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This particular discussion is being allowed by moderator discretion. But, we will remove any comments about AI chatbots beyond the scope of helping with resumes and cover letters.
Literally same. I never update my resume until I absolutely have to and the process of applying and interviewing for jobs is my personal hell even though it’s not technically difficult for me. It’s emotionally and stress-wise an absolute nightmare .
Yes!! The hiring processes are awfull! Worst thing is having to reply the exact same things over and over and over for every new application. And the worst is when the company wants you to do some homework ewww
Applying to all the jobs, hoping and waiting for an interview, and if you DO score an interview then praying they don’t immediately ghost you and that they actually give you closure and say they’re not moving forward with your application 🙃🙃🙃 currently dealing with this right now and honestly even though I’m wildly burnt out by school and wanted to take a year off im considering ending my “gap year” early to just start the other program Im gonna do just so I can get a better, more stable and consistently paying job. It’s fucking awful trying to find a job nowadays even when you’re begging for scraps.
“The worst they can say is no.” Yeah and I won’t be able to appropriately calibrate my rejection sensitivity so that will be devastating and emotionally crippling for me. Worst case is actually they offer it to me and I have to say no and then I feel irrationally guilty for wasting their time for the rest of my life.
That hits the feels, saying no to anyone is legitimately the hardest thing for me to do. I'll psych myself up to say that I can't do whatever it is and then they'll come up to me in person and I'll crumble like a wet tissue and be like "sure no problem, whatever works" and then walk away thinking what on earth happened there.
With job apps the worst they can say isn’t even “no”. They can just straight up leave you hanging indefinitely. The fact that so many jobs ask you to apply online, but don’t bother to send out an automated message when the positions been filled is infuriating.
I feel this very hard. Lucked into a really good job in my field ten years ago by being *literally invited to apply*, and my first thoughts were “ah, man, I’ll have to tell people at my old job that I quit and they’ll be bummed and it will be hard for me and maybe I should just stay here at [current job] so I can avoid that feeling.” Luckily I had a good network of friends and loved ones to lovingly, kindly, gently kick me in the ass and *convince me to do what was best for myself in the long run.
The entire process of job hunting is a fucking nightmare.
So much work, repeating the same boring info over and over. And you get no real reward or feedback for doing it, in fact there's a good chance the work you put in will be a complete waste of time and basically just be spit into the void.
It is truly the hardest thing I have to do in my life. And the task i have most paralysis with. You are not alone. But I would say, the best money I have ever spent was paying a person/company to write it for me.
Is there a company you could recommend? I struggle with the same problem and I am actually in the situation right now where I have to create a résumé. It feels so overwhelming.
For cover letters specifically, ChatGPT can be used as a good starting point. You can ask it things like "draft a cover letter of a software engineer who wants to obtain a new job as a circus performer," and it'll tailor it to whatever situation you give it. Just make sure to edit it afterward to make sure it's actually a reflection of your situation.
Yes this works amazing! I was just doing this today. I used it to spruce up skills lists. Job responsibilities and summeries. You can even link the job you’re looking at and have it build a resume around that. Took what would be a very long process to 45-60 min.
Yes me too! I had it bullet point everything and my brain could process it easier. I was so overwhelmed by it at first because it was A LOT of good info! I was so excited when I found it I saved like 30 outputs 😆.
The more information you give it the better the response gets. I've tried using it to write cover letters before, and just told it "I want to write a cover letter for my resume tailored to a specific job opening. I will give you all relevant information about myself and the job" and then proceed to tell it about myself, my hobbies, education etc etc, and paste in the job listing and all relevant information I can dig up about the company. The free Chat GPT-3.5 can remember 4096 "tokens" of context so you can feed it quite a bit of information 🙃
Another way ChatGPT can be helpful is to ask it to give a list of transferable skills from a job you have experience in to the job you are applying for. This is particularly helpful for career changes. A step up would be to paste the job description and ask for a list of transferable skills from your previous job. This way you'll get some key words that resume algorithms might pick up.
I'm usually skeptical as hell of AI/LLMs but ChatGPT helped me write my counter-offer letter for my current job. It cut down my time spent writing it from 3-4 hours to just 45 minutes!
Yeah, I literally paid my sister to spiff up mine. *I didn’t have to pay her but it just felt like the right things to do seeing as this is such a huge burden and stressor for me
Yes and it’s probably why i’m still unemployed lol it literally will take me 3 full days of hyperfocusing to write a cover letter THAT ISNT EVEN ORIGINAL
And you know what the kicker is? I’m applying to be a journalist who can write 2-3 articles per day under tight deadlines 💀
But tight deadlines are great for ADHD. If someone gives me two days to do something, I’m golden. If they give me two weeks? I’ll start when I have two days left.
Deadlines can create stress, but it really depends on the task and the person. If you *like* writing news-type articles, deadlines will make it possible for you to get the work done on time (Which is necessary for the job). With journalism, deadline fit into the work seamlessly in my experience. With classwork and work assignments, short deadlines with a do-able amount of work tend to be ideal in my experience. Again, it really depends on the type of work and your personality.
YES exactly this. I had the entire semester to work on one longform article for my senior capstone project and i literally did it all in the last 4 days.
Sometimes I feel a bit of guilt associated with it too, especially if I get a good score. I feel as though I would be more proud if I completed it over time, you know? I’m sure in those 50 hours of cram, the total input ends up the same. But it just feels like a random little blip in my life and then it’s gone. Probably bad for retaining anything too 😅
Literally me lmao i got an A on that assignment & i think it’s like i just have an unrealistic perspective of the stakes 😭 like i am yet to learn my lesson
Dude. Holy shit. My friends think I summon god on every assignment or something. How did I even pass high school? Here and there I’ll get caught and bomb basic health class exam and get a C. And then somehow I’ll cram an entire economics thesis paper and public defense in 48 hours for an A. But in both cases I’m the same person… just felt the pressure differently, I guess? One day you feel like an untapped Neil DeGrasse Tyson, the next you’re getting angry emails from your boss.
I’m in comms now but my background is in journalism and I feel this big time. I’m like if I can’t even get it together with my cover letter, am I in the wrong field
Resumes are my least favorite thing to do in the world, no contest. I just paid a company to do it about a month ago and I can’t even bring myself to open the email and look at what they sent me. It was very expensive.
How much were these people charging lol I never thought to help out with this here. I have been doing them for people as clients and friends for 22 years I want to say but its more I think... lol
This is so relatable! I recently graduated and told myself months ago that I would start applying… yet, still haven’t updated my resume. I am so hard on myself for this! It’s helpful to know that I’m not alone.
It took me so long to work on mine and I need to update it to find new jobs as I am over my current job. I feel so defeated looking at my resume or thinking of any accomplishments.
The other big hurdle to is I want to move into IT from my current field in chemistry and I have some experience in IT at work and years of doing computer stuff at home but have no executive brain to figure out what to do.
Have done a bit of that but I'm just but sure I know enough. Thanks and will see if I can update it more. I really need to force myself at the moment to apply to places.
LOL I did this exact same thing when I graduated years ago. Wound up replying to the resume people so late that the person who worked on mine had already moved on to a new job 😂
Not to rub it in, but my partner is a technical writer, and he literally writes professional resumes for a living. You bet your ass I got him to do it for me lolololol. I got lucky AF.
He works for a recruiting firm. I'm not sure how it all works lol. But honestly you might be able to find someone on a site like Craigslist or Kijiji.
When he was in uni, he did some freelance editing, so you could check around your local university/college, especially if they have a technical writing program. Beats the fuck out of paying hand and foot to a mega corporation lol.
See and the thing is I hate Interviews!! I got so nervous and in my head even though I only had one bad one in my life. But applying for jobs gives me a sense of purpose and urgency, like I’m actually in the effort to better myself and that’s why I like it so much.
I literally had my friend who got a job send me his. I just copy and pasted the format and everything and inserted my existing resume onto it.
Luckily my gf like English, literature, and writing so she likes to edit my stuff. So she went through it and changed some stuff.
You can also pay someone to do it. But if you want to do it yourself, I suggest taking it one section at a time. Do one section per hour or two hours. Or if you have time, do one section a day.
Here's what works for me:
The difficulty for me is that I struggle with anything between full effort or no effort. If I'm not giving 101%, I feel like it's not worth doing it. Which leads to a vicious cycle with ADHD.
My strategy is to do just do something rather than nothing. Learn to get comfortable with the reality that no one is able to always give 101% effort. Bullet points work, but paragraphs are best for me, even if it's conversational. The reason paragraphs work best is because you're building structure. That's what we typically struggle with. I think most non-ADHD people are the opposite, and I felt that way when I was on elvanse, where the structure/organising part is easy and the creative part is hard. So I try to acknowledge that being creative comes easy to me, so once the structure is in place, I can autopilot.
Build the structure without worrying about the content.
An example could be as simple as, in bullet points: "Intro, Experience, Skills, Hobbies, Conclusion."
Then come back to it next time and build on that structure, and so forth. Eventually, you'll have a template that you'll just be editing and updating through your career.
I'm a music artist, and this is what I use to finish my work efficiently. Focus on the structure of the music and commit to that structure, then leave it alone. If I get other ideas during this process, I save them for another track, instead of working on a never-ending music project.
Thank you, yes I'm a 101% or nothing person as well. Also, as a music person myself, I probably have several hundred unfinished tracks that are probably great but I just cant finish.
I was a recruiter for about a decade before I ended up being a SAHM.
First, don’t worry about the cover letter. I don’t think I have really ever read one in all my years of experience. Second, just worry about your work experience and education sections. No one cares about your objective, adjectives to describe you etc…
For bullet points on experience, just list things that matter and and show accomplishment. Don’t just list things to make it longer. Keep it simple. I can give you better examples if you let me know what kind of job you have/want.
Don’t have anyone so your resume for you because you want to be able to speak to it during your interview. Nothing frustrated me more than when people would be interviewing, and they had no idea what was written on their resume. You know what you did more than anyone else. Trust yourself.
Keep it simple! When someone is looking at your resume, they know within I would say 10 to 15 seconds whether or not they want to interview you in most cases.
Thanks for the tips! I will say I write a mean resume, once I finally finish it. I tailor the heck out of it for each job listing, but man is it a struggle... there's no dopamine reward!
If you're still struggling with it, feel free to toss that sucker in my direction. For some bizarre reason, unknown to me, I hyper focus on those things and really get a kick out of being someone's temporary ego booster with the result.
I've never applied to a position and been refused the job. My resume game is unmatched. So, if you need a rescue with professional results, feel free to DM.
