Free Sample Resume

Many think that there is no use of Free Sample Resumes. People have this wrong idea that anything that is available for free is useless. On the other hand, this doesn’t apply when the discussion is about Free Sample Resumes; because you can get priceless help on how to style and arrange your resume. You [...]

Many think that there is no use of Free Sample Resumes. People have this wrong idea that anything that is available for free is useless. On the other hand, this doesn’t apply when the discussion is about Free Sample Resumes; because you can get priceless help on how to style and arrange your resume. You get a lot of advantages by using Free Sample Resumes offered on the web, a few of which are described in this article.

Zero Cost

Obviously, Free Sample Resumes do not arrive with an asking price. However this gets special meaning when you reflect on the amount of cash you will finish up saving by using Free Sample Resumes. In actual fact, a resume written by professional writers can be expensive and can take away a good chunk of cash from your wallet! Plus using the cheaper resume writing services may not give you the best results. What’s more, hiring a resume writing professional will entail investing a lot of hours in explaining them your educational credentials and experience.

You get Free Sample Resumes for an Assortment of Jobs

You will be able to discover Free Sample Resumes to match a variety of needs. This includes both incomprehensible and clear-cut job positions for which you are looking to write a resume. You can locate ideal Free Sample Resumes from literally thousands of potential ones. If you are looking for job in a bank, like Financial Manager, Financial Planner, Investment Advisor or Portfolio Director, you can locate the suitable format of resume for the purpose.

A cover letter or resume objective is often something that can cause misunderstanding. On the other hand you can get to models of these in Free Sample Resumes as well as on the web! Also, you will be informed on whether the job position in question needs these items or not.

When you are making use of Free Sample Resumes for producing your own resume, it is likely that you’re ignorant about the formalities of such writing. There are some tips on the blunders to keep away from when writing a resume; you can get these on the internet for free as well. Also you will get an idea from Free Sample Resumes on how the resume must look like if the application is for an entry level job and how it should be if you’re trying for a superior job position.

Despite the fact that a trained resume writer may well have a lot of knowledge and understanding, no one is familiar about you better than yourself! It is you who knows best about your qualifications, abilities, and skills, and about how to flaunt all these in the right way possible.

Besides you recognize your own limitations and stuffs that you must avoid highlighting. Therefore, by making use of Free Sample Resumes, you can adapt them to go well with your own needs and save lots of cash for yourself! So get your free sample resumes now; you’ll soon be snatched up for an interview.

Affiliations can be boiled down to two basic flavors: career and civic. The first has to do with organizations dedicated to a profession, industry, or functional specialty. The second category covers community, nonprofit, and for-fun groups.

Volunteerism can fall under either category, depending on whether you are a mentor to business professionals or a role model for youth. Volunteerism is enjoying a renaissance in America, as in America’s Promise with powerhouse Colin Powell at the helm and, here in my home state, the California Mentoring Initiative for at-risk youth. Employers will regard this kind of service favorably: It not only benefits your chosen charitable cause, but also is great for business public relations. (Don’t, though, let this be your primary motivation for volunteering. The saying “Do something nice for someone today and don’t get caught” implies that volunteering has its own rewards!)

If numerous affiliations elevate you to “overachiever” status, consider splitting them into a career-related category and a community-related category for greater readability and impact. If you have only one organization to include, make sure it carries weight, or don’t include it. (See the upcoming tip on single-item lists.)

Choose one of following terms if you’ll be using an Affiliations category:

Tip

If you have a category with just one item in it (such as an affiliation, award, or interest), avoid listing it under a separate category. A single item can look “lonely” on its own, diminishing its impact. It also wastes two additional lines of space on the résumé (the heading line and the line space between the heading and the item). Extra space, called white space, also draws the reader’s eye to the item. If the single item is fabulously impressive, fine—list it by itself. If it isn’t, you have probably succeeded in drawing attention away from some other feature on your résumé that should have earned more recognition. This doesn’t mean you need to exclude one-liner items from your résumé. If including the item will support your candidacy, look for another category to weave it into, such as a Qualifications Summary or Accomplishments section.

