As the most comprehensive resume book on the market, The Complete Book of Resumes is a great tool to use to teach students about professional career development.

Crafting the perfect resume is the first step for job seekers. And these days, employers have tons of different filters to weed out candidates and narrow their hiring pool. The Complete Book of Resumes is packed full of information on crafting a resumes and the kind of structure and language that will get an employer's immediate attention as well as tons of samples for readers to use as a guideline for success.

The Complete Book of Resumes includes information on:

• How to begin if you're starting from scratch
• The profile, or the most important part of your resume
• Work experience, or "What have I been doing all these years?"
• Punching it up--how to make a good resume great
• The career transition resume chapter for brave souls
• You're just starting out
• Big leaps--positioning yourself for jobs above your current level

Including more than 300 resumes, The Complete Book of Resumes is perfect for recent graduates or seasoned candidates with years of experience.

Introduction

Chapter 1 – How to Begin if you’re starting from scratch
What makes a resume exceptional?
Drafting a resume means starting without the internal editor
Dealing with resume writing anxiety – fears, blocks, obstacles and the ways to overcome them
Proper Resume Form or the new "Must Haves"
Getting started
How to write your first and second draft

Chapter 2 – The Profile, or the most important part of your resume
The first quarter of the resume is the most important of all
Name and contact information
Your title – branding yourself in for the reader
What’s your message?
What are your key qualifications?

Chapter 3 – Work Experience, or "What have I been doing all these years?"
Ordering and presenting your work experience
Giving context to the companies you’ve worked for
The three key things employers and recruiters want to know
Responsibilities vs. Accomplishments
What are Specific, Measurable Results?
Style and Form
Knowing what to put in and leave out

Chapter 4 – The Other Things that Make You Interesting
Skills
Education & Training
Volunteer Work
Personal Interests – why personality is important

Chapter 5 – Punching It Up – How to Make a Good resume Great
Some before and after resumes that show either big changes or small subtle changes and how they make a difference both to the eye and to the reader
Incorporate a discussion about style and layout
Spelling and grammar
Less is more

Chapter 6 – Read This Chapter!! The Major Don’ts and some of the Minors
Top Three Do Not Dos (Write an Objective, Be a Cliché, Share Too Much)
Minor Bads to catch before you send it out
The key to any catch is to have someone else you trust read it before it goes out

Chapter 7 – Q&A – all your tricky questions answered
Covers anything miscellaneous and creates another reference guide
Should I speak in first or third person?
When should I use a functional resume?
Is it worth trying to be funny in a resume?
Can I have more than one resume?
What do recruiters look for?
What do HR personnel look for?
What happens when a computer scans my resume?
What are keywords and are they clichés?
What if I can’t think of anything good?

Chapter 8 – The Career Transition Resume Chapter for Brave Souls
The hard truth about career transition and the resume (recruiters are not for you, HR and online applications are difficult)
Shifts in your job search strategy and the purpose of a resume for you
The positive and negative of the functional resume
Looking for themes and common ground
Draw out the skill over the industry
Creating a new message
Show previous success in other industries

Chapter 9 – You Are Your Own Business (and you want out!)
Specific advice for entrepreneurs and presentation
You want in
how to write a consultant profile

Chapter 10 – You’re Just Starting Out
Superstars in disguise
everyone who’s starting out has exactly the same question
the traps recent grads fall into
the tricks for presenting "no experience"
shifts in your job search to account for being at the beginning

Chapter 11 – Big Leaps – positioning yourself for jobs above your current level
Mid-level resume complaints – the most frustrating thing is seeing something you know you can do but you aren’t exactly there yet (by title, salary, management etc)
Ways around the door
Being direct

Chapter 12 – Being the Leader – Management Style and Grace
Less is more goes double for you
Professionalism, class and good looking resumes

Chapter 13 – Index...

Karen Schaffer has helped thousands of people to trust themselves to discover their direction, passion and purpose. She has focused on the specialty of jobs and careers for more than 10 years, having written previous two books on the topic. Karen has been guest expert for a variety of Canadian television programs and talk shows. She has taught and spoken for career professionals and schools, universities and organizations. She has written career articles for The Toronto Star and the National Post. Karen holds a Masters degree in Counseling Psychology from the Adler School of Professional Psychology and an Honors BA in Cultural Studies from McGill University. She has had her own practice as a Career Consultant for ten years and previous to that ran her own resume practice. For three years she was Partner, Career Management with IQ Partners. She remains associated to IQ Partners, representing their Career Management practice. Karen is now a telephone coach based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her clients come to her with a wide variety of career issues, from finding their true career path to working on a tight and focused resume to help them get the job they want.