ANDROID ROOTING

If you have been an Android user for sometime you will realize that there is more to this platform then a mere smartphone operating system. TheAndroid OS is based on the Linux operating system and from that many different Linux distros available, it is common to see them in the Android world too. To step into that world, you will need to root your Android device.

In this article we will explain to you relevant information regarding Android Rooting. For quicker access, check out shortcuts below:

Recommended Reading: 10 Essential Tips To Increase Android’s Performance

Android Rooting In A Nutshell

Rooting is what you need to become the administrator or also known as superuser of your own device. With a root-enabled device, you have access to all system files and will be able to modify it at your own will. Manufacturers locked users from such access by giving them something like a guest account to prevent anyone and any app that may compromise your device from having root access.

Whenever you decide to install an app in your device, you have to be aware of the permissions you give out to each app you are about to install. A photo-editing app does not need access to your text messages too. Understanding this permission is crucial for Android users to identify which app is taking what kind of data from you.

Getting Familiar with Rooting terms

You will delve into a lot of new terms in dabbing with Android and for your convenience, here is a list of common rooting terms to help you understand what is the meaning of these words.

Custom ROM

A modified version of Android operating system which containsadditional features, speed, customization and the developer’s own secret recipe to enable updates, (faster) fixing of bugs and a snappier ROM speed.

Bootloader

A set of codes that are to be executed before running any software. Bootloaders vary according to manufacturers because of the hardware they use for their device. Unlocking the bootloader is one of the most important steps to enable rooting.

Recovery

A place where you can perform back-ups, flashing ROMs and tweaks, plus all kind of tasks that is dependent on the version of recovery software you have on your Android. Popular custom Android recovery include the ClockWorkMod (CWM) and the Team Win Recovery Project (TWPRP).

Flashing

Flashing is the execution of a zipped file to be installed on your Android. Custom ROMs are often released in a ZIP format, so once you have downloaded the zipped files, head over to your recovery and start flashing.

Android Debug Mode – ADM

The Android Debug Mode acts as the command line tool for Android. This is usually acquired from the Android developer’s kit known as Android Software Development Kit (SDK). ADB is needed if you want to run all the rooting-related tools in your PC.

More Android Rooting Terms

Brick

Non-functional device. Often related to a wrong or bad firmware update. When a device no longer works, it is often referred to as a "bricked" device.

Kernel

Kernel will interpret all the information sent in and out by the software in your phone to your hardware from the CPU, Memory or the devices. Its primary function is to manage the Android resources to allow other programs to run and use these resources. An advanced kernel will even allow your device to do something like overclocking and undervolting.

Firmware

Firmware is a software that is programmed into a read-only memory (ROM). All devices come with a different firmware, and this ‘fixed’ software is often updated through flashing. Advanced users update their device firmware to fix bugs or add features to the device. Flashing firmware that is not meant for your device will render the device unusable.

Baseband

The radio or modem version that is running on your device. It is important to know what version you are currently running before flashing a new radio or modem firmware. Incorrect baseband for your phone will result in the phone not working.

Vanilla

Unmodified version of anything, for example, a Vanilla port for Android ROMs indicating a pure untouched stock ROM experience.

Widget

A minimal version of the app that you are running that you can personalize on your Android homescreen.

Gapps

All important google apps that are manually sideloaded in a form of zipped files.

NAndroid

A common term for when you are creating backup for your Android. It is used when you want to make a full system backup, as insurance for when you mess up your device.

Reasons to root Your Android

There are many advantages one can gain from a rooted Android device. Here are a few:

• You can flash your device with a custom ROMS so you can enjoy a different experience of Android beyond what the stock ROM provided.
• You also may use an app to schedule a customoverclocking/underclocking profile to suit your device best.
• While you at it, try to learn how to undervolt your processor or gpu to obtain the lowest watts for the highest clock you can achieve.This will get you the most out of your battery life while a performance drop.
• Bloatware can be removed once you are rooted.
• With a rooted Android device you can finally grant permission to apps that require superuser access to perform a deeper customization be it a system tweak or a bootable Linux Android for troubleshooting.

Reasons not to root

The obvious aftermath of rooting is that it immediately voids your phone’s warranty but if you know what you are doing and if your device has passed its warranty period, this isn’t of great concern. What is, is that rooting involves the risk of bricking your device. You seriously need to know what you are doing.

Even without rooting, you need to be worried about the permission you give to apps. Now that your Android is rooted, the result of letting these permissions be open to people you don’t know is dangerous.

A rooted Android is also more vulnerable towards viruses that may even harm your device deep within the Android system.

The Legality of Rooting

According to Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA),

Computer programs that enable wireless telephone handsets to execute lawfully obtained software applications, where circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of enabling interoperability of such applications with computer programs on the telephone handset.

In laymen terms, as long you are not using root-enabled tools outside of getting it to operate programs, it is fine. One reason behind this is because many assume that rooting is the cause of piracy but it isn’t because cracked apps can work with unrooted devices as well.

