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Please critique my resume when you have a few moments. It's not a resume for applying to law school or any law related career, but any feedback is helpful. Several "official" people at my college in the Career Planning center have given it the "OK," but that doesn't mean it is. It's a resume geared toward teaching.

** I offered that it wasn't necessary to describe some of my experience, such as cashier: everyone knows what a cashier does, but the lady in the Education department INSISTED! **
Again, any feedback is helpful.

Thanks.

I noticed a few things with a fairly quick look.

The formatting needs work. There are lots of little things that seem to indicate a lack of attention to detail. You have bullets not in the same location as others above and below. You have titles with extra spaces that others didn't get. You have spaces after some dashes and not others. I am no expert, but I see little things like that immediately. Others will too.

There is too much fluff. You participated in a presentation given by someone else (more than once). You turned in required projects. Just those two items have at least 5 bullets dedicated to them.

Also, I don't know whether 1 or 2 pages is the ultimate answer. I got talked into 1, and I'm glad I did. I've done a couple drafts of my resume, and I got rid of TONS of fluff. I condensed a decade-long military career with multiple combat deployments/bases/jobs/promotions, a couple degrees, multiple volunteer activities, etc. into a single page. From 1998-present is a single page. I think it reads better personally.

I also don't know much about your intended audience. They may like to see you dropping some names and talking about most of your life since 2007. I just think most people want solid, hard-hitting bullets. Thrift is your friend! Pretend you're reading 100 of these and you'll only remember two or three key items from each. Do you want those items lost in a sea of quasi-interesting information?

Just my $.02

craigsan18 wrote:I noticed a few things with a fairly quick look.

The formatting needs work. There are lots of little things that seem to indicate a lack of attention to detail. You have bullets not in the same location as others above and below. You have titles with extra spaces that others didn't get. You have spaces after some dashes and not others. I am no expert, but I see little things like that immediately. Others will too.

There is too much fluff. You participated in a presentation given by someone else (more than once). You turned in required projects. Just those two items have at least 5 bullets dedicated to them.

Also, I don't know whether 1 or 2 pages is the ultimate answer. I got talked into 1, and I'm glad I did. I've done a couple drafts of my resume, and I got rid of TONS of fluff. I condensed a decade-long military career with multiple combat deployments/bases/jobs/promotions, a couple degrees, multiple volunteer activities, etc. into a single page. From 1998-present is a single page. I think it reads better personally.

I also don't know much about your intended audience. They may like to see you dropping some names and talking about most of your life since 2007. I just think most people want solid, hard-hitting bullets. Thrift is your friend! Pretend you're reading 100 of these and you'll only remember two or three key items from each. Do you want those items lost in a sea of quasi-interesting information?

Just my $.02

That's the most HONEST and helpful feedback, EVER! Usually they just pick it up and say, "Wow! You have great experience. Everything looks great," and hand it back to me.

*Revisions started*

Leaborb192 wrote: That's the most HONEST and helpful feedback, EVER! Usually they just pick it up and say, "Wow! You have great experience. Everything looks great," and hand it back to me.

*Revisions started*

Glad I could help. Yeah, people tend to be either polite or disinterested when reviewing people's work (like a counselor). It's just easier not to break out the critical eye and put the work in, even if that's a person's job. Folks on this site are actually better at being critical or overly critical, either of which I'd prefer to a lukewarm assessment.

Be your harshest critic as you continue to read iterations of your own resume. It'll pay dividends. And please, please have it formatted perfectly! Good luck!

craigsan18 wrote:

Leaborb192 wrote: That's the most HONEST and helpful feedback, EVER! Usually they just pick it up and say, "Wow! You have great experience. Everything looks great," and hand it back to me.

*Revisions started*

Glad I could help. Yeah, people tend to be either polite or disinterested when reviewing people's work (like a counselor). It's just easier not to break out the critical eye and put the work in, even if that's a person's job. Folks on this site are actually better at being critical or overly critical, either of which I'd prefer to a lukewarm assessment.

Be your harshest critic as you continue to read iterations of your own resume. It'll pay dividends. And please, please have it formatted perfectly! Good luck!

Revised:--LinkRemoved--

Better?

That's way too pared down, IMO. You need descriptions for your jobs, and I would eliminate the "Participant" entries where you just attended a talk given by someone else and didn't actually do anything.

I also wouldn't abbreviate it to "SUNY" and I'm guessing The Racquette should be italicized?

Dany wrote:That's way too pared down, IMO. You need descriptions for your jobs, and I would eliminate the "Participant" entries where you just attended a talk given by someone else and didn't actually do anything.

I agree you should have descriptions for your most important jobs at least and if you take out the participant entries you have the room. If you did more than "participate" come up with a better description.

ariadne328 wrote:

Dany wrote:That's way too pared down, IMO. You need descriptions for your jobs, and I would eliminate the "Participant" entries where you just attended a talk given by someone else and didn't actually do anything.

I agree you should have descriptions for your most important jobs at least and if you take out the participant entries you have the room. If you did more than "participate" come up with a better description.

Boy this thing will look fancy after going through "resume bootcamp." And I need to include the presentations/lectures as they count for professional development that I need for receiving permanent certification. I'm just getting ahead of the ball and getting some now while still in grad school. Should I change the heading to "Professional Development" instead?

Thanks.

Oh I clearly didn't read OP. I assumed this was for law admissions.

Dany wrote:Oh I clearly didn't read OP. I assumed this was for law admissions.

This is a resume for teaching, not law. I appreciate any and all constructive comments.

Thanks.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/149208692/resume

Current edition as of July 24, 2013