I've had my resume looked at by twenty people, and they tell me twenty ways I'm wrong, or how the advice I'm getting is wrong.

Here's my functional resume. Should I just junk it and start over?

Office Professional
Florida Ready-To-Work Gold Certification
College graduate with proven communications skills. Highly effective research skills and attention to detail. Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to accurately disseminate information and resolve issues. Adaptable, reliable and productive.

Skills and Strengths
Computers and Technology
• Highly proficient in Microsoft Office 2007
• Adaptable to new and improved software programs
• In-depth internet research and drafting abilities, employed to update webpage information for non-profit
organization and to compose articles for college newspaper
• Basic web page design skills, including page setup, presentation, and linking
• Completed Palm Beach State College refresher courses on computer basics and Office 2007 basics
Communication and Clerical
• Professional composition of correspondence advocating non-profit organization for the award of grant money
• Wrote articles for college newspaper blog reviewing new and upcoming video games
• Read and follow directions independently with regards to assignments such as grant writing, Census
information gathering and college newspaper articles
Customer Service and Interpersonal
• Face-to-face interpersonal contact with residents for Census, which included responding to issues with non-
compliant residents; maintained confidentiality of information
• Handled and resolved disputes with customers at entertainment facility
• Provided information for procedures and policies

Work Experience
Walgreen's, Jupiter, FL
Service Clerk, 2011- present
Provides customer service and clerical duties, operates cash register, operates photography department

Best Buy, Palm Beach Gardens, FL
Gaming Assistant, 2011-2012
Provided customer service and clerical duties, operated cash register, and provided assistance in the gaming department and other departments as needed.

Palm Beach County Clerk Of Courts, Palm Beach Gardens, FL
Clerical Assistant/Volunteer, 2011
Sorting and placing papers in court files and filing cases based on assigned number

United States Census Bureau, West Palm Beach, FL
Enumerator, 2010
Collected Census information from residents and reported results to supervisor

Florida Atlantic University Center for Neurological Studies, Boca Raton, FL
Website/Grant Writer, 2007-2008
Aided in the research and writing of grant letters, updated news portion of website

Florida Atlantic University Press, Boca Raton, FL
Writer/Volunteer, 2007-2008

Boomers! Parks, Boca Raton, FL
Facility Attendant, 2006

Motorola, Plantation, FL
Tester, 2003
Assisted in testing software applications for two-way radios

Education History
Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL Bachelor of Arts degree in Media and Cultural Studies (2003-2008)
Palm Beach State College, Palm Beach Gardens, FL Paralegal Studies Continuing Education (2011-ongoing)

Any help here?

Hi tifosiotaku,

Thanks for posting your resume. I understand that it's frustrating when you receive conflicting feedback regarding your document. The best approach is to take the advice that makes the most sense to you and start test-driving the resume to see what works. A resume can be a work-in-progress!

I'm not a big fan of functional resumes as they're typically used by people trying to hide something (job-hopping, unemployment, lack of skills, etc.). So your resume could raise red flags even if you have no potential employment issues.

I don't think you need to completely scrap your resume. You can move the job tasks and accomplishments from "Skills & Strengths" to the correct position. You should also include a targeted career goal so that employers know exactly what type of job you are seeking. The rest of your resume should support your qualifications for your stated job target.

As you are a student, consider moving "Education" above "Experience." This will help explain some of the jobs that look short-term.

I hope this gives you a starting point for improving your resume!

It's nitpicky, but your current position shouldn't be provides, but provide. Each job duty is a bullet point that begins with 'i'.

Also, Kim's right, you need to provide your goal. Office professional isn't enough. Your experience is all over the board, and I cold see grant writing, beta/product testing, and clerical/reception as all valid career paths which put you in an office setting.

As far as formatting, which I know doesn't post well here, try putting one space btw each of your skill categories. This subtly highlights the types of skills. I may not read deep enough to see that you have say wordprocessing and spreadsheet skills hypothetically, but I might see a header that says software skills.

The certification is nice to point out, but beneath it you reiterate your skills, like you want to highlight a few. That can be tweaked into a summary statement, or an objective. Something like, and its very late so don't use this verbatim: experienced grant writer seeking position,using info organization and research skills.

Okay, thanks, now where do I start? What should be my targeted goal, then?

I still don't know what to do here.

Hi tifosiotaku,

We can't tell you what you should do. There are so many factors that go into determining a career target -- interests, life goals, values, salary requirements, job availability, skill levels -- just to name a few.

As authorjln suggested, you have diverse experience and skills, so the next career step is in your hands. You need to think about your future, research possibilities, and figure out your job target based on what is right for you. Check out the careers section of libraries/bookstores or enter "career development" as keywords on Amazon or bn.com. You will find many excellent books that will help you decide on next steps.

You can also visit Monster's Self-Assessment forum, hosted by Susan Aaron. Here's the link:
Self-Assessment Forum

Best of luck to you!

Hi tifosiataku,

I can identify with the frustration and how lost you are with the countless inputs you've been getting from different sources. But I wouldn't say who's right or who's wrong. Instead, I would urge you to take a step back and review their comments objectively and then decide for yourself whose comments you're most objectively comfortable with before following that person's comments and improve your Resume.

Personally, I would suggest a resume be written in the following structure. I would suggest that you adopt this to allow your ideas to flow smoothly and orderly to the reader.

Name & Contact Details
Career Objective
Professional Experience
Education
Other Relevant Skills & Experiences
Language Competencies
Hobbies & Past Times (Optional)
References (Optional)

In your 1st paragraph, I had difficulty identifying what the keywords of interest were. Having the important keywords at strategic places especially in the 1st paragraph will give you increased advantage over your other competitors. Do take note that keywords differ from position to position and therefore should be unique for each position you're applying to. You might also wish to consider adding more powerful words to "spice up" your language. Done correctly, your 1st paragraph will impress upon the reader sufficiently to entice him to read further and find out more about you while concurrently creating a good 1st impression to the reader.

As for the main bulk of the content, I see that you've listed quite a few things you've done in school but these are all "scraping the surface" only. These are too shallow to show how important your work was or how good you were at your work. Take for instance the line "Wrote articles for college newspaper blog reviewing new and upcoming video games", you might want to include additional information such as:

The viewership ie how many people read the newspapers.
Was the newspaper sponsored by any commercial institutions.
Were your reviews well received and did you win any awards.
Did any big companies approach you to write reviews for them as a result of your editorial work.
etc. etc. etc.

Think deeply to each of the points you've listed. Put down as much value-adding information as possible. Hiring Managers are more likely to call you in for an interview if he's taken an interest in the results you've achieved with the things you did. Simply listing down the things you did is not enough. Showcase your results with numbers if applicable in order to catch the right attention in the shortest time possible.

Hope these inputs are useful to get you started.

 

What you should do is recognize that your real problem is how to get interviews with people that can hire you. That should lead you to question if relying on a resume is the most effective solution to the problem. I don't believe it is in your case.

Employers use resumes to screen people out - especially those who are not currently employed in the kind of job as the one they're applying for. You would be far better off making an offer to be of service to the hiring authority based on some of the benefits and advantages you can offer him/her
as the RESULT of your education and background (past jobs, volunteer work, organizations you may have been a part of in college etc.).

Write a letter to the hiring authority and tell about some of the capabilities you can offer him/her. include a plain, no-frills standard resume.

What you want to do is get yourself evaluated on your capabilities, rather than your prior jobs, time in each, what your degree is in etc. A fairly decent marketing letter is a proven way to influence the hiring authority make a decision about whether or not to contact you - on the basis of factors that you are more likely to win on.