"The amount of knowledge available to any One individual to gain in their entire lifetime, is but a scratch of the potential knowledge open to the world. Even with the entirety of the internet at our fingetips you will never obtain every bit of knowledge available in the world, but do not fret that is why we have each other, to teach each other the fractions of knowledge we hold, and maybe, just maybe, we can get a better picture of the world's potential" -Ramblings of a wise Fools or i would not be bringing these thoughts to you, the reader. i am not perfect and my understating of life is flawed and limited but observation of of life and its interactions with me is the basis of my knowledge.
Main argumentation thesis: Resumes are a self portrait painted by words and the composition of format
Ok so sadly it has taken me three months to pull together all my thoughts in a moderately presentable manner, some refinement towards the chaos in my head but I wanted to make sure I had all my thoughts out on this matter. Been helping friends with their resumes lately. I would like to start off by saying thank you to John Marty for his article on LinkedIN that has inspired these thoughts for me. I do not fully disagree with you but I feel more information clarity and a better exampled format can be given to better help those who are in need of a resume. Worlds a changing the resume is too. My argument is that the resume is a Self Portrait over anything else, and I will start by arguing all 7 points john Marty made in his “7 no nos of 2019 resume” then I will dive into what I believe is a good skeleton that can be used to create your self portrait with description of tools resources and limits for each section provided and finally you will see a quick sheet of the resume skeleton format you can quickly copy and past into your word typing program.
7 resume no nos of 2019 *information from John Marty"
* More than one Page - Make every word count as if you were being charged money to place them there. Have some jobs from the 90’s? just add the company and date range.*
>Straight up mine is 6 pages long and that’s being short with the things I’ve done in my life. I would have an anxiety attack and would have to use 3-5 font sized times new roman to get everything on one page and for me that silly. For others it may be difficult to get past one page because of a lack in work experiences, ie. first job seekers. The resume is a self portrait and ya gotta paint with the resources you’ve accumulated so there is very much a sliding scale of how long your resume should be and for a simplification I believe its is much easier to break the resume into sections and impose rules on those sections vs rules over the entire resume at large. A quick break down for now but I will go into more detail after I finish my argumentative thoughts with John Marty.
Resume should, most importantly, describe who you are in a clear concise manner that is easy to read and void of clutter. I’ve worked in theater and schooling and let me tell ya there’s very limited ways not to get around the amount of paper and computer ink that is required in our job lives. While things can be mitigated to reduce wasteful consumption, your portrait that potential employers will judge their first impression off is not the place you want to be limited to one page simply by the idea that your word count is being charged. We’re not on a telegraph here being charged per word or in the newspaper where things were charged per letter, changing the way certain words were spelled for savings in repeated printings. In current technology I can create a 100 page pdf send it to anyone, with internet access, and have them read the file online without wasting a single paper. If I can do that why worry about limiting myself to one page if your resume will most likely be viewed online first and printed if the company sees you as potential. Libraries can offer printing for $0.10 per page even for a 10 page monster that’s still one 1 dollar. Your resume costs less than a coffee and is way more impactful. don’t limit yourself if it causes clutter. Instead break it into section. 1. Profile 2. Work Experience 3. education 4. Skills 5. Etcetera. Breaking your resume into these sections will give you flexibility and allow you to tailor your resume to you.
