Critique My Resume? Forum

[canuckabroad]

Wasn't sure what forum to put this in...

Would anyone be willing to look over my resume?

I know it is 2 pages, not 1, but I have a lot of work experience and I want to highlight that.

Thoughts? It is 11pt Times New if you are wondering.

edited: Thanks, got what I need.

[muskies970]

Quick thoughts:

-under Grabel your first words are capitalized but not on the rest
- the locations of where you work aren't aligned and it bothers my eyes, a few ways to fix that
-your employment dates aren't all in reverse chronological order
-No need to bold under scholarships and awards
-if your employment dates are to present, action verbs should be present tense imo. so again under Grabel "Initiate and lead"

If you want my opinion if you did this well it could still be one page, I see a lot of it as needless fillers. For example you worked at R. WOrk Group for only 3-4 months but have 7 bullet points, some 2 or 3 lines long... also as a last funny piece I would never put my title as "player" next to hockey.

[canuckabroad]

Quick thoughts:

-under Grabel your first words are capitalized but not on the rest
- the locations of where you work aren't aligned and it bothers my eyes, a few ways to fix that
-your employment dates aren't all in reverse chronological order
-No need to bold under scholarships and awards
-if your employment dates are to present, action verbs should be present tense imo. so again under Grabel "Initiate and lead"

If you want my opinion if you did this well it could still be one page, I see a lot of it as needless fillers. For example you worked at R. WOrk Group for only 3-4 months but have 7 bullet points, some 2 or 3 lines long... also as a last funny piece I would never put my title as "player" next to hockey.

Good eye on this stuff. This is obviously a first draft.

- I aligned dates right, which made locations misaligned (same amount of space in between). I can look at changing that.
- I struggled with putting in reverse chron, because I wanted those that were still present to be at the top. The start dates (except for those I'm still working) are in reverse chron order.
- player for hockey I laughed at too, but what else do I put (participant? member?). It's a competitive league, not just a for-fun thing.
- R. Work Group I wanted to highlight that it was really a government job, as well as the cause. I figured since I am going to end up at two pages anyway, I might as well fill them.

[txdude45]

No. Absolutely not. Resume's over 1 page are for professionals who have so much stuff it would be dishonest to cull it. You have had 2 jobs. There is no excuse for having this much on the page(s) and people who see it will think you have no idea what a resume should look like.

Edits I would make:

1) You need spacing in the education section. Everything is stacked on top of one another. Whatever amount of space you put between jobs in that section should be the same as you put between schools in this one.

2) Drop all the "Fall 20xx, Spring 20xx" You did it. How many times is only fluff and the way you currently have it is senseless.

3) Scholarships and awards should be placed under the school, not in a separate section unless they weren't given to you by the school itself. If you made dean's list at regional college, slot it under regional college.

4) Pick your 4 favorite things you did for "Mayne Marketing" and give each 1 bullet of no more than 1 or 2 lines. Sample phrasing: "Initiated and led multiple marketing initiatives for Grabel & Associates, one of Michigan’s top criminal defense firms." You don't need more detail than that. The list isn't meant to be exhaustive. It is meant to give the reader an idea of your experience and responsibility level.

5) You only need 3 bullet points for your other job and none of them should be 3 lines.

6) You are likely still gonna be over a page, so pick 2 volunteer things and cut the other 2. I'd keep the first and third.

7) I'd go with commas between your interests and skills. Not only are the dashes not helpful in reading it, but you are using a mix of em and en dashes.

[canuckabroad]

No. Absolutely not. Resume's over 1 page are for professionals who have so much stuff it would be dishonest to cull it. You have had 2 jobs. There is no excuse for having this much on the page(s) and people who see it will think you have no idea what a resume should look like.

Edits I would make:

1) You need spacing in the education section. Everything is stacked on top of one another. Whatever amount of space you put between jobs in that section should be the same as you put between schools in this one.

2) Drop all the "Fall 20xx, Spring 20xx" You did it. How many times is only fluff and the way you currently have it is senseless.

3) Scholarships and awards should be placed under the school, not in a separate section unless they weren't given to you by the school itself. If you made dean's list at regional college, slot it under regional college.

4) Pick your 4 favorite things you did for "Mayne Marketing" and give each 1 bullet of no more than 1 or 2 lines. Sample phrasing: "Initiated and led multiple marketing initiatives for Grabel & Associates, one of Michigan’s top criminal defense firms." You don't need more detail than that. The list isn't meant to be exhaustive. It is meant to give the reader an idea of your experience and responsibility level.

