Spicing it Up, and Standardization Thoughts

JobSpice is a neat online resume creation tool. If you haven't seen it already, I recommend checking it out.

In my ideal world, every company would use the same application system and want resumes in the same format, so that we all wouldn't have to spend so much time and effort not only submitting resumes and applications, but reviewing them (on the receiving end) as well. I'm kind of surprised there hasn't been more standardization on this front yet, but who knows? It could happen. Until then, though, tools like JobSpice will make things easier by helping the resume creation and editing process take less time.

Wordle Resume Analysis

It's been a busy few weeks for me, what with starting my new gig and wrapping up my last class until next fall. So, it's time to ease back into blogging. To start, here's a neat little activity you can do with your resume that I discovered at Kerry Sandberg Scott's blog Clue Wagon:

1. Go to wordle.net.
2. Copy-and-paste your text resume.
   
3. See how it looks. Do you see a lot of action verbs? Do you reuse the same ones over and over? Is it too heavy on the buzzwords and acronyms?

I thought this was pretty cool. I'm familiar with Wordle and knew about its potential uses for text analysis, but I would never have thought to have used it for something like this. A big thank you to Kerry for showing us this!

Creative Resumes

Normally, when it comes to resumes, it's best not to get too creative. It's generally preferable to use an established format and layout with standard fonts.

That said, this resume is totally awesome, in a geeky way (you'll probably need to zoom in to see all the detail).

What's In A Name (And Does It Matter)?

I chose the name for the blog that I did because I was looking for something that could serve as a catch-all for the types of workers I blog about. It's not something I would use in everyday discussion, of course. Mostly because, while I think it's a nice blog title, I think it would sound pretentious and dorky to seriously refer to oneself this way.

This does raise the question, though, of just what exactly you should call yourself. Obviously, if you do mostly freelance work, then "freelancer" works just fine. However, it gets muddier when you get your paycheck from a company that pays you to work at a client full-time. Are you a consultant, a contractor, a temp, a vendor, or what?

Honestly, I don't think it matters very much, if at all. One client I worked at referred to everyone who worked onsite but wasn't paid by them as contractors, another one called them all vendors. Meanwhile, the staffing firm I've worked at most recently calls us all consultants. "Temp" seems to have falled out of widespread use except for certain specific meanings (like a temp-to-hire employee). What about companies that call themselves consulting firms -- how are they different from a firm that calls itself a staffing company if they do the same thing? This all gets confusing very quickly if you let it.

So, don't let it. Odds are very good that you'll have an official title that addresses what you do anyway, so just use that and note on your resume that it was a contract or consulting position, whichever you think better reflects the nature of what you did.

Too Much Information

When you're writing your resume (in your pajamas, not your best Brooks Brothers suit, I might add), it's important to know what needs to be on there and what shouldn't. Over at USnews.com, HR blogger Ask a Manager has a great blog post titled 7 Things to Leave Off Your Resume that's very much worth a read.

Some of these are widely known -- for example, it's not common practice in America to include a picture of yourself unless it's for something like an acting or modeling gig. Also, it's widely agreed that a third page is a bad idea outside of very specific situtations. But a few of these are actually things many people do, such as including objective statements (seriously -- your objective is to get a job, hello?) and including proficiencies that are obvious or extremely common in 2009 (like being able to use Word). Not everyone will agree with all of the advice -- I've worked with some recruiters that wanted me to list every single individual software program I knew, for example -- but it's all at least worth considering.

Check it out and see what you think. Plus, check out the author's main blog as well. Which reminds me, I need to update the blogroll...