Ah, the resume… the bane of many a person’s job search preparation. What to say, what to say? These telecommuting tips will focus on your resume. You can also review tips for your cover letter.
Start by writing a list of the following:
- Titles held in previous positions
- Main job responsibilities in each position
- Your top skills
- Your biggest accomplishments
You don’t need to do this all at once. Take your time to think about each job. Remember that your resume is your first impression, particularly in telecommuting. Make it stand out and get noticed!
Some of you may be thinking, “But, I don’t have that much experience”; or, “I’ve only held a few entry level jobs”. That’s okay, it’s still experience. You now have skills you can build on in your next job or skills that will get you one step further in your career.
Additionally, if you have previous work at home experience, whether it be selling Avon or supporting a company such as LiveOps, be sure to include that information. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a candidate mention previous work at home experience during an interview that was not on their resume. Recruiters in the work at home industry LIKE to see that type of experience, especially if you’ve supported a company for two years or more.
Once you feel you have enough information, you can begin putting your actual resume together. Don’t use NotePad or another basic program to create your document. These programs have limited to no formatting capabilities and can be difficult to read. There are almost unlimited free resume templates to choose from on the internet, so a person has no excuse not to make the effort to ensure that their resume looks finished and professional.
Start your resume listing your accomplishments. If you are applying for a home-based call center position in customer service, you could highlight things like:
- How many years you’ve worked in customer service.
- How many years you’ve worked in a call center environment.
- Any types of promotions, such as working in the escalation queue, mentoring new reps, etc..
- Any accomplishments you made or awards you received.
Let’s talk about some things you should NOT do:
- write your resume entirely without capitalization or proper! punctuation
- Include anything regarding hobbies, volunteer work, associations to which you belong, UNLESS they relate to the position to which you are applying.
- Exclude actual MONTHS of employment. If you only list years (such as 2006-2007 – Burger King), many recruiters will wonder if there is some kind of gap in each employment record that you are trying to hide.
- Leave out the “References available upon request” sentence. We know you probably have references and will request those if we are considering you for hire.
Additionally, if you have had any gaps in employment, be sure to write a quick sentence explaining the reason (i.e. layoff, went back to school, etc.). If you have valid reasons, recruiters will be more understanding and less likely to count the gaps against you.
Now you should be ready to begin adding the information to your resume. Chronological resumes are best to use for most positions.
Start your resume with your accomplishments. A bulleted list will catch the recruiter’s eye and also be easy to read. Add a second bulleted list of your computer skills and software knowledge. Then, begin the chronological portion of your resume. At the end, list your education and/or training.
You’re finished! Double, even triple check your resume for any grammatical or spelling errors. Save your document and begin your search!
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