THE RESUME BUILDER "Building Your Way to Success" As your college years come to an end, the job search begins. An important tool is your resume. We have created this Resume Builder as a tool for organizing and creating your resume. Resumes are looked at by employers for an average of only 15 seconds. In order to have a shot at the job, you need to make a great impression, and fast!! Part 1
Choose your Resume Type
The two main types of resumes are chronological and functional. You may need both types over your career. Understanding the differences will help you choose which type to build now.
Chronological Resumes:- - Focus on employment history and education.
- - Best for strong educational history and some work history
- - Is the most common type used.
Functional Resumes: - - Emphasize skills and qualifications
- - Employment experience and education are downplayed.
- - Good for people who have jumped from job to job or have been out of work for a lengthy period of time.
**If you are still having trouble deciding which resume suits your needs, go to http://www.careercity.com/JobSeekerX/Resources/GetHired/Resumes.asp for more information.
Back to TopPart 2
Get Organized
Now that you know HOW you want to present your qualifications you need to know what needs to be included.
This means getting together:- 1) School paperwork (transcripts, paperwork for scholarships/awards won, academic honors)
- 2) Tax paperwork (if you can't remember all your jobs or when you worked there)
- 3) Any certificates for computer training, teacher certification, licenses, etc.
Once you have all the factual information, you need to think about what your past experiences entailed.
How would you describe what you did at Job X? What was your greatest achievement while employed by Company Y? What was the most valuable skill you acquired through your internship? Jot down two to three of your most impressive duties/responsibilities for each position. The words that you choose are almost as important as what you say. Power words can be the difference between an ordinary resume and a great one. For a list of power words go to http://www.bsu.edu/students/careers/documents/verbs/.
REMEMBER: Make sure that your responses relate to the position you are interested in. It's important to patent your resume to each position you apply for. It usually takes only minor changes in wording to fit each position.
Once you have yourself organized you are ready to begin creating your resume! Back to TopPart 3
Build Your Resume
Use the exclusive Dushkin Online Resume Builder developed by Dushkin Online. It will create a resume based on the information that you enter. It does not have a spell or grammar checker, so be careful. We suggest that you use this as a tool with which to organize your thoughts and decide what you want you want to include on your final resume that you will give to potential employers. You can print out the results page for your records and as a starting point or to use as an actual resume. It would be best to do your final resume in a word proceesing program so that you can check your work as well as make changes without having to re-enter all the information every time. If you are an advanced Internet user you could copy the source code of your finished resume that is created here and have an HTML version of your resume that you may want to include on your own website.
Back to TopPart 4
How to Improve It Now that all the data is entered you need to review and make revisions, if needed. This is a step that MUST be done. It is hard enough to get a job. Sending in a resume with an obvious error is one sure way to lose an opportunity to compete for the position. The three most common errors are incorrect spelling, poor grammar, and improper syntax. If your resume has any types of these errors, odds are you will never hear from the company. It's best to have at least one other person check your resume over for errors. If time is limited and you can not have someone else check it over, read it aloud a few times. Many errors are found this way. REMEMBER: Prospective employees are looking for "perfect" resumes. If one hands in a resume filled with errors, an employer will not waste their time, regardless of the applicant's credentials. For more specific information on what you should look for in your final version of the resume, please go to http://www.collegegrad.com/book/3-19.shtml or http://www.provenresumes.com/. Back to TopPart 5
The Finished Product Once you are satisfied with what you have produced, it's time to print out a final draft and begin job hunting!
Feel confident that you have created and designed a resume specifically for you and your needs.
McGraw-Hill hopes Resume Builder has made your resume experience more enjoyable and productive. Good Luck! | 
