Interlude: Raising Resumes...

I hate writing my resume. I always associate resume writing with the deprivation of doing fun things. Last Monday, Memorial Day, a vacation day, a day I don't have to be responsible for work duties, I have already committed to retuning my resume so I can get a better job. (Sigh)

So how do I write a resume? It's sad that I have to spend my time learning how to do something I really don't want to do, wasting even more of my fun time. So here are a couple of good online tutorials:

• ResumeWriting.net – a simple, well written introduction
• PrismNet – much more detail description
  

There are two categories of resumes, the chronological resume and the functional resume. What are the differences? What are the basic sections of a resume?

Finally, every job sector has its own nuances of the resume form. Here are some examples.

• Teacher
• Student
• Nurse
• Sales
• Chef
• Security
• Human Resources
• Banker
• Accountant
  

People unfamiliar with word processing software tend to view computers as electronic typewriters. Using word processing software is like entering a new world, with fundamental questions to be answered, like what kind of font, or page margin, or paragraph justification should I use?

Living in America, most of the letters we write are business oriented. Examine the following formats:

• Full Block, second example, and a third example!
• Block
• Semiblock, second example

For extra credit, answer the questions on this form.

Page Setup

Let's look at a very old resume of mine. I don't even know who this person is any more. Personality aside, let your eye look for various formatting techniques I use to make this resume.Here are some of the basic word processing techniques used to make the resume pop.

• Portrait/Landscape layout
• Page Margins
• Header/Footer
• Page View
  1. Normal -- text editing
  2. Page Layout -- for visual reference
• View Paragraphs
• Tools | Options | View

Headers & Footers

• Tab Sets
  1. Left
  2. Center
  3. Right
• Field Codes
  1. Date
  2. FileName
  3. Page
• Reference Information

Format Selected Text -- Ctrl-d

• Font
• Size
• Format
  1. Bold -- Ctrl-b
  2. Italic -- Ctrl-i
  3. Underline -- Ctrl-u
• Effects -- super/subscript, small caps, shadow

Format Selected Paragraphs

• Alignment
• Indentation
• Spacing -- Special

Numbered and Bulleted Lists

Tables

• Select All -- Ctrl-double-click
• Borders/Shading
• 1. Cells -- Affect only selected cells
  2. Paragraph -- Affect only selected text
• Using the Ruler
• Cell Height/Width