Sunday, March 27, 2011

Resume Builders That Work

When hunting for the right resume builder, it can be difficult to determine which one is going to be right for you.  There are a lot of different things that you may want to take into consideration.  Not only your current needs, such as focus industry, but also potential future uses.  You also need to consider how effective it will be at creating a useful, productive resume that can land you those first interviews.  Fortunately, there are is a set of criteria that is used on a fairly consistent basis.  Here is a closer look at some of the basic elements that you need to pay attention to in order to find resume builders that work.

  1. Features
Features is a fairly broad category, however there are certain things that you should look for in your resume builder to ensure that it has everything that you will need and can do whatever you want it to do.  For example, you probably want a word processor along with templates (both resume and cover letter) in order to ensure that your resume builder is easy to work with, especially if you plan on making a number of edits to the resume once the builder has created your first draft.  You may also want to use a resume builder with functions like: interview simulations, social networking integration, automatic phrase generator, video resume creator, and many more.

  1. Ease of Use
It doesn't matter how great a piece of software can be if you don't know how to utilize it.  Plus, learning a new piece of software shouldn't be your primary focus.  Your primary focus should simply be creating a resume and getting into those interviews.  There are several different ways that you look at the ease of use.  One of the most common way is with the general navigation.  The more intuitive the resume builder is, the easier it will be to use.  If you are not someone who naturally learns or understands software, then you may also want to look into resume builders with pop-up tips and/or audio tips.

  1. Support
In the perfect world, you would purchase a resume builder and automatically know how to get the most out of it.  Unfortunately, this isn't always the case.  While support will rarely be your primary decision factor, it can definitely be used to separate your short-list when everything else seems to be pretty even.  In terms of support, there are a variety of different things that you may want.  This includes; call center, email, online forums, live chat, tutorials, etc 

How to Spot Resume Builders That Work

In order to spot resume builders that work, it will normally end up being a combination of three factors: features, ease of use, and support.  Normally, these three factors will be weighed in that order.  If it doesn't have the features that you want, then you won't be satisfied with it.  If it isn't easy to use, then it doesn't matter what features there are.  Finally, if there is no support, then if a problem does arise, you will have no way to resolve it.

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