best Tips on listing self-employment on your resume

Tips on listing self-employment on your resume

Being self-employed comes with many challenges – determining your niche, finding clients,

having adequate insurance, hiring additional help, etc. To succeed as a freelancer, contractor, or a new business owner, you have to have determination, passion and patience,

much of the same characteristics you need to successfully hunt for a new job. So why is self-employment on a resume a concern for your potential employer?

Listing self-employment on your resume when looking for full-time job can raise questions for your potential employer.

They will ask questions such as:
– Were self-employed because you were in between jobs, or because you wanted to start your own business rather than work for a corporation?

– Are you still working on your own, as a freelancer or a consultant? If so, do you intent to continue this work in addition to your full time job?

– Is your self-employment presenting a conflict of interest for the company?

– Are you working as a freelancer or a contractor on part-time basis, and never intend to have this replace full-time employment?

– Does your long-term career goal include owning your own business?

All of these questions are valid from your potential employer’s point of view. Companies do not want to hire you, train you and provide you with benefits only to have you quit after a year to start your own business.

This is the main reason previous or current self-employment raises red flags for the hiring organizations. The best way to address any self-employment on your resume is to highlight the positives of working as a freelancer or managing your own business.

It is important that your resume includes employment history that is honest and relevant to your career goals.

If you pick up a freelance project infrequently and do not intend to make this a full time career, you can omit any such experience from your resume.

The only time you would list occasional freelance work on your resume is if it allows you to fill any gaps in your professional experience.

If you have worked as a contractor for a period longer than three months, or if you have ever owned your own business, it is important that you indicate that on your resume.

Highlight those attributes of the job experience that qualify you as a perfect candidate for the job that you are seeking.

Your job responsibilities should be listed in the same way as they are for any other full-time job you’ve held; focus on those responsibilities which best meet your career objective and quantify your achievements when possible.

Exemplify your self-starter attitude under the Qualifications section of your resume. Make sure to list any employability skills you have acquired or strengthened while you were self employed.

As a final indication of your commitment to the job you are seeking. Make sure that your cover letter or email addresses anticipated concerns of your potential employer.

Make references to anything on your resume that may raise questions. If you still own your own business, but are looking for full-time work, for example,

make sure to let your employer know what your long-term professional goals are and how you intend to balance your roles at both businesses.

Don’t apologize for being self-employed. Your resume and cover letter should present you as a credible and passionate professional.

Focus on the positive experiences and skills you have acquired as a freelancer, and make sure to let the employer know how these will benefit the company if you are their chosen candidate.

Top 10 Resume Writing Tips to Get You the Interview

There are many reasons why you could be in the market for a new job right now. Perhaps…
==> You just graduated from high school–or even better, college–and you’re ready to strike out on a quest for your first “real” job.

==> Your worst fears finally manifested and you’ve been downsized.
==> You’re bored with the career path you’ve been on for the past few years, and you’re ready to strike out in a new direction.

==> You want to change jobs (within your field) for better salary, benefits, or chance at promotion.
Whatever your motivation, a powerful resume is essential. In truth, a resume alone won’t get you that dream job you’re craving.

Not even if you implement every resume writing tip you can get your hands on!
But a great resume will get you in the door for an interview.

It will make you stand out as a superior candidate for the job you’ve applied for. And that achievement is huge, given the fierce competitive nature of today’s job market.

Not only that, but a well-crafted resume will put the decision-maker you meet with in a hiring frame of mind. As long as you don’t blow the interview, you’ll have a great shot at that job!

Digest and apply each resume writing tip below as you craft a powerful resume that will make all the difference in your adventure to land a job!

POWERFUL RESUME WRITING TIPS: 10 Steps to Success
Resume Writing Tip #1: Gather your background materials.

To complete your resume, you’ll need to know your dates of employment at each of your previous jobs and when you went to school.

You’ll also need to be able to describe your skills and accomplishments on the job, so put some thought into those areas.

