Kristin Said:

Any trends for writing resumes in this gloomy market?

We Answered:

There are several good websites that can give you the basics of writing a good cover letter and resume. It is important, however, to understand the differences of each.

A resume (whether it is one-page or two), should highlight your overall skills and qualifications for the work you are pursuing. You will want to take the time, however, of customizing your resume each time you send it out so that you are sure to mention the specific skills or qualifications asked for in the job description.

A cover letter should always be specifically written for each job. It should NOT be a rehash or your resume, but instead an expanded explanation of the skills and qualifications you possess that make you an ideal candidate for the job.

In a cover letter, you will want to make sure you have read the job description very carefully and pointed out your related skills. Use the same wording as was used in the job posting. If the job posting says, "... must be able to handle multiple complex projects at the same time," then say "... proven ability to handle multiple complex projects at the same time."

Many hiring managers will actually review your cover letter and resume with a mental checklist of the skills they are looking for. So don't deviate too much from what they have asked for.

Unlike a resume, a cover letter should never exceed one page. Again, you will find good tips for writing cover letters on the Web.

Good luck to you.

Eva Said:

any one out there good with writing resumes?

We Answered:

i will be happy to help you if you like

Javier Said:

Need help with writing resumes?

We Answered:

I would need to look at your resume, but the best place to go is MIT Career services and read. Hear are the Links:

http://web.mit.edu/career/www/guide/resu…
http://web.mit.edu/career/www/students/w…

If you want, shoot me over your resume and I will adjust it.

Maurice Said:

Can you recommend a good book on writing resumes?

We Answered:

I'm not sure that I've ever come across a good book as far as writing resumes, but I did learn a lot about writing good ones from taking several Technical Writing courses.

For pretty much all of your bullets and stuff where you stated what you did, you want to start with a verb. Use an action verb and keep lines concise and to the point. After you write the line, go back and look at it and say, "Can I get the same point across without using so many words and it will still sound good?"

Your resume is a reflection of you. I just recently looked over several resumes for a recent hire we had and a majority of them weren't that good. I got the feeling that if they don't spend the time and effort or have the knowledge to write a good resume, how good of a worker are they really going to be?

Honestly, you really want a general resume for bunches of companies to look at, but make it easily adaptable so you can modify it for a company you want to target for a job. If they give you a job description or something like that, scan the job description and adapt your resume to fit what they are looking for. I'm not saying to lie by any means. I'm saying to put forward your attributes first in your resume that meet what they describe they are looking for in the description. For example, if I'm putting in a resume for a packaging engineer position at a computer company, I'll put my experience with cushioning design and experience with electrostatic bags and such towards the beginning. For an automotive company, I'd put my experience with returnable containers and warehouse management first. For a general one, I'll put one together I think would make me look best to a wide variety of companies. Then for the specialized ones I'll just take the general one, modify it a bit by moving a few things around and I'm done.


In the general resume, put what you think are your strongest attributes towards the top. Don't worry about the reverse date thing. About naming your most current employer first etc. You are wanting the job. So you put forward the info first that is going to grab their attention and say, "Hey, this person stands out!"

Probably the most important part is the objective. If I remember correctly, you start off with the job title then you state what you are wanting. For me, I might put something like:

"Packaging engineer seeking mid-level position at medium to large company."

That tells them right off what type of job I'm seeking. I want to be a packaging engineer, I already have over 5 years of experience so I want something better than an entry level position, but I'm not looking to apply for a senior engineer position and that I want to work at a descent size company. You can be a little more descriptive in the Objective, but if you get to descriptive it can hurt you more than help you. The person looking at the resume will be like "Whoah, this person is a little demanding on what they want." So you have to be careful about putting too much in the Objective. And never use the word looking in that line. Looking gives the impression of like "I'm looking around the room" or "I'm looking for the newspaper". You aren't searching for your job with your eyes.

Avoid any non-essential words. Words you should avoid in your resume are ones like:

like, this, that, those, am, is, are, was, were, has, have, etc

Avoid words that just don't add any meaning to it. Use action verbs and good descriptive adjectives instead.

Another thing, use either fragments or sentences all of the way through. Don't ever use both. A sentence means you utilize a period. A fragment means you don't. I personally recommend fragments. You can get your point across much quicker in a fragment and thats the idea.

Another thing to keep in mind is spacing on your resume. You want the page to look full. You don't want it to look like you don't have enough info to fill the page. Normally, where you'll see the empty space is at the right side of the page. Because most everybody and their brother uses left-justified. One of my professors recommended the possible use of a centered approach. I do that somewhat on my resume, especially for the titles. When a person first sets their eyes on a paper, their eye tends to hit the center right at the top. Then if you center your main headings, they follow right in line below them. You may or may not want to do that. You want your resume to stand out from the crowd, but at the same time you don't want it so different that the person overlooks it. The centered main headings are just a good way of getting attention. And for goodness sakes, use resume paper. I don't think I saw a single person use resume paper that I interviewed. That's sad.

You also want to note accomplishments or awards that make you stand out above the rest. And numbers mean a lot to them.

For example:

Led returnable container project saving company over $140,000

I started out with an action verb. Showed I had leadership skills and they can say, "Wow, $140,000 is a lot of money." If I just say I saved the company money, they'd be like, "Eh, wonder if he didn't really save that much and is using it sort of as filler." Notice that I also used saving, another action verb.

Also, never double state yourself. Like on my objective. I don't want to say that I'm a packaging engineer looking for an engineering position at a medium to large company. I already stated that I'm a packaging engineer. So they already know I'm looking for an engineer position.

Another thing, avoid using the same word over and over again, especially at the beginning of a bullet. And never use "a lot".

A person looking at your resume doesn't want to see:

- Saved company time expenditures on package handling
- Saved money on packaging costs by supplier utilization
- Saved space by changing packaging configurations

That is very bad. Rewrite something like that to start out with a different word

- Reduced package handling time
- Lowered packaging costs through supplier changes
- Increased warehouse space utilization

Also use hot button words in your resume:

Hot button words are very important for your action verbs and also for some of your nouns.

Some are: Increased, Lowered, Saved, Reduced, etc

For the nouns, use some words that relate to your industry. For me, I may want to include something like JIT. Which means, "Just In Time" for shipments that get there just as you need them in order to reduce the amount of stock you have to carry in the ware house, reducing inventory costs. I'm sure you have a number of words like that for what you work in. Hot button words tell them, this person is going to help us and this person knows their stuff.