What about Android tablets? It’s a little different. The definition of tablets is too broad and ill-defined that they could not allow exemption to the rule when it comes to tablets. So unless manufacturers allow you to do so, you cannot root your Android tablet.

However, the chances of having a legal issue when you root an Android tablet are very slim. Note that the DMCA only applies in the U.S and legal issues are usually different from country to country. But when you think about it, Android being open source since day one has always been open about rooting.

What about unlocking?

In a nutshell, the United States laws do not state that you cannot get your phone unlocked. To unlock your device, you just need your carrier permission to do so. I suggest reading this article to have a deeper understanding on this matter. This applies only to U.S. citizens.

Android Rooting Guides [Table]

Disclaimer: The following rooting guides are from third-party sources and are not products of hongkiat.com. We cannot be held responsible for any effects on your device resulting from the rooting guides. Please attempt only after reading through and understanding the guide(s) and proceed with caution.

Note: You can sort the table listing by clicking on the titles, example: "Brand", "Model", etc.

Forget typing password, your thought is the key

You may be spared from typing pesky passwords in future! Instead of typing your password, you may only have to think about it, thanks to a new wireless headset device developed by researchers.

Remembering passwords for all your sites can get annoying. There are only so many punctuation, number substitutes and uppercase variations you can recall, and writing them down for all to find is hardly an option.

Researchers at the University of California Berkeley School of Information developed the device that explores the feasibility of brainwave-based computer authentication as a substitute for passwords. By measuring brain-waves with bio-sensor technology, researchers are able to replace passwords with "passthoughts" for computer authentication, website 'Mashable' reported. A $100 headset wirelessly connects to a computer via Bluetooth, and the device's sensor rests against the user's forehead, providing a electroencephalogram (EEG) signal from the brain. The NeuroSky Mindset looks just like any other Bluetooth set and is more user-friendly, researchers said.

Brainwaves are also unique to each individual, so even if someone knew your passthought, their emitted EEG signals would be different. "Other than the EEG sensor, the headset is indistinguishable from a conventional Bluetooth headset for use with mobiles, music players and other devices," they said.

A brief history of touchscreen technology

1980s: The decade of touch

One of the first diagrams depicting multitouch input.

Bill Buxton

In 1982, the first human-controlled multitouch device was developed at the University of Toronto by Nimish Mehta. It wasn't so much a touchscreen as it was a touch-tablet. The Input Research Group at the university figured out that a frosted-glass panel with a camera behind it could detect action as it recognized the different "black spots" showing up on-screen. Bill Buxton has played a huge role in the development of multitouch technology (most notably with the PortfolioWall, to be discussed a bit later), and he deemed Mehta's invention important enough to include in his informal timeline of computer input devices:

The touch surface was a translucent plastic filter mounted over a sheet of glass, side-lit by a fluorescent lamp. A video camera was mounted below the touch surface, and optically captured the shadows that appeared on the translucent filter. (A mirror in the housing was used to extend the optical path.) The output of the camera was digitized and fed into a signal processor for analysis.

Shortly thereafter, gestural interaction was introduced by Myron Krueger, an American computer artist who developed an optical system that could track hand movements. Krueger introduced Video Place (later called Video Desk) in 1983, though he'd been working on the system since the late 1970s. It used projectors and video cameras to track hands, fingers, and the people they belonged to. Unlike multitouch, it wasn't entirely aware of who or what was touching, though the software could react to different poses. The display depicted what looked like shadows in a simulated space.

Bill Buxton introduces the PortfolioWall and details some of its abilities.

Though it wasn't technically touch-based—it relied on "dwell time" before it would execute an action—Buxton regards it as one of the technologies that "'wrote the book' in terms of unencumbered… rich gestural interaction. The work was more than a decade ahead of its time and was hugely influential, yet not as acknowledged as it should be." Krueger also pioneered virtual reality and interactive art later on in his career.

A diagram (in Spanish!) detailing how the Video Place worked.

Touchscreens began being heavily commercialized at the beginning of the 1980s. HP (then still formally known as Hewlett-Packard) tossed its hat in with the HP-150 in September of 1983. The computer used MS-DOS and featured a 9-inch Sony CRT surrounded by infrared (IR) emitters and detectors that could sense where the user's finger came down on the screen. The system cost about $2,795, but it was not immediately embraced because it had some usability issues. For instance, poking at the screen would in turn block other IR rays that could tell the computer where the finger was pointing. This resulted in what some called "Gorilla Arm," referring to muscle fatigue that came from a user sticking his or her hand out for so long.

Enlarge / The HP-150 featured MS-DOS and a 9-inch touchscreen Sony CRT.

Wikimedia Commons

A year later, multitouch technology took a step forward when Bob Boie of Bell Labs developed the first transparent multitouch screen overlay. As Ars wrote last year:

...the first multitouch screen was developed at Bell Labs in 1984. [Bill Buxton] reports that the screen, created by Bob Boie, "used a transparent capacitive array of touch sensors overlaid on a CRT." It allowed the user to "manipulate graphical objects with fingers with excellent response time."