5) You only need 3 bullet points for your other job and none of them should be 3 lines.

6) You are likely still gonna be over a page, so pick 2 volunteer things and cut the other 2. I'd keep the first and third.

7) I'd go with commas between your interests and skills. Not only are the dashes not helpful in reading it, but you are using a mix of em and en dashes.

I actually cut 5 jobs for this (ranged from 3 months to 2 years each). So you would recommend I take out a bunch of recent work and put those back in instead?

[RZ5646]

"C++ web programming"

Is this a thing? I've never heard of C being used for a web application.

[jt91isles]

Honestly just cut it to one page and then I'll look at it. Most employers will throw it in the trash if it's over 1 page - do whatever you need to do with the margins to make it work.

[txdude45]

I actually cut 5 jobs for this (ranged from 3 months to 2 years each). So you would recommend I take out a bunch of recent work and put those back in instead?

Cut projects and add jobs. Since you have a lot to try to get across, switch to a paragraph structure rather than bullets. It'll save you space because you don't lose the space from the bullets sliding over. All you have to to is take the individual bullets and put them together as a paragraph. I'd say "Mayne" with 4 lines of text, then 2 (maybe 3) other jobs with 2-3 lines of text each depending on spacing concerns.

You have a lot of good stuff, but when you throw it all on the resume and spread it over 2 pages it actually works against you.

[canuckabroad]

No. Absolutely not. Resume's over 1 page are for professionals who have so much stuff it would be dishonest to cull it. You have had 2 jobs. There is no excuse for having this much on the page(s) and people who see it will think you have no idea what a resume should look like.

Edits I would make:

1) You need spacing in the education section. Everything is stacked on top of one another. Whatever amount of space you put between jobs in that section should be the same as you put between schools in this one.

2) Drop all the "Fall 20xx, Spring 20xx" You did it. How many times is only fluff and the way you currently have it is senseless.

3) Scholarships and awards should be placed under the school, not in a separate section unless they weren't given to you by the school itself. If you made dean's list at regional college, slot it under regional college.

4) Pick your 4 favorite things you did for "Mayne Marketing" and give each 1 bullet of no more than 1 or 2 lines. Sample phrasing: "Initiated and led multiple marketing initiatives for Grabel & Associates, one of Michigan’s top criminal defense firms." You don't need more detail than that. The list isn't meant to be exhaustive. It is meant to give the reader an idea of your experience and responsibility level.

5) You only need 3 bullet points for your other job and none of them should be 3 lines.

6) You are likely still gonna be over a page, so pick 2 volunteer things and cut the other 2. I'd keep the first and third.

7) I'd go with commas between your interests and skills. Not only are the dashes not helpful in reading it, but you are using a mix of em and en dashes.

1) Was trying to keep it small, but as I delete I will add spacing there.
2) I was following the models on Harvard's website with the Fall/Spring etc. stuff. You're saying no? For some things, like a scholarship, it shows that I renewed it or kept it.
3) Same thing - following Harvard model... They had scholarships and awards separate. Some aren't from a school.
4) See prev. post...
5) Will cut some of this.
6) Cut volunteer? I feel like completely taking out valuable softs is ill-advised... anyone else have thoughts on this?
7) Dashes are on the Harvard ex as well, I just liked that they spread it across the page, perhaps commas would work.

Thanks.

[canuckabroad]

I actually cut 5 jobs for this (ranged from 3 months to 2 years each). So you would recommend I take out a bunch of recent work and put those back in instead?

Cut projects and add jobs. Since you have a lot to try to get across, switch to a paragraph structure rather than bullets. It'll save you space because you don't lose the space from the bullets sliding over. All you have to to is take the individual bullets and put them together as a paragraph. I'd say "Mayne" with 4 lines of text, then 2 (maybe 3) other jobs with 2-3 lines of text each depending on spacing concerns.

You have a lot of good stuff, but when you throw it all on the resume and spread it over 2 pages it actually works against you.

I should also add that the other jobs I didn't really deem relevant. They range from retail management to ice rink technician...
I left the bullets over because I didn't think I could reasonably get it to one page (I started off with 4!), and don't want to have a page and a half. I'll try to cut it on a separate document and if I can get it to one, I'll do that.