Job limits are a whole ‘nother thing but best practice (learned from filling out many applications used to refine my resume to the picture I want presented) is to limit yourself to YOUR Past 10 years of experience. This, as you grow in your career journey, will cause a plant like growth of progress where previous experiences from high school and college getting phased out as your learn and achieve things through out your life(and is also the length many application are requesting). The extent of detail in the job descriptions has a higher correlation to your value in the company so despite how long ago your job was if it falls into your last 10 years give the detail of what you did, you can do a lot more for a previous company you enjoyed needed to change for whatever purposes and get a job that covers essentials without needed to invest heavy dedication and then start looking for another job you can invest interest and dedication in. The middle job was in no way not important but duties listed would be very small because that’s the purpose of that job, the detail from the first job that held invested interest holds more influence even though it was further back in time, again the resume is a self portrait so paint yourself not another
**More than 5 Bullets - The resume is a sales tool….sell me. Does a weight loss pill sell by describing it’s benefits in paragraph form? No, it sells by providing you with 1–2 impactful statements like “reduces belly fat in 3 weeks”**
>Welp….. im f’ed I have an entire page of bullets 60 +. However I’ve made the composition of it rather pleasant and smooth in transition for readers so I’m not gonna worry I think ill be fine, gotten compliments so can’t be all that bad. A resume is a sales tool but who are you selling to? A company or to your own personal goal? Sell to your goal and companies become resources, sell yourself to the company and you are a resource. And I say a weight loss pill sells by extenuating their benefits in large fonts whilehidingthenegativesinrunoffsententacesorextremelysmallprintthatmakesithardtoreadorlistentoimeanhaveyouheardacompercialsomepersonreadingthepossibilesideeffectsallinonebreathandyourlikewaitdidiheardeathonthatlist??!?!!?!?!?!!!!!????likeimsureihearddeathonthatlistlikeatleastthreetimes……
I will agree that there is a bullet limit on a variable scale per section and that goes into…
***Duties; bullet point listing?? - recruiters care about what you achieved, not what you were assigned to do. Take the time to quantify each bullet point…for example: “I did X which resulted in Y.” If you don’t have measurable bullet points try to be as clear as you can (Did you help students? How many?)***
>So we are back into work experience here, *specifically only work experience*. In my opinion you should only use bullet points if you did variable jobs and want to highlight the many hats your wore in the job, otherwise paragraph structure. Paraphrase the work you did. There is two sections basic job details and how you went above and beyond. The latter will always have more information you can elaborate on. *Either use bullet points or paraphase choose one and stick with it.*
*#Objective/Profile -We all know the objective is to get the job, have a great boss, and be on a team that respects you.#*
>“We throw a bunch of fancy words in front of these [Students and workers], in order to attract them to [making a resume], in the belief that they’re gonna have a better life. And we all know that all we’re doing is breeding a whole new generation buyers and sellers. Buyers and Sellers! Pimps and whores. Pimps and whores! And indoctrinating them into a life long hell of debt and indecision” …don’t understand?…need it to be spoon fed to ya... “Look, there’s only one reason that kids want to [make a resume]. [Which is] To get a good job. [Get the job, have a great boss, and be on a team that respects you].”
“Fuck’n A’”
Couldn’t help myself just your description of this section and generalization made me think of that monologue instantly. **Bonus points if you know the reference**
But seriously what is your objective. Is it the same as you had when you were a kid, how about during a promotion or job change vs newly hired? your objective will change alot during your career paths. My objective is to make a studio where my name rivals other big names in the industry, any job that I get is only training and skill refinement for my objective, my objective isn't to be a great leader in an already established company. So your objective should be your opening profile paragraph but in a way that makes you seem worth employing. I wont actually say in my resume that any job is only to give more skills and ill eventually be leaving them but internally i know that i havent sold myself as a resource to the company ive only made them believe it by stating how my skills, talent, ethics all benefit the company i'm applying to; and you are free to speak in the first person and address the reader in this section specifically.
#Personal Pronouns - when listing bullet points don’t speak in third or first person by saying “I managed a team” or “Bob managed a team”, simply say “managed a team”# ok but why?
>As previously stated your profile paragraph should be in first person “I” addressing the reader directly and work and experience should be in a neutral non pronoun worded format to highlight what you did. Current sociological culture is leaning to the addition of preferred pronoun or demoniare but work experience is not the area to list that and in the paragraph profile speaking in the first person format should not have a need to delve into pronouns. This should be saved for etcetera, email signature, or in person conversation. Its not due to lack of importance but wording format of resume should be used to highlight what you’ve done and what you’re capable and writing in this format will make the reader, who reads thousands of these, unaware of the gender of the applicant when reading objective, experience and skills.
#*Buzz words*# - avoid words like results-oriented, synergy, think outside the box, go-getter. Also, no Microsoft office.
>So you mean skills??? the things that jobs are specifically looking that your equipped and skilled in??? ok so maybe stay away from adjective words but during your first job search you may not have anything else to rely on so as with the work experience your buzz word “skills” will change depending on the job your applying for and the skills relevant to your overall goal. Oh and I know so many jobs that require microsoft experience, (even more for adobe for me personally) ironically even though I have experience in them, (thanks to the jobs I’ve had and online tutorials I’ve adapted to the programs I use regularly) I don’t own either at home and use 3rd party free alternatives unless there are certain and specific features available only in the program the company is requesting use in, because I’ve never had the liquid assets to actual purchase programs I’ve had to find free alternatives or physical resources that provided access tot he specific programs I needed access. The end result is more important that the program used. Companies only care about the program because it is their established tool. Technology provides thousands of options and even human hands can do what a computer can so program buzz words help give you notice in a company you want as it shows you understand their program structure (fake it til you make it, knowledge edition is trial by fire) and your skill section should be full of buzz words make them feel a tingle in their back when they read your skills, knowledges and what you support.
