Make Your Own Resume

Guide to creating a free resume making your own resume sounds like a great idea - but for most people, it is not.

Back in the day, you could walk into any company that was hiring, introduce yourself, and maybe even start the same day. (I am talking about days well before even I was born)

But today, most job applications are done online and require you to upload your resume as an attachment. Your resume is the one and only thing you are going to be judged on - and the judgment will last for mere seconds. Any resume less than flawless is simply not good enough.

Resumes generally fall into one of three categories:

Homemade: Usually awful. Mediocre at best.

Made from a template: Usually barely passable. Occasionally good.

Professionally made: Generally the only quality resumes I have seen.

I recently had a job-seeker overseas send me his resume and ask me to critique it. I sent him an email back with at least a dozen suggestions. The problem was even after he implemented the changes I suggested, his resume was still pretty bad. I spent more time coaching him on how to write his resume than it would have taken me to re-write it professionally for him from scratch.

This underscores a much bigger problem with job-seekers getting advice on the internet - most of it is bad. I do not like to add much negativity into my articles, but I am going to say this on record:

The vast majority of career advice experts on the internet have little-to-no front line recruiting experience. They speak strictly from a hypothetical job search guide. They provide outdated, inaccurate and impractical ideas. Most of the abundant resume guides and free templates are absolute garbage. And what's worse, a good number of the paid services on the internet are pumping out these same templates.

That is a big part of why I got into this niche online - I've seen too many job-seekers being exploited, too much misinformation, and too many amateurs professing themselves experts. Remember that anyone with an internet connection can put content online - please screen your sources carefully.

Before I dive into this article any further, let me preface that my best advice to you is to pay top dollar to a professional to write your resume. Screen this person with the utmost diligence. Ask to see completed work. Ask for testimonials. Do not pay for anything until you are fully satisfied with the work that was done. And if you are not satisfied, don't pay. But for a good, quality resume - perhaps your only chance to even get called - do not go cheap. Consider it an investment in your future.

But that said, I know there is still a die-hard portion of you that want to create your own resume, or at least tweak the copy you already have. So, here is the crux of this article - I want to dispel some common myths about resumes as a helpful guide:

Print your resume on plain white paper.

The stationery department at Kinko's and Staples loves job-seekers. They come in prepared to spend big money on fancy, colored paper.

Anything other than plain white paper is distracting from the content and generally considered unprofessional. There is nothing wrong with buying heavy stock white paper - but it should be bright white only.

Your resume can be two pages.

Career advice experts love to tell applicants to keep their resume on one page. This usually makes it crowded. I agree that someone with little-to-no experience should limit their resume to one page, but most job-seekers are going to need two.

The bigger reason for two pages is not to load them up with lots of writing - it is to make appealing use of bold titles and s p a c i n g to draw attention exactly where you want it.

Create a very specific Objective & Achievements section.

Most templates will guide you down the path of saying something like, "Career-minded individual seeks immediate opening in a dynamic organization. Ability to grow professionally while contributing to corporate goals a must."

If that's going to be your Objective, you might as well not put one at all. Because that is exactly what every other applicant said, and it really demonstrates that you are firing out your resumes in a bulk fashion.

Your Objective needs to be extremely specific to the company and the position to which you are applying.

Most people list Achievements (or Accomplishments) that are also very generic. The only Achievements you should be listing are the ones that are directly applicable to the job for which you are applying.

Consistency is key.

The instant giveaway of a homemade resume is the lack of consistency in phrasing, tenses, font, sizing, spaces, alignment, dates, etc.

While I will not go into each of those in this article, every aspect of the formatting on your resume must be consistent. I'll give you a hint: use tab and tables, not space bar and estimation.

I highly recommend if you create your resume in a word processor like Word or Writer, export it as a PDF. I am a big fan of submitting your resume by PDF whenever possible since it eliminates the risk of inconsistent formatting between systems.

Do not include Hobbies & Interests.

I still struggle to understand why any career advice "expert" recommends having this section.

The idea is to demonstrate to your potential employer that you are a well-rounded individual, but I promise you that the hiring manager doesn't care about how well you play tennis or your book club. I think high school guidance counselors started this to help young applicants fill in some empty space on their resume, but it really is a horrible idea.

Adding this section is likely to either have the recruiter to form assumptions based on your interests - this person plays video games so s/he is probably lazy - or to perceive that you are unprofessional for having this section at all.

Your best bet is to pay a professional to do your resume for you - but if you choose to make your own resume, implement these strategies. As with most homemade items, the objective is to not make it obvious. Good luck!