Create Your Job Search Toolkit

In today's job market, the job seeker must be prepared to use multiple approaches to landing a new position. It is no longer sufficient to create a standard resume, peruse the want ads in the local paper and send your resume in response to an ad. These days a search is much more demanding and, in most cases, more difficult for the job seeker.

Don't get me wrong, I believe you should still look through the local paper for want ads. One thing you will find, if you haven't looked at that section lately, is that, in general, there are not as many ads as you may be used to seeing. Additionally, many of the ads are looking for general workers or job seekers with very specialized abilities. Because most jobs that are filled are never advertised anywhere, it is important not to spend a disproportionate amount of time on a method that is not likely to produce many results.

Your job search toolkit should include a number of things, but today we are going to start with a resume. Although most people suggest you revise your resume, even if only slightly, for each position for which you apply, you need to come up with your basic resume template. These days there are still three basic formats for resumes: chronological, functional, and combination. The chronological is still the preferred format for many employers, and that is the design that requires you to list your positions in reverse chronological order.

No matter what format you choose for your resume, it would generally begin with your name and your contact information. You name should be typed so that it stands out from the rest of the information. Depending on how you will deliver the resume, you may choose not to include your home address on it, but you should include your cell and/or home phone number, and your email address. Again, be sure that the outgoing message on your phones is a professional sounding one and that anyone who might answer the number given can take a message and handle the call in a professional manner. If you list two phone numbers, you should indicate which is which. Also, be sure that the email address is one that is basic or professional sounding.

In a chronological resume format, whatever position or title you hold now, or your most recent position, would be listed at the beginning of your experience section. Before you jump into listing your experiences, I would suggest that you insert a summary of sorts for the section after your contact information. Your summary may be just a listing of areas of expertise, technical skills, or could be some significant highlights from your work history. It should not be too long, but provide sufficient information to get the attention of someone reading it.

Generally your experience section would come next. The exception may be for individuals who are just graduating - in that case, you may wish to list your education next. That is particularly helpful for those who do not have work experience related to the position they are seeking. Your current or most recent position should contain statements about the skills you demonstrated and tasks for which you were responsible. To the extent possible, all your statements in your experience section should begin with an action verb. Any figures that you can include which help to document your accomplishments is a good idea. You may use sentences or just bulleted statements for your experiences. Each position should include the title you held, the name of your employer, and dates of employment. In some cases, you may wish to include the city where you worked and/or a brief statement about the nature of the employer you worked for/the industry it is in.

You would repeat this same process for every position you have held - going back about 15 to 18 years. You would only consider including a position from further back than that if it is directly related to the position you are currently seeking. Generally 15 or so years of work history is sufficient.

Education is often the next section on a chronological resume. You generally list your most recent education first. The exception might be if you have completed some type of certificate program more recently than you received your degree. Unless the certificate is directly related to the work you are now seeking, you may need to list it after your degree. For each degree you have completed, list the name of the degree, your major area of study, the name of the institution, and generally the date you received the degree. (If you graduated long ago, you may wish to leave that date off.) If you were recognized for your grades/honors, you generally want to include that as well. If you provide your grade point average (gpa), you should include the scale on which it is based; so if you have a 3.8 on a 4.0 scale, you would indicate both numbers. You would also include that same basic information on the previous degrees/programs completed. The exception is that you do not need to include high school, unless you do not have a college education.

You may wish to include a section on professional activities or organizations to which you belong and/or a section for your volunteer activities. These can be particularly beneficial if they are related to the kind of work you hope to do or the kind of industry in which you hope to do that work. It is not appropriate to include information about your personal status and you no longer need to include the statement, "References available upon request." We will talk about the other resume formats in the next post.


Mary Ann Davis, M.A., is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) providing coaching and counseling for life's transitions; including a career change or job search, planning for retirement, coping with an empty nest, or planning to return to work or to school. She meets with individuals in person and via telephone to assist in developing plans to cope with the individual's transition. She is certified as a Master Career Counselor (MCC) by the National Career Development Association, a Life Work Counselor by the National Employment Counseling Association, and is a Distance Credentialed Counselor (DCC). Please visit her web site at www.YourCareerPlan.com for more information on her services.

To contact Mary Ann, please call (513) 665-4444 x3 and leave a personal and confidential voice message or send an email to YourCareerPlan@cinci.rr.com.