.

.

I paid a company to make mine, and thought it was pretty good. Then I asked to look at some friends, in the same field, to look over theirs; I wasted my money!!!! Resume making company's use a template, and may not have a person that has actual experience in your line of work.  After looking over 3 different resumes, I changed mine to match theirs, each one was a little different. It is SUPER important to get friends that have more ,or at least as much, experience and that keep their resumes updated.

We had a training at work from the LinkedIn folks on perfecting a profile. Lot of that info translates to resumes. You can search on LinkedIn for their employee profiles, seemed that the marketing and HR folks had some good ones

Once you get the interview. You want to make sure you don't screw that up. This helped me prepare for pretty much any interview question.
https://www.interviewmastery.com/

If you dare ... post your resume here.  I'm sure there are a lot of people that could give good input.  Who knows, you might find a job!

-Allen

I manage a team of IAM specialists.  Most of the resumes I look at are either self prepared or are template based  created by the vendors.  In either case I've come to expect really crappy resumes and have learned not to completely judge someone because of it. 

I typically look for key words/technical skills. I then conduct a quick phone interview to be sure their communication is better than their resume writing and to be sure they weren't blowing smoke.  If they pass that I let a couple of my specialists have fun with them.

Resumes are important but considering the global nature of the workforce I think many people have learned to deal with the crappy writing and instead focus on verbal articulation and problem solving.

Stay away from prepared/canned answers.

This of course depends on the field you're in though.

I don't share the same view as Pacifico, but we are in different fields and likely judge candidates differently.  I'm currently on a recruiting trip through India and Sri Lanka.  I screened maybe 150 resumes, short listed it down to about 50 for in person interviews, and will likely make offers to about 15 people.  Let's just say I am in resume/interview overload right now.  This is for hardware engineers.

I do look for spelling/grammar errors.  There is no excuse for this IMO.  Attention to detail!  You have plenty of time to get this right.  So get it right.  The jobs I'm hiring for necessitate attention to detail and ability to avoid making mistakes.

I hate it when someone lists a project they worked on but didn't list what they did.  For instance, let's say you are a carpenter, and you have an item on your resume that says, "worked on $10M luxury home".  What exactly does that tell me?  Pretty much nothing. For all I know, that candidate swept up after everyone at the end of the day, and performed no real carpentry on that job.  Compare this to a statement like, "Worked in an independent capacity to fabricated and install custom, intricate kitchen cabinetry"

-Allen

I don't share the same view as Pacifico, but we are in different fields and likely judge candidates differently.  I'm currently on a recruiting trip through India and Sri Lanka.  I screened maybe 150 resumes, short listed it down to about 50 for in person interviews, and will likely make offers to about 15 people.  Let's just say I am in resume/interview overload right now.  This is for hardware engineers.

I do look for spelling/grammar errors.  There is no excuse for this IMO.  Attention to detail!  You have plenty of time to get this right.  So get it right.  The jobs I'm hiring for necessitate attention to detail and ability to avoid making mistakes.

I hate it when someone lists a project they worked on but didn't list what they did.  For instance, let's say you are a carpenter, and you have an item on your resume that says, "worked on $10M luxury home".  What exactly does that tell me?  Pretty much nothing. For all I know, that candidate swept up after everyone at the end of the day, and performed no real carpentry on that job.  Compare this to a statement like, "Worked in an independent capacity to fabricated and install custom, intricate kitchen cabinetry"

-Allen

"independent capacity to fabricateD"......Tisk Tisk.........resume straight to the round file.

I don't share the same view as Pacifico, but we are in different fields and likely judge candidates differently.  I'm currently on a recruiting trip through India and Sri Lanka.  I screened maybe 150 resumes, short listed it down to about 50 for in person interviews, and will likely make offers to about 15 people.  Let's just say I am in resume/interview overload right now.  This is for hardware engineers.

I do look for spelling/grammar errors.  There is no excuse for this IMO.  Attention to detail!  You have plenty of time to get this right.  So get it right.  The jobs I'm hiring for necessitate attention to detail and ability to avoid making mistakes.

I hate it when someone lists a project they worked on but didn't list what they did.  For instance, let's say you are a carpenter, and you have an item on your resume that says, "worked on $10M luxury home".  What exactly does that tell me?  Pretty much nothing. For all I know, that candidate swept up after everyone at the end of the day, and performed no real carpentry on that job.  Compare this to a statement like, "Worked in an independent capacity to fabricated and install custom, intricate kitchen cabinetry"

-Allen

"independent capacity to fabricateD"......Tisk Tisk.........resume straight to the round file.

Hah!  Yeah, toss that candidate.

-Allen

What field are you in? My wife is in marketing and sales and may be getting layed off from corp safeway. She is pretty good at resumes, had to hire people in her position with safeway and helped me create a resume that got me an interview with a phenomenal school district. Since she is job hunting hers has been recently updated...if in a similair line of work and are interested feel free to pm me. I could pm you a copy of hers or email it to you if it's any help.

If you dare ... post your resume here.  I'm sure there are a lot of people that could give good input.  Who knows, you might find a job!

-Allen

Understandable, but what line/type of work do you do, and are you staying in the same field??
+1 on detail. I have know more than one resume screener that would throw away any resume that had ANY spelling issues.

+1 on detail. I have know more than one resume screener that would throw away any resume that had ANY spelling issues.

"I have know"

Yeah, a resume should have been reviewed by several before ever getting in the hands of an interviewer. 

Unlike a forum where we can edit after the fact.  Unless someone quotes it before it is fixed.  [emoji2]

+1 on detail. I have know more than one resume screener that would throw away any resume that had ANY spelling issues.

"I have know"

Yeah, a resume should have been reviewed by several before ever getting in the hands of an interviewer. 

Unlike a forum where we can edit after the fact.  Unless someone quotes it before it is fixed.  [emoji2]

  OK, That was just plain dumb on my part. Nothing like a good old fashion reality check!!

Yeah, TMI Vic,
But i'm not the only one that offered to help you and review and review a draft resume, so its on you to start. Write the best 2 page resume you can and send it to one of us (no open forum). We will help you. But first step is yours.

Secondly as a strategy where there is a job description or posting, I use that to prepare my resume. Big gov't agencies and companies use automated scanners to look for key words. So if the posting says "leadership capabilities" I specifically salt my resume with that exact phrase. So it would be useful to have copies of the job descriptions.

Finally, the first qualification for the job is... can you get it up to write a resume?

6 years in the military and 15 at a full time job is not a bad background.  You are not looking for a career or want to work your way up through the positions.  But what you are looking for is a steady employment that will allow you to supplement your reduced retirement and wife's earnings.  You got to do what you got to do to pay the bills, but be careful with the physical jobs because you can easily aggravate old injuries and because of any past settlements you will be on your own for medical bills and probably out another job. 

Maybe one of those larger maintenance businesses can use a Forman/supervisor to go to job sites and check on work or make quotes.  You have experience for that and you can drive around like the good old days before being injured. 

I say put a simple resume together that lists the main work you have done and be up front about physical limitations and say you are now trying to rejoin the work force in a similar field that will allow you to share your experience with a local business.

You can always forward to the HR department of those type of jobs and they may take you on part time because so many others want full time jobs. 

Good luck VK

And I reserve the right to review later and correct errors as I see fit when not typing on my phone.  Can you put smiley faces on resumes or is that a no no. [emoji12]