These sections are self-explanatory. If you have trade school or college training, say so—that is, most of the time. The exceptions to this rule pertain to a degree that was “almost” completed, the “wrong” degree, or a degree in progress. I reveal my strategy for dealing with these sticky wickets. If you have only a high school diploma, do not list it or the name of the high school. The exception is if you are a recent high school graduate looking for work. You should include credentials, certificates, and licenses that required course work, internships, or a testing process, provided that the credential or license is still relevant to your field.

Recent grads can go heavy on Blockbuster Résumé. In other words, if education is your biggest selling point, don’t be afraid to let it take up “prime shelf space”—that visual center of the page. In the following example, Stephen leveraged his lack of paid experience by positioning an impressive Education category at the center of the page. He then stretched it to more than three inches of vertical space by using a variety of subheadings (Dual Major, Coursework Highlights, and so on).

Consider any of the following alternative headings for your Education section. You can combine several words if you have degrees and licenses that don’t warrant two separate category headings:

This category offers employers a skills-based menu of your talents, rather than a chronological list of employment. Don’t confuse the Skills section with an introductory qualifications paragraph or a bulleted summary of your talents. In this case, I refer to a skills section for candidates who can best benefit from a functional résumé format.

Some alternative headings for a Skills section appear in the following list. Keep in mind that such a heading is only a section head; you can use subheadings under this heading to outline up to a half dozen skill areas that reflect your talents and strengths (I’ll discuss this later):

Professional Experience, or any of its synonyms, is the mainstay of a chronological format. You will need a “Professional Experience” category if you plan to use any of the following formats:

• Accomplishments
• Combination
• Chronological variants
• CV
• International
• Linear
• Targeted market

(If you aren’t sure which format to use, refer to the summary at the end of Choose Your Most Flattering Format.) Although “Professional Experience” implies remuneration for your services, this category can also include nonpaid internships or significant, full-time volunteer positions related to your career goal. If this is the case, title the section something like “Experience” or “Career Highlights” rather than any of the terms in the following list that begin with the word Employment. For those retiring from a military career and whose experience best lends itself to a chronological presentation, title your service “Professional Experience” rather than “Military Experience” to make it more palatable for business and industry.

If you’ve chosen to write a functional, or skills-based, résumé, you can still include a skeleton of your professional experience to lend credibility to your work history. This condensed listing needs to include only your position title, the employer, and dates of employment. You can omit the dates if they reflect employment gaps or instability, but be prepared to explain them in an interview. Here is an example.

If you will use a professional experience category, you can choose a title from this menu:

In recent years, the Qualifications Summary has emerged as a tool to both define the type of job you want and to summarize why you’re qualified for the job. Because the Qualifications Summary serves both purposes, it is understandably longer than an Objective or Focus statement. If you use a Qualifications Summary, you won’t need a Focus statement. The following ingredients typically make up a Qualifications Summary:

• Functional specialty or title (for example, accountant, regional manager, materials manager, or production planner)
• Number of years of industry experience (for example, insurance, finance, manufacturing, or agriculture)
• Expertise, strengths, or specialization (for example, delivered more than $10 million in cost reductions through introduction of just-intime, stockless, and future-state inventory programs)
• Certification, graduate degree, or licensure (for example, APICScertified or MBA with strong finance and marketing skills)
• Language skills or international business skills (for example, fluent in Spanish or familiar with Asian business protocol)

You’ll find that this introductory summary section can also be called any of the following:

Who should use a Qualifications Summary? Individuals with at least five, and preferably more, years of experience at their craft are better candidates for a Qualifications Summary. The five-year benchmark is not a hard-and-fast rule. It’s just that after about five years in your field, you will have accumulated enough experience and accomplishments to warrant a synopsis of your career. You should also consider using a Qualifications Summary if the following are true:

• You’re qualified for the management or executive echelon. The sheer breadth of your experience demands a summary, just as a 200-page thesis calls for an introductory abstract.
• You’re a professional or have broad experiences in your field. A Qualifications Summary will pull broad-based generalist skills into one easy-to-digest paragraph.
  Your most impressive accomplishments won’t be seen until the latter part of the résumé. In this case, a Qualifications Summary will position the heart of your experience at the heart of the résumé.
• You are targeting a position that calls on experience found only in the early stages of your career. Mentioning earlier experiences in a Qualifications Summary will breathe new life into dated employment.
• Your résumé will have to pass the rigors of computer scanning software or Internet search engines.

