It’s incredibly important to Play The Game and have a perfect resume if you want to get a job. Employers receive many, many resumes for every position they post, and a poorly designed resume is an automatic no for many employers. Having a well designed resume shows you have great attention to detail and that you will go above and beyond to get the job, and once you have it, you’ll probably go above and beyond in your work too. I have had to hire people at multiple jobs and if someone’s resume was poorly designed it was an automatic no. In addition to this, I’ve used these tips/this formula and beat out 71 people for an office job with no previous office job experience, and 37 people with minimal real estate experience for a real estate job. It really works!
Overall Design:
In my opinion, It is not acceptable to have a Times New Roman Microsoft Word resume anymore. There are too many free tools and templates online to make a modern, well-designed resume. My favorite tools for this are Canva and Google Docs templates.
Use a modern, sans serif font. Perhaps use a different font for your name and headings than for the rest of your information. Use one accent color if you aren’t applying for extremely professional jobs like attorney or accountant, and keep it relatively muted. I like using a soft grey-blue or red-orange. Don’t go too crazy - some templates on Canva are a little ridiculous and unprofessional. No need to add patterns, photos, or extremely flashy designs. Keep it simple and minimalist. The point of a resume is to convey your information, not to show off your design skills (even if you’re a designer). Also, EVERYTHING should be spelled right. Your spacing should be right. Ask multiple people to read it over to make sure everything is correct. If I received a resume with a typo, that person was automatically disqualified - they didn’t even bother to use spell check, seem like they don’t care enough to make sure it’s done properly, and have poor attention to detail.
Your resume should never be longer than one page. Put your last 2-4 relevant jobs on your resume. If you’ve had many jobs, take off the ones that are not relevant, but put them on your LinkedIn so it doesn’t look like you’re hiding them. If you have a large gap in your work history, don’t put anything longer than 5+ years ago on your resume. It needs to be fresh and current.
I might do a post next about how to beef up your first resume and make it sound important + look good when you have little to no experience!
Your name and contact information:
Include your full name, email address, phone number, and zip code. There’s no reason to put your full address on there, especially if you are applying to positions off of Craigslist. Use a template to decide on the best layout for this information.
Summaries:
Consider including a profile overview or an objective, but not a summary or “Hard worker seeking a position as a cashier in order to use my strong interpersonal skills”. I like this guide to writing an objective, but I’ve never used an objective personally - I think it’s fluff and your cover letter + resume should convey why you want the job and why you should be good at it.
Work History:
The next section is your actual job experience. Format this clearly and concisely. You need to put the dates worked (month and year is fine), the name of the company, your job title, and the tasks you completed at this job. When writing the tasks you completed, I have two main tips:
1) Use ACTION words. Demonstrated. Served. Acted. Improved. Investigated. Developed. Solved. ALWAYS start with an action word, for every single bullet point.
2) Use NUMBERS. This really demonstrates your successes and volume of work. You can use dollar amounts, number of customers, number of clients, percentages, anything.
Examples: Served 150+ customers per shift. Managed and analyzed three KPI markers. Exceeded corporate sales goal by 200% each day. Improved average daily sale by $120.
Education Experience:
This should be a short section. Follow the formatting of your work history. You should write your school, degree, and years attended. If you received any awards, put them underneath. GPA isn’t necessary anymore in my opinion, but if you had a 4.0, throw it on there - can’t hurt, especially if you’re freshly out of school.
If you did not go to college, put your high school and format the same way as above. Put any continuing education you’ve done. Put any certifications you’ve completed. Here are two helpful lists of certifications to consider if you want to beef up this section on your resume.
Volunteer Experience or Special Projects:
Put any special projects, internships, volunteer jobs, or events you managed here. Format it like your work history and your education experience. Show off here! If you accomplished something or won an award, this is the place to put it. If you’ve had anything published, put it here. If you don’t have anything to put here, consider volunteering somewhere if you have the time. It looks great on your resume and provides you with more references for future job applications!
Skills:
There are two kinds of skills - hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills are things like software, programs, and computer systems. Soft skills are things like fast learner, detail oriented, and great multitasker. You should have the same amount of each of these on your resume - I usually go for six of each. You probably have more hard skills than you think - Microsoft Office Suite, Facebook, Instagram, Social Media Management, Microsoft OS, and iOS are great ones to start with.