#**Company Specific Phrases**# - stay away from phrases or acronyms that only people on the inside of your current company use
>Jargon that is specific to your workers and are not actual technical terms should be avoided at all cost. Words are all made up so do you research and know technical terms over jargon. Acronyms can be used and reused as long as you take the time to write out the company or full phrase then in parentheses the abbreviated acronym and the acronym can be used repeatedly. The same acronym can be used in a different section as long as its first occurrence has the full title with (acronym) ex: This Example Shows Tactic (T.E.S.T.) vs U.N.K.N.O.W.N.
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Forget “7 no nos” lets go over a restructure of the resume that makes it easier to create the self portrait, for id rather teach you so you can learn grow and adapt over you only knowing how to do this for the immediate hurdle. Teach a person to fish, feed them for life, give a person a fish, feed them for a day. I was taught extensively how to create resumes when I was studying engineering because of the job fairs that were regularly sponsored by the school for my program. This is part of why I ended up dropping out of the program because I saw first hand the career path I was on and how little freedom I would have in my own thoughts and exploration. Yes every job was financially stable and would have provided me years of work but my heart wasn’t in it. I wanted to do something different, after many weeks of wandering my campus at twilight hours peacefully debating with myself in the silence of the campus, I made the decision which now allows me to bring this knowledge to you reading this. I decided I would rather create from my own mind than be taught how to create for another, and with a 3.6 gpa I made a vow with myself. If I was going to go over to administration and drop engineering for the art program I better be ready to write 1000 resumes because I will be working 1000 meager jobs simply to pay for the passion I desire so deeply to share. And I have that’s why I’m not a one page resume kinda person. So I’ve had to deconstruct what a resume is, taking every free bit of information the internet and dubious facebook ads provide and piece together something for myself and then I helped a few friends. Now I want to help more. This structure has been derived from UX portfolios, LinkedIN and Indeed resume tools, nurturing engineering guidance, repeated construction due to loosing files, reading the interviewers body langue to assess effectiveness of resume; research, experience and training in various industries trying to find stable work that will supply financial stability while working on my own goals. All to achieve my own goals I have found I have a gift I can give to the world to better help my friends.
So Psychedelic Sheep Artisan Studio (PSArtS) presents to you:
****2019 and on, reconstructing the resume into a self portrait; a guide:****
I plan to show you how to break down your resume into sections so as to void the common belief that a resume should be around 1 page length in max. You will find that by doing this section technique you can drop sections and information off your resume as it pertains to the job you are seeking. There are 5 sections we will be covering:
1. Profile
2. Work Experience
3. Education
4. Skills
5. Etcetera.
Each section will have its own rules to content and page lengths but remember information is simply paint, the format you choose, ie. font, size, underline, bold, margins, is your composition and how you make your information clear and easily read. For right now I’m going to assume you don’t have a resume or are starting a new one from scratch, if you have a resume on hand, wonderful you’ll be able to copy paste alot of information. So lets begin
Section 1: Profile/ objective
*page limit
*Contact information
-Name
-Street Address
-City
-Telephone
-Email/Portfolio
** paragraph describing who you are; current standing in your career path; speciality and general skills; what you are looking for (either in jobfaire, conference, promotion, ect.)
* Professional references
X3 minimum
*Organization affiliations
It used to be alot more face first Impressions, and while in some industries networking still holds more influence than anything, in this day and age you can’t get past the fact that one of the first major impressions your potential future employer will judge you by is your cover letter ( letter of interest) and your resume. Whether or not your resume is proficient in painting an accurate portrait of your ability it is still the prima facie, a simple piece of paper, that hopefully sparks interest enough to lead to a job interview. The odd thing is not every job wants this information. However any job you’ll hold invested interest in should. Paper applications that have you write everything in, well, there’s not much else to do but rarely does job duties hold less influence that time at job. Again however most jobs worth investing interest in will, in this day and age, be requesting some sort of online application to help expenses and waste consumption, SO why not take advantage of tech. Its whats its there for.
Most important information of this section is your contact information so even if you cant think of a opening profile you still start out strong with how your potential employer can get back to you.
*portfolio link is only required if it pertains to aspects of the job your applying for. Its good to have one and super easy to save a copy with it listed and one without.*
5 sentences is all you need. Simple. Sweet. Concise.
