CES: summary of my feedback

1. DICTION (word choice)

   1. careful with buzzwords and abstractions - you want your points to be concrete and provable

   2. use jargon and other field-specific terminology when appropriate and effective

   3. avoid repeating words too close together - see the "Power Verbs" document for some ideas

2. FORMATTING

   1. should be easy to read at a glance

   2. consistency is key: make sure your fonts, capitalization choices, etc are the same throughout your documents

   3. try to format the different sections (education, experience, etc) as similarly as possible

   4. ensure your headers (profile, education, etc) are formatted the same throughout

   5. use no more than two accent colours - the majority of your document should be in black text

   6. keep your main font at 12pt

   7. headers etc can go up to 24pt but are suggested to stay at 16pt or under

   8. utilize bold and italic options to visually differentiate information

   9. keeping your letterhead consistent on all your documents helps the employer

3. STYLE

   1. your resume is a fact sheet

   2. your cover letter is an opportunity to pitch your experience and prove it is relevant and/or transferrable: https://caitlinbaird1.wixsite.com/thelab/post/ces-how-to-pitch-unrelated-experience

   3. cover letters should be in full sentences while resumes should primarily use point form

4. CONTENT

   1. include dates for all experiences, educational qualifications, and certifications

   2. focus on field-relevant and position-specific skills and highlights

   3. an objective section should include a quick kenning - a description of you as a professional in this field (examples, "experienced teacher with a background in fine arts" or "newly qualified, fully certified EA") and then your goals - this can be what type of employment you seek, your career path goals, etc

   4. a profile section is an extended (3-4 sentences) description of you as a professional in this field

   5. highlights sections are more useful than skills sections, but both need to favour "hard" skills

   6. hard skills are provable (your typing speed, your grades, classes you've taken, how many people you've supervised on the job...)

   7. soft skills are interpersonal skills and character traits, like being detail-oriented, which are not provable - to strengthen a soft skill claim, try to provide an example which can serve as evidence

   8. highlights sections should be focused on the position for which you are applying, not necessarily highlights of your previous career