Pimpbot

I am re doing my resume, as I have a period from july 2003 to present where I have no work history. This is what I am thinking about writing on my new resume before I list my last employer "July 2003-Present
Going through the process of emigrating to the United States and awaiting I-765 Employment Authorization Document approval, which was approved in March 2004 by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services" Thats just a rough draft. But I am looking for imput on whether this is a good idea or not?.

DaveC

I'm in the same boat, it's been a year since I left my UK job to come here. Initially on my resume I wrote:

5/03 - Present: Career Break to organize and implement relocation from the United Kingdom.
(Bullet Point) Green Card Holder, authorized to work in the United States for any employer.

I now want to play down the fact that it's been a year since I last worked so I took the months out of my employment history dates and left the years. I've recently started doing volunteer work so I'll soon be able to put that down on the resume.

My latest resume version has my last job down as:

2000-2003: Last Job Title
(Relevant Bulleted information)

I have "Legally authorized to work in the US for any employer." as the footer of my resume document.

If we're lucky Yana Parker's major shareholder will have some thoughts to share with us. Just teasing NC Penguin, you do a damn good job of contributing on this topic.

monster

I have never written an American CV, but from my Brit POV it's too wordy.

I would just go with something like:

Awaiting US work authorization (approved March 2004).

Or even without "approved" bit.

Assuming they already know you're not a USC.

I think it's a good idea to put it in, though. When we moved here, we had cultural training and were advised to put our work authorisation/visa status on our resumes immediately after nationality, so it wouldn't get thrown out at the first glance on the grounds that they might need to get authorisation or a visa for us.

NC Penguin

Just two comments about the above paragraph-

1) too wordy
2) you're giving too much detail about yourself.

DaveC's suggestion sounds good. You want to keep it concise and not give away any information that will scare off or raise red flags in your resume. I'm not advocating you lie. Just give would-be employers enough to know you were using your downtime in a productive, legal way.

To DaveC- do you have the Yana Parker book or have you read it? Sounds like you have at least seen it...

DaveC

I haven't seen a copy of her book yet but I did check out her website on your recommendation. Did you previously post the link? I guess you did but here it is again for any interested parties:

http://www.damngood.com./introjobseeker.html

I'm trying to follow her advice about overcoming the problem of not having any US work experience (jobseeker question 39).

Pimpbot

Thanks for the tips. I hadn't had time to re do it yesterday when I applied for another job. But I got a phone call this morning for an interview. I was begining to think I'd never get another.

Ray

How about voluntary adviser to the British Expats network..

NC Penguin

Actually, I've never seen the pages you gave the link for. The Q&A looks good. Certainly some tips in there that I don't know about.