After allowing a "pro" to attempt to write my resume, I decided to do it myself after it was returned to me with three typos. There are some great
looking formats out there, and with proper use of both font and style, I was
able to build a great looking format with bold where required. I noticed that
many formats do not include date of birth, is this not necessary? I realize that employers need to be careful about asking age and can get a rough idea by looking at college dates, etc. What's everyone's take on this?

 

I don't think it is all that relevant to put on a resume.
Remember your physical application will contain the specific information the employer is looking for in the exact format they want.

If I could make a recommendation, keep your resume clean and concise.
Sometimes less is more, and with resumes and cover letters that can't be stressed enough.

I would also recommend taking the time to write your on resume because you may always go back to fine tune things and clean it up as you see fit.
I can guarantee someone with a vested interest in a resume will always do a better job then someone doing it for a quick buck.

 

I used to think this too, but then one day a senior recruiter pulled me aside and said you have a great resume, but it tells too little about you to really know anything and managers are assuming you have not done very much. So I rewrote it to fill 3 pages with all the stuff I have done (I am an engineer) and now I get more calls. The only time I have seen the "get them in 3 seconds" approach work is at job fairs. You want a 1 pager for those. It's more like a business card than a resume. Remember, a resume is the place to make yourself sound the best you can and you do not want to cut that opportunity short. 2-3 pages is about right for a mid-career professional. I have seen advanced academic resumes (vitas) run 10 pages.

 

Be Careful!

Employers are generally legally barred from asking about age, marital status, medical/disability status (except as it pertains to job functions, and then only by a medical professional), and sexual preference (blue states).

I'm not sure about race, but I think that may be another non-no although they are allowed to document it under certain affirmative-action provisions...but that might only be allowed after you are hired.

If you include this kind of info on your resume, it can be be problem. If you provide that you are young, married, and straight and they hire you instead of the old, single, gay guy they might get sued and have that used against them. Even though they didn't ask, the fact that it was documented for them on your resume could be twisted by a plaintiff's attorney.

In some cases employers have a policy of automatically REJECTING any applicant who includes that sort of info, so I would not do it.

Obviously they are going to have an idea about most of this based on college date, work history, etc.

 

Multiple pages is the norm for experienced white-collar professionals, but most pilots can probably keep it to one page using the standard pilot format (flight time heading, job history, other info). If you have a long pilot work history I might stick with the standard format, put as much recent job history on the first page and then do an addendum page with the older job history.

Lori, what do you think?

 

Personally I don't like the STANDARD professional resume services for pilot resumes because I think that our situation is too specific. Of course that argument can probably be made for any particular job.
Still, I thought using other like-minded professionals resumes and changing to fit my particular circumstances was the best approach.

USMCFLYR

 

Yeah, generic resume prep is totally useless for pilots. If you're going that route you need to use someone who specializes in aviation pilot resumes.

 

Different careers require different resume approaches.
Not sure what they'd be looking at for engineering jobs, but I'm sure it is more extensive then your average pilot's resume.

Recruiters for pilot jobs tend to focus more on flight hours and previous experience.

 

Thanks for all of the great input, I just became younger and single, eliminating those two vital statistics. Being that a multi-page resume is no longer a cardinal sin, I will include my earlier corporate CP experience. My largest stumbling block as I re-enter this field is the time gap since I last flew an airliner, I do stay current and qualified in a bug smasher.

 

Just curious about college dates, the recruiters are telling me to leave this out too. You graduated, you got a degree, that's all they need to know, they said.