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 TITLE RE: how do i improve my resume?
 
 NAME DATE 9/18/2004 3:58:40 AM
 
 CONTENTS First off, any lying or even “stretching the truth”, as so many people put-it, should be avoided.  Not just because of ethical and moral reasons, but 4 very practical ones: 1) if you’re caught for lying on your resume, you can get fired, and in worse case scenarios, sued, and who knows what the outcome could be from that; 2) you can forget about that wonderful “Reference Letter” you were looking to get; 3) if an interviewer asks the reason for you being fired or layed-off from your previous company, whatever you may say the interviewer can cross-check it with your previous Employer; 4) your Employer will be able to spot your weaknesses, and of course what you’re capable or not capable of doing, which then will ultimately lead you back to #1.

Now to offer you some productive information, having a solid, “full” resume is very important, especially if you’re an entry personnel (entry meaning anyone with less than 2 or 3 years of industry experience, after graduating), because you don’t have any “practical values” to sell to the Employer, except for abstract ideas such as the name of your school, your major, and GPA.  One way to compose a “full” resume is NOT to increase your font nor have massive spacings and indents.  An easy, well-known, and understandable (from the Employer’s POV) tactic is to include a “Course Work” that relates to the position and industry that you are applying for.  Also, including a “Related Projects” will also allow the Employer to learn the types of projects you were involved-in; elaborating a bit on this “Related Projects” section can be a definitive point in your resume, compared to Candidates who simply list their projects, because it highlights pertinent skills such as your, analytical, research, team-work, organizational, presentation skills and more.

Another secondary option (though personally, I often suggest not to do this) is what we call a “functional” resume.  Typical resumes are “chronological or sequential” (reverse chronological and reverse-sequential, in actuality) resumes, that lists positions in reverse chronological order, i.e. you list your most recent job position and outline your experience backwards.  However, a “functional” resume outlines your skills and explains all your responsibilities that relates to the respective skill, and usually you simply list your job experiences at the bottom of the resume.  This is an “acceptable” tactic only if you cannot make a solid “chronological” resume.  The reason, I discourage (as do many other Employers) a “functional” resume is because of 2 main reasons: 1) Employers and recruiters, alike, often view a “functional” resume as a cop-out or a sell-out resume, for the lack of better words, because its implied that you do not possess a strong, industry-related background, and you chose to highlight your skills, rather than actual job titles and onsite duties you were involved with; 2) Employers and recruiters like to see the bigger picutre, i.e. be able to outline the progression of your career, from where you started and what you were doing to where you are now and what your future outlooks are.