What constitutes a good resume?
Resume advice for working mothers returning to work
Returning to the workforce with a new or settled baby/toddler can be a stressful experience for any mother. Creating the perfect resume can be a stressful but rewarding
These days there are so many tools available to create a good looking resume. Recruitment agencies and job search sites such as SEEK have their own resume templates, even Microsoft word has a tool to help you to structure and format your perfect resume. But although a flashy looking resume may make it visible you need more than bells and whistles to keep your resume from being binned on arrival.
Firstly you need:
List of:
Why should you never do this? Firstly if you apply for different jobs in the same company or through the same recruitment agency there are actually software programs which are used to sort out resumes which have already been submitted. Secondly you should always shape your resume for the desired job. By this I mean you should always highlight your skills relevant to that particular job. If it is an administrative position make sure you briefly explain all of the skills that you have. You might then reduce this list to broad categories if you are then applying for a research or teaching position.
Why this is so important for working mothers, is that they have often been removed from the workforce for months or even years and a resume which may be historically relevant (ie contain all your most recent employment) it may not be a resume that is job specific. So before you think about submitting your resume the first thing you should do is to look at the job criteria and adjust your resume accordingly.
In our next article we will look at resume writing 101!
