Review: Pro Resumes Made Easy
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 09 19, 2013
I read the book for honest review for Reading Addiction Blog Tours. I was provided a pdf and a mobi version of the book.I wanted to read the book after reading a post in a group on Facebook about how to create the perfect resume to get a job. The post was discussing the right length of a resume. For me, I was told a perfect resume was one to two pages from a recruiter at a job fair. She said she preferred one page and mine at that time was two pages. The recruiter basically said to keep it short and simple, and provided more details at the interview. Finally, the recruiter said to be more detailed. Instead of saying, you have responsibilities in x, y, and z, provided examples of x, y, and z instead.Pro Resumes Made Easy (The Made Easy Series) consists of 18 chapters, which helps you create a professional resume, cover letter, and reference page, in addition to tips for job interviews and common mistakes with resumes. A resume is a summary of your current and past job experiences. A resume can help you get or not get a job. Job applicants need to create a resume, which will capture the recruiters attention quickly.For example, Drew discussed how you don't need to use the word resume as the title of a resume. I am guilty of this big time. Next, Drew discussed how you don't need to include name, address, and telephone as headings.Interesting story: I usually create my own resumes. A few years ago, a friend asked to re-do my resume and I gave him the information. When I got his revised copy, I was shocked. It was a nice resume, but he padded a lot of the information. For example, I used to work at a manufacturing plant. One of the first jobs I had was assembly and production. I later worked as a machine operator, material handler, and final tester. When I was working assembly and production, my job was to make boxes, then fill the boxes with completed parts, in addition to taking the production to the warehouse.My new resume said I was responsible for floor layout. It also said I was fluent in software, I never heard of. I could not use the resume.Other tips I liked in the book include:Include the position you are applying for.If you include hard skills, provide evidence of experience. Providing evidence helps your resume stand out more to the recruiter. For example, instead of saying I have customer service experience. I can say I received customer service training when I worked at both Aramark and Atlanta Expo Cafe. I can also provide examples of how I applied the training. For example, when I worked at the Cafe, a elderly lady in a wheelchair, needed assistance getting to a table. The restaurant space was small and not laid out for wheelchairs. I moved some tables and chairs around, then asked her if she wanted me to push her to where she wanted to go. I helped her through the food line, then sat her and her family down at their preferred table.Drew mentioned how you can provide problems, discuss how you resolved the problem, and then provide the results.Include keywords, just in case, the recruiter uses scanning software.Don't forget to include your contact details. Contact details should include home phone number, cell phone number, and email address. You also can include address. On another note, I was told never to include address in a resume. The reason being is that some recruiters will not hire someone based on distance from home to the job. If they need you to come in at the last minute, and you live an hour away, the job may not be a fit for you. I have worked at jobs, which was over an hour away by public transportation. I had one job, which was 10 minutes by car, from my house, but over an hour away by bus. My house and job was on the same street, but since the street was long, it was covered by two busses. I had to catch one bus to get part of the way to the job and another bus to get to the job. I getting up earlier to walk to the one of two stops to catch the second bus, instead of waiting on two busses. I also have walked to the job, which took me about an hour as well. I stopped doing that quickly.The book is available in paperback for $10.02 and on Kindle for $3.99. If you have Amazon Prime, the book is Prime-Eligible and you can receive it within 2 days.