help with resume???

I really need help, have been thinking about getting some part time retail work for a while now, but each time i go to do up a resume i just don't know where to start! I haven't worked for 3 years now, since i got pregnant, so i don't know what to put on my resume....i remember where my last job was, it was sales assistant for Spotlight, before that I worked in heaps of different jobs, timber mill for 3 months, laundry for couple of months. Do i write anything about being a SAHM the last 3 years on my resume?? Who wants to hire someone who hasn't worked in 3 years?

Please help, i fel really lost with this!:doh:

Resume writing is so daunting. I hate doing it for myself, although strangely I'm happy to help other people. Here's a couple of things I wouldn't put onto it for starters - Date of Birth, marital status, nationality - none of these things are relevant to any job.

I would start by writing down the list of every job that you can remember doing, along with dates if you can remember them. Then for each of them, or at least the main ones, think of 2 or 3 things that you did for each of them eg serving customers=customer service, customer complaints=problem solving, balancing tills, opening/closing store.

To add to the above, think STAR for each job (or the main ones) - Situation, Task, Action, Result. Which is a fancy way of saying what was the problem, what did you do to fix it, and how did it turn out. THis helps you tease out what you achieved in a job, which employers like to see.

Also, keep the final copy to 2-3 pages max, and write in bullet points, not complete sentences, as resumes generally only get looked at for a few seconds, so you need things to jump of the page at the reader. And try to have "white space", which means don't crowd everything onto a page, it needs to be easy on the eye - think of how an invitation looks vs a newspaper, it's much easier to see what the invitation is about whereas you really have to read a newspaper.

Good luck with it all.

Hi Widdly

Before having bubs i have been an employment consultant for a job network agency for the past 5 years so i specialise in resumes. LOL. If you like you can email me with your details and past employment details and that i can hep do one up for you. And yes you do put in what you have done as a SAHM for the past 3 years because you will be amazed by what things you do around the house and in everyday that can be applied in the work place for instance. Budgeting we all have to budget when we are SAHM to make the money last, Food Preperation, Time Management skills now everyone asks for that one these days and of course we have to have good time management skills as mothers otherwise our houses would fall apart. There are many others these are just a few of the ones that I can think of at the moment but as i think of more i will list them for you.

bhoy - thanks so much, very helpful, basically what i new but i don't have the confidence that i once did writing a resume!

ange - you are awesome! WHat a lovely woman you are for being so helpful to me. If i went to a job network place would there be someone there who could sit with me and organise a resume??