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How to Build a Resume After Unemployment

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You can feel confident and proud of your resume after unemployment.

Hiring employers might only spend less than 30 seconds reviewing resumes, and that is why unemployed workers need to spend extra time building the perfect document. Human resources departments can become inundated with resume submissions whenever the company publicly advertises that it has open job opportunities. Hiring personnel have to quickly assess if you are a better candidate for the position in comparison to your competitors. This deciding resume criteria commonly comes down to employment (or unemployment) dates, over all other outstanding qualifications, and you will find that these digits are an integral component when creating a resume.

Instructions

  1. Preparation

    • 1

      Collect old paycheck stubs, tax returns, layoff notices, college transcripts and any other documentation that will help you establish firm employment and unemployment dates.

    • 2

      Create a rough-drafted list of unpaid and un-traditional employee-based activity that can fill in as substitutes for not working. This includes volunteerism, self-employment, contract work retraining, earning a college degree, vocational training, continuing education and even significant travelling.

    • 3

      Draw a work history table on a piece of paper or create a table in a word processor or spreadsheet application. Label the row of cells across the top of the table with the following column headings. "Start Date," "End Date," "Company Name," "Position Title" and "Job Description."

    • 4

      Fill in the table with all of your previous employment and unemployment history. An example of a table entry for employment is similar to the following: "January 2006 -- August 2008 -- Furniture Makers, Inc. -- Master Upholsterer -- Upholstered leather and microfiber furniture." If you attended school while unemployed, document this activity similar to the following example: " January 2009 -- December 2009 -- Manufacturing Vocational and Career Training Institute -- Certificate in Machine Automation -- Coursework in using machines in the furniture making process."

    • 5

      Research your target industry and career field. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Outlook Handbook website and the CareerOneStop website both list current job descriptions and industry terms, as well as forecast pay and hiring. Consult with your licensing/certifying body, trade organization or union, locally or online, to discover industry trends. Navigate to job boards and job banks to assess demand for your career field, anecdotally based on the number of advertisements, or lack thereof.

    Build the Resume

    • 6

      Find a copy of an older or existing resume stashed away in a file cabinet or on your computer's hard drive. Use this as the starting point for your current resume. Alternatively, create a new resume document in your word processor, starting with these most important sections: "Summary of Qualifications," "Work Experience" and "Education." The qualifications summary replaces the traditional "objective" statement; delete this section if it is listed on your older resume. Employer's do thorough background checks to verify work history.

    • 7

      Pick a resume format. Consider using the reverse chronological format because it clearly lists your work history in order by starting date, on the far left side, and employers want that information first. An alternative option is the functional resume, which puts more emphasis on your work experience; employers have disdain for this format.

    • 8

      Select a design and style. The bullet style, helps you keep even spacing, alignment and indentation. The scannable or plain-text resume does not have as much formatting, because it is suited for keyword scanning software that employers use to automatically pick out candidates from numerous resume submissions.

    • 9

      Use the data from your preparation activities to complete the sections of the resume. Your resume should attempt to focus on a "specific job description" for an employer or industry that is currently hiring, if possible. List your accomplishments at each job, in addition to your duties. The qualifications summary includes short overview phrases about what you know how to do and your experience: "Familiar with Microsoft Office Suite" and "Ten years word processor experience."

    • 10

      Add supplementary sections to the rough draft. For example you can add a section for "Knowledge, Skills and Abilities" and "Awards."

    • 11

      Create the final draft of your resume. Use the spell- and grammar-checker in the word processor to assist with proofreading. The sections in a chronological resume have an order similar to the following example, top to bottom: [Your Contact Information], "Summary of Qualifications," "Knowledge, Skills and Abilities," "Work Experience," "Education"
      and "Awards."

Tips & Warnings

  • Free and downloadable versions of word processor applications, include OpenOffice.org Writer and Google Docs Documents, in lieu of the commercial version of Microsoft Word.

  • Create a column on your table of work history that references "Reason For Leaving" next to each job. However, do not list this data on the resume. Instead, have your responses mentally rehearsed and prepared to answer these questions in the interview phase.

  • Dates in the "Education" section are commonly listed last, or to the far right side of the resume. However, if you are using continued education or retraining as an excuse for unemployment, then consider listing the date on the left side, to align with the dates in the "Work Experience" section, making it easier for the employer to visually scan the resume for gaps in dates.

  • Compile a list of references who can personally vouch for your work ethic. This is commonly called the "Reference Sheet" and it is created on a second page, separate from the one-page resume.

  • Do not try to conceal unemployment dates with untruthful and frivolous activities. Hiring employers demand and expect employee honesty, and will remove you from consideration if you are not completely forthcoming.

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