*1) Linkedin tagline. 2) state who you are as a worker 3) Current job standing [employed position, freelance, education status, etc.] 4) specialties and general knowledge 5) extra training that makes you stand out.*
Simple, but you want to know the best part this is only an guideline. don’t think you can fill this out just yet, leave it out. But think of it this way. It is super easy to have more than one resume on your computers hard drive or even just on a flash drive have a master copy you save that you can copy and paste information of the one your going to send to your employer. Have a job prospect right now and only have work skills and references then go, use what you have but at the same time when you do not then take some time and self reflect. Your profile and objective will change the most often in your life. However you’ll have a summary of yourself that you wont have to repeat in the cover letter and can leave it for more important and relevant speech craft. Remember my argument is that now a days the resume is more of a self portrait than that of just a sales tool. Your potential employer will see you first by your resume before they will ever see your face unless you already know the person offering the job.
Section 2: Experience (10 year history)
l Format:
Job Title, Company;
city, state — date hired - date work ended
Information in paraphase or bullet point listing describe duties of job and how you went above and beyond, also what did you learn from working there that you can apply to other jobs
* 1-3 pages in length, jobs phase out as time progresses
“I see there is a gap…” this is kinda what the 10 year history shows, patterns. What industries are the jobs listed in, how long has each job been worked, promotions, volunteering, invested internships and apprenticeships, if you’ve moved, blah blah blah blah alot of information right? So again if you have a master copy for the last 10 years, which is the longest I’ve seen an application request, but the job your applying for only needs three, boom copy paste and done. And your master copy can always be alittle word vomity at first cause technology makes it easy to correct and mend. And 10 years give you a very special resource. It eliminates having to have a minimum number of jobs. Worked 5 jobs but your last one was 5 years one the one before that 6 years, all that’s super relevant is the latest two because they show a long of pattern your don’t need your beginning jobs to be listed anymore. Its going to vary from person to person but that’s the point. Your resume should paint the picture of the kinda work YOU are not anyone else. As you grow in life things will phase out of your master copy and that's super easy to do on a computer. So 10 years back is your limit, and if you don’t have it list what you’ve participated in school. Its ok not to have have more than one listing in this section if that all you have, your resume will grow with you. So go join a club go, volunteer somewhere, work experience also shows your community involvement so if you have no work history get involved in something you are passionate about or atleast curiously interested in. There’s a role to play in every kind of industry, theater and animation have taught this to me in the extremes.
Most important in this section is the format and the choice to use bullets or not. 2 major rules to follow when creating this section, 1) unless you have impressed them most of the time your resume will be skimmed through at first. Its not anything you can really help its just that if you have to read so many of these a day they’d kinda blur together especially if the type facing is difficult to read. 2) Format is your composition. Be nice and give your reader something that is strainful to the eyes to read. Whether or not your use bullet points or not doesn’t really matter your could use the line symbol above the forward slash “|” what ever you use make sure it consistent throughout all of your work entries don’t paraphrase one then bullet point the rest, inconsistency like that is visually jarring, again you want to make reading your resume easy. One or the other make the choice, my recommendation is which ever is most readable while not leaving unnecessary deadspace. as below:
Like that, which ever format allows you to eliminate deadspace like that of above is the most visually impactful.
Which leads to the limit I’ve imposed 1-3 pages for work experience. Engineering taught me tolerance values. Engineering taught me that despite measuring things a bunch of times there’s needs to be a small room for acceptable shift. Usually positive and negative values ranging to 0.0001 x units but still a small room for the natural shift. Its funny how much that ideal is rejected in other frames of thought. Animation uses it, the training book “Animator’s Survival Kit” actually states while you couldn’t have too many, having proper key frames can allow inbetween animation artists errors to become non existent since the rate of frames replace the poor image. Sometimes things need a little wiggle room. Most preferred your resume should be one page at least your experience section definitively should be 1 page but if you are wordy like me bleeding into a second page is fine. It’ll give you room for the next section without having a section devoted to deadspace. And unless you are listing volunteering and internships and freelance work all together you should never have to actually hit the three page max so that’s just your upper limit and still it should only bleed into the third page about halfway so your education and training can fit under it.10 years should easily fit between 2 and a half pages because if you’ve done alot at one job its most likely a job that was significant to your work ethic or one you’ve invested time into. We only have so long on this planet find whats worth investing your time into and remember this. “Do Not ever do anything you consider beneath you; Unless it serves a greater purpose” remember when I said sell yourself to the company and your become a resource, sell yourself to your goal and the company becomes the resource. Any job you work can be fuel for your goal, only certain job titles can be used to sell yourself to a company looking for something in particular.
