RE: Resume

Hi Mariam:

I looked at your resume. I’ve attached one of my old ones as an example so you can modify yours and have some idea on how to put yours together. My recommendations for you are below

Dump the format you have. I don’t like it. You need to distinguish yourself. Here’s what I want you to do:

1. Begin with your “objective” or “Summary.” I have a different resume for every type of job I apply to. Your objective needs to make it clear what you are seeking. Here’s an example for you: “Motivated, driven, detail oriented Honors college graduate seeking an entry level support staff position in a litigation focused law firm.”

2. Start after objective with your Education. You start with your strongest point. Since you don’t have a lot of experience but you have great educational history, lead with that.

3. Use bullets to point out unique accomplishments in educations. You have a great GPA. Make that appear early under your education paragraph. Also you must have received some honors –such as cum laude or magna cum laude- and award with a GPA like that. You need to list that a well

4. Because you don’t have much experience you should list those things that you are good at. For example, if you are seeking a job in a law firm, you would say that you have excellent typing skills; writing skills; research skills; organized and detail oriented; (If you have it you can say you have experience with MS Word, excel, etc… or familiarity with Lexis-Nexis or Westlaw).

5. List other skills that you may have. We should talk about this a little more because I think you have skills you don’t quite recognize. The newest trends in marketing are through facebook, twitter, Diggit, Linkdin etc… Many people in business have no idea what that it. If you’re familiar with these things you could write your resume in such a way to make those skills something that may be desirable for an employer.

6. You don’t need to take about being a U.S. Citizen.

7. You don’t need desired location.

8. Put in there some information about activities such as volunteer work you may have done. This is of course in addition to your regular experience.

9. List hobbies. Do you like to read, write, travel, play music etc…? Put some of that in there that way the resume reflects a person and not just a cold document.

I have some additional recommendations to clean it up. Get started on making these changes and send it back to me for another look.

If you have some skills that can help us with our work, we may be able to offer you a job at least for the summer. I have several cases that are coming up for trial and can use some help in preparing. You would have to get some training but I’m sure you’ll do fine.

From: mariam chamesseddine [mailto:mariam_chamesseddine@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2010 12:57 AM
To: haytham@puckettfaraj.com
Subject: Resume