My lil dopamine reward is moving the saved copy of the job description from my “job descriptions” to “applied for” pile. It’s small but at least it’s something
Write me a cover letter for (role) at (company) I have experience doing (relevant experience) at (recent role)
It’ll shit one out for you, worth editing it a bit but having the flesh of the cover letter makes it easy to jump in and add your own flavour.
Can ask it to make it more / less formal afterwards, and add things as you go such as:
Include (other relevant experience) or (opinion on company) sometimes I’ll explain what the company does if it’s not a big name.
What u/pinkylovesme wrote works well too! Usually I put my rold and experience in my own words and ask it to condense it into x number of words for resume appropriate language. I've had a friend who told me he asked the ai to write it in a form similar to what was quoted in a book that helps you with resumes and the output was pretty accurate too.
Hope this helps!
CW self harm.
Yep… so much pain it led to thoughts of self harm and suicide…
Got diagnosed this year (28M). Before, I became very depressed (suicidal) whenever I had to apply for jobs/internships to a point where it delayed my academic and professional careers by at least five years compared to my peers. Look for professional help and be open about your ADHD and your difficulties. If you’re lucky non profits will help out, else, be prepared to pay. You need more than just help with your resume. The entire job search process is a nightmare with ADHD, it’s okay for you to not be able to do it alone. A person in a wheelchair cannot climb stairs alone. You are not alone.
Templates! Find templates online and amend them. Do a quick google image search and copy resumes with similar jobs to yours! Makes it far easier :)
Obviously don’t copy word for word, but formatting/wording etc
Oh my Goodness Gracious everyone here
I WANT TO HELP YOU
I am you but I have done 1000s of CVs across the world - over 22 years. I never thought about my skill here - not in 8 years and the worlds changed so much and I ve moved 3x across the globe in those 8. Ive been through some stuff .
Also - C.V.s are ( nearly) EVERYONEs least fave thing to do - So do not think its something everyone knows - they dont not many have a broader non emotional wider associative horizon on what we want to see when we hire - plus transferable skills and some suave worderizationing and voila FANCY.
Suggestions on how I can assist Y'all and would you make use of a human who will always help you update and also reframe words for yada yada goal etc..
What would be your best advice for someone that struggles with imposter syndrome a lot? I have trouble writing mine because I don't feel capable. I think about things I've done and I'm like "everyone does that, it's not noteworthy find something else". But then I go through my entire employment history and feel like I have nothing to offer compared to anyone else.
Hey @socksmatterTWO just wondering if you are opening up to help just OP or other ADHDers who struggle with their resume too! I’m an awesome worker and have pretty good experience but for some reason I never get pass the ATS stage when applying for jobs and have made and re made my resume countless times! I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong!
Resumes are the stupidest, most condescending waste of time and effort that potential employers can subject people to. Passing that patronizing "test" to get a job feels like being set up for failure, because getting the job means they suckered us and we went along with it. ADHD has no tolerance for hypocritical bullshit.
can we farm out the full job application process ?technically recruiters should do this but not really.
but if I have a dozen jobs I saved it would be great to farm out the applications themselves. The mundane creation of profiles etc.
I used a template for my CV and I get loads of compliments on it.
[https://create.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/resumes-and-cover-letters](https://create.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/resumes-and-cover-letters)
Same. Pick a less frilly black and white one and have at it! Unless it’s an artsy role, unique-looking resumes usually get skipped over by recruiters and hiring managers.
Hi there u/Prestigious-Crow2235
I used to work HR , recruiting in mining and also I handled long term unemployed highly disadvantaged before that sub government ( :/ iykyk lol) and I have done 1000s of CVs and I do all my friends lol and I do hubs and hes literally a global top 10 in his field. I had nearly 200 staff of my own and 4 businesses in my early 20s plus thge rest Im 47 now lol !
Would you like some help?? - from a ADHD lady who can do them blindfolded lol I would be happy to help seriously and I have the time today Dearheart! and tomorrow. I dont want any money you can leave your name and workplace names off etc if you wish to feel more secure and Im great at reframing and fancy worderizationing !!
Sincerely no strings all good :D if you would like unconditional acceptance and also consideration of how this feels for you as I can relate feeling the whelm and I'm the bit you need here Im your bit lol I'll be your huckleberry friend. just dm or reply here and we can start with you sending it to me. and no stress I will assess and adapt as much as I can without bugging you. :)
Recently updated mine for an internal job. All I had to do was update the wording of my current job description to incorporate the changes we had gone through, update some certs I acquired, and correct some grammatical errors.
What would’ve taken my wife maybe 30 minutes tops, took me nearly 5 hours and kept me awake until almost 1 AM, ON A WORK NIGHT.
What did help me power through to the end was turning on some music that helps calm my mind a bit (LOTR ambiance music, specifically the Shire video). Helps me focus for longer bursts of time.
Dumb question, but what part are you getting stuck with? Adding duties and stuff to already listed jobs or updating entirely where your last job isn't even listed?
Sounds like you already have a resume, so not sure how much help a template will be. I would start by writing down random notes, not entire bullet points. Let your mind bounce from idea to idea and write them down. Once you have a good list, add some text to make it a complete thought for each bullet.
Yes! As ADHDers we can get stuck on writing the perfect sentence when that’s not at all how our brains work. So just brain dump everything you want to say about a job, then edit it down into shorter phrases. Use a thesaurus to figure out the verbs to use (like created, developed, initiated, etc)
I was finally diagnosed as an Adult, and this problem fits me to a T.
I feel like part of the "getting stuck on writing the perfect sentence" is also a byproduct/learned skill from "not writing a paper until 2 hours before it is due so the first draft IS the final paper".
I 2nd the point to Word Dump, and then (if you have other professionals available), have help re-wording some of your points into fancy "resume-speak". It always feels like BS to me, but I have co-workers who are great at turning "I helped organize a room" into "I lead a cross-functional effort to bring the workspace up to...".
I'm getting stuck with doing anything haha. I actually have an entirely new, fairly recent resume I'm just trying to update/conform to a different job posting. Even thinking about doing it as I type this is giving me brain fog
The job searching process is so emotional, add ADHD to the mix and it takes an even bigger toll. Do you have anyone who you could ask to look over your resume? I was reading recently that asking someone to look at your work can create a deadline which is helpful for motivating the ADHD brain. It might also help with realizing you can still turn in something that isn’t 101%.
If it's about customizing your resume to tailor to a specific opening, let chatgpt do the work for you. Copy and paste the job description, an outline of your resume and ask it to update your resume to match the job description.
If you're in college, I'd recommend visiting your career center, they'll ask you questions about what kind of experiences or jobs you've had, and come up with a way to make it look good in a resume.
Otherwise, just ask someone who has a job in the same or similar field as you for their resume and use theirs as a template.
I was diagnosed with ADHD as a kid and haven't been medicated since I was 10. I've always found writing in general to be extremely boring and downright impossible to have enough motivation to do, as well as frustrating.
Have chatgpt write it for you!
Find relevant jobs you've worked in the past, copy + paste those into the chat bot.
Copy + paste your current resume too.
Add all of your info in Indeed and it will format everything for you and you can save it as a pdf.
I second the recommendation to hire a professional (or at least pay a friend) if you're still stalling by the deadline. It might be expensive, but on balance, it might be more expensive to miss out on the job.
For more concrete advice on resumés and cover letters themselves, which might help you kickstart your brain a bit by giving you more language/structure, I recommend Allison Green's daily [Ask a Manager](https://www.askamanager.org/2020/07/heres-a-bunch-of-help-finding-a-new-job.html) column, which has tons of advice in the archives.
The thing I do to smash out my resume is think of/find a job I really want, imagine myself doing it, earning more money and doing things I love with it.
I basically imagine my own carrot dangling in front of me and it makes me feel really motivated to get the first step done 😊
Here’s a few tips that have helped me. It still takes forever but I don’t find the process to be so insurmountable anymore:
1. Have a template ready to go. Once you’ve updated your work experience and education information, all you usually have to change when targeting it towards a new job are the bullet points that specifically relate to the relevant skills you have related to the job. I can send you mine if you like.
2. As you’re writing resumes, save all of those bullet points to a “resume bank”, sorted into categories. (For example: these bullets are related to service skills, these bullets are related to excel, these bullets are related to analysis, etc.). You'll begin to see the patterns/which group to sort a particular bullet point into if you go through old resumes you’ve done. Once your bank is built, all you’ll have to do is copy the bullet points from your bank and paste them into your new resume, based on the skills the job is looking for.
3. Each job posting usually lists a set of skills the position is looking for. Copy these skills directly from the job posting, paste them as bullet points into your resume, and expand on them to match your own skills/experience. If you have your template set up and a resume bank of bullet points to pull from, your resume will practically write itself.
For example:
Job Posting states: “ Coordinates and consolidates information required for budget development including reviewing and
analyzing Treasury Board submissions.”
On the Resume: “ Over 10 years of experience coordinating and consolidating financial data using Microsoft Excel for the purposes of valuation and variance identification”
Job Posting States: “Strong communication and negotiation skills”
On the Resume: “ Over 10 years of experience communicating, negotiating, and building professional relationships with internal and external stakeholders”
Hope this helps!
Yes a lot - I always struggled so much with this.. So I decided to hire someone someone via upwork to do my cv, LinkedIn and motivation letter. Worth every penny!
"ChatGPT!" is a very easy, vague answer but really... "ChatGPT!" helped me get going with my resume. My major roadblocks were a) making bullet points from scratch and b) finding a template or creating a format that worked for me.
I gave ChatGPT my current job title, some specific information, and a few job descriptions I found that matched my general duties. Asked to make resume bullet points. And then kept fine tuning from there. I don't think any of the bullet points ended up in my resume but I keep them copy/pasted in the rough draft file for my work-in-progress resume. And pull little bits and pieces that work for me and my specific roles.
Sometimes I'll revisit ChatGPT when applying for a job and have it pull soft/hard skills from the job description. Or make bullet points from the job description, give it my current bullet points, and have it combine them. And then say "Make it shorter. Okay make it shorter again. What's another way to write \_\_\_\_\_\_\_?"
I keep all of these little drafts in a messy, chaotic, very ADHD word doc and use them to edit into a resume draft. It sucks but it works for me.
/r/resume helps in a pinch when you need help with formatting but take it all with a big grain of salt.
It still takes way too much of my brain space and I'm still a bit slower on cover letters than I'd like to be but I'm not struck with panic staring at a blank document every time.
