One of my chores which I’ve been aiming to get round to is up-dating my resume. Speaking of resumes, here are a few tips I’ve learned over the years.
Some of the more nonsensical resumes appear on LinkedIn. My favourites are the ‘Black belt corporate ninja’ ones. I always smile as I scratch my head wondering why someone who says they consistently make their employer 300% profit would be looking for a job. Other associated nonsense includes the companies who grade resumes and advise people to ‘use language to make employers excited.’ Does anyone get overly excited about a resume? Well, I’ve never personally met anyone who does, but perhaps they do exist, somewhere?
So here’s my initial advice. Resumes are not a one size fits all. American resumes sound bizarre to those recruiters in the East, as I suspect TEFL resumes in the East sound dull and boring to western recruiters. That’s because each has a different purpose.The American recruiter is forced to separate facts from fantasy, whereas the TEFL recruiter in the East is interested in qualifications and experience and whether they can use those.
<Tip>
I design my own and my example is in my signature line. The best free resume grader is Rezscore @ https://rezscore.com/
This is an American grader so it’s biased towards ‘exciting language’, but gives back some good information. Having uploaded your resume, look for the words at the top (summary, resume, jobs, charts) and click on each in turn to get a breakdown of your score. I’ve messed about with mine and it’s not as important now as it used to be, but I still get a reasonable B+, with brevity 75, impact 99 and depth 99 and still get employment offers based on content. You should be aiming for a B minimum.
<End of Tip>
Back in the day, interviews were conducted in offices where candidates turned up with polished shoes carrying little folders. Those were the days when your address contained numbers not a ‘@’ sign and mobile phones hadn’t been invented! In a globalized world it’s now done by email and Skype. If you haven’t got a half decent resume and you’re not advertising it properly, you’re a salesman without a business card. Promotion and content are everything. Perhaps if there’s an interest in this I can go into detail and we can make this a regular feature? What say you, Joe?
Tips on TEFL Resume design
Moderator: Josef Essberger
Tips on TEFL Resume design
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