You’ve reached the “Sample Resumes & Sample Styles” page of Dr. Jerry Bills, Certified Professional Resume Writer and the world’s premier resume/CV writer, recognized, worldwide, as the “Resume Wonk.”
(Wonk (noun) “Someone who studies a subject or topic so thoroughly and so completely that he becomes an expert for all to admire.”) Dr. Jerry has written more than 30,000 success stories and would like to write yours. Dr. Jerry, with more than 25 years of experience as a Certified Professional Resume Writer and Certified Professional Career Coach, is known, internationally, as the “best resume writer” and has won many awards, including “best resume,” “best functional resume,” “best certified professional resume writer,” “best resume tips provider,” and “best executive resume writer.”
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Some individuals visit this page because they think that they can do a great job of writing their own resume and do not need the help (or expense) of a professional. Ask anyone that has used a CPRW (Certified Professional Resume Writer) and they will tell you that the cost was well worth it since they started getting not only more interviews but better interviews when they started using their newly created resume. The secret? You likely only have to write a resume once every 4-5 years while the professional writes as many every day – one of us probably has more experience.
So what does it cost to have a professional write your resume? Answer: Depends!
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Dr. Jerry’s Mission Statement: “The best results at the best value.”
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Don’t leave this site until you e-mail your present resume/CV to Dr.Jerry@JerryBills.com. Dr. Jerry will personally review it without any cost to you. Dr. Jerry’s promise: The information you send to Dr. Jerry for review will be kept so confidential that even he will never look at it more than the first time and he will never market or divulge any of your information to any third party, period. This is a major danger with many resumes writing sites (Dr. Jerry calls them ‘Résumé Factories’) and Dr. Jerry, with a doctorate in Ethics, considers divulging any résumé information highly unethical.
Everyone needs an edge and statistics show that one appropriate change to a basic resume can boost results by 1,781%.
A popular admonition goes, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Yet we do that all the time. We ascribe qualities of character to people based on what we read in their resume and the language they use. What you write is, in part, a reflection of you. When your writing is sloppy – you are perceived as sloppy. When your writing is too wordy – you are perceived as an ineffective communicator. When you have only about 30 seconds to get and keep the attention of the typical reader, everything must be perfect.
E-mail your present resume to Dr.Jerry@JerryBills.com and Dr. Jerry will personally review it FREE. Dr. Jerry’s promise: The information you send to Dr. Jerry for review will be kept so confidential that even he will never look at it more than the first time and he will never market or divulge any of your information to any third party, period. This is a major danger with many resumes writing sites and Dr. Jerry, with his doctorate in Ethics, considers that highly unethical.
Reviews by Dr. Jerry are not automated responses nor some phony ‘fill-in-the-blanks’ form, but an honest review and appraisal of just how effective your current resume may be in generating interviews. Dr. Jerry even provides suggestions on how you can improve the success of your present resume without spending any money.
Questions? Dial 719.447.1147 (direct line) or dial 888-441-1147 (toll free). Dr. Jerry operates in the Mountain Time Zone, so plan accordingly. His office hours are from 7:30am to 5:30pm – Monday through Thursday and from 7:30am to Noon on Friday.
Just because it is not within the time frame of his office hours, if you see “Live Chat” on line, you can try to reach Dr. Jerry – in these times he really doesn’t have much of a life and he always works 7 days per week – he just doesn’t always answer incoming calls.
To see unsolicited and unpaid testimonials of satisfied clients, click on the tab above called “Testimonials.”
Resume Samples and Resume Styles
Looking at sample résumés is probably not a great idea – unless you are just looking at “style” because the literature is so confusing. What is critical to understand is that what looks good on one candidate may look terrible on another. You should let your professional résumé writer determine what is an appropriate style/format to best present your credentials. What follows are examples of “Styles” only.
You may be tempted to just try to copy a style and apply it to your facts – but you need to be warned – most people are rejected because of what they include in their résumé and not because of what they leave off. Only someone that writes dozen of résumés ever week is trained to present credentials effectively so that the document produces interviews – especially interviews for those highly desirable opportunities.
Most people are rejected because of what they include in their résumé; not because of what they left out.
