Free Writing Center

If you’ve been sifting through the web for resume writing examples, then you know that it’s one of those terms that typically turns up hundreds of useless websites filled with Google ads and no legitimate help or resources.

In this update, in the spirit of this blog truly being a “Free Writing Center” I’d like to offer two important writing resources for job hunters. A general guide for writing your own resume, and a list of the top five resources where you can see free resume writing examples.

How to Write a Winning Resume

The first and most important thing I want to say here is that job seekers spend far too much time fretting over the formatting of their resume rather than simply conveying to the potential employer why you are clearly the best qualified person for the job. As long as you have the following sections detailed on your resume, and on a single word document (set the font size small enough so that it’s readable, but everything fits), then you’ll be successful. Typically each of these sections are displayed on a resume in the following order.

• Contact Information - In this section provide your addresses and phone numbers where you can be reached, as well as your primary email address.
• Objective - This is completely optional, but if you want to you can share what type of position and skills that you hope to achieve (should pretty much match the job you’re applying for).
• Qualifications - Let them know exactly how and why you’re qualified for the position. State, in 2 or 3 short sentences, what your experience and background is that’s most closely related to the potential job.
• Education - From present to past, outline every degree program or course of study you completed including the name of the degree, graduation date, and the name and location of the school.
• Experience - From present to past, outline your work experiences related to the job you’re applying for. Include the name of the employer or client as well as a very short description of your responsibilities and accomplishments.
• Skills - This section should simply list all of the skills you have that are even remotely relevant to the position you’re applying for.

As long as all of the sections above are included in a very clean and easy to read format, you’ll do well. If you don’t even know where to start, then check out the free resources below for a some excellent resume examples.

The Top 5 Sites for Free Resume Writing Examples

The following resources offer a very long list of excellent resume examples, most of which is tailored for specific industries or careers. Explore these resources and you’re likely to find a particular format that suits your tastes. Print it out and use that format as you write your own resume.

Resume-Help.org offers a long list of exampes that are customized for particular industries like fashion, marketing or software.

Resume-Resource is another valuable site filled with examples sorted by career level or industry. There’s even a section now on “before and after” resume examples which you can download in PDF format.

EZResume offers a very long list of sample resumes. When you visit the site, just scroll down the left menu to find the specific career that you’re looking for.

Quint Careers takes a slightly different approach. The sample resumes you’ll find here are sorted in terms of experience level and format. For example there’s a category for “New Graduate Functional Format I” and “Experienced Job-Seeker Chronological Format I.”

Unlike the other sites, these resume samples are provided in HTML format. To see how the formatting is done, just click view page source in your browser.

Do you have any success stories in your job hunt? Are there particular resume formats that you prefer? Share your insight in the comments section below.