resume help

I have to write up a resume for a company that contacted me about an opening. i have not put together a resume in nearly a decade, there are a large number of formats to use - can anyone point me in the direction of what is considered "professional" on a resume today????

thanks!

Construction paper and crayon.

I see several resumes in my office and if there's one thing I don't like its when they are too wordy.
I don't notice the format of them, but just tell me what you did, don't tell me what you learned from it. Save that for a blurb in the cover letter or for the interview.
And unless you've earned it, keep the resume to one page. I really don't like a college kid telling me everything he's done. Tell me what is relevant.

Just Google "Resume Template," "common resume format" or something like that. Browse around and look at the images that they give you too.

Try to make it look like the samples on google that look "non-cluttered" and easy to read.

Make it short, to the point and relevant to the job you're seeking. Take out any jobs that are not related to the field or let's say 10-15 years ago. I agree with 1 page resume, unless you really need to
Simple fonts : Arial or Times New Roman-like fonts, not Gothic.
No spelling errors

This is from an ag-related firm, but the principles are the same no matter the job or potential employer.

AgCareers Newsletter Article

Whatever you do, avoid passive voice. Don't say things like "My job responsibilities included this and this and this", say things like "My employer had this problem, I was tasked to solve this problem, I took these steps to solve this problem, and the end result was this, this, and that, and I finished my tasks on time or earlier and under budget." According to resume classes my father and sister have taken (and I've been too busy to take them myself so I've just been leeching info off of them), employers really don't care what you're responsibilities are or were, because that doesn't tell them how you handled those responsibilities. Sure, they want to know what job skills you have, but more importantly they want to know what problems your employers have placed in front of you, what you did to solve those problems, and the end result.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jdoggivjc

Whatever you do, avoid passive voice. employers really don't care what you're responsibilities are or were, because that doesn't tell them how you handled those responsibilities.

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As a potential employer, I would care what your responsibilities are or were, as long as you included some info on what you did and how well you did it. Above all, use correct and appropriate grammar, punctuation and spelling. Today a colleague told me that during their organization's summer intern hiring process, they had so many well-qualified candidates, that in some cases, it came down to those who had the right punctuation, wording and other similar items in their resumes and letters.

(jdoggivic: I apologize for using your post as an example here.)

I can see nearly 1000 resumes a year in my job for a wide variety of positions. All the advice here could be right or could be wrong depending on a number of things like what time of position it is for, and what your experience looks like. If you have significant experience more than one page is not only appropriate but frankly expected, unless your entire tenure is been a reall nitch. If it's any sort of creative position using basic fonts will probably not send the right message. If it's an executive type position the expectation is that the wording will be what most would consider "wordy." Active voice is good advice regardless of the type of position. Format is pretty wide open anymore. I don't personally like objective statements. I don't really care what their goal is (and most smart people lie in it to match the position we have open), I care what they can do in the position we have open. A few basics go a long way. Spelling and punctuation are obvious but still missed. Spellcheck doesn't catch context issue. And you are so much better off if you address the letter to someone personally whether that be the head of HR, the lead recruiter or the hiring manager. In my case it doesn't matter how bad their resume is if they've done their homework to address the cover letter to someone, they get put in front of the hiring committee. And frankly if there are lots of decent candidates, sometimes that's how it gets decided which resumes get looked at. Resumes, attire and interviews seldom win the job for you but the can often get you excluded from the process.