Section 3: Education and training
Graduation and further education
Format
* Institution
City, state
Degree obtained
Period of time in attendance
Non degree obtained studies
* Training program
City, state
certification obtained
Date of certification
* Military service
Education shows what you have trained yourself for and what experiences you should be prepared for. Certificates shows what areas of knowledge you have pursued. Though military service is considered a job I am a civilian writing this and do not know how to properly apply format to service given in duty but have found a good break down to use. I am sorry if it seems I am diminishing the influence as that is not my intention and if anyone can advise of a better format application in the work experience section I will happily take it under consideration for the guide. In all this section should be around 1/2- 1 page long max typically if you only have one college you’ve attended in pursuit of studies or as a recent highschool graduate you will be under 1/2 page in length and that is perfectly ok!! that why work experience and education usually are put together allowing education to fill deadspace that work experience leaves behind.
Section 4: Skills
1 page, formatting becomes a good friend making colums will elimnate unwanted deadspace and give you more room to fill information
* Top skills: 5
* Industry knowledge
* Interpersonal skills
* Specific skills
* Programs
* Knowledge, ability, advocacy
Fill this section out to the best of your ability, I recommend browsing through resume tool builders online to find key word skills that can be applied to your resume. Best feature I’ve found from indeed is the skill selection. Its how I found the hierarchy break down of possible subjects. Most important is your top skills. Focus on that once you have that use the other sections to compliment the top 5 skills your chosen.
Section 5: etcetera
Information that does not fall into above categories but highlight your ability or experience. For me this section is composed of a theatrical experience chart that is a detailed list of all the shows ive been apart of and what roles I held, director and playwright, company, city and date. Now for alot of jobs in many industries this is irrelevant information. Does not mean it is not important but its not information every employer will find useful. Remember above all your resume should paint a clear and fluid picture so this section is the icing on the cake, not everyone likes it and not every cake needs it.
While I attempt to give you a skeleton structure it is up to you to fill in the form and create something unique out of it. Have fun and have a happy pursuit of your life goals dear friend I may never meet.
And now a quick sheet if you’ve actually stayed and continued to read my mad ramblings;
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(*most important and required, anything without * is optional or rather can be built into your resume later)
Section 1: Profile/ objective
* 1 page limit
* Contact information
Name*
Street Address*
City*
Telephone**
Email**/Portfolio
1) Linkedin tagline. 2) state who you are as a worker 3) Current job standing [employed position, freelance, education status, etc.] 4) specialties and general knowledge 5) extra training that makes you stand out.
* Professional references; X3 minimum**
Organization affiliation
Section 2: Experience (10 year history) ******
* Format:
Job Title, Company;
city, state — date hired - date work ended
Information in paraphase or bullet point listing describe duties of job and how you went above and beyond, also what did you learn from working there that you can apply to other jobs
-1-3 pages in length, jobs phase out as time progresses
Section 3: Education and training/Graduation and further education
Format
* Institution **** Highscool and college if applicable
City, state
Degree obtained
Period of time in attendance
Non degree obtained studies
- Training program
City, state
certification obtained
Date of certification
- Military service
Section 4: Skills
1 page, formatting becomes a good friend making colums will elimnate unwanted deadspace and give you more room to fill information
* Top skills: 5 ***
- Interpersonal skills
- Specific skills Programs
- Knowledge, ability, advocacy
Section 5 ETC.
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Well there we have it, thank you dearly if you've read the entirety of my thoughts. i appropriate an and and all comments but i do not promise to take every word as a need of change. I have added some of my personal life experience only to show that this information is coming from a place of experience and sincere thoughts and not from a mind of a troll wanting to spark a debate fire. I have found that this format has helped me greatly and I have used to to successfully help others or i would not be bringing these thoughts to you, the reader. i am not perfect and my understating of life is flawed and limited but opservation of of life and its interactions with me is the basis of my knowledge.
"The amount of knowledge available to any One individual to gain in their entire lifetime, is but a scratch of the potential knowledge open to the world. Even with the entirety of the internet at our fingertips you will never obtain every bit of knowledge available in the world, but do not fret that is why we have each other, to teach each other the fractions of knowledge we hold, and maybe, just maybe, we can get a better picture of the world's potential" -Ramblings of a wise Fool
Thank you for reading PSArtS's Resume revamp article and i hope this skeleton resource helps you better paint your self portrait through the content and format of your words.
Artistically and Scientifically yours,
Jacob Robert Ledesma
Creator of Psychedelic Sheep Artisan Studio (PSArtS)