Viresh Amin emails:
Mr. Wenzel,
I think you mentioned before that putting on your resume something eye catching like started trading currencies from the age of 15 will make you look more interesting.
I put that I have 5000+ hours of personal research in market cycles. I think putting it on the resume has done some good.
Thanks
This is what I wrote
in June:
I have talked to people in the past, where I have suggested creative things they could to do their resumes.
Most, however, seem to want to stick to the boring conservative format. With employers getting stacks of resumes, you really want your resume to stand out. I think the best thing you can put on a resume is something that will cause the interviewer to want to talk to you.
For example:
Started trading foreign currencies at age 15 (Trading statements available on request)
If you don't have life experiences that will make your resume interesting, then the next best thing is to make the resume, itself, interesting and relative to the position you are seeking.
The overall idea is to put something on your resume that will casue interviewers to want to talk to you. Either something that makes you stand out, or something that will make you of possible value to a firm. For example, if you are attempting to get a job on Wall Street, go out and read every New York Times and Wall Street Journal between 1920 and 1945 and write something like:
I have read every Wall Street Journal and New York Times between 1920 and 1945, and understand how the current business cycle fits into that cycle and what might happen next.
Whatever industry you are aiming, learn something that people in that industry want to know and put it on your resume. You will get interviews.
I think making your resume stand out with INFORMATION is great. Making it stand out with weird formatting, IMHO, is a mistake.
ReplyDeleteI've had to go through monstrous stacks of resumes before. If you can't look at a resume and figure out whether you want to keep looking at it in a second or two, it just goes to the "don't bother" stack. When I came upon resumes that had weird formatting that took great effort to figure out what they'd done, it just got dumped. That includes weird colored paper as well. It's very subjective, but I was scanning for information as fast as I could. Anything that made me work extra hard to do that got dumped in the reject stack.
Since I am looking for a job (a full time one that is) on the recommendation of a friend I consolidated my resume and added what I think is a stand out part at the end to supplement my work experience:
ReplyDelete"Contribute regularly to the Middletown Press and Journal:
"Numerous articles published by the Ludwig von Mises Institute and the American Thinker."
"Writings also featured in the Harrisburg Patriot News, Zerohedge.com, and LewRockwell.com."
Also, when I was in college (weird to say when it was less than a year ago) I was the treasurer for both the College Democrats and College Republicans on my campus. They both knew I was a libertarian and I refused to help them out with certain events but it seriously makes my resume stand out as I have been asked about it in a number of interviews.
Why would you go thru all this time and effort just to be a tax slave? Go down to your benefits office where you can easily get $600 per month with very little trouble.
ReplyDelete