Monica Valentinelli: Author, Game Designer and Consultant

Posted on February 2, 2009 - by Monica Valentinelli

Resume Writing and the Resume Book Essential for Writers

Every day I not only read headlines about layoffs, but hear from peers, friends and people I greatly admire how they had just lost their job. Having been through some of these experiences myself, I’ve often turned to resume writing books, professional agencies and other resources to learn how to market myself on paper, which is not as easy as it sounds.

The challenge with writing resumes and cover letters, is that it’s easy to make a mistake. Unless you get a callback for an interview, typically prospective employers won’t communicate with you if your resume is written poorly. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of receiving resumes for different jobs you’ve hired for in the past, you probably have a lot of stories to share. Some of the more ironic stories I’ve encountered are the resumes I received for editing positions, only to find out their name was misspelled.

Writers often encounter another stumbling block, because writing is often perceived as a “skill” rather than a “career.” Often, we have to be versatile to navigate different industries both online and off in order to stay in business. Because of that, if we don’t handle that type of experience effectively we can appear very unfocused or too detail-oriented.

After reading several resume writing books throughout the year, there is one that stands out in my mind. This book is absolutely essential to writing effective resumes and cover letters, in my opinion.

Best Resume and Cover Letter Book Available

This resume writing book, entitled “The Quick Resume & Cover Letter Book” is one of the best books I’ve ever read. This best-selling resource not only offers you different examples of resumes and cover letters, it provides solutions for specific job-hunting situations and critiques of resumes that could be improved. Before you get to all of that, the book asks you to think critically so that you find the job you want before you submit your resume.

Here are some of the items I’ve used in the book that have helped me:

• Collection of well-written resumes and cover letters for Career Changers
• Comprehensive resume writing worksheet
• Sample cover letters
• Sample Thank-You notes

The last revision of The Quick Resume & Cover Letter Book was published in 2007. The revised editions ensure that the content is up-to-date with current trends and technology.

With an easy-to-reference format, this is a resume writing and cover letter book that’s perfect for writers, because it encourages the reader to think strategically about format, keywords, etc. and provides excellent critiques of the resume samples. The critiques are exceptionally helpful because it teaches you how to write an effective resume, rather than just following the format.

For those of you that are job hunting, you could probably also check this book out from your local library, too. Otherwise you can find The Quick Resume & Cover Letter Book on Amazon.com for less than ten dollars.

My heart goes out to those of you who are job hunting out there. Hope you find this recommendation helpful. For more job hunting tips, be sure to check out my tip about the job hunting search engine Indeed.com.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a great day!

Related posts:

1. Resumes & Portfolios for Writers: Part One
2. Using keywords to sell your work
3. Writers! Donate One Book for Literacy
4. Resumes & Portfolios for Writers: Part Two
5. Job-Hunting? Writers, List Additional Skills!