[AP-375]

Cut, cut, cut
Your format is nice, but it really ought to be one page. Look, everyone comes to TLS thinking they deserve to have a 2 page resume. Whether your accomplishments merit it or not is irrelevant, because the average legal recruiter/hirer is only glancing at your resume for like 10-30 seconds - school, grades, rank, whatever else. That determines if you get the interview.
In the interview, your interviewer is going to scan the resume for a couple interesting things to ask you about. Make that easy.
No one is going to read your lengthy job descriptions word for word. Make them one line.
Limit your jobs to your favorite 5. Anything else is to overwhelming.
Limit/combine your awards and extracurriculars where they overlap
One line descriptions in your volunteer section
I'm not suggesting any changes that I didn't have to make myself.
If you could make your resume less overwhelming with text, it would look really nice. Less is more.
Feel free to PM for an example.

[canuckabroad]

"C++ web programming"

Is this a thing? I've never heard of C being used for a web application.

Yessir (http://www.tutorialspoint.com/cplusplus ... amming.htm)

Though I far prefer HTML5 - I don't think I'll actually put C++ on there, just wanted to fill the last page.

[canuckabroad]

Cut, cut, cut
Your format is nice, but it really ought to be one page. Look, everyone comes to TLS thinking they deserve to have a 2 page resume. Whether your accomplishments merit it or not is irrelevant, because the average legal recruiter/hirer is only glancing at your resume for like 10-30 seconds - school, grades, rank, whatever else. That determines if you get the interview.
In the interview, your interviewer is going to scan the resume for a couple interesting things to ask you about. Make that easy.
No one is going to read your lengthy job descriptions word for word. Make them one line.
Limit your jobs to your favorite 5. Anything else is to overwhelming.
Limit/combine your awards and extracurriculars where they overlap
One line descriptions in your volunteer section
I'm not suggesting any changes that I didn't have to make myself.
If you could make your resume less overwhelming with text, it would look really nice. Less is more.
Feel free to PM for an example.

Thanks, that is helpful.

I don't want a 2-pager (believe me, I tried to make it 1), but I just figured I would start with everything I liked and figure out what to cut (rather than accidentally leaving something important out).

[txdude45]

1) Was trying to keep it small, but as I delete I will add spacing there.
2) I was following the models on Harvard's website with the Fall/Spring etc. stuff. You're saying no? For some things, like a scholarship, it shows that I renewed it or kept it.
3) Same thing - following Harvard model... They had scholarships and awards separate. Some aren't from a school.
4) See prev. post...
5) Will cut some of this.
6) Cut volunteer? I feel like completely taking out valuable softs is ill-advised... anyone else have thoughts on this?
7) Dashes are on the Harvard ex as well, I just liked that they spread it across the page, perhaps commas would work.

Thanks.

2) Do something like "Fall 2012-Spring 2014". At a minimum, you don't need to separate out academic terms that take up a full window.
3) This may come down to a difference of style. My undergrad had us put school awards/scholarships under the school and external awards/scholarships in their own section.
4) already answered
6) Those softs are really "valuable". Everyone has them. Plus the outreach week thing literally has the words "volunteered" and "laborer" in it, so I think you are getting your point across.
7) Another style choice, but be consistent on the type of dash being used.

[oxie]

Unless they're changing the format from this past cycle, Harvard (and most other schools) will give you plenty of space in the application itself to list all your extracurricular activities, volunteering, jobs and awards.

There are some school that specifically ask for a detailed, all-inclusive resume (Berkeley comes to mind) and I think for them a 2-pager is OK. But for everyone else I think you really should try to keep it to 1 page -- think about it as the sort of highlights reel for your application that should allow the reader to skim it and get a sense for who you are.

Other suggestions (which may just be my personal preferences):
-I really don't think you need to include dean's list type awards that are just based on GPA (if you want to, you can list them in the application under the awards section)
-I think capitalizing the first word after a bullet looks cleaner than leaving it lowercase
-If you're still tight on space after revamping the work experience section, I'd recommend combining and culling your last three sections

[canuckabroad]

Here is a rough draft of a one pager. I decided to keep most work contracts (title only), rather than adding jobs I held in high school and shortly after that I don't think are very relevant. It is still 11 pt Times New.

Looking for content critiques more than spacing and capitalization errors (those are obvious fixes when I go through, but no sense formatting it all just to cut again).

[ClubberLang]

You have nearly half a page of resume devoted to a job you spend 3 months at. If you don't know this already, that is absurd.

Two email addresses- WTF

There is too much stuff bolded. It's confusing. Understand that people who read resumes generally don't look at one for more than a minute or two. Nobody reads the whole thing. Your resume should not be confusing.

Are you applying for a job in web marketing? If not, describing several projects in detail is not appropriate. I'd suggest something like: Founder/Principle... Mayne Marketing...Founded e-marketing firm. Representative clients include...

