What Do You Struggle With Most?

I'm curious to see what people struggle with most when preparing their resumes.

Cheers!

16 years of Temp work/working for family.

HR departments consider that to be "unemployed"

Just Another Number, have you considered restructuring your resume to emphasize the type of work experience you've had? I agree some HR departments have blinders on, but if you strongly feel you are a good fit for a given position, writing a resume that specifically addresses their key job requirements might get you noticed.

Another approach is to work to network with the hiring managers themselves. They use HR to screen applicants because the don't want to deal with 100's or 1000's of resumes. If you can find ways to meet them "offline" you might get a chance to give your "30 second elevator speech" and get past the screens.

I read your frustration post, and I'm in no way belittling this situation. Just offering a couple of thoughts on the matter.

bestaccountingresume.com

Baldeagleent in El Dorado, Arkansas said: Just Another Number, have you considered restructuring your resume to emphasize the type of work experience you've had? I agree some HR departments have blinders on, but if you strongly feel you are a good fit for a given position, writing a resume that specifically addresses their key job requirements might get you noticed.

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, been there, done that - got the kudos for doing so but no interview. More than a few times. My "standard" resume is a very targeted functional resume with as few dates as I can get away with.

[QUOTE}Another approach is to work to network with the hiring managers themselves. They use HR to screen applicants because the don't want to deal with 100's or 1000's of resumes. If you can find ways to meet them "offline" you might get a chance to give your "30 second elevator speech" and get past the screens.
Well, despite being absolutely contradictory to both my Aspergers diagnosis and INTP profile, I do as much of that as humany possible - sometimes to the detriment of my health.
[QUOTE]I read your frustration post, and I'm in no way belittling this situation. Just offering a couple of thoughts on the matter.
I appreciate it.

I think the hardest thing about resume writing is targeting each resume to each position. It's critical, but very time consuming.

~Carla

And, as stated above, is about as useful as banging your head on a wall.

99% of all job openings have someone in mind and it isn't you. They just have to publish to keep the EEOC off their backs.

You get a job by knowing someone and having them decide to make you the person they have in mind - not by killing trees, electrons and time with gazillions of targeted resumes.

And if you're not the type to easily get to know/kiss-up to people?...

Sucks to be you. Welcome to my world.

Just Another Number: It is terrible you feel this way.

I agree that networking is a big part of making a job connection, but it isn't the only one. Diligent work, a solid resume and a hard-core job search can accomplish as much.

bestaccountingresume.com/

I agree with you Baldeagleent in El Dorado, Arkansas. I have been employed 3 three ways. 1. By temp agency
2. By word of mouth
3. With a faxed resume

I will agree that it is probably (area and career) that I am settling on starting over again(Plant shut down that I worked for 11+ years). I only have 3 yrs exp with Material Coordinating with a high school diploma. I have 5 yrs exp in assembly, 8 yrs exp with material handling. It was just quicker for me to get back to work doing the basics. I just hope after 4 years behind a desk, that I can handle the physical part of it. It is how I learned in prior positions, and moved up. Sure got tired of the "you are not going to make what you were making" thing tho. Well, half of what I made is better than nothing!

Baldeagleent in El Dorado, Arkansas said: Just Another Number: It is terrible you feel this way.

I agree that networking is a big part of making a job connection, but it isn't the only one. Diligent work, a solid resume and a hard-core job search can accomplish as much.

bestaccountingresume.com/

Experience is a harsh teacher... and I have 8 years of it.

My struggle is that YES I am a college graduate but it has been some time since I have been working in my field and when I go to sit down and write my resume I get stuck on what I should and shouldn't say etc.. But, I can tell you very confidently what my skill and qualification are. How sad is that. "HELP ME I AM DESPERATE"!!!!!!!!!!

Lacey in Phoenix, Arizona said: My struggle is that YES I am a college graduate but it has been some time since I have been working in my field and when I go to sit down and write my resume I get stuck on what I should and shouldn't say etc.. But, I can tell you very confidently what my skill and qualification are. How sad is that. "HELP ME I AM DESPERATE"!!!!!!!!!!

If you want, you can email me your resume and I will give you a critique. I usually focus on whether the words in your resume match up with the keywords in the job descriptions you are applying to.

Just another number -

Perhaps you haven't had much success with your resume because it wasn't written well. Networking, statistically, does help people land more jobs than sending resumes through the mail, but when you network, the first thing you are going to get asked is "Can I get a copy of your resume?" The resume is essential. Until video becomes more widely used, the resume is the only way to open the doors of prospective employers.

~Carla

How do I include ownership of a small business (LLC) in my resume.
This business puchases fixtures of my own patented design, that are precisely manufactured for me by machinists, to my tolerances.I found these machinists at a manufacturing website, after evaluating several of them.
I then wholsale them to a worldwide distributor. These fixtures were designed by me for specifically their machines.
I have also marketed variations of them to other end users.
I need to include this in my resume, also wrote most of the specification for the patent.
And just what should my resume look like?
Thanks