Category: Employment

Employments covers the self-employed business person and/or entrepreneur as well as salaried individuals working on various shifts, including the standard “9 to 5” shift. Transitioning from employed to self-employed is one of the biggest hurdles to folks owning and operating their own business; the others being start-up capital and an operating budget.

A Comparison: Resume and Curriculum Vitae


Resume components and objective

The resume document is comprised of one or two-pages summarizing an individual’s career objectives, professional experiences and achievements, and his/her educational background. If you are the preparer of your own resume, its heading should contain your name, address and contact information, while the body of your resume should be broken into these sections: career objective, profile summary, professional experience, achievements, scholastics, and references.

While your career objective should be brief (up to two sentences), it should give your potential employers an idea of how you wish to move forward in your professional life. A concise profile or a summary should discuss who you are and how your skills and experience best apply to the job in which you are interested. The summary, as well as other parts of your resume, should not contain personal information that discloses ethnicity, sexual orientation, marital status, age, living situations, or any other personal information that is not directly related to your career.

Personal profile summary should only contain a few well-written sentences that convey what you can bring to the table in terms of the specific job for which you have applied. It is recommended that you use this section to attract the employer’s attention, but don’t go overboard in trying to be creative; keep it professional. Your experience listing should include information on one to five jobs you’ve held, starting with your current or last job, and listing previous positions in chronological order.

Chronological Resume Template: Resume Solution, What you Need to Create your US and Canadian Resume (Template, Resume, Functional, Jobs, Opportunities)

More about the resume

In addition, your education should include college, graduate and post-graduate work, as well as any courses or professional certifications which are relevant to your career development. Achievements, volunteer positions, publications and interests should be listed only if they are relevant to your professional work experience; and references should be listed if requested; best practices suggest not to list generic statements about references being available upon request as this is understood. Keep the information relevant and concise ion order to present your well-written resume to potential employers.

The Curriculum Vitae (CV)

Curriculum Vitae or CV is a collection of documents that describe your education and professional history, focusing on your achievements and showcasing higher level of detail than a resume. Individuals who typically use CV as a form of application are those seeking positions in education, entrance into graduate and post-graduate programs, and/or research; and they are required, in most cases, to discuss their professional philosophies.

While resumes are often limited to one or two pages, a CV is comprised of a compilation of documents, and has no limit on length; which means it can extend over several pages (typically four or five pages, but can be more based on experience and achievements). In this respect a Curriculum Vitae contains similar information as your resume, but it places greater emphasis on education and scholastic accomplishments.

Philosophically speaking

Unlike your resume, a CV would contain information on scholarships you may have received; texts or research you have completed and published; grants you received; community and volunteer work; teaching philosophy; and other such academic work. You will begin by listing your career objective, in summary form, to showcase the level of commitment you have to your goals and the steps/actions you are willing to take in order to achieve them.

If you are applying for a teaching position, for example, you would provide a brief outline of your teaching philosophy. Immediately following your goals, you’d list your achievements, highlighting your education first. Here, you can mention your thesis project or dissertation, courses that support your career objective, publications and research (in progress or completed), certifications, studies abroad, languages, etc.

In concluding your CV

Following the goals and achievements section should be a section for your experience which should emphasize a work history that supports your career objective. This should be the extent to which you go in providing information and therefore should conclude your CV. If you are unsure which form of application to use, do the appropriate research and create a resume or CV that best fits the format commonly accepted in your industry.

Method of Listing Publications on a Resume


Relevance of publications to career

There are many industries in which publication of an individual’s work is a critical part of his/her career development; and as professionals in industries that require us to actively publish research studies, essays, articles, textbooks, and other literary work, we have to find ways to account for such publications on our resumes. There are a number of things to consider with respect to publications as a resume is being developed.

First, if you are the subject of particular resume, ask yourself how relevant the publications are to your career objective. If you have recent publications that support your career objective, make sure to create a separate heading on your resume and list the publications in reverse chronological order. Follow the AP style when listing a given publication, omitting your name from the listing if you were the only author of the text, as that is implied.

Publications that do not support your career objective should not be listed on your resume; and while such works may be helpful to mention to your potential employer via a cover letter, it is not necessary to take up space on your resume with information that does not directly impact your career. Also, if you have a submission in progress, or you are working on texts which support your qualifications – for a particular job – that you know will be published at a later date, include them on the resume under a sub-heading of “submitted to,” or “to be published in,” (publication name).”

A literary resume section

However, if you decide to include works in progress, you must make sure that they will get published at some point in the future. This is mostly critical for freelance magazine, newspaper or creative writers; but do not list every article you have submitted for publication, unless you are certain that it will get published; and if your list of publications is fairly extensive, do not dismiss it completely from your resume, because you do want your employer to know that you have either published, or are in the process of publishing, your work.

To accomplish this you could simply create a section within your resume dedicated to publications, while taking care not to go overboard with the number of publications you list on your resume. It is acceptable form to list three to five publications in reverse chronological order in the section you’ve created. This will give your potential employer an idea of your work, the publications, audiences you have reached, as well as your qualifications. At the end of your publication listing, including a statement that tells the employer a complete listing of publications can be provided upon request.

Include publications that support career objective

In your professional summary, or cover letter, you can indicate the total number of publications you’ve had in your career; and you can always create a separate document that includes a complete listing of your publications (if the list is extensive), following the ASP style. Also make sure that your list of publications credits other authors properly. You should have a print-out of this list, along with your resume that you can bring to any job interview, or forward to the hiring manager at their request.

In addition, if asked about your publications, offer your potential employer a copy of any of articles you’ve written for their review. Overall, you should disclose any information about publications, if such publications supports your career objective and highlights your qualifications for the job. Review the information you list carefully and make sure that names and dates of publications are correct. Keep in mind that –even minor mistakes can raise questions about your credibility.