A half page of your educational "achievements" is also strange when it appears you haven't earned a bachelor's yet. Nobody knows what "The Master's College" is. Most would assume it is a place that grants Masters degrees.

Sorry to be harsh. Your accomplishments are impressive but your point will be lost with this disaster of a resume. You can easily fit all of this stuff onto one page, and don't stop fixing it until you do. Seriously, without exception EVERY SINGLE law student resume with more than one page is bad.

**Edited to add- Just read the new one. It is more confusing because it just looks like all the same stuff crammed into one page. You need to get rid of the projects, condense the education, and lose the tea shop. Use spacing to make it cleaner. Whoever is looking at your resume is only giving it a once over. Be respectful of that, understand that is just the way it is, and make it easy for someone to scan.

[canuckabroad]

You have nearly half a page of resume devoted to a job you spend 3 months at. If you don't know this already, that is absurd.

Two email addresses- WTF

There is too much stuff bolded. It's confusing. Understand that people who read resumes generally don't look at one for more than a minute or two. Nobody reads the whole thing. Your resume should not be confusing.

Are you applying for a job in web marketing? If not, describing several projects in detail is not appropriate. I'd suggest something like: Founder/Principle... Mayne Marketing...Founded e-marketing firm. Representative clients include...

A half page of your educational "achievements" is also strange when it appears you haven't earned a bachelor's yet. Nobody knows what "The Master's College" is. Most would assume it is a place that grants Masters degrees.

Sorry to be harsh. Your accomplishments are impressive but your point will be lost with this disaster of a resume. You can easily fit all of this stuff onto one page, and don't stop fixing it until you do. Seriously, without exception EVERY SINGLE law student resume with more than one page is bad.

I don't think you understood the thread. I have a six-figure income company, I am not applying for a job. This is a resume for law schools.

Comment 1: It's actually 6 out of 52 lines - or 1/10th of a page.
Comment 3: Trying to highlight my legal marketing experience and connections within the legal industry (ie companies listed under LawMarketing description). Though you may not know these sites and publications, anyone who has been in the legal industry for a significant period of time likely will, and working alongside the founders of these legitimizes my practice.
Comment 4: Yes, I am a junior in college, which is why I am applying to law school and posting on TLS. The Master's College is U.S. News' 2nd Best Regional College in the West, and most law school admissions deans will be familiar with the institution.
Comment 5: This is one page...

edited: Resume updated, was working on the non-dropbox version and forgot. Appreciate the help everyone, but please keep in mind this is a law school admission resume (I thought posting in PS section would communicate this). I know how to write a normal resume and realize this would be a terrible one.

[ClubberLang]

You have nearly half a page of resume devoted to a job you spend 3 months at. If you don't know this already, that is absurd.

Two email addresses- WTF

There is too much stuff bolded. It's confusing. Understand that people who read resumes generally don't look at one for more than a minute or two. Nobody reads the whole thing. Your resume should not be confusing.

Are you applying for a job in web marketing? If not, describing several projects in detail is not appropriate. I'd suggest something like: Founder/Principle... Mayne Marketing...Founded e-marketing firm. Representative clients include...

A half page of your educational "achievements" is also strange when it appears you haven't earned a bachelor's yet. Nobody knows what "The Master's College" is. Most would assume it is a place that grants Masters degrees.

Sorry to be harsh. Your accomplishments are impressive but your point will be lost with this disaster of a resume. You can easily fit all of this stuff onto one page, and don't stop fixing it until you do. Seriously, without exception EVERY SINGLE law student resume with more than one page is bad.

I don't think you understood the thread. I have a six-figure income company, I am not applying for a job. This is a resume for law schools.

No, I understand. It would be more appropriate if you were applying for a job.

Comment 1: It's actually 6 out of 52 lines - or 1/10th of a page.

Still way too much.

Comment 2: Trying to highlight my legal marketing experience and connections within the legal industry (ie companies listed under LawMarketing description). Though you may not know these sites and publications, anyone who has been in the legal industry for a significant period of time likely will, and working alongside the founders of these legitimizes my practice.

That's cool. Go for brevity.

Comment 3: Yes, I am a junior in college, which is why I am applying to law school and posting on TLS. The Master's College is U.S. News' 2nd Best Regional College in the West, and most law school admissions deans will be familiar with the institution.

2nd best regional college in the west? That isn't really a thing. Where would Stanford and Berkeley fall in the regional colleges in the West rankings? You're welcome dismiss the advice. I read quite a lot of resume's though and thought you'd appreciate some legit advice.