You’re probably familiar with the term Objective as it relates to résumé writing. For 50 or more years, objectives enjoyed preeminent positioning in résumés as a one-sentence statement encapsulating the age-old question of “what do you want to be when you grow up?” More often than not, objectives tended to be de rigueur statements that were vague, trite, canned, and self-focused.

When written in this manner, they were a waste of space, hogging that high-profile “center of the page” you learned about in the previous post Techniques to Get an Interview

I’ll confess that when I drafted my first résumé out of college (a mere decade or two ago), I, too, was guilty of such compositional sins. How many of you can relate to the following objective?

OBJECTIVE

Challenging position with a dynamic, growth-oriented company that will lead to advancement opportunities.

Cringe! This ancient objective would definitely flunk the AIDA test today! (Recall the advertising formula from Techniques to Get an Interview: Attention, Interest, Desire, and call to Action.) There’s nothing in the preceding objective statement that will grab the reader’s Attention and capture the reader’s Interest. It offers nothing to create Desire in the reader, nor will it cause any Action by the reader (except perhaps a yawn).

Today, regardless of what job you’re going for, your focus should be the employer’s needs. Answering those needs will create desire and interest in you. Yes, you can still define what sort of position you want. Yes, you can still convey your qualifications. And, yes, you can still use the term Objective if you prefer. The difference is in the perspective-don’t write from what you want out of the employment relationship. Rather, direct your writing toward what your employer wants and how you can give it to them. I can’t emphasize this enough:

Focus on the employer’s needs!

This explains the use of the word Focus in place of Objective. Rhetorically, I prefer to use Focus because it conveys more energy and concentration. Arguably, it’s a matter of semantics. You can use a number of terms, as long as you weave the employer’s needs into your statement. Here’s an alphabetical list of some alternative headings you can use for this section:

Many of these terms can be mixed and matched, such as Focus & Qualifications or Specialization & Qualifications. Or you can add terms such as Career, Professional, or Vocational in front of several words in the list. For instance, Career Target, Professional Plan, and Vocational Trade can each work as a heading. You’ll also note some nontraditional words, such as forte, which I’ve included to expand your thinking. These words are best used when woven into a cover letter to describe your strengths or vocational goals. Use such words only if they fit your style of speech.

Your Focus statement will be brief—one or two sentences at most. It can stand alone or be used in combination with a Qualifications Summary (the next section covers that). You are a good candidate for a stand-alone Focus statement if your situation is aligned with any of these four scenarios:

+ You specialize in a particular position and want to have that same position in your next job. Note that Expertise implies a number of years of experience at your craft. Don’t use this term if you’re just starting out. Study this example.

EXPERTISE

Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 12-year record of creating award-winning social service programs, accessing “hidden” funding and grant money, and delivering services to medically underserved populations.

+ You’re a recent graduate with limited paid experience.

FOCUS

Management Training Program—BBA graduate with 4.0 GPA from one of the nation’s top business schools. Well grounded in simulated corporate scenarios that required solutions to complex manufacturing, distribution, and marketing issues.

+ You’re applying for entry-level, line, or support positions.

INTENT

To support management in a secretarial role where my technical skills, initiative, and understanding of client-driven organizations will be of value.

You’re transitioning from one career to another.

To parlay 15 years of legal experience as a top-notch business litigator into a career as a consultant, motivational speaker, and business coach.

Review the following sample résumé headers for ideas on how to combine information. Pay special attention to the suggestions that include the same number of data bits as you plan to use in your heading.

Your name should be one of the focal points on your résumé. In paper résumés, your name traditionally appears above any other information. You’ll see tips on arranging as many as eight data bits while concurrently keeping the visual focus on your name and squeezing out as much white space as possible.

Three Data Bits

With e-mail addresses as commonplace as telephone numbers, it will be unusual for you to have only three bits of contact info. For those without an e-mail address (I recommend that you get one), the following example is a classic, traditional heading style.

