Best Resume Websites and Tips

I’m starting my blog fresh. New year, new blog. I was helping a friend find ways to develop a brand new resume and I wanted to share some of my tips! Gone are the days where “design” and “creativity”  and larger file sizes are considered lame and distasteful. I experience quite the opposite. I love seeing resumes that have been designed and really show off the TBH (To Be Hired) in a rather impressive light.

So here are my tips you can check out for yourself. See if any of them interest you.

1. Guru.com-

This website is my favorite new little secret. Well, to me it’s new..and I had never heard of it before. Sign up + say that you want a resume designed + watch bids and examples pour in. You can get a nice pdf design from a very well qualified GD at a great price. I get unlimited edits and a great looking resume tailored like a webpage to promote my skills.

2. Pongoresume.com

For basic yet tasteful resume templates go to this website. You can store your resume and try out different templates at the push of a button. You can export the resume in any format. I really wish they would bring in MORE templates, but for now they basically have one for most tastes. pongoresume.com

3. Virtual/Online Resumes

It’s a good idea if you are in a creative field to build a one-three page resume online with samples of your work. I even say this is fitting for all types of work now as it shows effort, knowledge and gives people links to learn more about you. As I always say, the more they see, the quicker their decision. Just check out a quick list of what not to do on an online service. http://www.employaid.com/articles/articles.asp?ID=26&TopicID=1

*Oh, and also note. There is a new service out for online virtual resumes that already give you a great template. Check this out:

http://personalbrandingblog.wordpress.com/2008/02/13/say-goodbye-to-traditional-resumes-say-hello-to-virtual-resumes-urls/

4.  Make sure you have other people read it. They will find errors for you and get you some great feedback.

5.  Do jot down your list of companies you apply to, the contact info and date. It can get rather confusing with interviews and people with similar names. Plus, this ties into #6

6. If you really need a job, you must be applying to about 100 companies/job postings per month. I’m really not kidding. I applied to 180 companies in a month to pull about 8 interviews when I graduated college. So work with that percentage!

7. Go to meetup.com and seek out some locals who work in similar fields and get together regularly.

8. I’m not a huge fan of those resume builder “people” who for all I know don’t even exist and make you pay $150.00 for their 50 years of expertise. When I go on most of their sites I don’t see many success stories or great templates. It’s hard to want to pay that money without enough behind it. My personal opinion is to take it to a friend who is a writer (and who probably knows a bit about resumes) and see what they can do with it while still keeping it true to you.  OR, pay someone 30 bucks off of Guru.com to do the same job as the $150.00 place!

9. In this terrible economy, point out some savings you have given to your position or company in previous jobs on your resume.

10. Include a picture on your resume. This really does help give people a better feeling about you. Unless you are Freddy Krueger, I’d like to see your mug. On my resume, I subdued the photo in the back page top banner..so it wasnt cheesy and in  your face, but there nonetheless.