Resumes are one of the most important and necessary tools we have to catch the attention of employers, and this alone is good reason to invest the time and energy required to produce the best resume possible. There is another benefit, one that is just as important as landing that next job: the chance to step back and look at ourselves, to add up the things that we have learned and done, the hard and soft skills that have been developed, the drive we have displayed, so much that we have accomplished, sometimes without even realizing how impressive we really are.
The modern job market offers more opportunities than ever before, and this is true for those just entering the workforce e for the first time, those who have plans to advance within an established career, and this is also good news for those who are making career changes. Of course this also means that prospective workers need to work harder and smarter than ever to catch the attention of businesses to land a first interview, to be considered for a promotion, and to make a good first impression.
There are many good career guides available, but I suggest you try the five books on resume writing that I turn to again and again when helping patrons who are working on this important task.
The needs of career changers offer special challenges when writing a resume. Many hard skills are transferable, and the soft people skills that have been learned in one setting can be particularly useful to an employer in a new field. Here you will find useful and often inspiring examples of how others have made the changes they wanted to reach their goals.
Sometimes what you really want most is to look over what else is out there, what people in similar circumstances are doing to find success. Gallery of Best Resumes takes exactly this approach: 182 resumes written by different specialists for clients job searching in dozens of fields, a variety of formatting approaches, written for career changers, new workers, and those with long experience, allowing readers to see how others have emphasized their strengths and skills.
Taking a similar approach to the Gallery of Best Resumes, the Real Resumes series offers samples of matched resumes and cover letters in a particular industry, from aviation to healthcare, law enforcement to social work. This particular guide focuses, as you probably guessed, on presenting resumes from workers in the hospitality industry, and seeing how a good cover letter draws attention to the highlights of a resume as an additional benefit.
The For Dummies books have taught people everything from meditation to computer coding using a friendly and accessible approach, always using similar language and book design. The now classic Dummies icons, alerts and formatting offer an approach that helps to show those who have used a Dummies guide for one project (e.g. Gardening) know that they are in good hands when it is time to learn a new task. Laura DeCarlo’s effort here is outstanding, now in the 7th edition, with extra content to help people choose professional help with their job search: what to look for, and pitfalls to avoid.
Organizing information can be one of the hardest parts of resume writing, particularly for those with long histories in the workforce: when and where was a skill learned, what exactly was the formal job description? Salvador’s approach presents a series of worksheets to guide you, step by step, through the process of gathering the details needed, and then assembling this information to create your resume.