So I was working on redoing my resume last week, because it’s become pretty clear to me that my resume as I wrote it was not working to my advantage. I had format of Education and then below that Employer –> City, date. Beneath the employer, there were bullet points of everything I did. This really filled up the page, so much so that I think it was overwhelming and took a long time to read.
A functional resume, on the other hand, puts your name at the top (or on the side) and lists special achievements followed by relevant skills, and then lists your education and jobs at the bottom. You list one job directly after the other, with no learned skills under them. This is much cleaner and helps the reader easily pick out what is they want to know about the candidate.
Now comes the part I’m unsure about. I was looking at some German jobs while writing this, and German resumes require a picture of yourself (among other things American resumes do not). I ended up adding my picture to this resume as a kind of experiment, albeit perhaps a risky one, to see if the picture would make me seem more like a person to the hiring manager. I’m a bit worried about this because I’ve read a lot of sites that say not to put a picture on, but since nothing I’ve been doing has worked yet I thought it would be interesting to see how this turns out. I also belive that when you can’t put a face to a resume, it dehumanizes the applicant, making it so much easier for the hiring manager to simply throw out or delete the resume. When that manager instead has to look at my eyes while reading my resume, it is my hope the manager will say "Oh, here’s a person who wants to get hired, not just some paper!"
Thoughts?
You are using a certain amount of manipulation when you add a picture to a CV.
Having said that the HR person still has the option of throwing your CV into the bin and not look at you.
I would say that certain companies are looking for something a bit different. How you achieve that, and do it in such a way people wont be “laughing at” your idea is difficult, or maybe you will just get a company that does not laugh at your idea…
Pierce
July 26th, 2010
Pierce,
I completely understand what you’re saying, though I’m not sure I agree with a picture being manipulating. I guess in my case, trying to tug on the heartstrings as much as that might, could be seen as manipulating. At this point I’m just trying to do something that would make my resume stand out.
I at least have a friend who knows this hiring manager so I can find out her reaction to my resume and correct accordingly.
Justin
July 27th, 2010