Jobs (and resumes)

**pevergreen** · 08-25-2009, 06:29

Originally Posted by GeneralHankerchief

Keep it to one page, first of all. When listing your tasks you did for prior employment, list it in the order of awesomeness/relavence, not the amount of time you spent. For example, I had an internship last year where I mostly read the day's news and opinion updates on a subject of interest, and sent/summarized the relevant articles to my boss. Did I put that first? Heck no, I put the more interesting stuff I did on a far less-regular basis.

Also, you never handled a cash register, you "were entrusted with the safekeeping and accurate accounting of thousands of dollars in cash on a daily basis".

Nononono. At least to the first part. One page resume = bad.

You don't want it a thousand pages but you want the part they really need to see brief. Then the boasting begins.

However, your last point is correct. Make your jobs sound good.

You'll see when i forward you mine, I'll throw in what I actually did as well. I didn't dress mine up too much though.

**Lemur** · 08-25-2009, 06:34

This is what I'm talking about. I've always been a one-page rez kinda guy. You want an in-depth look at my life? That's what the curriculum vitae is for.

But then some people swear by the long resume. Go figure. And for those who are dumping their rez online, apparently keyword searches are all the rage with recruiters, so the goal is to have a .txt or .doc that's filled with every possible keyword that might relate to anything you've done.

Gah!

**pevergreen** · 08-25-2009, 06:44

It does differ from country to country, but the standard is definately going away from the one page.

**miotas** · 08-25-2009, 07:02

The words CV and resume are interchangable here.

I agree with just dropping off your resumes everywhere you go, I've had 4 jobs in my short working life, 2 from resumes and interviews and 2 from knowing people. My second job came from a resume that I'd dropped off 6 months earlier and forgotten about.

**Yun Dog** · 08-25-2009, 07:30

Lie your ass off

no one will ever prove otherwise and by the time they figure out you lied you already been there 3 months

its all true you are that awsome

if you believe it - its not a lie

**Banquo's Ghost** · 08-25-2009, 07:58

Originally Posted by Lord Yunson

Lie your ass off

no one will ever prove otherwise and by the time they figure out you lied you already been there 3 months

its all true you are that awsome

if you believe it - its not a lie

Very, very bad advice.

Employers do check, and if you get found out not only will you lose your job immediately, any reference you might have hoped for will disappear. In some countries, if you have been in the job any length of time, you can be sued for fraud.

Another piece of advice for the internet age: Make sure your resume/cv matches your Facebook page - and that said page is sober and sensible. Employers increasingly check such public outpourings for evidence of character and lies on the cv.

Final point: resumes written in crayon don't really make the right impression. Nor do comedy email addresses. We got a lime green crayon application the other day for a chambermaid position, now in pride of place on the steward's office wall. Not so long ago, an otherwise sober looking cv from an ex-policeman requested responses to "lardyfatbastard@*****.com". That also hit the shredder.

**Xiahou** · 08-25-2009, 08:04

Originally Posted by pevergreen

Nononono. At least to the first part. One page resume = bad.

A resume should be as long as it needs to be.

If you've only worked a couple of jobs, you should have no problem fitting it all on one page. If you have an enormous depth of experience and a long job history, you shouldn't be afraid of using multiple pages. It's really that simple. A needlessly wordy resume is just as bad as one painfully lacking any detail.

**pevergreen** · 08-25-2009, 08:21

True, but I am heavily biased towards the method my father taught me, seeing as it worked for me.

Don't outright lie, you can lie a little bit, but nothing major.

Be prepared to back anything up in an interview, and have questions beforehand. Beyond that I can't help, interviews are just easy for me.