Original Creations: April 2008 Archives

Resumes

A resume will not get you a job, but it should, must, be good enough to get you an interview.

A resume is just a summary of some thing about you. It never tells a reader everything about you or all the jobs you've ever done before.

'I'm working on my resume' is not a profession. If you are stuck and fed up to the back teeth with your resume....GET SOME HELP. This can be from a friend or relative or from someone at an employment centre - there are many different places to get help.

Ask someone who knows you to look at it. Does it look and sound anything like you? Does it tell any of your story - where you've been, where you might want to go next, a little of who you are?

It should show your journey, in about 15 seconds - the average resume is read for about 15 seconds the first time it's seen - does yours allow a taste of your journey to appear?

Examples of cover letters that get the job (done.)

This page reminds us what cover letters are meant to do and what they can't do.

Examples are included. The examples are on this page (for copying and pasting) and in document form to get a copy for yourself - download.

Some basic 'mythbusting' about  cover letters

Cover Letters

A cover letter is a gift wrap, a making personal, of your resume.

A cover letter is not difficult to write, does not need fancy wording, and should take no more than maybe 20 minutes to create.

Though the research that makes the cover letter sing may take you longer and is crucial.

Gaps?

What have you been doing for the last 6 months, year, two years, five years?

What about my references and my gaps in work?

Answering the 'why did you leave your last job' question.

It's impossible! No, it's not.

The principle is simple: it has three parts - acknowledge, dismiss, move on.

acknowledge - 'Yes, I was taking care of some family business for two years.....'

dismiss - '...and now that's taken care of....'

move on - '..I'm looking for a job with an established company which will make use of my great experience which is why I applied for this interesting job....'

Working in the Chinatown area of Downtown Vancouver I am surrounded by reminders of faith and belief in chance, luck, fate, fortune and destiny; it seems a very Chinese, and more broadly Asian, philosophy.

The western world and the English language have their own version though, so the idea of being in touch with, in pace with, in tune with, what we should be doing and feeling is not exclusively Asian.

The English word is 'hap'.

'Go Fish' or 'Let's go fishing'?

'Give a person a fish an you feed them for a day; teach them to fish and you feed them for life.'

This common principle used to guide many employment programs sounds good practice on the surface (sorry) but if you take it apart it truly is a nasty piece of right-wing propaganda.

It's reminiscent of that cow Thatcher's infamous 'There is no such thing as society. Only individual men and women.'