Etc:
Don’t put “References Available Upon Request” - obviously they’re available upon request. It wastes space and looks outdated.
Always send cover letter and resume as PDFs - especially if you’re using a designed template like the ones I described above. Different computers and softwares open things differently and if someone opens it on a different computer than you, it could be completely unreadable. Flatten it into a PDF so everyone can open it.
Thanks y’all! Let me know if you have any questions or comments. also heres an infographic i made if the video + text is too much and u wat Kwik Tips:
This would all be perfect if that asshole ain’t buy that house I was looking at. That house was perfect with its big backyard I could have grown food and flowers and had my beehives…..
so I do shopping for a house of 4, and one of the people I live with has type 2 diabetes. So I thought I’d share the types of things I get that are both healthy and cost effective.
Breakfast
Instant oatmeal (we buy sugar free brown sugar flavor, but you can also just buy a big tin of instant oatmeal and add stevia or sugar free maple syrup and cinnamon+allspice)
Bananas (good to add in oatmeal)
Cereal and a milk alternative (most cereals besides kellogs are vegan, try to find a cereal and milk that’s fortified with b12)
French toast (mash a banana with either 3/4c milk alternative or the juice from a can of chickpeas, then add a tsp vanilla, 1-2tsp cinnamon, and ¼ tsp allspice. dip bread in mixture on both sides and then fry in a pan with 1 tbsp butter/coconut oil/nonstick spray on high heat and fry till desired on both sides. makes about 6 slices and is super good topped with syrup!)
Tofu scramble with toast (to make tofu scramble add onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, nutritional yeast and break up the tofu in a skillet with a fork and heat it up) goes great with a side of baked beans too
Lunch
sweet potato and beans (microwave sweet potato 6-9 minutes depending on size, rinse beans and microwave for 1-2 minutes and then season both the beans and sweet potato however you like!)
chickpea salad sandwich (microwave 1/2c chickpeas for about 25 seconds, then mash them with a fork and add 1 tbsp hummus, garlic powder, onion powder, dill weed, parsley all to taste and 1-2tsp spicy brown mustard) tomato slices are a good addition
Veggie hummus wrap (buy cauliflower and broccoli by the head, it’s cheaper. Spread hummus on a tortilla. Chop up cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots(or veggies of choice) and assemble the wrap)
Dinner
Burritos (microwave instant brown rice to instructions, then add hummus and salsa. microwave beans and season as desired. assemble burrito with rice, lettuce, beans, and guacamole(optional). It’s even better if you turn a skillet on high and grill the tortilla first and assemble the burrito in the skillet, then slide it onto a plate once it’s nice and browned on the outside and wrap it up! Takes maybe 2 minutes extra to do this but it’s so worth it)
Curried veggies with rice (I just microwave frozen veggies and then add them to whatever curry I’m making. Walmart carries a “golden curry” that comes in a shiny box and dissolves in water to make a thick curry sauce. But there are tons of other options for curry sauce out there!)
Soups like progresso (their tomato basil soup, garden vegetable, lentil soup are vegan just double check the labels!) Campbell’s condensed tomato soup is also vegan. It’s also really good to add some cooked rice to tomato soup!
Snacks
Cauliflower/fresh veggies or rice cakes with hummus
Popcorn (tons of “buttery” microwave popcorns are vegan. But you can also buy a jar of popcorn kernels, paper bags, and add 1c of kernels with a tiny bit of olive oil to it and fold the top of the bag so it doesn’t open and microwave for 1-2 minutes or until kernels have mostly stopped popping, then add salt and/or nutritional yeast!)
Canned fruit or fresh fruit that’s in season/on sale
Apples or oranges (buy them by the bag)
I’m sure there’s things I’m missing and I know this list isn’t super extensive but this is what we’ve been keeping in the house recently for dietary reasons while also being concious of our low budget. I’ll add more if I think of anything but feel free to ask questions or add to this list!
Being poor while trying to eat healthy can be a challenge, but it isn’t necessarily impossible either.
