DM Blog

For quite some time now, I’ve been meaning to update my resume, and more importantly, change the formatting of it. For as long as I can remember, music has been a big part of my life, but has purposely been absent from my resume. I’ve tried to keep my music life and professional/work life separate, but I’ve recently decided that it’s time to change that, at least on my resume. At the same time, by excluding my musical endeavors and achievements from my resume, it created noticeable gaps in my work history and it started to look as though I hadn’t had a "real job" in more than five years. (At least that’s the impression it gave me when looking at it objectively.) But the reality is that music is my real job today – I work full-time hours and it should definitely be included in my professional experience… So, I realized that I not only needed to update and add to my resume, but that it would also be best for me to change the format and not follow the typical chronological style to make it all work well.

When working as the HR Manager at Budget, I came across tons of resumes (both good and bad). And then I also volunteered at an employment organization where I helped people with their resumes, cover letters, interview skills, finding a job, etc. I’ve also had a lot of fun (yes, to me it’s fun) helping out family and friends with their resumes now and then, which has resulted in some great jobs for them.

At the beginning of August, when browsing through a feed of WordPress blogs tagged with "Calgary", I came across this girl’s blog documenting her job search in Calgary. I couldn’t resist writing two comments on her blog, (on staffing agencies and then some constructive criticism on her resume), both of which are worth reading and checking out. If you look on that girl’s blog, her "after" resume blows the "before" resume out of the water. There are still some issues with the new one, but nevertheless, it’s far better than the one she started with. My point in mentioning this is that, while I know I gave her good, solid advice, I also know that it’s always easier to give advice than it is to follow your own…

So with that in mind, I figured I would encourage others to critique and comment on my resume as well. Here’s a link to my new resume: DanielMenjivar.com/about/resume

I’m curious to see/hear what others have to say!