My Technical and Grant Writing Blog

Recently I posted to a position via Careerbuilder. There is now a feature now when someone submits to a position, they can get a free review of the resume that was submitted to that opening.

So now the results from my own resume are in. I believe the points brought up are valid and can aid anyone, so I am sharing with the entire web.

Without copying their email, here are the 4 suggestions in general, these are the paraphrased versions that follow.

1. Do not use Objectives
2. Consistent format in the resume
3. Do not use I, Me, We (1st, 2nd, 3rd person references)
4. No dates over 10 years old

The advice stated to not place an objective statement. To instead use the top portion to emphasize skills and to sell yourself.

The format should have all dates, titles, job layouts, etc in a consistent format (Mine needs some work here I realize)

Remove personal references, keep it as business and professional as possible

Avoid dates over 10 years old. Items like when college or high school graduation was. This can help to avoid unintentional age dating and bias.

Without organization there is only Chaos
Words that can haunt all of us Technical Writers. The older I get the more I like a good table of contents in any document I create.
Fiction, non-fiction, simple little thrown together ones just for myself. Put down the title of the document, then insert the table of contents and start with the organizing.

This mentality can apply to the files and organizing them as well. Start off with the file folder structure, lay it out with the overall document title, then you can make sub-folders that match up to the equivalents of the H1 headings, keeping the data to be input into the document in a similar order.