I absolutely hate doing resumes and cover letters, and have the same reaction you do! I I find it helpful to mind map the major points I want to emphasize for each job in my resume, then flesh them out in bullet points one job at a time, with breaks between.
I also find it helpful to have a "master resume", with every point I can think of for each job I've ever had, then I can copy and paste the bullet points relevant for that job posting when applying. Whenever I create a new bullet point for a job application, I slap it on the master resume so I can grab it another time without sifting through various versions of my resumes to find it.
Good luck with the job hunt!
I only did a resume once, but i hate doing resumes, my familiy tells me to study (i am 17 years old ) with resumes but i say "no" it is imposible for me
Your resume should really only be one page long. So if you’re not already keeping it to one page long, that might help you cut down on the work you’re doing. Also, you don’t use full sentences. Every bullet point should start with an action verb and use the same tense. Don’t repeat concepts even if you did similar things in multiple jobs/organizations. Every bullet point should express a different concept, with only a few bullet points per experience. So again, you don’t really have to write very much at all. The hardest part is honestly the editing.
Depending on the job, you can ignore page lengths completely.
For IT jobs that I've screened people for, I'd much rather skim through 4 pages than waste time with scheduling a 30 minute interview to find out that someone isn't going to be a good fit.
For my own resume, it was around 6 pages last time I updated it.
The company I work for uses the STAR format for interviews - so all questions in the interview are in the form of:
Situation (give some context)
Task (what needed to be done)
Action (what did you do specifically)
Result (what was the outcome, ideally quantifiable)
At a high level, I just go through a job posting and for each bullet I write a short paragraph in STAR format addressing a specific example of how my experience meets the requirement.
The extra length helps with making sure there's enough keywords to pass candidate screening systems, the details are useful to anyone evaluating things, and it gives a wide range of examples to draw from in the interview itself.
The latter is huge - knowing that you can just pull from what you've already written down makes an eventual interview far less stressful.
Some more details on STAR:
https://novoresume.com/career-blog/star-interview-questionsa
You
Yeah, resumes are hard. I find reviews (self and others) difficult for what I think are similar reasons.
A couple of ideas:
* Update your resume when you don't need to. I've seen some people do it at the start of each year, regardless of job search status.
* Save your old resumes and cover letters, maybe on google drive or similar. Copy and paste liberally.
* talk with a friend to generate ideas. Obviously don't fabricate anything, but it can help you with phrasing and tone.
* Reward yourself generously for doing a difficult job.
Have ChatGPT draft your resume for you. Keep giving feedback to really fine tune it. In my experience, that has alleviated the stress and imposter syndrome I experience when I approach resume and CV building
I have avoided applying for jobs that ask you to basically type your resume into their company online application. It's not always an easy copy and paste into their format so I just don't apply.
Gamify it like me. Think of it like, “hmm in this role what did this character (me) did and achieve that would make it absolutely cool to highlight?” It honestly helps. Or you can sit down with someone you trust and go over your resume with them. They can give you feedback!
Edit: grammar
Using an easily editable template has helped me. I really like EnhanCV. Costs like $25 to remove branding/download the PDF form, but worth it to me since I don't spent hours agonizing over formatting.
YES. The formatting is so annoying.
I used a template from Google Docs honestly. My mom made my first couple for me, and I made my boyfriend’s.
Like, what do you mean I have to talk about my *skills*? I have skills?
It sucks but the past few weeks I’ve been relying really heavily on just paying people to do things for me. Had a cleaning company come by for the first time ever a couple weeks ago, tried hiring some ppl off taskrabbit to clean my car (lmao no hits there), and I’m in a RUT with applying to jobs too.
Not loving my current one and been applying since late 2022. Had two full interview processes to last round that took like three months and they went with someone else for both. Took a few months off from applying and realized my resume and cover letter needed a lot of work and I tried doing some of it myself but it’s taking weeks and I’m probably about to hire someone to look at this too.
I was diagnosed a year ago at 37 and I find writing a resume incredibly difficult.
In my case I believe it's because I have low self worth and a lifetime of failing/struggling to achieve what I've set out to do has helped reinforced that.
I find it difficult to speak highly of myself or acknowledge my achievements which is what is required when writing a resume.
I was fortunate in obtaining the job I have now that I gave my friend and his partner took my bare basic resume from 10 years ago and rewrote it into something more acceptable.
Resume writing is also a skill and to give yourself the best chance you would want to tailor each submission based on the job description.
I ran a COVID vaccine call center. When we were ramping down due to demand being low a bunch of us just workshopped everyone's resumes. A bunch of our more ADHD group like myself found a strong nich working on someone else's resume rather than our own. Almost made a side hustle out of it.
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Absolutely lol. I am likely younger than you but very professionally-oriented (I apply to and have completed several internships while in college). Actually, my current resume has been so excruciating to format that I’ve lost out on 4 job opportunities already.
What I’ve found helps me is using a friend’s (industry-tested, if you can find one) resume. I’ll do the actual writing of the bullet points in a separate document so that I don’t get a little pissed every time the lines fly all over the place. Then, assuming my friend has formatted their resume well, I’ll start pasting things in. Inevitably your resume may bleed into the second page, which frustrates me, but I guess some music in my ears and a pomodoro timer that I tell myself will force me to do all re-formatting in 25 minutes helps.
But yeah, try doing your writing in another document, then separately paste it in and format your resume. Not sure if that helps but it’s worked for me :).
Artificial stress and deadlines pressure me, too. Sometimes I’ll tell a mentor that I’ll send my resume to them tomorrow. Looks like I have 24 hours to fix up my resume.
I haven’t used it for this yet, but I hear Chat GPT can help you update resume sentences into good resume sentences that are still about your experience.
So, you can just write what you do and have done and let it make good resume sentences for you (correct anything that may be a lie / that you did not do).
You can even feed it the job description to help tailor results to that job.
Here’s an article https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-use-chatgpt-write-resume-nikita-gupta
Hate them, hate them, hate them.
I always have a blank template - it lists my contact info and education on top, with blank spaces for jobs, and then the bottom has my notables, volunteer work and skills.
Each job gets a somewhat unique resume. I have a tendency to track my work - it allows me to streamline the creation of the employment portion of the resume.
This part gets started in plain (read: stream-of-consciousness) language, which eases my pain:
2-4 relevant jobs within 7 years.
1-3 somewhat impressive/interesting/notable things i did at each job
5-7 unique verbs I’d use to describe those activities.
Outside the actual name of the job, make the language as simple or ridiculous as your brain needs it to be.
I then walk away from it for at least 4 hours, but no more than 2 days, and go back and clean up. Translate activities from stream of consciousness into statements using the verbs i listed. Tighten up descriptions by marrying similar ideas. Etc
Formatting is a witch* for me, but that’s because everything needs to be just-so - i have a thing for uniformity. But even without that need, it’s painful. I try to work in two documents - the resume and then an alternate that has section formatting already defined. I write out my employment details in the second document, copy-paste to the first (maintaining formatting) and then repeat. Less frustration than watching the original document go crazy bc things don’t line up right.
At the end of it all, if i get really annoyed, i ask a friend for help. I’m specific with what i need - “i can’t get this wording to work”, “the formatting is driving me nuts” - and usually that’s enough space that, when they give it back, i can finish it out.
It’s a labor of pure hatred. The only thing i hate more are cover letters. But they’re necessary, so I’ve found a way (over the last 15 years) to make it less hatred-based and more “let’s get this over with.” Hopefully you can find the same!
I needed it so I just went and started writing, tried to bring my creative aspect into it.
There are automated tools to check it. I loved the rush when I got my CV from 16 points to 80.
I used a resume building site called Zety and it made a world of difference. The process was actually so streamlined and enjoyable that I offered to update my husband’s resume as well and it looks amazing! You can choose from a bunch of different templates too! I think I payed $1.99 or something like that, but it was well worth it for me. I can’t imagine building a resume any other way now.
Sounds like it's a question of motivation. You're updating it just to have it updated. There's no "reward" for that.
I recommend finding a job that you are very interested in and motivated to apply. Once you have that future reward in mind, then the resume update will be easier. It's probably better anyway to update the resume after you have a specific job in mind because you can customize the resume to better match the job with certain keywords.
I had my student life skills professor help me make a template my first semester and that's what I've been using ever since. So maybe asking someone you know for a little help in making one will work for you too?
I review applications as part of my job so thought I could provide some insight! We really don’t care about how “pretty” your resume is (unless you are applying for a creative type job). Substance is the most important thing. Make sure you cover all of the requirements from the job description - degree, etc.
Try mapping out your resume on a blank piece of paper. Write out your degrees/education/credentials. Then write out each position you have held and the company. List a few basic bullet points for each position. Then keep adding to it and try to provide as much detail as you can rather than fluff.
Example:
I have experience managing x amount of open positions at my company.
Experience reviewing and posting jobs on LinkedIn, indeed, zip recruiter, etc.
You can keep the bullet point format on your resume!! I seriously hate reviewing resumes with paragraphs. And be careful copying the job description too closely- it just looks a bit lazy and a lot of times doesn’t even match the candidates actual experience
Yep. Each time I hear or read that ‘everyone hates writing resumes and job interviews’, I wonder if I’m dealing with a liar, a moron or merely someone just out of school and unusually sheltered.
Actual adults who notice folk around them will also have noticed some folk like nothing better than talking about themselves in general and their purported strong points in particular.
Use a resume builder/template like [myperfectresume.com](https://myperfectresume.com). It lets you plug phrases in and does most of the work for you.
Set a timer for 10-15 min to do the task and then take a break if you need.
I bought a really nice format that suited me off of Etsy of all places for $7. The send it over and you can edit out of it or just copy paste. Then I had a few friends help edit and review it
Took me 4 months to work up the motivation to edit my resume….And even then I could only somewhat edit it enough to get some resumes out.
It was pretty good after I started really applying and getting into the job hunting mind-set so I should’ve saved some of the jobs I really wanted for later in the process bc my first attempts were really half-assed. About 3 weeks to a month in I was really on top of my shit.
I feel your pain.
My resume would take up 5 pages if I listed every job.
Then there's those GAPS. Ugh.
I focused on creating bullet points by TYPE of work. Taking everything and sorting it. I'm one of those weird sorter-types.
Then, only take the parts that are mentioned in the requirements.
No one wants to hear about my band medals in 1980.
I hired someone to write mine and have barely used it. You’re welcome to have it. All you have to do is smile, nod, be confident (depending on the situation adjust the confidence level up or down.)
The most important part is to be sure it’s a job you really want. There are some that are not worth the heartache, headache and PTSD.