Note that you don’t need to include the word residence or home in front of the telephone number. It’s assumed that this is a residential number when you list it below a street address. While I’m on the subject of telephone numbers, be certain to avoid the easy-to-make mistake of forgetting to include your telephone number. It wasn’t until 30 unanswered cover letters went by that a friend discovered she had accidentally omitted the telephone number from her résumé.

It is important to always include a ruling line under your contact information (also called a graphic line, border line, or rule) because it pulls the reader’s focus to the text at the visual center of the page. Recall from Techniques to Get an Interview that this is where you’ll pack the punch for maximum AIDA impact. You’ll see what I mean if, after you complete your résumé, you print one version with a ruling line and one without. The one with the line is discernibly more organized, orderly, and focused. You can experiment with the Borders and Shading feature in Word or the Graphic/Custom Line keys in WordPerfect for variations on ruling lines.

Four Data Bits

If you have an equal number of pieces of information that make up your contact data, consider “splitting” this information on the left and right margins. The following is an example.

In this header, the equal number of data bits is four:

1. Street address
2. City and state
3. E-mail address
4. Home telephone

By arranging this information on just two lines, you gain another line or two of precious space in the body of the résumé. Another benefit is that your name clearly stands out because of the extra white space you’ve created.

The ruling line style in the next example is also popular; it’s simple, yet striking.

Here’s a header example with a bit more personality. The vertical line extends the length of the page on the actual résumé.

Note in the following example how the size of Robert’s name is increased because of its positioning on the left margin. This was done because the name will be difficult to see if his résumé is in a stack of papers held together by a paper clip at the top-left corner. If your name is short-say, it totals only a few letters, like Lee Wu or Sue Ross-avoid this heading style. Instead, position your name in the center; otherwise you run the risk of being “invisible” when the interviewer flips through a pile of résumés.

The following example uses a text box for the candidate’s monogram: The dressier heading suited his career in broadcast sales.

The next example is a bold, four-bit version with ruling lines above and below.

Five Data Bits

If you want to add a fifth piece of information, such as an online portfolio, center it between the city-state and home telephone number, as in the following header. It is not always necessary to include the word e-mail (or email) in front of your electronic address. In cases where this word appears, it was done to add visual balance to the header.

Tip: When using multiple phone numbers, make it clear where each number rings. For a cellular phone, use the word “Mobile” or “Cell.” If you’re listing a business and residence number, pair the words business and residence, rather than business and home. In the same manner, pair the words work and home, instead of work and residence. Business and residence correspond in style and length, as do work and home.

Six Data Bits

The following example lists six pieces of contact data. The placement of the information on the left and right margins was determined from a design perspective rather than a content perspective. Note how each line of information on the left margin is relatively balanced by its counterpart on the right margin. There is a pyramid effect, with Robert’s name forming the peak. Some pieces of information could have been swapped-for instance, the home phone number with the e-mail address or Web site URL. Again, I chose this arrangement because it creates a good visual design.

Tip Try different arrangements of your “data bits.”Your goals in doing this are to keep the visual focus on your name, create an eye-appealing design, and maximize white space.

Seven Data Bits

Of the seven pieces of contact data in the following header, your eye is probably drawn to the URL for the candidate’s Web résumé because it has more white space around it.

Eight Data Bits

This is the greatest amount of contact information you should consider putting on your résumé. It pushes the limits. Anything more will detract from your name.

If relocation is not part of your plan, skip ahead a few pages to the section titled “Objective, or Focus Statement.”

Dealing with Relocation on Your Résumé

People relocate for a number of reasons. Career opportunities, quality-of-life issues, family obligations, and health requirements are some of the major ones. Whatever the catalyst for your move, there will be some barriers to overcome. They include the following:

• Accessing job opportunities as quickly as the “local” competition
• Arranging time off from your current employer for interviews
• Keeping travel expenses associated with your interview jaunts to a minimum

Your employer-to-be will have some barriers to overcome as well. In the employer’s case, they are more mental than physical. For instance, employers sometimes react to long-distance candidates in the following ways:

• They are wary about an out-of-town candidate’s commitment to moving to a new area.
• They perceive local candidates as more settled or better connected in the community.
• They sense that out-of-the-area candidates are difficult to contact and require extra work to schedule for interviews.
• They associate additional expenses with relocation.

