50 resume questions answered by Yana Parker, author of The Damn Good Resume Guide

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Job Seekers' Questions -- #41 to #50

LIST OF ALL 52 QUESTIONS

Questions 1-10 -- 11-20 -- 21-30 -- 31-40-- 41-50 (below) -- 51.. 52

41. How do I apply for a position in which I've had no previous work experience?

42. How should I present my resume and what type of paper should I use?

43. How can I translate military experience into useful assets?

44. Smoking is getting between my client and successful interviews; what do I do?

45. I only have a half-year of experience; can I make that look okay?

46. I'm sixteen, can you help me put a resume together?

47. Should I take my severance package and go, or stick it out with a new manager?

48. My client was an exotic dancer (stripper); what do I put in that 12-year part of her resume?

49. How do I write a resume for freelance work?

50. I have the experience, so why can't I get a job as a secretary?

41. "How do I go about writing a resume for inquiring about a position as a freelance copy editor/proofreader. I've had no previous professional work experience as an editor or otherwise, but have had experience working on my school's lit mag."--Soojee

Dear Soojee, when you don't have any paid experience, you have to just make the most of what you DO have, which is your experience working on the school literary magazine. Use the functional resume format. Name a goal, something like "Objective: Entry level position as proofreader or copy editor;" find out exactly what the tasks are for these positions, and then in the body of your resume, document what you did for the school magazine that is similar to the known tasks of a proofreader or copy editor. For example:


OBJECTIVE: Entry level position as proofreader or copy editor

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE

As volunteer production assistant for "The Monitor" (our school literary magazine):

Proof-read and spell-checked stories and articles.
Made phone-calls to verify the accuracy of interview quotes.
Looked up historical and literary references in the school library.
Researched correct spelling of names and places appearing in articles.
Entered hand-written articles into a word processor using Microsoft Word.
Did preliminary rough layout of pages to help in editorial planning.

... etc. etc. (don't use above examples; I'm just guessing!)

The point is, you DID develop some useful experience, but you have to SPELL IT OUT IN DETAIL so the potential employer can assess its usefulness. Look at some of the resume examples in The Damn Good Resume Guide for a complete layout idea for a student resume.

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42."Presentations in Australia are often done by binding the resume between covers using plastic coil binders. When running my previous business I used to receive many resumes bound that way and found them to be a nuisance to file, due to the thickness of the binder coil. What presentation method do you recommend?"
If YOU found those thick resumes to be a nuisance, you can be sure employers like them even less! I don't use any presentation gimmicks (employers hate it.) Just an impeccably prepared resume, printed on paper of a quality consistent with the standards of the office it will be sent to (i.e. not excessively fancy.)

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43."As the public relations officer of the Marine Corps League, I was just presented with a problem from a fellow marine member. He's a 40-year-old ex-captain with about 13 years in the U.S. Marine Corps. He recently retired from the military, and now wants to get other work.
What is the best way to translate his military experience so that a civilian employer would recognize his talents and experience, and translate his training into useful assets he could profitably employ?"--Maury
(P.S. He DID recently have a brief job teaching in a school for girls, but got laid off during down-sizing.)

Maury, I'm having a hard time finding solid advice, coming from the MILITARY end of the question, on how to present such experience on a civilian resume. So we have to just use our Common Sense -- and mine tells me:
1. Ask the client what direction he wants to go in now. We've got to have a clue of his JOB OBJECTIVE to know how to proceed. (If he doesn't know, that's a whole other issue -- then he needs to do some "informational interviewing" or other research to nail down a target/direction. And THEN come back to you for his resume)
2. Starting with that Job Objective -- let's say he thinks he'd like to go into computer sales and service, or technical support for computers -- THEN he can look back on the military experience and identify those specific experiences that illustrate the skills and experience NEEDED to work in computer sales and technical support. He should use THAT experience on his new resume, omitting mention of everything else he did in the military -- because it isn't relevant to THIS employer.

BUT, if he wants to find a job as a High School MATH TEACHER, then he's going to look at his military experience a bit differently, and look for THOSE skills that are anything like what a TEACHER does -- but in fact since he's HAD some recent, hands-on experience teaching, he'd blow up THAT experience to the maximum, more even than the military, EVEN if he spent 20 times as long in the military as in the high school classroom. WHY? Because the classroom experience tells them not just that he CAN do it but that he HAS DONE it, and that counts for a lot.

He must NOT lace his resume with military images and military jargon, and military priorities (e.g., most employers won't give a DAMN that he has his once-coveted top secret clearance! -- unless THEY'RE in the security business.) At every point, he has to ask over and over and over, "HOW can this bit of experience be described so it appears to apply to, or support, my new goal?"