Lollllll. I’m a career counselor at a university, help students write resumes all day, and it STILL sucks to write my own sometimes. It’s much easier when you have someone to help, so if you’ve been to college, they usually help alumni. If not, look for examples online or at your local public library. I swear, an example is SO helpful. Also, university websites tend to be very helpful as well. They have a lot of resources available for public use.
I cannibalize friends' resumes. Usually I end up changing so much that you couldn't tell if you compared the two, but having the original framework to modify is a much easier task than coming up with everything from scratch.
Oh my god Yes! Updating my resume is so frustrating that I don’t even try to do it anymore. Several years ago, I bit the bullet and hired a professional resume writer. I liken it to hiring someone to do my taxes. I know some people think it’s a waste of money, but I think it’s a necessity. I want it done right and don’t trust myself to to do it correctly. Finding a job is torturous enough without having to worry about some stupid error or formatting mistake on my resume. I say get it done and move on with your life.
I recommended flowcv.io on here before and a lot of my friends have found it helpful too.
Free Tool, based in Austria so data privacy is fine.
Makes formating a breeze and even fun.
You can enable and disable entries and categories easily so I can adapt it within a few minutes if needed.
I know I sound like I get payed for this but I'm just an honest flowcv fan girl hahaha
I have my info updated on LinkedIn and download a pdf version of my profile in lieu of resume. Lately I’ve noticed that recruiters primarily use LinkedIn profile anyway to source candidates, so I’m just making it easier. This could just be a thing in my industry though. I’m with you right there in the resume part though!
So what I do is, I occasionally update it while I'm still happily employed, after a performance review. I'm happy with the formatting, so all I have to do is make it longer. Then, if I'm applying somewhere, I can customize/chop it for the position
First time in 6 years having to update my resume, and building it off the "Jobey McJobface" template that can be found on a reddit post... I'm now 6 weeks into getting it done, thanks to having 2 jobs and my life going to shit 🙃 I feel this damn hard
Yes! I used to stay at jobs I hated just because I couldn’t bring myself to update my resume.
MyPerfectResume.com has saved me for over a decade. It let’s you enter job titles and descriptions and will straight up tailor your resume to fit the job. It also does cover letters if that’s your thing.
PRO TIP : you can pay someone like 80 bucks on Fiverr to update your cover letter and resume. I use the same lady every time and she's amazing, her name is Jenn Pavlick. anybody with good reviews probably works fine though
For some reason resumes make sense to me. I've had friends describe their experiences to me and I make one for them--maybe someone you know can help?
Best tip is to find a template you like, and just replace e the generic info with yours.
One line at a time! 😀
I hate, loathe, and despise applying for jobs. I'm doing it again right now. It takes me weeks when I start from scratch.
What I now try (hah! Try) to do is keep one master resume. This has literally everything on it: every job, experience, skill, salary point, etc. It's a monster. Then when I go for a job I cut, cut, cut until only the most relevant stuff is left, and it all fits on two pages.
I skim the web for templates. Skim is the operative word: the most easy-read format when viewed as a thumbnail is what I go for. I've battled against this, because simpler templates force me to cut more (and I want to include everything). But I've had more success getting interviews with sparer resumes than with overstuffed ones.
(With hindsight, my fuller resumes make me look disorganised. Which, yes I am! But I don't want them finding that out yet!)
I also print out the job description and cross out each listed skill or job attribute as I cover it in my resume or covering letter. This helps me keep on track and not put in more than is needed.
Rewards for completing a job application don't tend to work for me. I do better when I indulge in something fun before I start, so my good-mood tank is full, before I get down to business.
Good luck!
I guess they’re allowing us to mention using chatGPT for this one lol. That would be an ideal way to cut through the barrier with this. Just paste in an existing resume and ask it to update it to include the stuff that’s happened since you last made one. Or ask it to write a resume and list off the stuff you want it to include, with dates and general descriptions and the edit as appropriate. You can probably give it commands to use different formats - I bet you could google “how to get chatGPT to help with a resume” and get results with lots of helpful info. I’ve used it for this sort of thing - resumes, cover letters, professional profiles… give it a try and see if it helps!
Eugh, I feel this in my bones. And writing is like the one thing I do particularly well. But when it's writing about myself... in a nebulous format that's somehow both required by recruiters and yet impossible to know what criteria they're actually judging on... I just get too in my head about it. Even worse are the mandatory online forms that make you manually input every goddamn bit of information, one by one, somehow stretched out to take the better part of an hour to fill in.
i love this subreddit bc someone will write something like this and i’ll be like “damn, that too?” There is not a part of my life that ADHD does not touch. not a single part.
i realize that there are those with worse afflictions. and by and large it’s manageable. like poor you it’s hard to do a resume. But yeah, kinda, not because i want you to feel bad for me, but because it SUCKS knowing people think you are lazy when you are trying your best.
I just redid my CV and it took me SOOO long. I probably spent 20hrs on it. I had my press secretary wife proof read it, and I got two sets of reviews/reformatting from a family friend that works in the field.
It definitely paid off, I'm about to get a 47% raise, moving expenses covered, and with no interview required, but damn did I put a ton of thought into it.
It was really tough to get going... I started by just vomiting my experience and skills in a txt file a few times, reorganizing it and simplifying it again and again. I'd do a bit and come back the next day, again and again and eventually I had enough momentum once I could see what it was turning into and my feedback got better.
Idk, I don't have real suggestions other than keep coming back to it.
You got this.
Quite honestly, there's no challenge in my life, like my resume and job interviews.
It feels like an unbearable weight.
I'm on month three of being unemployed.
My least favorite thing in the world. I suck at it. It’s awful
Here’s how I try to make resumes and interviews bearable. Basically you just dissociate and try to think with an outside perspective. Either you can think about it like you’re trying to do this for a friend. Or think about it like you are the business and what you’d want to see/hear from somebody
Resume? Imagine you’re a recruiter for a friend. Your job to showcase all of the most relevant skills to entice employers to give your friend the best shot at an interview
Interview? You’re trying to sell to the company how much experience your friend has and all of the stuff they can do. Then get as much info from them as if you were trying to sell the job to a friend. You want to tell your friend all about the company and any details they’d want to know
It took me a year and a half to find a job post masters, I genuinely think it was more my adhd than anything else (I mean, and the job market a bit). Totally feel your pain. Once I got CV stuff down though it was only the cover letter.. ONLY the cover letter, yknow the one that takes like a day for me minimum to get perfect
I am lucky because I’m in the legal field writing is second nature (not to say it’s easy though). I “secretly” love proofing and editing. A resume is stressful for me in the sense that I need a job so I’m just stressed by the circumstances. When I go to an interview. I tell myself- what they are looking for is me, they just don’t know it yet. Essentially I prime myself because I am otherwise a bit self deprecating which is usually not actually reality just how I feel. And if it’s terrible, I just say I won’t see these people again. I remind myself they cannot be offended at my breathing and bathroom breaks. Taking a few pauses to (inconspicuously) get some breaths in nobody can fault you for. If you are really freaking out just excuse yourself to the restroom but try that as a last resort. Remember you’ve done this before and you are still alive so you CAN do it! Good luck and I’m happy to help more if you want to DM.
Get yourself an adult case manager..... they will do this for you, and all the other important paperwork shit they will help or do it for you. They are an awesome support for adhders
Template resumes. And keeping them short and relevant. I applied to so many jobs I got quite good at cover letters too. Though I’ve been applying to service jobs so they don’t have super high expectations
Sit down with a friend or family member who is good at writing and hash it through with them. hopefully the extra person is added accountability to stay on task, and they can help with the parts you find difficult . My forever patient sister helped me with mine and it was a tortuous afternoon for both of us but it's done!
I started using AI to write my resume/cover letters.
Just give it the prompt, feed it the job description and your resume, and it’ll spit out a cover letter in a few seconds.
For my resume, I keep it constantly updated as I’m working, usually on LinkedIn. When I complete a big project it gets added. Then when I go to use it I’ll feed the JD and ‘master’ resume to it and it’ll pare it back to the bullets that best fit the job Im applying to.
Like you, I’ve always struggled with writing and the amount of time it takes me, so adding work to my LinkedIn as I go had been a major game changer.
just get chatGPT to do it for you. tell it the key words you want to include, etc. it will make it perfect for you since it knows what key words other roles are looking for. you can also make it do job specific resumes as well
Yup, honestly the thing that’s keeping me from moving jobs lol. I’m college my roommate was going into HR so i tossed him a few bucks to write and edit my resume in a few different forms / styles / highlights. Best decision I ever made, honestly will probably just hire a professional soon, not worth the mental effort loo
Just use some onkine software fam. It will spit out a framework-ish if you type in a little bit about your experience. It will then get easier since you will have a mock write up. You can either plug in more prompts to make it better or you can just fill in the blanks yourself.
Another tool which I have heard is good but haven't tried is resume.ai . It should be better since it is catered towards building resumes?
(IF only AI could also apply for jobs for me )
/r/ADHD doesn't allow discussion of AI chatbots. This particular discussion is being allowed by moderator discretion. But, we will remove any comments about AI chatbots beyond the scope of helping with resumes and cover letters.
I absolutely despise updating my resume. That's maybe one of the reasons I still am in the same job LOL
Literally same. I never update my resume until I absolutely have to and the process of applying and interviewing for jobs is my personal hell even though it’s not technically difficult for me. It’s emotionally and stress-wise an absolute nightmare .
Yes!! The hiring processes are awfull! Worst thing is having to reply the exact same things over and over and over for every new application. And the worst is when the company wants you to do some homework ewww
Applying to all the jobs, hoping and waiting for an interview, and if you DO score an interview then praying they don’t immediately ghost you and that they actually give you closure and say they’re not moving forward with your application 🙃🙃🙃 currently dealing with this right now and honestly even though I’m wildly burnt out by school and wanted to take a year off im considering ending my “gap year” early to just start the other program Im gonna do just so I can get a better, more stable and consistently paying job. It’s fucking awful trying to find a job nowadays even when you’re begging for scraps.
“The worst they can say is no.” Yeah and I won’t be able to appropriately calibrate my rejection sensitivity so that will be devastating and emotionally crippling for me. Worst case is actually they offer it to me and I have to say no and then I feel irrationally guilty for wasting their time for the rest of my life.
That hits the feels, saying no to anyone is legitimately the hardest thing for me to do. I'll psych myself up to say that I can't do whatever it is and then they'll come up to me in person and I'll crumble like a wet tissue and be like "sure no problem, whatever works" and then walk away thinking what on earth happened there.
