Advice in general to people writing resumes

Background on me: I am a Hiring Manager and AIL. My company was rated in the top 37% out of 100 Hot Jobs by Yahoo. As well as the #1 Insurance or financial industry to work for.

When writing a resume, in my mind, you need to make sure your name and contact information is at the top of your resume. Also, make sure the contact information is recent. There is nothing worse, in my mind at least, than going to call someone for an interview and hearing on the other line "this number is no longer in service." As well, that your resume is organized in a way that is scanable to the person reading it.

 

If you are fresh out of highschool, and haven't had as much work experience; an option is skills examples. IE: What skills you have, and how you have deminstrated them in the past.

General:

 

Your objective is very important. The objective is important because your future employer wants to know what you are looking to get out of a position. You always want to tailor your resume to the position you are applying for. That way the skills and experience is relevant to the position in question.

Another important tid bit: Keep the page count to a max. of 3 pages, and avoid using a paragraph format. This is so your future employer doesn't have to look for your information. You want your employer to be able to scan over your resume and find what they're looking for as quickly as posible.

 

Posting Resumes on the Internet:

 

When posting your resume on sites like Monster and Workopolis, there are sometimes formatting problems. You need to remember to post your contact information on the cover page of the site. As well, when you attach a file, the employer is not always able to open it. What you need to do is copy and paste your resume into the text box that they give you. That way when a potential employer goes to print your resume, the resume prints along with the cover page, instead of just the cover page with a bottom note that says 'html file attached.'