The first thing for boomers to realize is that technology is their friend. Being technologically astute is key to many of today’s jobs.  Baby boomers are well advised to screen job postings in their industry and note the technologies that are required. After doing what they need to do to learn to use these technologies, incorporate those skills in their resume.  Knowing how to make a resume means knowing how to show the recruiter that you’re worthy of considering.

Baby boomers need also realize that many recruiters or HR personnel scan resumes quickly looking for certain terms that may or may not show up. Resumes without these terms are discarded within seconds. Therefore, its good advice to scan industry job postings closely, watching for terms that might be scannable. This particularly applies to the job for which you plan to apply. Be sure you incorporate those scannable terms in your resume.

 And, please discard the notion that you need only one resume and it will work for every job you apply for.  Please understand that knowing how to make a resume means knowing that you make a template on your word processor and modify it to accommodate every job application you submit.

Also forget the advise to limit your resume to one page. You don’t want to write a book, but you need to write enough to show your skills and abilities properly.  Understand that there is no longer any one, correct way to write your curriculum vitae. In some versions of your resume, you will focus on your skills and abilities, with a smaller section for your job history. In some variations, your work history will play a more prominent role, especially if you are showing that you have consistently moved up the ladder to positions of increasing responsibility.  In other situations, you may want to abbreviate your job history to display only the jobs that apply to the current applicaton, or to show only ten years of jobs, perhaps.

Remember that the purpose of a resume is to get you an interview. Once you are facing the recruiter in person, you have an opportunity to sell them on your abilities and skills. If you never get to that point because your resume outdated you, then both you and the potential employer are the loser.

 If you don’t know how to make a resume the right way, your competition will. Be modern. Be prepared.  I suggest you study a package like the one at the link above.

Unless instructed otherwise, I suggest sending a cover letter every time you send your resume to a potential employer or recruiter.

Some say this isn’t necessary, but I disagree. For one thing, a nicely written cover letter shows the employer that you care about the job, that you are not lazy, that you  attend to details and that you have social skills. All things being equal, if the potential employer sees two resumes from candiates with similar talents and experience, and one has attached a good cover letter but the other has not, the one with the cover letter is more likely to receive an invitation to a job interview.

You already know how to make a resume. Do you know how to make a cover letter?

The best argument for including a cover letter is to emhasize a strength or point that the resume may or may not emphasize.

For example, suppose you are applying for a job that requires you to use a certain software application. The job advertisement stressed that using this software is an important part of the job and preference will be given to those who are already skilled at using it.

If you are skilled at using the software in questions, you could say in your cover letter:

“My previous job at X Company required me to use YY software on a daily basis. I would require no additional training in this application.”

Or, if you are do not know the sofware application in questioh, but want to be considered anyway, you could say:

“Although I have not used YY software, I would take steps to learn this application at my own time and expense if you consider me for this job.”

You might also use your cover letter to explain a particular project, award or commendation you have received, provided it is applicable to the job you are applying for.

Be sure your cover letter does not exceed one page.

A good cover letter is a key component to knowing how to make a resume.

I advise making only one entry in this situation, but using two lines for the dates involved.

For example, if you worked at Walmart on Main Street for awhile and then transferred to Walmart on Marine Drive, you could include an entry like this ahdn you write a resume.

Walmart Company — Checkout Clerk
Walmart on Main Street:  January 2006 — February 2007
Walmart on Marine Drive: February 2007 — present

Then go ahead and identify your tasks as you always would.

The thing to keep in mind when you decide how to make a resume is that employers, recruiters and HR personnel are strapped for time. In many cases, they take only seconds to scan a resume before deciding whether it warrants an interview or the discard pile. You want to keep you resume as short, succinct and to the point as you can.

Follow the link in the blogroll below for more information about how to make a resume.

Personally, I don’t think these job search sites are the best way to get a job, but there is nothing to lose by trying. Look at them as one more tool in your job search toolkit but don’t let them be the only tool you use.