Here are a few résumé strategies to help overcome the mental hurdles employers might have with your long-distance candidacy. These strategies will also help level the playing field in competing against local candidates.

An 800 number is an effective and inexpensive tool for candidates who want to relocate. It removes some of the mental barriers an employer senses because of geographic distance. Place your name, a toll-free 800 number (or, as 800 numbers run out, an 888 or 877 number), and the words available for relocation at the top of the page. The 800 number will serve you well if you’ve gone past the “move date” and résumés are still floating about on employers’ desks. You can place the rest of your data bits-address, fax, e-mail, and so on- can place the rest of your data bits—address, fax, e-mail, and so on- area, say so. Also include a projected move date because it will make you look more serious about your plans. Here’s an example of how your header might look.

Then, at the bottom of the résumé, provide your current address. This is a psychological strategy that gives the employer an opportunity to be impressed first by your qualifications before seeing how far your cross-country trek might be. Here’s what the footer would look like.

The following header example illustrates another technique for deemphasizing a long-distance address. The vertical treatment of the data requires the reader to turn the page sideways to find the address. However, the candidate’s name and 800 number stand out, which is part of your design goal.

Another strategy is to use a header that provides your name, telephone number, and e-mail address and then omit the rest of your address entirely from the résumé. The employer might wonder whether you live in the next county or nine states away. However, by doing this, you might earn a preliminary telephone interview instead of being peremptorily dismissed because of distance.

Use two addresses-your current address and a “message” address. The message address can be the address of a friend, fiancé, or family member in the area you will be moving to. If you don’t have a contact in the new area, hire a service to do the job, such as Postal Annex or Mailboxes Etc. Try to avoid a post office box number-you’d be surprised how many people suspiciously associate them with instability or mail-fraud scams! It’s unlikely that employers will contact you via snail mail for an interview. Unfortunately, this mode of communication is typically reserved for letters that say, “Thanks for your interest. We’ll be keeping your résumé on file.” Nonetheless, use an address in your target area. It will give employers the impression that you’re serious about your relocation effort and that you have some immediate connections within the community.

In the next example, note the words current address and relocating mo/yr (use the actual dates) to explain both addresses.

If you don’t use an 800 number, do include a telephone number that gives employers the option of making a local call to leave you a message.

The message number can be the telephone of a friend or family member in your target area-just make sure that anyone in the household who might answer the phone knows that you are also “in residence” there. It will negate your efforts if an employer calls for you and hears, “There’s no one here by that name. You’ve got the wrong number.” Also, make sure you have some system for messages to be immediately relayed to you. The goal is to promote, rather than prevent, accessibility.

Now that you’ve got your contact information formatted, it’s time to move on to the next step in your résumé outline.

Info-dense! That’s what technology has made our lives. Next time you pick up someone’s business card, count how many bits of data are included. It’s not unusual to find a cell phone number, a toll-free 800 number, a fax number, an e-mail address, a Web site listing, and a blog, and that’s just on the front of the card! Businesses provide these numbers and links to make it easy for customers to gain access to their products.

Info, info, everywhere,
Download oodles of free software!

Cell phones with e-mail help keep us in touch,
Can you chat for a text-messaging power lunch?

With Internet access and new URLs,
Customers go global to buy and sell,

Zillions of facts at the touch of a mouse,
Just plug in at airports, your work, or your house.

First PCs, then laptops, now PDAs a must,
Forgo them and risk being left in the dust.

This info-dense world can cause quite a strain,
So why can’t they make a fast chip for my brain?

Now that you are the product, take a lesson from business. Make yourself easily accessible to your “customers.” Technology makes it possible for employers and recruiters to reach you immediately, and if they can’t, they’ll find someone else. An employment agency owner tells the story of a sales manager who lost an opportunity because she was out-of-pocket too long. The candidate hadn’t promptly checked messages on her home answering machine and missed the window of time for an important first round of interviews. The candidate who ultimately landed the job was less qualified, but he was more accessible.