Comment 4: This is one page...

[canuckabroad]

You have nearly half a page of resume devoted to a job you spend 3 months at. If you don't know this already, that is absurd.

Two email addresses- WTF

There is too much stuff bolded. It's confusing. Understand that people who read resumes generally don't look at one for more than a minute or two. Nobody reads the whole thing. Your resume should not be confusing.

Are you applying for a job in web marketing? If not, describing several projects in detail is not appropriate. I'd suggest something like: Founder/Principle... Mayne Marketing...Founded e-marketing firm. Representative clients include...

A half page of your educational "achievements" is also strange when it appears you haven't earned a bachelor's yet. Nobody knows what "The Master's College" is. Most would assume it is a place that grants Masters degrees.

Sorry to be harsh. Your accomplishments are impressive but your point will be lost with this disaster of a resume. You can easily fit all of this stuff onto one page, and don't stop fixing it until you do. Seriously, without exception EVERY SINGLE law student resume with more than one page is bad.

I don't think you understood the thread. I have a six-figure income company, I am not applying for a job. This is a resume for law schools.

No, I understand. It would be more appropriate if you were applying for a job.

Comment 1: It's actually 6 out of 52 lines - or 1/10th of a page.

Still way too much.

Comment 2: Trying to highlight my legal marketing experience and connections within the legal industry (ie companies listed under LawMarketing description). Though you may not know these sites and publications, anyone who has been in the legal industry for a significant period of time likely will, and working alongside the founders of these legitimizes my practice.

That's cool. Go for brevity.

Comment 3: Yes, I am a junior in college, which is why I am applying to law school and posting on TLS. The Master's College is U.S. News' 2nd Best Regional College in the West, and most law school admissions deans will be familiar with the institution.
Comment 4: This is one page...

2nd best regional college in the west? That isn't really a thing. Where would Stanford and Berkeley fall in the regional college's in the West rankings? You're welcome dismiss the advice. I read quite a lot of resume's though and thought you'd appreciate some legit advice.

Appreciate it but didn't seem like you got that this wasn't for a job. I also read through quite a few job resumes as a business owner and wouldn't be on TLS if this was for that purpose. Stanford and Berkeley are not regional colleges, they are National Universities, ranked 5 and 20 respectively.

Thanks.

[txdude45]

Please do not submit that 1-pager. It is too cluttered and way overdone. Every contract for which you no longer have a description should be deleted. The remaining ones should not be displayed the way they are. Put them in paragraph form and just incorporate the names of the companies you did work for into the sentences. Delete the dates because they honestly do not matter for this purpose and delete the locations unless you got on a plane and did the work from there (even then, i'd still delete so my resume didn't look so badly cluttered). You can have a bullet that says "Company earnings to date: $$$$$" That will get across the point that you make money and are awesome. What you currently have not only doesn't indicate that, but makes you look like an unprofessional mess.

If I saw this resume in any context, it would go in the trash. It displays a complete lack of understanding of what a resume, particularly a law school application resume, should look like and no one will take the time to sort it out.

http://ucs.yalecollege.yale.edu/sites/d ... amples.pdf Pages 2, 7 and 19 should be constructive on what this should realistically look like.

[Nebby]

Google "Resume tips"

[oxie]

Getting it down to one page is progress, but it still needs to be streamlined more. For example here's a quick mock-up I did of the work section, cutting out the URLs, superfluous locations, etc although you could definitely cut it down more if needed (let me know if you want me to remove the image from my post after you've seen it in the interest of privacy):

[image removed]

Try limiting yourself to four sections: education, work experience, awards and honors, and either extracurricular/volunteer activities OR personal interests -- that should force you to focus on what's most important.

ETA: You really can't ask people to ignore formatting when critiquing your resume because formatting is an essential component -- the whole point of a resume is to illustrate your background in a professional, easily digestible way.

[RZ5646]

This won't really help you, but I believe the proper term to use for censored out personal info is "redacted"

[starwarsVII]

Wasn't sure what forum to put this in...

Would anyone be willing to look over my resume?

I know it is 2 pages, not 1, but I have a lot of work experience and I want to highlight that.

Thoughts? It is 11pt Times New if you are wondering.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/y5c970pog6w1e ... PLOAD.docx

(170 LSAT, 4.03 GPA)

Can you play around with the font? Also, what are your margins? If you change them to "narrow," it might increase your space. It's something I learned from my college's career planning office. Just a suggestion.