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Creating a Career and Designing a Resume


The way to find out about your happiness is to keep your mind on those moments when you feel most happy, when you are really happy – not excited, not just thrilled, but deeply happy.
The path to finding your deep happiness is unique to each person. At the same time, much of the wisdom that helps you find your path is universal and timeless.
How do you find a job that utilizes your skills and your passions? Time and introspection will help you identify the activities you most enjoy, the skills and strengths you most readily use and, the moments that make you deeply happy.
During the job search process, the ability to instantly identify and discuss your most marketable skills is paramount. These skills are used in your resumes, cover letters, prospect letters, follow-up letters, and job interviews to convince an employer that you have the ability to perform the job you are applying for. To do this you will need to develop a career vocabulary for the field you wish to enter.

The first category of skills is Job Skills. These skills are unique for each position and consist of technical or specific abilities required to do the job. The essential job skills are usually included in the job posting and the position description. Examples of these are computer skills, machine operation skills, specific types of writing skills, etc. To find your skills: (1) Write down every skill you think you can bring to your next employer, (2)
write down three examples when you have used that skill and if you can’t, disregard that skill, and (3) ask yourself if those are the skills the employer wants and/or is it a skill an employer would pay you money to use.

The Purpose of Resumes: Your resume is a key job-hunting tool used to get a job interview. It summarizes your accomplishments, your education, as well as your work experience, and should reflect your special mix of skills and strengths.
A resume even the best resume will not get you the job; you'll need to convince the employer during the job interview. The resume is simply a marketing tool to get you into the door.
A resume is a statement of facts designed to sell your unique mix of education, experience, accomplishments, and skills to a prospective employer. Never lie or stretch the facts; do not get creative when identifying your job titles, dates of employment, or accomplishments. On the other hand, do not be modest; be clear about successes and accomplishments -- and quantify whenever possible.
Regardless of the type of resume you create, a number of key elements overlap all successful resumes.
Contact Information. Since your goal is for an employer to contact you -- either for a first interview or for a follow-up interview -- you must give employers as many ways to reach you as possible, including postal mailing address, email address, home phone number, cell phone, etc.
Accomplishments. Focus the descriptions of your experiences on accomplishments, not duties and responsibilities. Accomplishments, especially those you can quantify, will sell you to a potential employer. Read more in our article, For Job-Hunting Success: Track and Leverage Your Accomplishments and its companion tool, Job-Seeker Accomplishments Worksheet.
Education/Training. Include all the pertinent information regarding education, degrees, training, and certifications. Spell out names of degrees. Include the educational institution's name and location. If currently enrolled in an educational program, list expected graduation month and year. Graduates should list graduation year if within the last 10 years.
Appearance. The first impression of your resume -- and of you as a job-seeker -- comes from your resume's appearance. Your resume should be well-organized with consistent headings, fonts, bullets, and style. Never overcrowd the resume. Leave some "white space" so that important points can stand out; and try to make your margins between .75” and 1” on all sides. For print resumes, use subdued color paper, such as white, ivory, beige, light gray.
Avoidance of Typos/Misspellings. Take the time to carefully write, rewrite, and edit your resume. Be sure to meticulously proofread your resume for misspellings and typos. Resumes with errors get filed in the trash can.
Targeted and focused. Tailor your basic resume to specific jobs and specific employers. There is simply no excuse for having one generic resume anymore. Tweak each resume you submit to the specific job you are seeking or to the specific employer.
One of the first decisions job-seekers must make when preparing their resumes is how to organize the resume's content. Today's resumes generally are:
Chronological (actually reverse chronological, listing all your experience from most to least recent).
Functional, which lists experience in skills clusters.
A combination or hybrid of those two types, sometimes known as a chrono-functional format.
The traditional, default format for resumes is the chronological resume. This type of resume is organized by your employment history in reverse chronological order, with job titles/names of employers/locations of employers/dates of employment/ accomplishments, working backwards 10-15 years.
A standard chronological resume may be your best choice if most/all of your experience has been in one field, you have no large employment gaps, and you plan to stay in that same field.
The chronological resume is preferred by the widest variety of employers, as well as by recruiters and many of the Internet job boards. Recruiters and hiring managers tend to like this resume format because it's easy to read and clearly demonstrates your job history and career advancement/growth. This format is also recommended for all conservative career fields (such as accounting, banking, law, etc.) and international job-seeking.
Functional Resumes: The resume format preferred by job-seekers with a limited job history, a checkered job history, or a job history in a different career field, is the functional resume.
Job-seekers who take a functional approach organize their resumes by skills and functions clusters. In a purely functional resume, company names, employment dates, and position titles are intentionally omitted. The functional resume can work for homemakers returning to the workforce, for example, or for new graduates entering the job market.
Professional References: When listing professional references include your reference’s name, job title, company, address, phone number and if acceptable to your reference, an e-mail address. Including a reference’s job title can help promote your image if the person’s title or position is similar to the job you want or industry you are pursuing. In this instance, employers will be interested in feedback about you from someone in a related field or who was in a position of responsibility that can judge your work experience, professionalism and reliability.
Cover letter: A potential employer's first impression of you is your cover letter. Your cover letter introduces you and your resume. The stark reality is your resume may never be read without its being accompanied by a professional cover letter. Without a resume cover letter, you might never receive a callback.