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How To Write A Resume (With A History Of A Health Condition)

How To Organize A Resume To Best Advantage

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This article is divided into Resumes on paper and Electronic Resumes.

RESUMES ON PAPER

Make your resume clear, simple and easy to read.

  • At the top of the first page, include your name (not a nick name) and contact information. If there is more than one page, put your name at the top of each additional page. (Do not exceed two pages.)
  • For contact information, use your mobile phone number and e mail address. 
    • Do not put a parenthesis around the area code. It looks outdated
    • A gmail account looks more current than one from AOL or Yahoo.
    • If you have a custom address, use that one. For example: jane at janedoe dot com
  • Do not use more than one phone number. Do not include a  fax number.
  • Use a simple, 11 or 12 point, easy-to-read font such as Arial, Calibri or Verdana. Avoid se rif fonts such as Times New Roman.

Consider starting your resume with your employment objective - the type of work or specific job you are seeking.

  • If your history is particularly strong for a particular job, start with a summary statement about your career history, accomplishments, experience, and education.
  • Focus on how your skills and experience can contribute to the company.

If you are applying for a particular job, consider rewriting your resume to feature the experience and/or skills required by the employer for the job in question.

List your experience, both paid and volunteer.

  • Focus on the most recent 10 years.-For each job, include the job title, name and location of employer and dates of employment (in years, not months). 
    • The dates should be to the right after your title and name of the employer.
    • If the employer is not a well known company, such as a Fortune 500 company, add information about what the company did when you were employed. For instance: "A privately held company that manufactures widgets."
  • Organize your resume by dates of employment and include the dates. 
  • Briefly describe your accomplishments in each job, rather than just "duties and responsibilities." 
    • Use action-oriented words, like "planned," "developed" "demonstrated" and "generated."  As one career coach puts it: tell "PAR" stories —a thorny Problem you faced…the smart way you Approachedit…and its positive Resolution. For example:  “Our pizza shop was struggling, so I asked local bakeries if they wanted to rent our ovens after midnight so that they would have more fresh-baked goods for the morning. One said yes, which yielded us $8,000 a year without our lifting a finger or investing a dime.”
    • If there are no accomplishments, emphasize the duties and responsibilities that will be helpful experience for the job for which you're applying.
  • Include as part of your experience:
    • Special skills relevant to your industry and job, such as computer skills and foreign languages. If you list computer skills, only list specialized software such as Quickbooks or newer technologies. Saying you are expert at Word or PowerPoint makes it look as if you just learned them.
    • Achievements, and membership in organizations. Do not include memberships that could rule you out -- such as a membership in the National Rifle Association. Some of the people will like that and others won't.
    • Periods of self employment. During the period, describe what you did. If clients give permission,  you can use their names.
    • If this section is labelled "Experience" instead of "Work Experience" you can list v olunteer work
    • Any life experiences that will benefit the company hiring you. For instance, a seat you held on the school board or church committee signals experience in making decisions and team work.

If you had absences from work due to your health condition:

  • Write your resume by skills or achievements instead of by dates. In fact, don't include dates. It will make absences from work less obvious. If this is the case, don't include any dates on your resume, even for education. Including some dates and not others will call attention to the ones that aren't there.
  • Instead of dates, you can use period of time. For instance: 3 years as ......    2 years as .......

List your education, including school name and address, dates of attendance, major, and highest grade completed or degree awarded.

  • Consider including any courses or areas of focus that might be relevant to the position. 
  • If education is critical to the job, consider listing it before experience.
  • Include updates to your skills that show you keep current with your field and have obtained or renewed professional certifications.

Tailor your resume each time you apply for a job. For example, if you have a batch of different skills, emphasize those which are most important for the job for which you're applying. Or if education is critical to the job, consider listing it before experience.

Include key words. These days, resumes are often chosen for review by how many key words an employer's search engine finds. (If the resume wasn't submitted via the internet, employers can scan the resume into their computer.) Key words are often nouns. Wherever possible use nouns, not verbs. For example, use "Writer/Editor" instead of "Writing."

  • Create a keywords section at the top of the resume.
  • Don't keep using key words. Computers only count each word once. You can increase your hits by using synonyms (other words that have the same meaning), instead of repeating the same word several times. (You can find synonyms on line at free sites such as www.synonym.com offsite link
  • If you are applying for a specific advertised job, the ad itself may contain some of the key words that will be searched so be sure to use those key words.
  • Make each word count. Instead of saying "Manager," say "Product Development Manager" or "Advertising Manager."

If you are over 50:

  • Play down your age by not including your birth date or the year you graduated or even your early employment history. 
  • Only list the last 15 or 20 years experience. (Earlier experience can be summarized or not included).
  • Emphasize your up-to-date skills such as computers.
  • Leave dates off of your education. The hiring manager may be younger than the date of your graduation. 

Only include references when requested. If you'd like, you can add something like "References upon request."

Use easy-to-read formatting:

  • Avoid long paragraphs.
  • Type in no less than 12 point type.
  • Avoid bullets (like those we use), tabs and indents, italics and serif-heavy (curlicue type) fonts. They can get messed up if you e-mail your resume, or misread by a scanner.
  • Limit your resume to one or two pages. Make it one page if you have less experience.

Print your resume on white or ivory good quality paper such as #25. Keep text to no wider than 5 inches.

Triple check to make sure there are no typos.

Ask at least two other people to read over your resume before submitting it. Ask them if the resume really describes you and puts your best foot forward.

If you are missing skills that are needed for the job for which you want to apply, see if you can learn them on a volunteer basis for a disease specific non-profit organization.

ELECTRONIC RESUMES

Electronic Resumes should follow the above advice about resumes  plus:

  • If you use a traditional order in your resume, consider reordering it to use the first screen to promote your strongest abilities.
  • Provide a list of keywords that highlight your assets for the job right after your contact information. The order should be strongest assets first. Some software programs stop reading keywords after they find a maximum number.

NOTE: Do not e-mail your resume from work unless your employer knows you are job searching.


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