Building Resumes
No, I’m not talking about building the skills that go on resumes, but the resume itself.
For reasons that are best left unexplored, I’ve been thinking about resumes lately. Specifically, writing them and formatting them. It’s a chore. And, it’s hard to do well, frankly. For example, I’ve been using the same basic resume format since I made my first resume almost thirty years ago. Granted, I’ve moved some things around and dropped some of the earliest jobs, especially those that don’t relate to my current field, but the basic resume hasn’t changed. I’ve started to wonder if that works against me, making me look antiquated and out-of-date.
So, I nosed around a bit and found two resume-building tools that might help me reformat all that, and, of course, I’m sharing them with you so you can get the advantage of my research. Besides, let’s be honest, it’s about time to update your resume any way, isn’t it?
Well, no matter how you feel about your resume, here are the tools.
First, there’s Standard Resume. It’s a free web-based app, but it does require a login which collects your email. The interface is pretty simple and about like every other job search or resume related form you’ve ever filled out. What’s nice about it, though, is that when you’re done you’ll have printable PDF copies of your resume, a web-based version which you can link to from a webpage or email to an interested party, and they even make the web-based version mobile friendly for viewing on the go. For free, that’s pretty impressive. I’m not sure how they’re paying for all this, so I’d expect they’ll be either advertising to you directly or selling your information to someone. Still, it might be worth it for the super nice looking resume that’s consistent across print, web and mobile.
The other tool is Creddle, which is similar to Standard Resume, but with some important differences. For example, while Creddle used to have a direct import from LinkedIn that no longer works due to changes in the LinkedIn backend, they can still take your exported LinkedIn resume in PDF form and import that information, saving you the hassle of retyping it. The interface is a little more challenging, also, but gives you much greater control over your finished product. Creddle also adds cover letters to the mix, to help you get started with that as well. Frankly, I find the prospect of writing cover letters almost as daunting as trying to sum up my entire career in two pages or less, so that’s real added value to me! Finally, just like Standard Resume, Creddle requires an email to set up an account and will also give you a link to a easily sharable webpage of your resume.
So, there you have it, two helpful resume building and formatting tools just in time for a long weekend of revamping your work life.
I hope they help!
This post originally appeared at Use Your Words.