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44. "I really don't know how to approach this subject and other resume writers, etc. may experience the same problem. My client, a woman in mid-40's to early 50's, has been a resume client for over two years. Oh, she gets her interviews but she doesn't get the jobs. She is educated and qualified for the positions she applies for but never gets the jobs. It is my belief the problem is that she reeks of cigarette smoke. I don't mean just smells like smoke, I mean really REEKS! She just dropped off some papers for me to type and the papers themselves smell just awful. How do I approach this subject with her? This problem is right up there with "body odor" problems. A delicate situation at best but at the very least, is a contributing factor to the problem of not getting jobs. She wants a job in counseling and this overwhelming evidence of an addictive behavior may be what is preventing her from being employed in her field of choice."--Bobbi

Bobbi, I think you DO know what to do here! It's just that it's uncomfortable to do. You say you really care about what happens with her. Put yourself in HER shoes: when you level with her, SURE she'll be uncomfortable hearing it. But then, I suspect, she will be grateful to you, both for the enlightening information and for your obvious level of caring made evident by your willingness to do the uncomfortable thing and level with her. You could preface your remarks with what is probably true: "If I were in your shoes, I'd appreciate hearing the truth -- so ..."

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45. "I need help with writing a resume as a teacher with only a HALF of a year's experience. (I was a December graduate and was hired during my student teaching.) I am now looking for a new job with a new district. I don't know what to focus on!" -- Angie

Angie, the focus needs to be on THEIR version of what is needed to do that job well. Get a complete description of the new job, and for each skill, ability, area of expertise, etc., look at your own work history (paid OR unpaid experience) and describe what you did that gave you that experience or skill. If you organize all this in a skills/functional format, you can actually look pretty good despite having only 6 months of experience.

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46. "I am a 16 year old student looking for a job, and I thought maybe a resume would come in handy. So, I was wondering if you could help me put a resume together."--Jon
Jon, the best way I can help you is to aim you toward my VERY EASY TO USE skinny little book named the Damn Good Resume Guide. Follow the Ten Steps in it and you'll be surprised how great your resume comes out. There are several good examples of resumes for students in it. ALSO a few more examples in my book, Resume Catalog: 200 Damn Good Examples. You can get both of them in almost any big bookstore, or from Amazon.com, or from me. On another great website, there are 6 examples of resumes I've helped people write, including one for a student---You'll find them at JOBSTAR, http://jobstar.org/tools/resume/samples.htm

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47."Things have been pretty bad at work (they have complained about my performance on the job) and I've been thinking of leaving. A few weeks back I started writing my resume, but then I hid my head in the sand, thinking my performance was improving enough to stay on where I was. But no such luck: today, just 2 days before I would have been reporting to a new manager, the old manager and the assembled brass fired me. Well, not exactly fired me...and that's kinda, sorta one of the reasons I'm writing. I'm technically on "decision-making leave," which means they've handed me yet another document detailing every mistake I've ever made, every time I've asked my supervisor for help (which is being held against me) and assorted other results of spying and chronicling every move I've made--or not made. The choice they are giving me is to come in on Monday with a detailed "action plan" and never ever make another mistake OR take a severance package and leave. The severance package is somewhat open, but seems like it would consist of a month's severance pay, a decent recommendation, and a job coach to help me find another job. My brother, a lawyer, thinks I should try to stick it out under the new manager. But reading the document--which is just so full of poison--it's clear that most of the honchos think it was "never a good fit," I'm inclined to take the severance package, and see if I can get longer severance pay and some tuition breaks (I work at the University.) Maybe this isn't enough for you to go on, but I'm confused and reaching out to whomever I can. Any words of wisdom for me?"
Dear Margie, when your bosses start keeping track of your EVERY little deviation from perfection, you can be sure they WANT very much to fire you, AND they are busy covering their butts by making sure they have it all documented so they can't get sued. This sounds like a poisonous environment and you'd best get YOUR butt out of there while the severance package is still available! They don't HAVE to do that, and if you give them a hard time they can simply can you WITHOUT being generous. Why not just ACT like this is a MUTUALLY agreeable solution and find the most DIGNIFIED way of letting them get what THEY think they want (you out of there) while accepting the softest landing possible. Their offer sounds generous enough; I say "go for it," but GET IT ALL IN WRITING before you agree! Ask them to "please put that offer in writing," then go find yourself a better fit somewhere else.--Yana
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48."I have a client who has been an exotic dancer (stripper) for 12 years. She's 32 now and has changed her lifestyle and her "career." More recent experience (that is, since 1994) includes hotel management, waitressing, and housekeeping. She has started taking various training and education courses and plans to go to a college or university to study law. My concern is that I do not want to put this 12 years stripper experience on her resume, so how do I account for those 12 years? She will be applying for work relative to the hospitality industry, and an exotic dancer is not relevant. What creative ideas or helpful hints might you have?"--Leslie Wall