How to treat lack of education on a resume?

When you say is it ok to be on the same document, do you mean the same page? If so, no. It should be a seperate page/document.

Ideally, the letter is addressed to the individual who is responsible for looking at resumes, or hiring. You want to end it with your contact info, and that you're looking foward to meeting with or hearing from them. If the company takes calls on the job, note that you will follow up with a phone call by X day. Persistance pays. I signed mine, "Sincerely.."

The content/tone really depends on the job. You want to show why you're a good fit for the company, using examples. If you do a google search for cover letters, you should be able to find tons of examples you can get ideas from, and the do's and don't's. Personally, I've always hated writing them. I wish I had my resume writer make me a couple when I met with her.

I was typing mine while Soz posted...didn't mean to repeat what she said.

That reinforces that I remembered stuff, though, so thanks.

errrr, well, in a lot of industries, cover letters are no longer looked at - or requested. our company doesn't really accept resumes that are mailed in - they've got to come in through the net. there's a cover form that is completed - so the resume is all there is. i understand this is fairly common in most of the financial sector now.

functional functional functional

that's the current gold standard in resumes. most job search pros are still working with 'what color is your parachute?' as the results, well, they get results.

the day of 'a resume' are close to a decade back. you want something you can adjust for each opening you're targeting. a good recruiter can spot a 'shotgun' resume vs a good 'sniper' resume. depending on the type of industry you're going for, this can make the difference between an interview with a person and the circular recycler. if you're looking at smaller companies where the manager actually sees the resume upfront, and does the initial interviewing that doesn't matter as much.

i'd recommend spending some time developing your own resume base, with the assistance of someone who works in this area. it'll pay off in the long run, as you can adjust it on the fly yourself, since you know what it is based on.

in effect, the resume now is as specific to the job as the cover letter was 20+ years ago. again, this is variable by the size of the company and the sophistication of the industry you're looking at.

my experience with developing functional resumes has been that if you've got the 'bullets' right - you'll only need one resume - because you'll get the first job you send a good functional resume to. (i was gonna qualify this to say, this is only for my industry, but i realized the ones i've helped develop have been for a variety of industries)

Craven

1. Keep them as seperate documents. Word is an exceptable format. You might also want a web (html (ish)) version as well.
2. Because of your unique circumstances, I think you should also have a CV written. This is a very detailed, almost chronological list of your experiences, work history, contact info, bio...
3. The look of your resume is very important. Make it easy to read and appealing to the eye, noticable but clean. Print it on the best paper you can afford. Nice envelope, no staple, use a paperclip, and insert a business card as well.
~ Choose no more than two fonts. Preferably different styles, try and stay away from something overly cursive. You're looking into a technical field use something fairly straight forward but not the average arial, sized at least 12pt for text and headings should stand out, bold 14pt.
~ No more than two pages, preferably a one page resume.
~ The Coverletter should be in the same style as the resume. Create an all purpose base for a coverletter and tweak it to fit every situation. In any job listing, there are always requirements. Repeat the aplicable skills verbatum if you can.
~ Make sure your name, number are on every page, either as a heading or footer.


Lastly, everytime I write a resume or help a friend I check out the net. There are some very good examples of great resumes out there fill with catch phrases and similar skill sets.

Really really valuable help guys. Thanks!

Craven, Your resume should outline what you have accomplished in teaching yourself computer science, your practical experience, and what your capabilities are. At the very end, you can state that you have a GED, and it is your desire and plan to get a degree. State that you are looking for an employer that will assist you with accomplishing that goal. Finally, I disagree with most of the people that said you should get a professional to help write your resume. I think you are intelligenct, and capable of writing your own resume that will impress some potential employer. I worked in management positions during most of my working career, and I'd hire somebody with the self-motivation to educate themselves over somebody with a bachelors degree. It's true that most employers look to see if you have a degree before even considering any candidate, but I feel you have the wherewithal to overcome that handicap with your language and common sense skills. I've met too many with undergraduate and graduate degrees that were limited by their education, and incapable to think out of the box. Good luck.

