STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

kenzie · Chanel

Resume Question

Andrea Julia · Coach

Here are some ways to cut it down and other random things that come to mind:

For irrelevant jobs that you still want to list for reasons of showing you were employed, combine your accomplishments into a one line type of thing. Only list accomplishments you think the particular interviewer will care about.

If there are skills that you would be listing for multiple jobs, put them under a separate Skills heading.

Don't list any kind of general office work. They will assume if you are underwriting and doing marketing campaigns that you know how to use a computer and answer phones. Or they will assume if you were a retail manager that you helped customers. I would stick more with accomplishments, such as how you increased sales or started a successful promotion, and not really list duties. If you feel the need to list duties, I would put them in paragraph form instead of wasting space by bulleting them.

I think jewelry design and theater can go into the skills heading I mention in the second bullet point.

Definitely put Administrative Assistant instead of Receptionist! Administrative assistants do a lot of work. Many receptionists answer phones and greet people only and may not even have a computer.

How many retail jobs have you had? I would only list ones where you were a manager.

I would list the writing you do for ST as a job.

Due to the crappy jobs you have gotten stuck to, I would probably put it in this order: education first, then skills, then employment.

You may have already done some of these things and you may not agree with others, but I hope you find some of these things useful.

kenzie · Chanel

Andrea Julia wrote:

Here are some ways to cut it down and other random things that come to mind: For irrelevant jobs that you still want to list for reasons of showing you were employed, combine your accomplishments into a one line type of thing. Only list accomplishments you think the particular interviewer will care about. If there are skills that you would be listing for multiple jobs, put them under a separate Skills heading. Don't list any kind of general office work. They will assume if you are underwriting and doing marketing campaigns that you know how to use a computer and answer phones. Or they will assume if you were a retail manager that you helped customers. I would stick more with accomplishments, such as how you increased sales or started a successful promotion, and not really list duties. If you feel the need to list duties, I would put them in paragraph form instead of wasting space by bulleting them. I think jewelry design and theater can go into the skills heading I mention in the second bullet point. Definitely put Administrative Assistant instead of Receptionist! Administrative assistants do a lot of work. Many receptionists answer phones and greet people only and may not even have a computer. How many retail jobs have you had? I would only list ones where you were a manager. I would list the writing you do for ST as a job. Due to the crappy jobs you have gotten stuck to, I would probably put it in this order: education first, then skills, then employment. You may have already done some of these things and you may not agree with others, but I hope you find some of these things useful.

Thanks, AJ. I currently, have my information in the order that you listed (education, skills, employment) and I'm not sure it's working. I was thinking of switching to something like this:

Company XYC--current job(date-date), Title

skills gained and accomplishments

Stylethread(??) should that go here???--what about any other websites that I've written for? group them here, too?

Retail experience/companies/dates

skills gained and accomplishments

Internship Experience/companies/dates

skills gained and accomplishments

I've had three retail jobs, all management (I don't plan on listing my current part time job). I also don't list my serving experience, but I've heard that it's good to state that you worked almost full-time or whatever while going to college (in that case, work would be the serving experience). What about any honors/awards? I have a few of those and currently, I have a separate section for those.

I'm so confused.

Andrea Julia · Coach

Ohhhh, you know what? I don't think you should list Stylethread after all. What if they come and read the posts? I think you should just list other places you've written for.

You can either leave out the restaurant experience (or list it without any skills gained or accomplishments) and put something like this under your accomplishments for school:

Demonstrated time management and prioritizing abilities by working full-time while attending school full-time.

You should probably drop any experience that precedes your last 3 or 4 positions unless it is extremely relevant. I would probably do: your current position, your website writing, your last retail management, and then your internship experience (of course, I don't know every job you've had, so maybe you would do it differently). I would then change the heading to "Relevant Experience" instead of Experience because I feel it would be less likely to make them think you had a huge gap in employment, but would still allow you to eliminate anything unnecessary.

The awards and honors....where are they from? If from school, I would list them as accomplishments under your school information.

kenzie · Chanel

Andrea Julia wrote:

Ohhhh, you know what? I don't think you should list Stylethread after all. What if they come and read the posts? I think you should just list other places you've written for.

I actually think that Stylethread is an important part of the resume, though b/c it's relevant to what I want to do. I'll just have to hope that they don't figure out my sn.

You can either leave out the restaurant experience (or list it without any skills gained or accomplishments) and put something like this under your accomplishments for school: Demonstrated time management and prioritizing abilities by working full-time while attending school full-time.

I like this idea. That sounds good. Thanks.

You should probably drop any experience that precedes your last 3 or 4 positions unless it is extremely relevant. I would probably do: your current position, your website writing, your last retail management, and then your internship experience (of course, I don't know every job you've had, so maybe you would do it differently). I would then change the heading to "Relevant Experience" instead of Experience because I feel it would be less likely to make them think you had a huge gap in employment, but would still allow you to eliminate anything unnecessary.

Also a good idea. Basically, I would only need to list one retail job (the last one), internships, website stuff and the current job. That might work. It's always worth a try.

The awards and honors....where are they from? If from school, I would list them as accomplishments under your school information.

Two of them were during school, but not from school. The other was from a job.

honey · Gucci

overall i would play up your management experience. i guess the impression i would go for is that everystep you've taken to date has been to gain more experience in management. didn't you say the position you were hired for was office manager. if so, i would probably use that as my title instead of admin. asst. (more in line with the whole management theme) then i would start with current work experience and list education last. sort of like this

*current employer: title, accomplishments etc.

*free lance writer: i'm not exactly sure where to fit this, but as far as stylethread etc. i would lump them all under this category and say something like portfolio available upon request. also i don't think anyone would read the forums, and even if they did, they would have to figure out your username first.