There are only a few actual resume styles regardless of whether you are looking for opportunities in the USA, Canada, Japan, Spain, the United Kingdom (England), France, or elsewhere. While the nuances are significantly different from country to country and region to region (even across career fields) it is important to understand the few basic styles and when they are generally the most appropriate:
REVERSE CHRONOLOGICAL STYLE
The most common style is the “Reverse Chronological” style. E-mail your present resume to Dr.Jerry@JerryBills.com and Dr. Jerry will personally review it without any cost or obligation.
This is the most common style and has employment history presented starting with the most recent down to the oldest and generally limited to the past 10-years or so.
This style often starts with an “objective” and, please note, professional resume writers have not used an ‘objective’ statement in more than 12 years.
A variation of this style is the “Chronological” and a pure ‘Chronological Style’ would have the oldest job listed first, followed by the second job, and then followed by the current job. Since this style is seldom used today, it is not displayed and would not be used by any professional resume writer.
FUNCTIONAL STYLE
A second common style is the “Functional” style. This style is generally out of favor and used when there is a problem area such as major gaps in employment (hence the nickname “Liar’s Style”). This style is taught in academia and often used by amateur resume writers. There are only a few clients where this style is appropriate – take care.
E-mail your present resume to Dr.Jerry@JerryBills.com and Dr. Jerry will personally review it without any cost or obligation.
NARRATIVE/BIOGRAPHICAL STYLE
A third common style is the “Narrative” or “Biographical” style and is more like a biography than a resume – and is like writing a short story (with the biggest error being that the story gets too long and can become boring). Nearly all resumes self-developed or prepared by nonprofessional resume writers are more like biographies than resumes. What follows is an exact copy (names and other data redacted to protect confidentiality) that was submitted by someone who needed help.
This is a sample of a style seldom used and it is a bad sample. Do not try this on your own.
E-mail your present resume to Dr.Jerry@JerryBills.com and Dr. Jerry will personally review it without any cost or obligation.
SKILLS STYLE
A fourth common style is the “Skills” style and many amateur resume writers confuse this style with the “Functional” style. However, when properly used it is unique and presents the credentials with a sequence of skills, knowledge, and abilities. On the other hand, it is best suited for students and entry-level workers who have not found a career-path to follow. The following resume is an exact copy (names and other data redacted to protect confidentiality) that was submitted by someone who needed help.
This is another sample of a style seldom used and it is a bad sample, do not attempt this on your own.
E-mail your present resume to Dr.Jerry@JerryBills.com and Dr. Jerry will personally review it without any cost or obligation.
TARGETED STYLE
A fifth style, quite uncommon and developed by Dr. Jerry, is the “Targeted” style. This style should be used when the job search focus is extremely narrow or a career path is limited. This style often uses a great number of bullet items (with the danger that too many bullets will steal the message).
E-mail your present resume to Dr.Jerry@JerryBills.com and Dr. Jerry will personally review it without any cost or obligation to you.
NEWSLETTER-IMAGINATION STYLE
A less common, but sometimes highly effective style is the “Imagination” style. Dr. Jerry developed the “Newsletter” style just for individuals needing to express their ‘creative’ or ‘imagination’ skills. Here credentials are presented to look like a newsletter. While this is often a style of interest to many, it is only an ideal style for individuals looking for opportunities where artistic skills need to be displayed.
E-mail your present resume to Dr.Jerry@JerryBills.com and Dr. Jerry will personally review it without any cost or obligation.
HYBRID STYLE
E-mail your present resume to Dr.Jerry@JerryBills.com and Dr. Jerry will personally review it without any cost or obligation.
TAKE CARE IN SELECTING YOUR STYLE
Once again, the best plan is to delegate the style selection issue to your professional resume writer – picking your own may not produce the desired results.
E-mail your present resume to Dr.Jerry@JerryBills.com and Dr. Jerry will personally review it without any cost or obligation.
METHODS OF PRESENTATION
E-mail your present resume to Dr.Jerry@JerryBills.com and Dr. Jerry will personally review it without any cost or obligation.
There are two basic methods of presentation:
- Presentation – The document is mailed to employers and looks nice and pleasing to the eye, generally in MS-Word.
- Digital-ASCII-Plain Text – Here the document is presented for posting on job boards and web sites and is quite ugly.