I'd also add to check the spelling and check the spelling and check the spelling again the next day, by sight as well as spellcheck, which as we all know misses words that are real words used incorrectly in some context.

what do you by that mean?

Me? a typo can turn out to be a real word and therefore missed by spellcheck. As to checking more than once - my ex wrote screenplays. We both checked them over and over for typos and still missed them. In screenplays it doesn't matter that much... but in a resume a typo probably stands out.

I agree with osso; check and recheck the spelling. Good grammar and spelling shows your self-education was good. First impression is very important - even in a resume.

There are good resume books in any library. Also check What Color Is My Parachute?

Any reason you can't re-locate? You have a nation-wide (world-wide!) network of helpful little avatar folk who might keep their collective ears open.

Leave the education off entirely. When asked about it, and surely you will, at the interview, look the person square in the eyes, and tell 'em the unvarnished truth.

Then tell 'em that you run a world class information website, with ten-thousand members (and X active members... don't exagerrate) all on your own.

Then tell 'em '...as a hobby.'

And bring them here. Start a thread 'Craven needs a reference...' and give the interviewer the web addy...

I'd say, leave education off, and go with functional, like ehBeth said. Particularly for an IT resume, the employer wants to know things like, what languages do you know how to program in? How extensive is your knowledge of HTML? etc. So GED or standard HS diploma doesn't matter to them.

I use either Sincerely, or Very Truly Yours, (a standard lawyer's construction) at the end of cover letters. I make sure to put my contact info in and something about I look forward to discussing this opportunity with you. And then follow up with a phone call in a week or so - that can be very impressive, as it shows you're not just sending letters out to the void, like a lot of people do. Employers realize they are being mass-mailed to, but they don't want to feel that that's the case with you. So personalize as much as you can; that takes away the mass mailing feel that a lot of these things have.

And - spit back to them (that's an icky metaphor, but you know what I mean) what they said in the ad or what you've read in articles about the company, and use that as the body of your cover letter, e. g.

* the job says they want data migration. Tell them how you did data migration for such and such, used these types of tools, delivered the end product on time, under budget, etc., that type of thing.
* a recent article about the company (or, better yet, about the person you're writing to!) mentioned they're changing over from WordPerfect to Word. Tell them how long you've worked with Word, the kinds of things you can do with it and how you can help train people and assist with the transition.
* the company's website says they have a philosophy of taking a chance on new talent. Tell them what kind of a sure thing you are; make them believe that you're a good chance for them to take.

You get the idea. Currently, I have my resume in to a place where the cover letter is extremely important and is reviewed as closely as the resume. I started my cover letter to them with a sentence something like "I know you're going to get a lot of applications for the position of __, all promising different things. However, I'd like to show you how I can handle the job of ___ for lower costs." Argh, it was something like that - the idea was to tell them that others may say they have the skills, but I can bring it to you for less (this is a place that I believe is rather budget-conscious). This all translated into an interview and a strong possibility of a second interview.

Finally, one way to find out what's important to a company is to ask - not necessarily the interviewer, but the first line of reception might be able to help you in general ways, e. g. a cover letter isn't important, or they just had layoffs or the like. Look at company websites and scuttlebutt websites like www.vault.com for insider info, but be aware that scuttlebutt websites often contain a lot of bitter people, so read everything there with a critical eye.

I must disagree again with jespah and SealPoet, and here's why. I'm of the position that showing his "education" highlights what craven has been able to accomplish by his self-taught education. That shows strength, not weakness. He doesn't need to "hide" the fact that he 'only' has a GED. If, as the employer, I saw his resume with a GED as his education, I'd be curious as to how he was able to accomplish so much skills in writing, thinking, and in computer science. That would impress me as the manager responsible for hiring motivated employees. On the same token, I would hire an applicant that financed their own college education, because it shows motivation. Usually, skills is a given, because the applicant has the right education and/or experience. "Motivation" is what I'm looking for, and craven has it in everything he has accomplished with his GED.

