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Resumé Review -- Asking and Getting Help
Writing your first resumé is often a process of self-discovery. You have to take stock of your abilities and present them in an orderly fashion if you are to market yourself to your potential employer. This task is complicated by the need to walk the fine line of objectivity and self-promotion.
Your resumé must summarize your educational achievements, professional experience, and employment qualification in a way that showcases your ability to be an asset to your employer. Composing your entire professional history on one or two pages can be challenging. As a result, we often spend hours and days minutely rewriting and perfecting our resumés to make them shine for a potential employer.
However, when a person has worked with the same content for days on end, it becomes easy to miss glaring typos or grammar errors. It's even possible to overlook poorly written or ambiguous statements because you've reached the "forest for the trees" point and can no longer see how the words and phrases work together to form a whole. Before posting your resumé on job search web sites or submitting it to companies you want to apply to, you really need someone else to look at it and make sure it actually says what you inend. This can be a scary prospect -- while you may want help and feedback, you also dread the possibility of receiving harsh or cutting criticism. After you've spent so much time on your resumé, you don't want to be told you need to tear everything out and start over.
Since you know you can benefit from having someone who can look at your resumé with fresh eyes, the key to a successful review is to set specific goals for that review rather than just "look over my resumé." Ask about specific things that concern you. For instance, if you know that grammar isn't your strong set, ask your friends to pay particular attention to grammatical errors. If you have gaps in your work history, ask your friend to act as a potential employer and review the resumé: and cover letter together. Do they have any questions about your work history, or have you addressed everything in your cover letter?
Accept feedback gracefully, but make sure that your friends are raising valid questions about elements they criticize. If they suggest that you change an action word, can they give you a substantial reason behind the change, or is it a matter of personal preference? Don' get into an argument over formatting, because there are multiple acceptable formats, although some are preferred by people in certain lines of work. Do your research ahead of time and know what the acceptable resumé style is for your field.
It is also beneficial to have more than one additional person review your resumé. This way you can avoid the problem of molding your writing to one person's idiosyncrasies rather than actual professional expectations. Ideally, any person you ask for help has experience in your field and is familiar with what language is appropriate for your industry and position level.
If you are unsure that you are even on the right track with your resumé and research leaves you feeling overwhelmed and confused, seek assistance from a professional resumé writing service. A professional resumé writer should be able to guide you in the right direction. This may involve revising your current resumé or creating a new resumé for you from scratch. Make sure that the professional you are working with can provide you with references and samples, and that they are versed in writing resumés for professionals in your field of work. While this option will involve paying money for the expertise, it may well be better than relying on the fumbling efforts of well-meaning friends whose own experience is limited.
If you are not under time pressure, you can serve as your own resumé editor. Put your completed resumé away for a few days, enough time to get the text out of your mind. When you return to it, you will be able to see what is actually on the page rather than what you intended to say.
No matter what method you chose, make sure that you do some form of review on your resumé before submitting it to your potential employer. Particularly in today's extremely tight job market, any error, however trivial, can be all it takes to have your resumé tossed into the trash as the hiring manager moves on to the next one. A well-written, error-free resumé is more likely to get you noticed, and get you the job that you want.