Resume Writing Tip #2: Decide on a format. Before you can start writing a resume, you’ll need to decide if the functional or chronological format will work best for you. Remember, you want to put yourself and your abilities in the best light.
Resume Writing Tip #3: Put together a general outline. A resume outline will help you get organized and will prevent you from overlooking any essential pieces of information that should be included.

Resume Writing Tip #4: If your resume is targeted at a specific employer or career path, learn all you can about what they need.

Spending time on this research will help you with your resume, with the cover letter that goes with your resume, and with the upcoming interview.

Make sure you know what qualities will most benefit the employer and think about how your abilities match those qualities. (Read another resume writing tip on how to target.)

Resume Writing Tip #5: Plan, plan, plan. Before you actually start writing, spend time just thinking about how you’ll present yourself in the resume. What is your objective in seeking a job?

This objective should serve as a sort of bull’s-eye to structure your resume around. What have been your most significant accomplishments?

You’ll want to highlight them. What unique qualities do you bring to an employer? Think in terms of benefits. Also think about the resume design you’ll use, the fonts within, and the resume wording .

Resume Writing Tip #6: Start writing, following your outline. Take your time. Use a lot of action words . Be concise. Don’t use “responsibilities included” or “responsible for.” It’s a waste of space. Use bullets, rather than long paragraphs.

Resume Writing Tip #7: Cut and paste your content into your resume template. If you’re at this site, you’re probably not an experienced,

professional resume writer. So, take a resume writing tip from a pro. Use a resume template . There is no reason why your resume must look amateurish.

Resume Writing Tip #8: Review, edit, and proofread like a maniac. One of the biggest resume mistakes is typos or grammatical errors.

These errors may seem trivial, but they can cost you the interview, and ultimately the job. After all, if you can’t be bothered to make sure that your resume is 100% accurate, what guarantee is there that your job performance will be high caliber?

Resume Writing Tip #9: Get someone else you trust to look at it. It can be really helpful to get someone who knows you to look at your resume.

Not only are they more likely to catch simple errors, but they may point out strengths you’ve missed or underemphasized.

Tell them you want their honest opinion and you’re open to questions. Use their input to clarify your resume. Even if you write your own resume, you may want to think about getting a professional to do a resume critique .

Resume Writing Tip #10: Send it out into the world. The more resumes you submit, the more likely you are to get an interview.

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket by applying for only one job. And, don’t be afraid to take some risks and apply for a job you’re interested in,

even if you don’t quite match all the qualifications. Most employers ask for many more qualifications than they absolutely require.

Hopefully, at least one resume writing tip on this page has given you some food for thought. But don’t stop your training here!

Resume Layouts – The Hidden Pitfalls

Options for Resume Layouts
There are many options of available to today’s job seeker. With a quick change of graphical elements such as fonts and style, the feel of a resume can change from traditional and conservative to creative and modern.

Printed Resumes
A print version of your resume refers to the version of your resume that is ready to print; either for mailing for job leads or for hand delivering to potential contacts.

This version may contain bold print, italicized text, bulleted lists and less well known fonts, however these should be used sparingly.

Whitespace
The amount of whitespace should also remain consistent throughout the resume. The use of whitespace in a resume can be critical. Too much whitespace will draw attention to a resume that may be lacking in skills and experience.

Scannable Resumes
A scannable resume contains the exact same information as print version resume layouts but is presented in a less ‘fancy’ manner.

A scannable resume is to be used for those situations when you wish to cut and paste your resume into online databases. There are a few guidelines that should be adhered to when creating a scannable resume, however to avoid disaster.

Fonts
Stick to safe fonts such as Ariel, Helvetica or Courier. Use a font size anywhere between 10 to 14 points and refrain from bolding, underlining or italicizing any text. Also do not use any symbols such as parenthesis, asterisks or bullets.

One Column Resume Layouts
A one column resume layout is much more traditional. This type of format would be more appropriate for use when applying for a position in a conservative job market.