The following list includes 10 pieces of contact data, or “data bits,” that you might use on your résumé to make sure employers can reach you easily. Put a check mark in the box next to each of the data bits you will use in your résumé header. (Your name is a given!) Keep in mind that, on a paper résumé, your name, phone number, and e-mail address are the most important elements. If you allotted one line for every piece of information, you could take up as many as 11 lines on the résumé. Obviously, I don’t recommend using this many because it will detract from the visual appeal, make the résumé look cluttered, and steal the limited space available for the text portion of your résumé. So later I’ll show you how to combine these data bits to take up less space but still give ample contact information.

To List or Not to List Your Business Telephone Number

This is a tricky question. It can be a dilemma for confidential job seekers. If you don’t include some sort of daytime contact number, the delay the employer experiences in contacting you might just cost you your dream job. The following suggestions might help you decide whether to list your present work number:

• Definitely include your work telephone number on the résumé if your search is not confidential and your employer has no policy forbidding the acceptance of personal telephone calls.
• Do include your work number if you have a private voice-mail system that guarantees that your messages won’t be accessed by others.
• Don’t include your work number if your search is confidential and calls will be screened before they get to you.

These suggestions seem like simple advice. However, I’ve run into many people who didn’t think through the consequences of going public with their job search, only to find that a nonconfidential call to the office tipped off a coworker or boss about their search and caused work relationships to be strained (and, in some cases, terminated). If you want employers or recruiters to contact you at work and you don’t have confidential voice mail, consider providing your work telephone number in the text of the cover letter but not on the résumé. You can include it in the closing or next-to-last paragraph with words to this effect.

If you wish to contact me during business hours, please do so with a measure of discretion (any premature speculation about my departure could be advantageous to the company’s competitors). My work number is 888-8888.

The preceding sentence is effective because it lets the reader see your professionalism and respect for your current employer. It also implies that you will extend this same courtesy and professionalism to your new employer.

Other Solutions for Daytime Contacts

Human resource professionals, hiring managers, and recruiters prefer not to bring extra work home with them after putting in a long day at the office. Be thoughtful and provide a daytime contact number to make it easy to reach you. If listing your current work number on your résumé is out of the question, consider these ideas:

• For greatest accessibility, put your mobile number on your résumé and carry this phone with you regularly.
• If you don’t have a mobile phone, a less-expensive alternative is a traditional digital pager. Your caller needs only a push-button telephone to leave you a digital message, meaning a telephone number only. Nationwide or statewide pagers are available. The cost for a pager is nominal.
• If your boss or coworker questions the new contraption strapped to your belt or purse, be prepared with some innocuous comment, such as, “I just want to be more accessible to the important people in my life.”

View more at Data Bits, or Contact Info.

Choose a format that will best highlight your strengths, yet minimize any shortcomings in your candidacy.
Apply white space liberally-learn how to add line space between paragraphs using the Format, Paragraph, Spacing command in MS Word.
Limit the number of tab stops on the page-more than three will cause the résumé to look too busy. Create a [...]

1. Choose a format that will best highlight your strengths, yet minimize any shortcomings in your candidacy.
2. Apply white space liberally-learn how to add line space between paragraphs using the Format, Paragraph, Spacing command in MS Word.
3. Limit the number of tab stops on the page-more than three will cause the résumé to look too busy. Create a visual pattern – be consistent in your use of tab sets, fonts, and line spacing from section to section.
4. Use no more than two fonts on the page-one for your name and perhaps the category headings, and another for body text.
5. Use the same font and point size for every heading; use the same font and point size for all body text.
6. Use bullets that complement the body-text font-make sure the size of the bullet doesn’t overpower or detract from the text. Divide long paragraphs (more than six or seven lines) into two. Lead off each of the smaller paragraphs with a logical category title.
7. Avoid the “Leaning Tower of Pisa” effect of placing employment dates in the left margin surrounded by too much white space. Dates placed on the right margin allow you to shift body text toward the left and gain room for important content and keywords.
8. Balance the text between top and bottom margins so that there isn’t excessive white space at the bottom of the page.
9. Print the résumé, tack it on a wall, and step back five or six feet. Make sure it has some semblance of form and design.