Hmm, funny thing is, now that accountant dude bailed resume's are pouring in and I get to read over a bunch of cover letters.

Some are addressed to "Human resources manager".

Always call the place you are applying to and get the name of the person who will be looking at the resumes. Better than a generic title. It's shows you actually put the time in to learn the names of the people who are hiring, it looks better.

I agree with you, c.i.
If I was on the selection panel (& I've been on quite a few) I'd be intrigued, when putting together the accomplishments & the applicant's "formal" education ..... I'd think this was an exceptional person, if they had in fact achieved these things on their own. I'd be very curious, indeed .... The important thing is that the application would have to get these qualities across, loud & clear. Make the employer WANT to explore the possibilities of the applicant.

I have no college degree either Craven and I have what is called a Leaving Cert from Ireland, which is roughly equivalent to a High School Diploma/1st year of college here in the U.S.

My job-search recently required me to update my resume and I put my education on the second page at the end. I included my Leaving Cert (which I am sure most people hadn't a clue what that meant) and may have mis-interpreted that I went to "College" since secondary schools in Ireland are called Colleges and Colleges are called Universities. I told the absolute truth on my resume but left out the equivalency information so that they would have to ask me about it. I had also taken some additional in-company training with various companies I had worked for (which they paid for) and some other classes in various establishments. I listed my wide variety of achievements which fluffed out my educational background. In the end, I got four job offers and not one of them asked me about my education except those classes or training sessions that specifically related to the job I was interviewing for. I had worked 4 years for a guy who was astonished when I told him I never went to college. He re-read my resume and said he had never noticed.

I also was in the middle of taking classes (paid for by my then-employer) and wanted to continue those classes with a new employer, so I listed the establishment, the classes and, instead of a completion date, I put "Current" as the status.

If you have the time to look, there might be some good pointers in one or two of the employment websites like Monster.

Oh and when you do your resume - don't type it up too fancy with lots of cool fonts and stuff. I often had to upload my resume to a company website and I had to reformat it to plain text with no bullets (because this doesn't transfer well to HR sites) and no underlining, tabulations, etc. It took lots of editing after the upload and I was afraid of missing something each time. So I copied my resume onto another page and had everything left-indent, plain text, with good line spacing and few tabulations. That's what works best on those sites, otherwise the resume is all over the place when it gets to the HR department and they will prolly dump it if they can't read it.

My cover letter was also very repetitive of the job description. I tried to cover all the requirements of the job by reiterating some of the things mentioned in the ad and pushing my skill-set/training/experiences and by mentioning why I wanted to work for that particular company. I also tweaked my resume for each position a wee bit by emphasizing the qualities I felt were more important to that particular job and de-emphasizing the others that weren't.

When sending a resume I generally only used plain white paper. No fuss because these people are busy busy busy and cannot be bothered with too fancy an envelope, a coverlet for the resume, etc. You must remember lots of them read a bunch of resumes in the car, on the train, etc., because they have so much going on, so it's best to leave the paper free so they can fold it and write notes easily on it. Then when I actually come in for the interview, I put another copy or two into thin binders so that the interviewers have a fresh copy in front of them and it appears I am professional (akin to presenting them with a report at a business meeting).

I am not experienced with work in the corporate world, but have read batches of resumes from prospective landscape architectual employees. I am instantly turned off by a braggadocio component; for me it bespeaks an underlying weakness and possibly a flag for a future insufferable colleague. So for a resume reader like me I would soft pedal the I can do this for you (you lucky son of a gun) words.

I don't mean leave out what you can do for them, but write it up as if it weren't the most amazing thing in the world. Not that you would use braggadocio, Craven; I don't ever see you writing that way - just a caution.

I would omit that section entirely, and throw in a section of ambiguous character traits, like "Responds well to leadership."