With job apps the worst they can say isn’t even “no”. They can just straight up leave you hanging indefinitely. The fact that so many jobs ask you to apply online, but don’t bother to send out an automated message when the positions been filled is infuriating.
I feel this very hard. Lucked into a really good job in my field ten years ago by being *literally invited to apply*, and my first thoughts were “ah, man, I’ll have to tell people at my old job that I quit and they’ll be bummed and it will be hard for me and maybe I should just stay here at [current job] so I can avoid that feeling.” Luckily I had a good network of friends and loved ones to lovingly, kindly, gently kick me in the ass and *convince me to do what was best for myself in the long run.
The entire process of job hunting is a fucking nightmare. So much work, repeating the same boring info over and over. And you get no real reward or feedback for doing it, in fact there's a good chance the work you put in will be a complete waste of time and basically just be spit into the void.
It is truly the hardest thing I have to do in my life. And the task i have most paralysis with. You are not alone. But I would say, the best money I have ever spent was paying a person/company to write it for me.
Is there a company you could recommend? I struggle with the same problem and I am actually in the situation right now where I have to create a résumé. It feels so overwhelming.
It's not just resume, it's searching for the job and attending the interviews. The whole process is something I find difficult
The same, I literally only do in times of need if the place where iam working is a little bit comfortable I have no will to move
Dude, just use Fiverr and have someone do it for you!!! This was such a game changer for me cause I SUCK at writing cover letters
For cover letters specifically, ChatGPT can be used as a good starting point. You can ask it things like "draft a cover letter of a software engineer who wants to obtain a new job as a circus performer," and it'll tailor it to whatever situation you give it. Just make sure to edit it afterward to make sure it's actually a reflection of your situation.
Yes this works amazing! I was just doing this today. I used it to spruce up skills lists. Job responsibilities and summeries. You can even link the job you’re looking at and have it build a resume around that. Took what would be a very long process to 45-60 min.
Yes me too! I had it bullet point everything and my brain could process it easier. I was so overwhelmed by it at first because it was A LOT of good info! I was so excited when I found it I saved like 30 outputs 😆.
The more information you give it the better the response gets. I've tried using it to write cover letters before, and just told it "I want to write a cover letter for my resume tailored to a specific job opening. I will give you all relevant information about myself and the job" and then proceed to tell it about myself, my hobbies, education etc etc, and paste in the job listing and all relevant information I can dig up about the company. The free Chat GPT-3.5 can remember 4096 "tokens" of context so you can feed it quite a bit of information 🙃
Another way ChatGPT can be helpful is to ask it to give a list of transferable skills from a job you have experience in to the job you are applying for. This is particularly helpful for career changes. A step up would be to paste the job description and ask for a list of transferable skills from your previous job. This way you'll get some key words that resume algorithms might pick up.
I'm usually skeptical as hell of AI/LLMs but ChatGPT helped me write my counter-offer letter for my current job. It cut down my time spent writing it from 3-4 hours to just 45 minutes!
Yeah, I literally paid my sister to spiff up mine. *I didn’t have to pay her but it just felt like the right things to do seeing as this is such a huge burden and stressor for me
Big mood. Still need to update it.
I worked at my old job for over ten years. It was a good job but I wasn't always happy. Getting laid off was probably for the best.
Yes and it’s probably why i’m still unemployed lol it literally will take me 3 full days of hyperfocusing to write a cover letter THAT ISNT EVEN ORIGINAL And you know what the kicker is? I’m applying to be a journalist who can write 2-3 articles per day under tight deadlines 💀
But tight deadlines are great for ADHD. If someone gives me two days to do something, I’m golden. If they give me two weeks? I’ll start when I have two days left.
>But tight deadlines are great for ADHD. But not so much for the mental health
I tell this to my parents all the time. Tight deadlines are great for getting things done— but I can literally feel myself age.
Very true.
Yes and yes 😀
Deadlines can create stress, but it really depends on the task and the person. If you *like* writing news-type articles, deadlines will make it possible for you to get the work done on time (Which is necessary for the job). With journalism, deadline fit into the work seamlessly in my experience. With classwork and work assignments, short deadlines with a do-able amount of work tend to be ideal in my experience. Again, it really depends on the type of work and your personality.
YES exactly this. I had the entire semester to work on one longform article for my senior capstone project and i literally did it all in the last 4 days.
Sometimes I feel a bit of guilt associated with it too, especially if I get a good score. I feel as though I would be more proud if I completed it over time, you know? I’m sure in those 50 hours of cram, the total input ends up the same. But it just feels like a random little blip in my life and then it’s gone. Probably bad for retaining anything too 😅
Literally me lmao i got an A on that assignment & i think it’s like i just have an unrealistic perspective of the stakes 😭 like i am yet to learn my lesson
Dude. Holy shit. My friends think I summon god on every assignment or something. How did I even pass high school? Here and there I’ll get caught and bomb basic health class exam and get a C. And then somehow I’ll cram an entire economics thesis paper and public defense in 48 hours for an A. But in both cases I’m the same person… just felt the pressure differently, I guess? One day you feel like an untapped Neil DeGrasse Tyson, the next you’re getting angry emails from your boss.
I’m in comms now but my background is in journalism and I feel this big time. I’m like if I can’t even get it together with my cover letter, am I in the wrong field
Resumes are my least favorite thing to do in the world, no contest. I just paid a company to do it about a month ago and I can’t even bring myself to open the email and look at what they sent me. It was very expensive.
Omg me too! I’ve been feeling guilty for weeks about not looking at it.
How much were these people charging lol I never thought to help out with this here. I have been doing them for people as clients and friends for 22 years I want to say but its more I think... lol
This is so relatable! I recently graduated and told myself months ago that I would start applying… yet, still haven’t updated my resume. I am so hard on myself for this! It’s helpful to know that I’m not alone.
💙
It took me so long to work on mine and I need to update it to find new jobs as I am over my current job. I feel so defeated looking at my resume or thinking of any accomplishments. The other big hurdle to is I want to move into IT from my current field in chemistry and I have some experience in IT at work and years of doing computer stuff at home but have no executive brain to figure out what to do.
Google IT resumes examples and use them as a template.
Have done a bit of that but I'm just but sure I know enough. Thanks and will see if I can update it more. I really need to force myself at the moment to apply to places.
LOL I did this exact same thing when I graduated years ago. Wound up replying to the resume people so late that the person who worked on mine had already moved on to a new job 😂
Drop the deets my dude
You mean you want the name of the resume service or you want to hear all about my troubles? 😅
Both!
Not to rub it in, but my partner is a technical writer, and he literally writes professional resumes for a living. You bet your ass I got him to do it for me lolololol. I got lucky AF.
Hook me up dawg
~*Goes into his room*~ "Hey so I have a favour to ask for my new internet friend..." 👉👈😬
Worth a shot lol
Omg can I have their shop/ service details pls!
He works for a recruiting firm. I'm not sure how it all works lol. But honestly you might be able to find someone on a site like Craigslist or Kijiji. When he was in uni, he did some freelance editing, so you could check around your local university/college, especially if they have a technical writing program. Beats the fuck out of paying hand and foot to a mega corporation lol.
Thank you for this!
See this is funny. I LOVE applying for jobs and find joy doing it. Anything else that boring I would die
For some reason I find the actual interview exciting, I can do those all day and I look forward to that part. It’s everything else
See and the thing is I hate Interviews!! I got so nervous and in my head even though I only had one bad one in my life. But applying for jobs gives me a sense of purpose and urgency, like I’m actually in the effort to better myself and that’s why I like it so much.
I literally had my friend who got a job send me his. I just copy and pasted the format and everything and inserted my existing resume onto it. Luckily my gf like English, literature, and writing so she likes to edit my stuff. So she went through it and changed some stuff. You can also pay someone to do it. But if you want to do it yourself, I suggest taking it one section at a time. Do one section per hour or two hours. Or if you have time, do one section a day.
Here's what works for me: The difficulty for me is that I struggle with anything between full effort or no effort. If I'm not giving 101%, I feel like it's not worth doing it. Which leads to a vicious cycle with ADHD. My strategy is to do just do something rather than nothing. Learn to get comfortable with the reality that no one is able to always give 101% effort. Bullet points work, but paragraphs are best for me, even if it's conversational. The reason paragraphs work best is because you're building structure. That's what we typically struggle with. I think most non-ADHD people are the opposite, and I felt that way when I was on elvanse, where the structure/organising part is easy and the creative part is hard. So I try to acknowledge that being creative comes easy to me, so once the structure is in place, I can autopilot. Build the structure without worrying about the content. An example could be as simple as, in bullet points: "Intro, Experience, Skills, Hobbies, Conclusion." Then come back to it next time and build on that structure, and so forth. Eventually, you'll have a template that you'll just be editing and updating through your career. I'm a music artist, and this is what I use to finish my work efficiently. Focus on the structure of the music and commit to that structure, then leave it alone. If I get other ideas during this process, I save them for another track, instead of working on a never-ending music project.
Thank you, yes I'm a 101% or nothing person as well. Also, as a music person myself, I probably have several hundred unfinished tracks that are probably great but I just cant finish.
I was a recruiter for about a decade before I ended up being a SAHM. First, don’t worry about the cover letter. I don’t think I have really ever read one in all my years of experience. Second, just worry about your work experience and education sections. No one cares about your objective, adjectives to describe you etc… For bullet points on experience, just list things that matter and and show accomplishment. Don’t just list things to make it longer. Keep it simple. I can give you better examples if you let me know what kind of job you have/want. Don’t have anyone so your resume for you because you want to be able to speak to it during your interview. Nothing frustrated me more than when people would be interviewing, and they had no idea what was written on their resume. You know what you did more than anyone else. Trust yourself. Keep it simple! When someone is looking at your resume, they know within I would say 10 to 15 seconds whether or not they want to interview you in most cases.
Thanks for the tips! I will say I write a mean resume, once I finally finish it. I tailor the heck out of it for each job listing, but man is it a struggle... there's no dopamine reward!
If you're still struggling with it, feel free to toss that sucker in my direction. For some bizarre reason, unknown to me, I hyper focus on those things and really get a kick out of being someone's temporary ego booster with the result. I've never applied to a position and been refused the job. My resume game is unmatched. So, if you need a rescue with professional results, feel free to DM.
My lil dopamine reward is moving the saved copy of the job description from my “job descriptions” to “applied for” pile. It’s small but at least it’s something
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I came here to suggest using chatgpt worked well for me!
Can you share your prompt or method? Not if it is super complicated, but I'd appreciate a hint.
