Article 7

THE KITCHEN SINK RESUME

As a general rule the "kitchen sink" resumé has a lot going for it in that it tells people your history and is a good record, but it won't be suitable for every job.Think of a resumé for a position as a bit like when you go to impress a prospective life partner - You give sufficient to interest them but not enough to put them off.

That means you DO have a "kitchen sink" resumé on record behind the scenes, but you tailor it for each position you go for or at least for each TYPE of position. So you highlight or re-order some aspects for your work record, history of education and experience and alter it again for another position.

Depending on the position you are going for you may double the size and detail of some aspects of your history in work or courses and simply put one or two lines for other aspects. You might even lump two or three jobs together if they are barely related to the current application, label in under a certain industry and elaborate on the generic skills you've gained rather than the industry skills as these might give a negative viewpoint regarding your application.

Generally you might be looking at about 3 types of positions that you could apply for so there would be 3 types of resumes.A bit of a general hint though - your contact details have to be able to be tripped over, so make sure they are up there after your name, separating each item one below the other. Call it Personal Details or Contact Details. You've got 5 seconds to interest people and they'll want to be able to contact you.

Make the font size at least 12 and fairly plain - Times or Arial for example. Although you may have top vision many readers won't and if they have to reach for their glasses to be able to see it, that would not give you the greatest exposure.

At Maxwells Services we can assist you with professional coaching on effective resumes.