However, you must understand that if you are currently employed, your employer could discover that you are job hunting if you post online.

If that’s not a deterrant, then I suggest posting your resume online rather than sending it by email. It’s not difficult to learn how to make a resume suitable for posting at these sites. In most cases, they will have an automatic HTML coder that does the technical work for you. If you know HTML yourself, so much the better.

 I see several limitations to choosing the email option to deliver your resume to interested employers. First, email often gets trapped in spam filters and is never seen by the recipient.  Secondly,  many people are so inundated with email at work that they become almost numb to the messages in their in box. Thirdly, HTML coding is often distorted in transit and what looks good on your computer is a scrambled mess when the recipient gets it. If you choose to learn how to make a resume using basic text, it is more likely to be delivered in one piece, but the challenge is formatting it so it is not too ugly.

Considering these cons to choosing the email format for delivering your resume, I believe the online version is preferable.

 Today’s job hunter has much to know about how to make a resume. Technology is a double edged sword. It allows us to reach potential employers that we might never have reached before, but the task of writing and delivering the resume is more complex than ever before.

1.  Don’t scratch out the “career objective” that you used for the last job and write in a new career objective to fit the one you’re applying for.  “Hmmm”, I thought to myself, when I noticed that little addition. ”Last week this guy dreamed of being a sales rep in an electronic store. Today his vision is to be a instructor at a vocational school.”  I think not.  That is not how to make a resume that commands respect.

 2. Don’t include a transcript of your marks at school or university, unless you have been specifically asked to do so. My friend, also on the hiring side of things tosses out any resume that “includes a report card,” as she puts it. The transcript is inappropriate on a curriculum vitae.

3.  Make sure your address and contact information is up to date and accurate. I shall long remember one would-be job hunter who included a note saying he was moving around, didn’t know his address or phone number but provided the names of two or three friends to phone on the off chance that they might know how to contact him. “This guy is making me do more work that he’s willing to do himself,” I thought, and quickly added, “And that is how he will behave when he gets a job.”  No interview for him.

 4. Avoid including your hobbies and interests. These items take up the recruiter’s time and aren’t meaningful to the recruitment process. I expect there are a few employers who might hire someone based on the fact that you both love ping pong, but most would not. Worse, many will view it as inappropriate. There is one exception to this rule, however. If  your hobby or interest is directly related to the job, and if you have a level of expertise in the area, that could be worth mentioning. Even then, I might include it in a cover letter and not in the resume itself.

6. Knowing how to make a resume means knowing what is considered desirable in your country or geographic region. In Canada and the U.S., it is not necesary or desirable to include a picture of yourself, or any other image. It is not necessary to include age, race, marital status, children or lack thereof, religion, or sexual orientation. Not only is it unnecessary, many employers will consider it inappropriate.

7. Avoid writing an epic novel. Do your best to incorporate everything into two pages. Recruiters are busy and lack the time to wade through page after page. Knowing how to make a resume means knowing how to condense your information into succinct, informative items.

 8. Avoid excessive boasting. You do want to sell yourself in the best possible way, but you want to avoid writing a resume that reads like an over-hyped  sales page on a Web site.  I recall receiving a resume in which every item read ,”successfully answered the telephone,” “demonstrated exceptionally good word processing skills,” etc. Ho hum.

9.  Knowing how to make a resume means making a conservative, businesslike document.  Avoid neon paper or baby pink pastels or worse, paper with cutesy designs. A little subtle embossing is usually acceptable, but the flowers and ivy crawling up the side of the page is a no no. Avoid using non-businesslike fonts. Stick with the tried and true ones like Arial or Times or Times Roman.  And whatever you do, use a businesslike email address. Nobody is going to contact redhotstud@gmail.com  or bigmouthmama@yahoo.com for an interview. Well, perhaps I’m being too hasty. That might work depending on the type of job you’re applying for — nudge, nudge, wink wink. 