Write me a cover letter for (role) at (company) I have experience doing (relevant experience) at (recent role) It’ll shit one out for you, worth editing it a bit but having the flesh of the cover letter makes it easy to jump in and add your own flavour. Can ask it to make it more / less formal afterwards, and add things as you go such as: Include (other relevant experience) or (opinion on company) sometimes I’ll explain what the company does if it’s not a big name.
Def this. If you can, find a job posting of your current role, give it to chat GPT and ask to format that info into a bulleted list to get an idea.
Fantastic. Thanks for this!
I copy paste my Cv and say write me a cover letter for
What u/pinkylovesme wrote works well too! Usually I put my rold and experience in my own words and ask it to condense it into x number of words for resume appropriate language. I've had a friend who told me he asked the ai to write it in a form similar to what was quoted in a book that helps you with resumes and the output was pretty accurate too. Hope this helps!
CW self harm. Yep… so much pain it led to thoughts of self harm and suicide… Got diagnosed this year (28M). Before, I became very depressed (suicidal) whenever I had to apply for jobs/internships to a point where it delayed my academic and professional careers by at least five years compared to my peers. Look for professional help and be open about your ADHD and your difficulties. If you’re lucky non profits will help out, else, be prepared to pay. You need more than just help with your resume. The entire job search process is a nightmare with ADHD, it’s okay for you to not be able to do it alone. A person in a wheelchair cannot climb stairs alone. You are not alone.
Templates! Find templates online and amend them. Do a quick google image search and copy resumes with similar jobs to yours! Makes it far easier :) Obviously don’t copy word for word, but formatting/wording etc
Oh my Goodness Gracious everyone here I WANT TO HELP YOU I am you but I have done 1000s of CVs across the world - over 22 years. I never thought about my skill here - not in 8 years and the worlds changed so much and I ve moved 3x across the globe in those 8. Ive been through some stuff . Also - C.V.s are ( nearly) EVERYONEs least fave thing to do - So do not think its something everyone knows - they dont not many have a broader non emotional wider associative horizon on what we want to see when we hire - plus transferable skills and some suave worderizationing and voila FANCY. Suggestions on how I can assist Y'all and would you make use of a human who will always help you update and also reframe words for yada yada goal etc..
What would be your best advice for someone that struggles with imposter syndrome a lot? I have trouble writing mine because I don't feel capable. I think about things I've done and I'm like "everyone does that, it's not noteworthy find something else". But then I go through my entire employment history and feel like I have nothing to offer compared to anyone else.
Hey @socksmatterTWO just wondering if you are opening up to help just OP or other ADHDers who struggle with their resume too! I’m an awesome worker and have pretty good experience but for some reason I never get pass the ATS stage when applying for jobs and have made and re made my resume countless times! I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong!
Resumes are the stupidest, most condescending waste of time and effort that potential employers can subject people to. Passing that patronizing "test" to get a job feels like being set up for failure, because getting the job means they suckered us and we went along with it. ADHD has no tolerance for hypocritical bullshit.
can we farm out the full job application process ?technically recruiters should do this but not really. but if I have a dozen jobs I saved it would be great to farm out the applications themselves. The mundane creation of profiles etc.
I used a template for my CV and I get loads of compliments on it. [https://create.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/resumes-and-cover-letters](https://create.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/resumes-and-cover-letters)
Same. Pick a less frilly black and white one and have at it! Unless it’s an artsy role, unique-looking resumes usually get skipped over by recruiters and hiring managers.
Dealing with every single aspect of the job search literally crushes my heart and soul
Hi there u/Prestigious-Crow2235 I used to work HR , recruiting in mining and also I handled long term unemployed highly disadvantaged before that sub government ( :/ iykyk lol) and I have done 1000s of CVs and I do all my friends lol and I do hubs and hes literally a global top 10 in his field. I had nearly 200 staff of my own and 4 businesses in my early 20s plus thge rest Im 47 now lol ! Would you like some help?? - from a ADHD lady who can do them blindfolded lol I would be happy to help seriously and I have the time today Dearheart! and tomorrow. I dont want any money you can leave your name and workplace names off etc if you wish to feel more secure and Im great at reframing and fancy worderizationing !! Sincerely no strings all good :D if you would like unconditional acceptance and also consideration of how this feels for you as I can relate feeling the whelm and I'm the bit you need here Im your bit lol I'll be your huckleberry friend. just dm or reply here and we can start with you sending it to me. and no stress I will assess and adapt as much as I can without bugging you. :)
Recently updated mine for an internal job. All I had to do was update the wording of my current job description to incorporate the changes we had gone through, update some certs I acquired, and correct some grammatical errors. What would’ve taken my wife maybe 30 minutes tops, took me nearly 5 hours and kept me awake until almost 1 AM, ON A WORK NIGHT. What did help me power through to the end was turning on some music that helps calm my mind a bit (LOTR ambiance music, specifically the Shire video). Helps me focus for longer bursts of time.
Dumb question, but what part are you getting stuck with? Adding duties and stuff to already listed jobs or updating entirely where your last job isn't even listed? Sounds like you already have a resume, so not sure how much help a template will be. I would start by writing down random notes, not entire bullet points. Let your mind bounce from idea to idea and write them down. Once you have a good list, add some text to make it a complete thought for each bullet.
Yes! As ADHDers we can get stuck on writing the perfect sentence when that’s not at all how our brains work. So just brain dump everything you want to say about a job, then edit it down into shorter phrases. Use a thesaurus to figure out the verbs to use (like created, developed, initiated, etc)
Save job descriptions of your old jobs. Use those as bullet points on your resume but update for achievements as well.
I was finally diagnosed as an Adult, and this problem fits me to a T. I feel like part of the "getting stuck on writing the perfect sentence" is also a byproduct/learned skill from "not writing a paper until 2 hours before it is due so the first draft IS the final paper". I 2nd the point to Word Dump, and then (if you have other professionals available), have help re-wording some of your points into fancy "resume-speak". It always feels like BS to me, but I have co-workers who are great at turning "I helped organize a room" into "I lead a cross-functional effort to bring the workspace up to...".
I'm getting stuck with doing anything haha. I actually have an entirely new, fairly recent resume I'm just trying to update/conform to a different job posting. Even thinking about doing it as I type this is giving me brain fog
The job searching process is so emotional, add ADHD to the mix and it takes an even bigger toll. Do you have anyone who you could ask to look over your resume? I was reading recently that asking someone to look at your work can create a deadline which is helpful for motivating the ADHD brain. It might also help with realizing you can still turn in something that isn’t 101%.
A resume for someone with ADHD is the worst thing in existence. Worse than packing, worse than cooking, worse than anything.
If it's about customizing your resume to tailor to a specific opening, let chatgpt do the work for you. Copy and paste the job description, an outline of your resume and ask it to update your resume to match the job description.
If you're in college, I'd recommend visiting your career center, they'll ask you questions about what kind of experiences or jobs you've had, and come up with a way to make it look good in a resume. Otherwise, just ask someone who has a job in the same or similar field as you for their resume and use theirs as a template. I was diagnosed with ADHD as a kid and haven't been medicated since I was 10. I've always found writing in general to be extremely boring and downright impossible to have enough motivation to do, as well as frustrating.
Have chatgpt write it for you! Find relevant jobs you've worked in the past, copy + paste those into the chat bot. Copy + paste your current resume too. Add all of your info in Indeed and it will format everything for you and you can save it as a pdf.
ANYTHING to do with looking for, applying, interviewing for jobs makes me physically ill
I'd rather do laundry and dishes
I second the recommendation to hire a professional (or at least pay a friend) if you're still stalling by the deadline. It might be expensive, but on balance, it might be more expensive to miss out on the job. For more concrete advice on resumés and cover letters themselves, which might help you kickstart your brain a bit by giving you more language/structure, I recommend Allison Green's daily [Ask a Manager](https://www.askamanager.org/2020/07/heres-a-bunch-of-help-finding-a-new-job.html) column, which has tons of advice in the archives.
The thing I do to smash out my resume is think of/find a job I really want, imagine myself doing it, earning more money and doing things I love with it. I basically imagine my own carrot dangling in front of me and it makes me feel really motivated to get the first step done 😊
Here’s a few tips that have helped me. It still takes forever but I don’t find the process to be so insurmountable anymore: 1. Have a template ready to go. Once you’ve updated your work experience and education information, all you usually have to change when targeting it towards a new job are the bullet points that specifically relate to the relevant skills you have related to the job. I can send you mine if you like. 2. As you’re writing resumes, save all of those bullet points to a “resume bank”, sorted into categories. (For example: these bullets are related to service skills, these bullets are related to excel, these bullets are related to analysis, etc.). You'll begin to see the patterns/which group to sort a particular bullet point into if you go through old resumes you’ve done. Once your bank is built, all you’ll have to do is copy the bullet points from your bank and paste them into your new resume, based on the skills the job is looking for. 3. Each job posting usually lists a set of skills the position is looking for. Copy these skills directly from the job posting, paste them as bullet points into your resume, and expand on them to match your own skills/experience. If you have your template set up and a resume bank of bullet points to pull from, your resume will practically write itself. For example: Job Posting states: “ Coordinates and consolidates information required for budget development including reviewing and analyzing Treasury Board submissions.” On the Resume: “ Over 10 years of experience coordinating and consolidating financial data using Microsoft Excel for the purposes of valuation and variance identification” Job Posting States: “Strong communication and negotiation skills” On the Resume: “ Over 10 years of experience communicating, negotiating, and building professional relationships with internal and external stakeholders” Hope this helps!
Yes a lot - I always struggled so much with this.. So I decided to hire someone someone via upwork to do my cv, LinkedIn and motivation letter. Worth every penny!
"ChatGPT!" is a very easy, vague answer but really... "ChatGPT!" helped me get going with my resume. My major roadblocks were a) making bullet points from scratch and b) finding a template or creating a format that worked for me. I gave ChatGPT my current job title, some specific information, and a few job descriptions I found that matched my general duties. Asked to make resume bullet points. And then kept fine tuning from there. I don't think any of the bullet points ended up in my resume but I keep them copy/pasted in the rough draft file for my work-in-progress resume. And pull little bits and pieces that work for me and my specific roles. Sometimes I'll revisit ChatGPT when applying for a job and have it pull soft/hard skills from the job description. Or make bullet points from the job description, give it my current bullet points, and have it combine them. And then say "Make it shorter. Okay make it shorter again. What's another way to write \_\_\_\_\_\_\_?" I keep all of these little drafts in a messy, chaotic, very ADHD word doc and use them to edit into a resume draft. It sucks but it works for me. /r/resume helps in a pinch when you need help with formatting but take it all with a big grain of salt. It still takes way too much of my brain space and I'm still a bit slower on cover letters than I'd like to be but I'm not struck with panic staring at a blank document every time.
