I wanted to share an email that was sent to me by a Division Chief in charge of Training and promotional exams for a major fire department in northern California. I have removed all of his personal information for reasons that will be obvious after you read the email.
Chief Lepore,
Thanks for your article on the importance of resumes in this month's California State Firefighter’s magazine; it is truly relevant to performance on promotional exams. I am finding that many individuals that I come across have put very little time in to producing a worthy resume. In fact, during the last promotional exam for the position of Battalion Chief I had put on in our organization, the rating board had privately told me that one of the candidates had damaged his scores because of a poorly done resume.
In fact, they were embarrassed for him because of the quality of his
resume. I was able to follow up with him that this was an area that he needed to work on and pointed him in a direction to fix this situation. What I have found is that a poor resume does more damage than no resume at all.
It is my opinion that too many fire service personnel are producing more than a one-page resume. Unless one is going after the position of Fire Chief, resumes should be one-page only. This past exam for the position of Fire Chief in our organization gave me a great example of the relevance of one-page resumes. Bob Murray and Associates put on the exam and Bob personally mentioned his appreciation in me putting together a well layed-out one page resume that drew attention to significant accomplishments. So, it does matter.
Thanks again for your article; I hope to share it with a number of
personnel.
Sincerely,
(name removed)
Division Chief-Training & Safety
Chief Lepore,
Thanks for your article on the importance of resumes in this month's California State Firefighter’s magazine; it is truly relevant to performance on promotional exams. I am finding that many individuals that I come across have put very little time in to producing a worthy resume. In fact, during the last promotional exam for the position of Battalion Chief I had put on in our organization, the rating board had privately told me that one of the candidates had damaged his scores because of a poorly done resume.
In fact, they were embarrassed for him because of the quality of his
resume. I was able to follow up with him that this was an area that he needed to work on and pointed him in a direction to fix this situation. What I have found is that a poor resume does more damage than no resume at all.
It is my opinion that too many fire service personnel are producing more than a one-page resume. Unless one is going after the position of Fire Chief, resumes should be one-page only. This past exam for the position of Fire Chief in our organization gave me a great example of the relevance of one-page resumes. Bob Murray and Associates put on the exam and Bob personally mentioned his appreciation in me putting together a well layed-out one page resume that drew attention to significant accomplishments. So, it does matter.
Thanks again for your article; I hope to share it with a number of
personnel.
Sincerely,
(name removed)
Division Chief-Training & Safety
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