@runningtheimpossible has an awesome Instagram account at OneCrazedFoodie and while she isn’t vegan or whatever, many of her recipes are vegetarian and so easy/beautiful/perfect. plus she’s hilarious as f
Best of Vegan on Instagram showcases so many great recipes daily as well
I’m sure I’m forgetting a bunch, but google is honestly your best friend! If anyone has some favorites I didn’t include, reply to this post :)
Yesterday, I was trawling iTunes for a decent podcast about writing. After a while, I gave up, because 90% of them talked incessantly about “self-discipline,” “making writing a habit,” “getting your butt in the chair,” “getting yourself to write.” To me, that’s six flavors of fucked up.
Okay, yes—I see why we might want to “make writing a habit.” If we want to finish anything, we’ll have to write at least semi-regularly. In practical terms, I get it.
But maybe before we force our butts into chairs, we should ask why it’s so hard to “get” ourselves to write. We aren’t acting randomly; our brains say “I don’t want to do this” for a reason. We should take that reason seriously.
Most of us resist writing because it hurts and it’s hard. Well, you say, writing isn’t supposed to be easy—but there’s hard, and then there’s hard. For many of us, sitting down to write feels like being asked to solve a problem that is both urgent and unsolvable—“I have to, but it’s impossible, but I have to, but it’s impossible.” It feels fucking awful, so naturally we avoid it.
We can’t “make writing a habit,” then, until we make it less painful. Something we don’t just “get” ourselves to do.
The “make writing a habit” people are trying to do that, in their way. If you do something regularly, the theory goes, you stop dreading it with such special intensity because it just becomes a thing you do. But my god, if you’re still in that “dreading it” phase and someone tells you to “make writing a habit,” that sounds horrible.
So many of us already dismiss our own pain constantly. If we turn writing into another occasion for mute suffering, for numb and joyless endurance, we 1) will not write more, and 2) should not write more, because we should not intentionally hurt ourselves.
Seriously. If you want to write more, don’t ask, “how can I make myself write?” Ask, “why is writing so painful for me and how can I ease that pain?” Show some compassion for yourself. Forgive yourself for not being the person you wish you were and treat the person you are with some basic decency. Give yourself a fucking break for avoiding a thing that makes you feel awful.
Here’s what stops more people from writing than anything else: shame. That creeping, nagging sense of ‘should be,’ ‘should have been,’ and ‘if only I had…’ Shame lives in the body, it clenches our muscles when we sit at the keyboard, takes up valuable mental space with useless, repetitive conversations. Shame, and the resulting paralysis, are what happen when the whole world drills into you that you should be writing every day and you’re not.
The antidote, he says, is to treat yourself kindly:
For me, writing always begins with self-forgiveness. I don’t sit down and rush headlong into the blank page. I make coffee. I put on a song I like. I drink the coffee, listen to the song. I don’t write. Beginning with forgiveness revolutionizes the writing process, returns its being to a journey of creativity rather than an exercise in self-flagellation. I forgive myself for not sitting down to write sooner, for taking yesterday off, for living my life. That shame? I release it. My body unclenches; a new lightness takes over once that burden has floated off. There is room, now, for story, idea, life.
Writing has the potential to bring us so much joy. Why else would we wantto do it? But first we’ve got to unlearn the pain and dread and anxiety and shame attached to writing—not just so we can write more, but for our own sakes! Forget “making writing a habit”—how about “being less miserable”? That’s a worthy goal too!
Luckily, there are ways to do this. But before I get into them, please absorb this lesson: if you want to write, start by valuing your own well-being. Start by forgiving yourself. And listen to yourself when something hurts.
Hey guys. I’m glad to be finally posting my “mental breakdown survival guide”. As you know I struggle a lot with mental health, and so I have been through a lot of breakdowns. So many that I actually dropped out of university after 3 weeks in 2016 and had to take the whole year off. Because of this, I’ve made it my mission to help others with mental health issues as much as I can, so you don’t have to go through what I’ve been through.
Anyway, here is my guide. I tried to keep it general, and actually useful. If you have any questions or additions please feel free to add them.
And as ever, if you want to talk to me about studying with mental illness or want to see a post on a specific topic, please feel free to message me.