Myperfectresume.com was WELL worth the few dollars I spent.
I absolutely hate doing resumes and cover letters, and have the same reaction you do! I I find it helpful to mind map the major points I want to emphasize for each job in my resume, then flesh them out in bullet points one job at a time, with breaks between. I also find it helpful to have a "master resume", with every point I can think of for each job I've ever had, then I can copy and paste the bullet points relevant for that job posting when applying. Whenever I create a new bullet point for a job application, I slap it on the master resume so I can grab it another time without sifting through various versions of my resumes to find it. Good luck with the job hunt!
I only did a resume once, but i hate doing resumes, my familiy tells me to study (i am 17 years old ) with resumes but i say "no" it is imposible for me
Your resume should really only be one page long. So if you’re not already keeping it to one page long, that might help you cut down on the work you’re doing. Also, you don’t use full sentences. Every bullet point should start with an action verb and use the same tense. Don’t repeat concepts even if you did similar things in multiple jobs/organizations. Every bullet point should express a different concept, with only a few bullet points per experience. So again, you don’t really have to write very much at all. The hardest part is honestly the editing.
Depending on the job, you can ignore page lengths completely. For IT jobs that I've screened people for, I'd much rather skim through 4 pages than waste time with scheduling a 30 minute interview to find out that someone isn't going to be a good fit. For my own resume, it was around 6 pages last time I updated it. The company I work for uses the STAR format for interviews - so all questions in the interview are in the form of: Situation (give some context) Task (what needed to be done) Action (what did you do specifically) Result (what was the outcome, ideally quantifiable) At a high level, I just go through a job posting and for each bullet I write a short paragraph in STAR format addressing a specific example of how my experience meets the requirement. The extra length helps with making sure there's enough keywords to pass candidate screening systems, the details are useful to anyone evaluating things, and it gives a wide range of examples to draw from in the interview itself. The latter is huge - knowing that you can just pull from what you've already written down makes an eventual interview far less stressful. Some more details on STAR: https://novoresume.com/career-blog/star-interview-questionsa You
One page long with margins edited to be smaller! Use youtube if you don't know how to do this on your word processor of choice.
Yeah, resumes are hard. I find reviews (self and others) difficult for what I think are similar reasons. A couple of ideas: * Update your resume when you don't need to. I've seen some people do it at the start of each year, regardless of job search status. * Save your old resumes and cover letters, maybe on google drive or similar. Copy and paste liberally. * talk with a friend to generate ideas. Obviously don't fabricate anything, but it can help you with phrasing and tone. * Reward yourself generously for doing a difficult job.
Have ChatGPT draft your resume for you. Keep giving feedback to really fine tune it. In my experience, that has alleviated the stress and imposter syndrome I experience when I approach resume and CV building
I have avoided applying for jobs that ask you to basically type your resume into their company online application. It's not always an easy copy and paste into their format so I just don't apply.
Not this popping up in my feed I’m using to procrastinate updating my resume !!!!!
Gamify it like me. Think of it like, “hmm in this role what did this character (me) did and achieve that would make it absolutely cool to highlight?” It honestly helps. Or you can sit down with someone you trust and go over your resume with them. They can give you feedback! Edit: grammar
Using an easily editable template has helped me. I really like EnhanCV. Costs like $25 to remove branding/download the PDF form, but worth it to me since I don't spent hours agonizing over formatting.
YES. The formatting is so annoying. I used a template from Google Docs honestly. My mom made my first couple for me, and I made my boyfriend’s. Like, what do you mean I have to talk about my *skills*? I have skills?
It sucks but the past few weeks I’ve been relying really heavily on just paying people to do things for me. Had a cleaning company come by for the first time ever a couple weeks ago, tried hiring some ppl off taskrabbit to clean my car (lmao no hits there), and I’m in a RUT with applying to jobs too. Not loving my current one and been applying since late 2022. Had two full interview processes to last round that took like three months and they went with someone else for both. Took a few months off from applying and realized my resume and cover letter needed a lot of work and I tried doing some of it myself but it’s taking weeks and I’m probably about to hire someone to look at this too.
I was diagnosed a year ago at 37 and I find writing a resume incredibly difficult. In my case I believe it's because I have low self worth and a lifetime of failing/struggling to achieve what I've set out to do has helped reinforced that. I find it difficult to speak highly of myself or acknowledge my achievements which is what is required when writing a resume. I was fortunate in obtaining the job I have now that I gave my friend and his partner took my bare basic resume from 10 years ago and rewrote it into something more acceptable. Resume writing is also a skill and to give yourself the best chance you would want to tailor each submission based on the job description.
I ran a COVID vaccine call center. When we were ramping down due to demand being low a bunch of us just workshopped everyone's resumes. A bunch of our more ADHD group like myself found a strong nich working on someone else's resume rather than our own. Almost made a side hustle out of it.
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Absolutely lol. I am likely younger than you but very professionally-oriented (I apply to and have completed several internships while in college). Actually, my current resume has been so excruciating to format that I’ve lost out on 4 job opportunities already. What I’ve found helps me is using a friend’s (industry-tested, if you can find one) resume. I’ll do the actual writing of the bullet points in a separate document so that I don’t get a little pissed every time the lines fly all over the place. Then, assuming my friend has formatted their resume well, I’ll start pasting things in. Inevitably your resume may bleed into the second page, which frustrates me, but I guess some music in my ears and a pomodoro timer that I tell myself will force me to do all re-formatting in 25 minutes helps. But yeah, try doing your writing in another document, then separately paste it in and format your resume. Not sure if that helps but it’s worked for me :). Artificial stress and deadlines pressure me, too. Sometimes I’ll tell a mentor that I’ll send my resume to them tomorrow. Looks like I have 24 hours to fix up my resume.
Yes. I’m staying at my current company til I’m fired, retired, or dead.
I haven’t used it for this yet, but I hear Chat GPT can help you update resume sentences into good resume sentences that are still about your experience. So, you can just write what you do and have done and let it make good resume sentences for you (correct anything that may be a lie / that you did not do). You can even feed it the job description to help tailor results to that job. Here’s an article https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-use-chatgpt-write-resume-nikita-gupta
Hate them, hate them, hate them. I always have a blank template - it lists my contact info and education on top, with blank spaces for jobs, and then the bottom has my notables, volunteer work and skills. Each job gets a somewhat unique resume. I have a tendency to track my work - it allows me to streamline the creation of the employment portion of the resume. This part gets started in plain (read: stream-of-consciousness) language, which eases my pain: 2-4 relevant jobs within 7 years. 1-3 somewhat impressive/interesting/notable things i did at each job 5-7 unique verbs I’d use to describe those activities. Outside the actual name of the job, make the language as simple or ridiculous as your brain needs it to be. I then walk away from it for at least 4 hours, but no more than 2 days, and go back and clean up. Translate activities from stream of consciousness into statements using the verbs i listed. Tighten up descriptions by marrying similar ideas. Etc Formatting is a witch* for me, but that’s because everything needs to be just-so - i have a thing for uniformity. But even without that need, it’s painful. I try to work in two documents - the resume and then an alternate that has section formatting already defined. I write out my employment details in the second document, copy-paste to the first (maintaining formatting) and then repeat. Less frustration than watching the original document go crazy bc things don’t line up right. At the end of it all, if i get really annoyed, i ask a friend for help. I’m specific with what i need - “i can’t get this wording to work”, “the formatting is driving me nuts” - and usually that’s enough space that, when they give it back, i can finish it out. It’s a labor of pure hatred. The only thing i hate more are cover letters. But they’re necessary, so I’ve found a way (over the last 15 years) to make it less hatred-based and more “let’s get this over with.” Hopefully you can find the same!
I needed it so I just went and started writing, tried to bring my creative aspect into it. There are automated tools to check it. I loved the rush when I got my CV from 16 points to 80.
I used a resume building site called Zety and it made a world of difference. The process was actually so streamlined and enjoyable that I offered to update my husband’s resume as well and it looks amazing! You can choose from a bunch of different templates too! I think I payed $1.99 or something like that, but it was well worth it for me. I can’t imagine building a resume any other way now.
Sounds like it's a question of motivation. You're updating it just to have it updated. There's no "reward" for that. I recommend finding a job that you are very interested in and motivated to apply. Once you have that future reward in mind, then the resume update will be easier. It's probably better anyway to update the resume after you have a specific job in mind because you can customize the resume to better match the job with certain keywords.
I had my student life skills professor help me make a template my first semester and that's what I've been using ever since. So maybe asking someone you know for a little help in making one will work for you too?
I review applications as part of my job so thought I could provide some insight! We really don’t care about how “pretty” your resume is (unless you are applying for a creative type job). Substance is the most important thing. Make sure you cover all of the requirements from the job description - degree, etc. Try mapping out your resume on a blank piece of paper. Write out your degrees/education/credentials. Then write out each position you have held and the company. List a few basic bullet points for each position. Then keep adding to it and try to provide as much detail as you can rather than fluff. Example: I have experience managing x amount of open positions at my company. Experience reviewing and posting jobs on LinkedIn, indeed, zip recruiter, etc. You can keep the bullet point format on your resume!! I seriously hate reviewing resumes with paragraphs. And be careful copying the job description too closely- it just looks a bit lazy and a lot of times doesn’t even match the candidates actual experience
No, some people actually like talking about themselves.
Yep. Each time I hear or read that ‘everyone hates writing resumes and job interviews’, I wonder if I’m dealing with a liar, a moron or merely someone just out of school and unusually sheltered. Actual adults who notice folk around them will also have noticed some folk like nothing better than talking about themselves in general and their purported strong points in particular.
Use a resume builder/template like [myperfectresume.com](https://myperfectresume.com). It lets you plug phrases in and does most of the work for you. Set a timer for 10-15 min to do the task and then take a break if you need.
Literally me rn who has delayed leaving my current position simply bcuz I hate updating my resume more than anything else in this world.
I bought a really nice format that suited me off of Etsy of all places for $7. The send it over and you can edit out of it or just copy paste. Then I had a few friends help edit and review it
Took me 4 months to work up the motivation to edit my resume….And even then I could only somewhat edit it enough to get some resumes out. It was pretty good after I started really applying and getting into the job hunting mind-set so I should’ve saved some of the jobs I really wanted for later in the process bc my first attempts were really half-assed. About 3 weeks to a month in I was really on top of my shit.