10.  Omit the jobs that you held for less than four months. They call this the four month rule. Employers aren’t interested in hiring people who they perceive as job hopping from one employer to the next. There are some exceptions to this however.  The exceptions would include temporary jobs, work placements or internships while you were a student, contract positions if you are an independent contractor, etc.

There you have it. My tips on what to avoid. For more in depth information on how to make a resume, please follow this link.

Experts estimate that employers or recruiters may spend as little as ten seconds on a resume before deciding to accept it or reject it.  Therefore, knowing how to write a resume that jumps out is crucial to your success. 

Knowing how to make a resume is not as easy as it sounds. Diane Stafford, a career columnist in the Kansas City Star recently wrote, “Resume writing is an art, not a science. Picking out a good resume is like Justice Potter Stewart’s opinion about obscenity: “I know it when I see it.” 

I know how to make a resume that gets job interviews. The resumes I produced for my friends generated more job interviews than those written by professionals. Not only that, I worked in management for five years before becoming self employed. During that time, I was on the other end, reviewing resumes and deciding who to interview. I understand how to make a resume from both perspectives.  

So what’s the secret of how to make a resume that does what you want it to do? There are two secrets to knowing how to make a resume. 

1. Make Your Resume Job Specific 

A good resume showcases the talents and abilities that are specific to the job you are applying for.  Having a “one size fits all” resume isn’t good enough. Knowing how to make a resume means creating a generic version on your computer and then modifying a copy to emphasize your match to each specific employer. Yes, this means extra work, but thanks to word processors, it’s not a daunting task. 

2. Know How to Display Your Accomplishments 

I don’t intend this as a criticism of professional resume writers, but they may not offer the best solution. The drawback is this. A resume writer can only write what you tell them. The better ones are skilled at asking questions, but without an in depth knowledge of your work history, your profession or your industry, they simply can’t ask the questions that need to be answered. They know how to write a resume but they don’t know you. The secret of understanding how to make a resume is to identify your key accomplishments and state them in an appropriate fashion. This is not the time to be modest and humble, although your resume shouldn’t read like a hype-filled sales letter, either. This is also not the time to forget about important achievements that you accomplished throughout work, school or volunteering.

 As I said earlier, I have written resumes for friends. I want to point out that my friends were professionally employed people and therefore one might think they would be able to identify their accomplishments clearly and explain them to the professional resume writers. But no.  

Not one of them could do this!

 That is the reason, and the only reason, why I knew how to make a resume that got better results than the professional resume writers managed. I knew my friends’ work history and knew how to remind them of significant happenings. I knew how to make a resume that made them look as good as they really are. Since I won’t be around to help you, you’ll need to figure this out on your own.

 Plan Ahead:  A Key to Knowing How to Make a Resume 

Ideally, as soon as you have a job, you want to start keeping a file on your achievements. Did you get a good performance review?  Keep a copy. Did you get a letter of thanks from a customer or client? Keep a copy. Did your supervisor complement you on something?  Make a note. Did you implement a system that saved the employer money or made the workflow more efficient? Make a note. You’ll have a file of accomplishments ready and waiting for when you consider how to write a resume. It’s also a good idea to ask a friend to help you remember your work accomplishments. He or she might point out areas that you could expand upon. 

Know How to Display Your Accomplishments 

Understanding how to make a resume means knowing how to describe your accomplishments in the best possible light. 

For example, you didn’t just ‘perform networking activities.”  You “networked with representatives of industry, charitable organizations and three levels of government.” Assuming the above is true, of course. 

You didn’t just ‘answer the telephone.” You worked a six-line switchboard, screening incoming calls in a courteous and professional manner.” 

You didn’t just ‘do fund raising activities”. You “engaged in fund raising activities that increased revenues generated by fundraising by 25%”. 

Do you see the difference it makes when you understand how to make a resume that works for you? 

There are many products available to assist you further in the specifics of how to make a resume.

As a resource, I recommend this site