Everyone should have their resume in “Presentation” format since the statistics for successful job searching highly favor mailing the resume and cover letter to potential employers. The odds of getting a successful response to a “Digital” resume posted on a job board (other than contacts from insurance salespeople) are minimal. This is not to say that you should not post your resume online – quite the contrary, you just should not rely upon such a method to produce any significant result.
It is fairly simple for anyone with some minor skills to covert a “Presentation” resume to a “Digital” resume – so do not pay extra for such a service, all you need do is to open the document, click on the “save as” button and select ‘plain text.’ You will need to do some minor tweaking of the final product for the simple saving as plain text may result in a document that is difficult to read.
Any professional resume writer should not determine what style would be best used as a foundation until AFTER interviewing his or her client and determining where the client wants to go at this point in their career – and often the final product is more “hybrid” than a set style.
If all you want is a template to copy then you will not get quality interviews for quality jobs. There are lots of cookie-cutter resume writers and ‘fill-in-the-blanks’ software programs available – what you get with a QUALIFIED professional is YOUR resume that tells YOUR story effectively and aggressively – a document that makes you unique.
Regardless of the style that is used there are some basic rules that should be followed:
The Rules of Successful Resume Writing:
E-mail your present resume to Dr.Jerry@JerryBills.com and Dr. Jerry will personally review it without any cost or obligation.
- Preparation: Define your core strengths, skills, knowledge, and abilities
- Style then Content: Style first (Reverse Chronological, Chronological, Functional, Bullet, Narrative, Biographical, Hybrid), then content
- Revising: Review, revise, and edit – read it out loud to be certain it makes sense
- Proofreading: Check your writing mechanics (spelling, grammar, punctuation, format, etc.) – then do it again
- Short is better than long: Keep it under 500 words – shorter if you are looking for management positions – it is hardly ever beneficial to have a really long resume – there are exceptions but a professional should tell you if a long resume is appropriate for YOU.
- Don’t include everything: More interviews are lost because of what is in a resume than what is missing
- Style trumps substance: Like it or not, style will win out over substance every time – but it is the ‘right’ style that takes your breath away
- Know your core strengths: Everyone has something to contribute
- Exclude outside interests: Not everyone loves hunting or cats or fast cars
- No “Objective”: The employer does not care what you want, only what you can do for the company
- Clarity: Do not make the company guess what opportunities you seek
- Seek Professional Help: If you start to work even a single day earlier, the professional help was, essentially, FREE
Not only is it wise to separate “proofreading” from the “writing” and “revising” process, it is wise to set the document aside for a couple of hours, and then return with a fresh approach.
Writing and revising address issues such as content, message, and style while the function of proofreading addresses the mechanics (spelling, grammar, punctuation, and format).
Don’t work alone when proofreading: Someone else can detect mistakes in your work easier than you can for they bring fresh eyes to the material. Never be afraid to get another opinion. Sometimes you will get some outstanding suggestions on how to improve your presentation.
Don’t just proofread a single time – Professional proofreaders and editors often proofread as many as ten times.
Even when the document is proofread by professionals, errors still happen. Reading the document aloud can be a great help in finding errors.
Question everything and take nothing for granted. If you have a history of making certain mistakes, double and triple check for them. Most errors are made unconsciously. Here are some common, unconscious, and repetitive errors:
- Misspellings: never, ever, trust the spell checking program contained in word professing software.
- Keyboarding: “form” for “from” keyboarding errors are repeated without thinking,
- Usage errors: “which” for “that”
- Right word usage: “advice” or “advise”
- Inattention: Letting your fingers move faster than your mind.
Always read the document out loud, word for word, and, ideally, with someone listening: Using this method allows you to take advantage of two senses: hearing and seeing. Sometimes you will hear a mistake easier than you will see a mistake.
Take your time: Even with deadlines, you must read every word on the page, not just what you think should be there. This can be very difficult, especially if you are the one who wrote what you are reading – hence the need for a ‘listener’.
Why should you take your time? When you read like you normally read, you often see only parts of words. When you take your time, you will actually see each and every word completely.
Dr. Jerry offers this Guarantee: If, after 30 days of using your new resume, you are not 100% satisfied, Dr. Jerry will rewrite the resume until you ARE satisfied – without hassle. Click here for more information about Dr. Jerry’s unique guarantee.