was no overlap. The six-year job wasn't related to my current field at all, but I feel it should be on my resume to show a stable work history. So many jobs, so many bullet points. How am I going to fit all of this on one / two pages? I feel like I don't have nearly enough space.

I also am lost on picking a nice, clean format. My previous format was picked from MS Office's templates, and whenever I added additional job history I could never get it to match the formatting of what was already on there . . . FUN TIMES.

Intet

Couple of tips to maximize spaaace:
-You can probably get away with smaller margins (1/2 inch)
-Smaller font size
-Try to mess with the tab size, you can put the bullet points in the margin
-Reduce spacing between lines (in the newer versions of word, this is in the paragraph window)

However, employers don't really want to read a novel so you're going to have to cut a few things that are less important. Maybe try to group your variety of jobs into one section, like a bullet point for each:

Work Experience
• job title 1 (200X - 200X) - job description here
• job title 2 (200X - 200X) - job description here

zepherin

What job titles did you have through college, we can try to get fancy and combine them for a more cohesive set.

Also did you graduate college? If so List that first, list papers you wrote and vairous classes you attended.

Intet

zepherin wrote: »

What job titles did you have through college, we can try to get fancy and combine them for a more cohesive set.

Also did you graduate college? If so List that first, list papers you wrote and vairous classes you attended.

I disagree, if you have experience related to your field, list that first, then college. You probably don't even need to list the unrelated experience; employers don't care. It would help if we knew what jobs you were trying to get; you generally want to target your resume for those specific jobs.

MrTLicious

For formatting, a fairly simple and effective method is just to have dates and experiences separated into columns, and bars separating sections, similar to something like in the spoiler (though this one is a bit dense for my tastes, you'd ideally want larger margins and more space between distinct experiences)

As far as getting your stuff down to a page, I think we would really need more information about what you've been doing.

One thing you might consider (sort of similar to Intet's suggestion) is to group your work experience by the skills you're trying to convey, then have short descriptions of your responsibilities at each of your jobs. At worst, doing this will help crystallize what needs to actually be in there, because if you can't think of what that job is supposed to convey to your potential employer, you can probably afford to omit it.

zepherin

Intet wrote: »

zepherin wrote: »

What job titles did you have through college, we can try to get fancy and combine them for a more cohesive set.

Also did you graduate college? If so List that first, list papers you wrote and vairous classes you attended.

I disagree, if you have experience related to your field, list that first, then college. You probably don't even need to list the unrelated experience; employers don't care. It would help if we knew what jobs you were trying to get; you generally want to target your resume for those specific jobs.

As with anything it depends on the field. I suppose I should have asked what field he was trying to get into. Some fields are better suited towards listing education first especially if ed is more field specific. I think we are both sitting on too little information to make a cohesive opinion. I do think that we should try to combine his experience across his jobs so instead of several entries at 6 months a pop you combine the various experiences into 1 theme and go with it at 2 and a half years. For various retail positions just go retail sales associate do the period and then list accomplishments.

Also maybe move away from a reverse chronological resume format and do a functional resume format.

As with anything, resume styles are a tool, pick the one that makes you look the best, don't handcuff yourself to a style. It would really help if the OP posted a resume. He could redact his name and the names of his company, and for this type of thing we could still help him significantly.