Two Column Resume Layouts
A two column resume layout is more creative. This type of format would be better suited when applying for a position in an industry that is known for its creativity. It would not be appropriate for more traditional type jobs. Headings are left justified while the corresponding information is placed in the right column.

Left Aligned Resume Layouts
Left aligned resume layouts are particularly good for resumes that are short in nature. All headings and corresponding information are aligned to the left.

Centered Resume Layouts
A centered resume layout can be hard on the eye and difficult to read, however this can be minimized with skillful use of formatting and style features to clearly delineate information.

Indented Layouts
This type of resume can feel traditional, but the paragraphs can be hard on the eye; particularly for employers who simply want to ‘scan’ a resume. An indented resume features left-aligned text, but the paragraphs are indented.

The Resume Writer Advantage

Instead of wasting your time figuring out what type of format you will use for your resume, why not let all your worries be handled by professionals? Why not use the service of resume writer?

Resume writer helps you create professional resumes that will increase your chances of making it to the job interview.

And since your aim to provide your reader with attractive and flattering resume, the resume writer would make things easy for you by offering several different sample resumes as your basis for your own resume.

These samples with comprehensive details present a good overview on how an excellent resume should be.

Resume writer helps your with your need for good format. The normal resume writer offers four different and widely used formats including chronological, functional, technical, and combination or hybrid. All you have to do is to choose what is the most suited one for you.

Since resume should be tailor-made for the particular organization you are trying to get in to, the resume writer would enable you to create your unique resume with content suited for that particular organization.

It is important to have a good content because no matter how good you are as a speaker, performer, leader or team player, you would not be able to use it until you impress your potential employer with good resume.

Resume writer is applicable to any forms of careers. Resume writer offers resumes for military, office management, production management,

teaching, restaurant, real estate, programmer, technical writing, legal, journalism, human resources, counseling, marketing, accounting, college student, and many more.

So no matter what type of person you are, you are assured that you get the particular type of resume suited for the job you choose.

Resume writer offers roster of great styles, fonts, text colors, backgrounds, and other themes that will surely generate enough attention and get noticed by any reader.

In this way, your resume can have a great chance of putting you to an advantage position that would later result you to be in an interview.

Resume writer is compatible to any windows operating system. Resume writer also converts your resume into PDF, HTML or ASCII if you want it to be submitted online. Or, the resume can be printable in document form if you prefer to send through main.

All these could be experience if you use resume writer.

Resume Software – Advantages Revealed

The various resume software offered, particularly on the internet, can seem very attractive to job seekers; especially to those not comfortable writing resumes.

At first glance resume writing software can provide a number of perks and can appear to be the perfect solution to many job seekers.

There are some disadvantages to using software, however; and before utilizing it to create a resume, a wise job seeker will take a few moments to compare both the advantages and the disadvantages of resume software.
Software for writing resumes is also commonly known as resume writers, resume creator, resume maker and resume builder.

Advantages of Resume Software
No Experience

Resume writing software can be a welcome relief to job seekers who are uncomfortable with the idea of drafting a resume from scratch.

Resume writing software can provide a step by step foundation, where the job seeker needs to only answer a few questions about their work history and experience and they almost instantly have a resume.

Quick & Easy
Resume writing software can provide a quick and easy resume. For job seekers pressed for time, using resume creation software is a perfect choice.

With this option there is no longer any need to labor over a resume, trying to put the information in the correct places and choose the right wording. Resume writing software practically does all the work for the job seeker.

Affordable
Resume writing software, such as a free resume maker, can be irresistible. The idea of obtaining a resume that is quick, easy and free can be hard to pass up, particularly when professional resume writers charge a fee to craft a personalized resume.

Guarantee
One further benefit of using on-line software is that it is instantly available as a download onto your computer. In common with most on-line products they normally have a no questions asked 100% money back guarantee.

self employment on resume example,sample resume for self employed business owner,self employed resume examples pdf,resume for self employed contractor,

self employed resume skills,how to list own business on resume sample,self employed job description,self employed on resume reddit,