*jewelry designer: again not exactly sure of the placement, but since it's something you currently do i would list it b/f your prior experience. although depending on the type of job you're applying for you might want to list it & stylethread under a general outside interests/hobbies section. just in case you don't want to give the impression that a corporate job is just to tide you over until your business takes off

*last retail management job

*job b/f that, etc.

*education -- in this category i would list the theater accomplishments and any awards that you received during undergrad.

i personally wouldn't include the server experience if you want to show time management, i would list it as a skill under one of the jobs.

hth!

kenzie · Chanel

honey wrote:

overall i would play up your management experience. i guess the impression i would go for is that everystep you've taken to date has been to gain more experience in management. didn't you say the position you were hired for was office manager.if so, i would probably use that as my title instead of admin. asst. (more in line with the whole management theme) then i would start with current work experience and list education last.

Well, I've heard my boss use the term Office Manager and Admin Assistant and on employment verification, he said Office Manager. But I'm really not the office manager. I have a few office management duties, but not too many. Mostly admin and underwriting and dealing with idiots on the phone. I like your idea about focusing on management (even though, that technically, isn't what I was going for, I suppose it still looks decent on a resume).

although depending on the type of job you're applying for you might want to list it & stylethread under a general outside interests/hobbies section. just in case you don't want to give the impression that a corporate job is just to tide you over until your business takes off

I have thought about this, too. I don't want it to be a deterrent to getting a full-time job. This is so irritating!! I hate writing resumes.

*last retail management job *job b/f that, etc. *education -- in this category i would list the theater accomplishments and any awards that you received during undergrad. i personally wouldn't include the server experience if you want to show time management, i would list it as a skill under one of the jobs. hth!

Do you think it would be good to include just a separate Honors/Awards section? I used to have this, but sometimes I take it off, sometimes I leave it on.

Thanks for your help!

honey · Gucci

well first i think you should have at least 2 resumes, one for more business oriented stuff and one for stuff that is purely creative. even though you're not going for mgmt/business jobs, i think if you focus on mgmt it might make your resume look more cohesive in the sense that you've been exploring various mgmt opportunities in different industries, and it'll be easier for you to explain various jobs, as opposed to just saying your ex-boss was crazy so you had to leave. (which of course was true, but the first sounds a bit better).

as far as referring to yourself as office manager, unless there is another person with that specific title i would go for it. from what i've read from your posts, it seems like your current employer is kind of small so i'm thinking they're not going to be as fixated on titles as a larger more structured company. also the things they've asked you to do pretty much fall under the scope of an office manager. finally, i think office manager sounds a bit better than admin. asst. -- at least in a corporate hierarchy, and again from the standpoint of having to explain you're job switches, it's easier to make a switch to an office mgr seem like a lateral move, whereas going to be an admin asst. kind of seems like you just got burnt out with retail.

honors & awards -- it depends outside of graduating with honors i wouldn't necessarily include college honors unless they're really, really imp. like you were the only person in your graduating class to receive them. however, i would include work awards, or if you got special recognition for your theater work

i should say that since i'm coming from a more corporate environment i've been kind of trained to look at resumes a certain way, but ultimately think about it from a spin perspective and draft it in a way that allows you to put the most positive spin on all your experiences.

kenzie · Chanel

honey wrote:

well first i think you should have at least 2 resumes, one for more business oriented stuff and one for stuff that is purely creative. even though you're not going for mgmt/business jobs, i think if you focus on mgmt it might make your resume look more cohesive in the sense that you've been exploring various mgmt opportunities in different industries, and it'll be easier for you to explain various jobs, as opposed to just saying your ex-boss was crazy so you had to leave. (which of course was true, but the first sounds a bit better).

Yeah, I used to have two separate resumes, but I lost the one in my computer crash over the winter and I never updated it b/c it's outdated anyway. On a side note, should I include a Summary of Qualifications section as an introduction? I've seen this done, but sometimes it looks like uneccessary fluff.

as far as referring to yourself as office manager, unless there is another person with that specific title i would go for it. from what i've read from your posts, it seems like your current employer is kind of small so i'm thinking they're not going to be as fixated on titles as a larger more structured company. also the things they've asked you to do pretty much fall under the scope of an office manager. finally, i think office manager sounds a bit better than admin. asst. -- at least in a corporate hierarchy, and again from the standpoint of having to explain you're job switches, it's easier to make a switch to an office mgr seem like a lateral move, whereas going to be an admin asst. kind of seems like you just got burnt out with retail.

Wow, good points. Thanks. Office manager does sound much better and it makes more sense. There isn't anyone else with that title (people seem to make up their own titles here...I'm not kidding, everyone seems to do this b/c there aren't any official titles unless you're a VP or something). So, I guess Office Manager works for me. Thanks.

honors & awards -- it depends outside of graduating with honors i wouldn't necessarily include college honors unless they're really, really imp. like you were the only person in your graduating class to receive them. however, i would include work awards, or if you got special recognition for your theater work

Actually, two of the awards were national marketing awards (and most people in the direct mail/marketing industry recognize them) and I was the only person in my graduating class (actually, the first person at my school, ever) to recieve these awards. I got a nice little letter from the Dean and everything.

As far as theatre and music, I have been in touring choirs, elite vocal ensembles, a featured soloist, a director, a choreographer, a set, costume and make-up designer and of course, a performer. I'm inclined to only include this on the creative resume and of course, in a condensed version (not sure how to do that).

i should say that since i'm coming from a more corporate environment i've been kind of trained to look at resumes a certain way, but ultimately think about it from a spin perspective and draft it in a way that allows you to put the most positive spin on all your experiences.

Again, thanks for your advice. It's been very helpful. I like your idea of the management spin (and making my current position fit in better). Thanks!