By Tina Huynh (18 June 2012)

I’ve been faced with a dilemma, just a small one. It is regarding my resume. We all know some effort has to be put into it and it has to be presentable and professional and such, but what happens when you get differing views on how to write one? 

My current resume, or curriculum vitae (CV as many may call it), was written based on some research I had done. I will clarify this by saying that I planned out my resume on tips offered from career building websites such as careerone (http://www.careerone.com.au/) and I had viewed an example one from another student based website, which I cannot recall at this point.

All looked well, I had the relevant details and got rid of the information that no longer had importance (things such as my awards attained during high school). When questioned at university,  how one’s CV should look like, my tutor and classmates offered some new ideas. The main point that struck out to me was to include a portrait of yourself, just your face is fine. This way, as another student claimed, your potential employer can put a face to the name. Makes sense doesn’t it? And so I placed a recent portrait of myself on the front page of my CV.

Over a week ago, I was sent back some feedback from my university’s careers and co-operative education department. I had sent in my details and CV in applying for future university work. I was placed in the selection list, and this came with some feedback on my CV. The feedback was quite extensive and helpful, but I couldn’t help but ponder on whose’s advice I should be following. Do I follow the feedback from the careers department and fix my CV then and there? Or do I approach it as my tutor would (with a degree relevant approach, and one that is quite different to that of the careers office)?

Basically, I’m at a crossroads as how to alter my CV. I’m still pondering on what action to take, but for the present, I will wait for some feedback from my tutor (we were required to submit a copy as part of our portfolio work, so that takes care of that).  This is the first time that I’ve had a problem with my CV or anything career related. It is quite confusing, maybe you have had an experience such as this before. I would love to hear it, just post it on our Facebook page.