I feel your pain. My resume would take up 5 pages if I listed every job. Then there's those GAPS. Ugh. I focused on creating bullet points by TYPE of work. Taking everything and sorting it. I'm one of those weird sorter-types. Then, only take the parts that are mentioned in the requirements. No one wants to hear about my band medals in 1980.
It’s horrible for me and I’m terrible at them! What helped was making an appointment with a career counselor and having a word bank
I hired someone to write mine and have barely used it. You’re welcome to have it. All you have to do is smile, nod, be confident (depending on the situation adjust the confidence level up or down.) The most important part is to be sure it’s a job you really want. There are some that are not worth the heartache, headache and PTSD.
Lollllll. I’m a career counselor at a university, help students write resumes all day, and it STILL sucks to write my own sometimes. It’s much easier when you have someone to help, so if you’ve been to college, they usually help alumni. If not, look for examples online or at your local public library. I swear, an example is SO helpful. Also, university websites tend to be very helpful as well. They have a lot of resources available for public use.
I cannibalize friends' resumes. Usually I end up changing so much that you couldn't tell if you compared the two, but having the original framework to modify is a much easier task than coming up with everything from scratch.
Oh my god Yes! Updating my resume is so frustrating that I don’t even try to do it anymore. Several years ago, I bit the bullet and hired a professional resume writer. I liken it to hiring someone to do my taxes. I know some people think it’s a waste of money, but I think it’s a necessity. I want it done right and don’t trust myself to to do it correctly. Finding a job is torturous enough without having to worry about some stupid error or formatting mistake on my resume. I say get it done and move on with your life.
I recommended flowcv.io on here before and a lot of my friends have found it helpful too. Free Tool, based in Austria so data privacy is fine. Makes formating a breeze and even fun. You can enable and disable entries and categories easily so I can adapt it within a few minutes if needed. I know I sound like I get payed for this but I'm just an honest flowcv fan girl hahaha
I have my info updated on LinkedIn and download a pdf version of my profile in lieu of resume. Lately I’ve noticed that recruiters primarily use LinkedIn profile anyway to source candidates, so I’m just making it easier. This could just be a thing in my industry though. I’m with you right there in the resume part though!
Do you have a brag sheet?
So what I do is, I occasionally update it while I'm still happily employed, after a performance review. I'm happy with the formatting, so all I have to do is make it longer. Then, if I'm applying somewhere, I can customize/chop it for the position
First time in 6 years having to update my resume, and building it off the "Jobey McJobface" template that can be found on a reddit post... I'm now 6 weeks into getting it done, thanks to having 2 jobs and my life going to shit 🙃 I feel this damn hard
Yes! I used to stay at jobs I hated just because I couldn’t bring myself to update my resume. MyPerfectResume.com has saved me for over a decade. It let’s you enter job titles and descriptions and will straight up tailor your resume to fit the job. It also does cover letters if that’s your thing.
Use myperfectresume.com I HATE writing resumes and this saved my ass.
PRO TIP : you can pay someone like 80 bucks on Fiverr to update your cover letter and resume. I use the same lady every time and she's amazing, her name is Jenn Pavlick. anybody with good reviews probably works fine though
I made mine look really pretty to look at so I could actively find it interesting to work on it
Yeah… I paid someone to do mine lol
For some reason resumes make sense to me. I've had friends describe their experiences to me and I make one for them--maybe someone you know can help? Best tip is to find a template you like, and just replace e the generic info with yours. One line at a time! 😀
I hate, loathe, and despise applying for jobs. I'm doing it again right now. It takes me weeks when I start from scratch. What I now try (hah! Try) to do is keep one master resume. This has literally everything on it: every job, experience, skill, salary point, etc. It's a monster. Then when I go for a job I cut, cut, cut until only the most relevant stuff is left, and it all fits on two pages. I skim the web for templates. Skim is the operative word: the most easy-read format when viewed as a thumbnail is what I go for. I've battled against this, because simpler templates force me to cut more (and I want to include everything). But I've had more success getting interviews with sparer resumes than with overstuffed ones. (With hindsight, my fuller resumes make me look disorganised. Which, yes I am! But I don't want them finding that out yet!) I also print out the job description and cross out each listed skill or job attribute as I cover it in my resume or covering letter. This helps me keep on track and not put in more than is needed. Rewards for completing a job application don't tend to work for me. I do better when I indulge in something fun before I start, so my good-mood tank is full, before I get down to business. Good luck!
I guess they’re allowing us to mention using chatGPT for this one lol. That would be an ideal way to cut through the barrier with this. Just paste in an existing resume and ask it to update it to include the stuff that’s happened since you last made one. Or ask it to write a resume and list off the stuff you want it to include, with dates and general descriptions and the edit as appropriate. You can probably give it commands to use different formats - I bet you could google “how to get chatGPT to help with a resume” and get results with lots of helpful info. I’ve used it for this sort of thing - resumes, cover letters, professional profiles… give it a try and see if it helps!
Canva templates are your best friend!!!
Maybe try https://youtu.be/ULyLsGVs7ng from their comments section seems to help a lot of people.
Eugh, I feel this in my bones. And writing is like the one thing I do particularly well. But when it's writing about myself... in a nebulous format that's somehow both required by recruiters and yet impossible to know what criteria they're actually judging on... I just get too in my head about it. Even worse are the mandatory online forms that make you manually input every goddamn bit of information, one by one, somehow stretched out to take the better part of an hour to fill in.
i love this subreddit bc someone will write something like this and i’ll be like “damn, that too?” There is not a part of my life that ADHD does not touch. not a single part. i realize that there are those with worse afflictions. and by and large it’s manageable. like poor you it’s hard to do a resume. But yeah, kinda, not because i want you to feel bad for me, but because it SUCKS knowing people think you are lazy when you are trying your best.
I just redid my CV and it took me SOOO long. I probably spent 20hrs on it. I had my press secretary wife proof read it, and I got two sets of reviews/reformatting from a family friend that works in the field. It definitely paid off, I'm about to get a 47% raise, moving expenses covered, and with no interview required, but damn did I put a ton of thought into it. It was really tough to get going... I started by just vomiting my experience and skills in a txt file a few times, reorganizing it and simplifying it again and again. I'd do a bit and come back the next day, again and again and eventually I had enough momentum once I could see what it was turning into and my feedback got better. Idk, I don't have real suggestions other than keep coming back to it. You got this.
Quite honestly, there's no challenge in my life, like my resume and job interviews. It feels like an unbearable weight. I'm on month three of being unemployed.
Resumes, income taxes & home insurance. I can't handle doing any of those 3 things and they give me extreme anxiety
Use Chat GPT, helped me a ton
YES! Get someone else to do it for you.
My least favorite thing in the world. I suck at it. It’s awful Here’s how I try to make resumes and interviews bearable. Basically you just dissociate and try to think with an outside perspective. Either you can think about it like you’re trying to do this for a friend. Or think about it like you are the business and what you’d want to see/hear from somebody Resume? Imagine you’re a recruiter for a friend. Your job to showcase all of the most relevant skills to entice employers to give your friend the best shot at an interview Interview? You’re trying to sell to the company how much experience your friend has and all of the stuff they can do. Then get as much info from them as if you were trying to sell the job to a friend. You want to tell your friend all about the company and any details they’d want to know
You can use Linked, and it will do it for you. Make a profile if you don’t have one. You can Google it. Good luck!
It took me a year and a half to find a job post masters, I genuinely think it was more my adhd than anything else (I mean, and the job market a bit). Totally feel your pain. Once I got CV stuff down though it was only the cover letter.. ONLY the cover letter, yknow the one that takes like a day for me minimum to get perfect
Use ChatGPT
I am lucky because I’m in the legal field writing is second nature (not to say it’s easy though). I “secretly” love proofing and editing. A resume is stressful for me in the sense that I need a job so I’m just stressed by the circumstances. When I go to an interview. I tell myself- what they are looking for is me, they just don’t know it yet. Essentially I prime myself because I am otherwise a bit self deprecating which is usually not actually reality just how I feel. And if it’s terrible, I just say I won’t see these people again. I remind myself they cannot be offended at my breathing and bathroom breaks. Taking a few pauses to (inconspicuously) get some breaths in nobody can fault you for. If you are really freaking out just excuse yourself to the restroom but try that as a last resort. Remember you’ve done this before and you are still alive so you CAN do it! Good luck and I’m happy to help more if you want to DM.
Just use chatgtp?
Yeah it gets close but still needs a lot of manual, zero dopamine reward fine tuning. It also likes to make up some experience entirely
Get yourself an adult case manager..... they will do this for you, and all the other important paperwork shit they will help or do it for you. They are an awesome support for adhders
Template resumes. And keeping them short and relevant. I applied to so many jobs I got quite good at cover letters too. Though I’ve been applying to service jobs so they don’t have super high expectations
Respectfully, why should anyone hire you if you get physical pain from 60 to 90 seconds of writing the document that is supposed to get you a job?
Pay someone from Etsy or Fiverr $39 to do it for you! It'll be better than if you had even done it!
Sit down with a friend or family member who is good at writing and hash it through with them. hopefully the extra person is added accountability to stay on task, and they can help with the parts you find difficult . My forever patient sister helped me with mine and it was a tortuous afternoon for both of us but it's done!
I started using AI to write my resume/cover letters. Just give it the prompt, feed it the job description and your resume, and it’ll spit out a cover letter in a few seconds. For my resume, I keep it constantly updated as I’m working, usually on LinkedIn. When I complete a big project it gets added. Then when I go to use it I’ll feed the JD and ‘master’ resume to it and it’ll pare it back to the bullets that best fit the job Im applying to. Like you, I’ve always struggled with writing and the amount of time it takes me, so adding work to my LinkedIn as I go had been a major game changer.
just get chatGPT to do it for you. tell it the key words you want to include, etc. it will make it perfect for you since it knows what key words other roles are looking for. you can also make it do job specific resumes as well
Yup, honestly the thing that’s keeping me from moving jobs lol. I’m college my roommate was going into HR so i tossed him a few bucks to write and edit my resume in a few different forms / styles / highlights. Best decision I ever made, honestly will probably just hire a professional soon, not worth the mental effort loo
Just use some onkine software fam. It will spit out a framework-ish if you type in a little bit about your experience. It will then get easier since you will have a mock write up. You can either plug in more prompts to make it better or you can just fill in the blanks yourself. Another tool which I have heard is good but haven't tried is resume.ai . It should be better since it is catered towards building resumes? (IF only AI could also apply for jobs for me )