The discovery helped create the multitouch technology that we use today in tablets and smartphones.

1990s: Touchscreens for everyone!

IBM's Simon Personal Communicator: big handset, big screen, and a stylus for touch input.

Android Authority

In 1993, IBM and BellSouth teamed up to launch the Simon Personal Communicator, one of the first cellphones with touchscreen technology. It featured paging capabilities, an e-mail and calendar application, an appointment schedule, an address book, a calculator, and a pen-based sketchpad. It also had a resistive touchscreen that required the use of a stylus to navigate through menus and to input data.

The original MessagePad 100.

Apple also launched a touchscreen PDA device that year: the Newton PDA. Though the Newton platform had begun in 1987, the MessagePad was the first in the series of devices from Apple to use the platform. As Time notes, Apple's CEO at the time, John Sculley, actually coined the term "PDA" (or "personal digital assistant"). Like IBM's Simon Personal Communicator, the MessagePad 100 featured handwriting recognition software and was controlled with a stylus.

Early reviews of the MessagePad focused on its useful features. Once it got into the hands of consumers, however, its shortcomings became more apparent. The handwriting recognition software didn't work too well, and the Newton didn't sell that many units. That didn't stop Apple, though; the company made the Newton for six more years, ending with the MP2000.

The first Palm Pilot.

Wikimedia Commons

Three years later, Palm Computing followed suit with its own PDA, dubbed the Pilot. It was the first of the company's many generations of personal digital assistants. Like the other touchscreen gadgets that preceded it, the Palm 1000 and Pilot 5000 required the use of a stylus.

Palm's PDA gadget had a bit more success than IBM and Apple's offerings. Its name soon became synonymous with the word "business," helped in part by the fact that its handwriting recognition software worked very well. Users used what Palm called "Graffiti" to input text, numbers, and other characters. It was simple to learn and mimicked how a person writes on a piece of paper. It was eventually implemented over to the Apple Newton platform.

PDA-type devices didn't necessarily feature the finger-to-screen type of touchscreens that we're used to today, but consumer adoption convinced the companies that there was enough interest in owning this type of device.

Near the end of the decade, University of Delaware graduate student Wayne Westerman published a doctoral dissertation entitled "Hand Tracking, Finger Identification, and Chordic Manipulation on a Multi-Touch Surface." The paper detailed the mechanisms behind what we know today as multitouch capacitive technology, which has gone on to become a staple feature in modern touchscreen-equipped devices.

The iGesture pad manufactured by FingerWorks.

Westerman and his faculty advisor, John Elias, eventually formed a company called FingerWorks. The group began producing a line of multitouch gesture-based products, including a gesture-based keyboard called the TouchStream. This helped those who were suffering from disabilities like repetitive strain injuries and other medical conditions. The iGesture Pad was also released that year, which allowed one-hand gesturing and maneuvering to control the screen. FingerWorks was eventually acquired by Apple in 2005, and many attribute technologies like the multitouch Trackpad or the iPhone's touchscreen to this acquisition.

2000s and beyond

With so many different technologies accumulating in the previous decades, the 2000s were the time for touchscreen technologies to really flourish. We won't cover too many specific devices here (more on those as this touchscreen series continues), but there were advancements during this decade that helped bring multitouch and gesture-based technology to the masses. The 2000s were also the era when touchscreens became the favorite tool for design collaboration.

2001: Alias|Wavefront's gesture-based PortfolioWall

Car Design News

As the new millennium approached, companies were pouring more resources into integrating touchscreen technology into their daily processes. 3D animators and designers were especially targeted with the advent of the PortfolioWall. This was a large-format touchscreen meant to be a dynamic version of the boards that design studios use to track projects. Though development started in 1999, the PortfolioWall was unveiled at SIGGRAPH in 2001 and was produced in part by a joint collaboration between General Motors and the team at Alias|Wavefront. Buxton, who now serves as principal research at Microsoft Research, was the chief scientist on the project. "We're tearing down the wall and changing the way people effectively communicate in the workplace and do business," hesaid back then. "PortfolioWall's gestural interface allows users to completely interact with a digital asset. Looking at images now easily become part of an everyday workflow."

Bill Buxton introduces the PortfolioWall and details some of it abilities.

The PortfolioWall used a simple, easy-to-use, gesture-based interface. It allowed users to inspect and maneuver images, animations, and 3D files with just their fingers. It was also easy to scale images, fetch 3D models, and play back video. A later version added sketch and text annotation, the ability to launch third-party applications, and a Maya-based 3D viewing tool to use panning, rotating, zooming, and viewing for 3D models. For the most part, the product was considered a digital corkboard for design-centric professions. It also cost a whopping $38,000 to get the whole set up installed—$3,000 for the presenter itself and $35,000 for the server.

The PortfolioWall allowed designers to display full-scale 3D models.

Car Design News

The PortfolioWall also addressed the fact that while traditional mediums like clay models and full-size drawings were still important to the design process, they were slowly being augmented by digital tools. The device included add-ons that virtually emulated those tangible mediums and served as a presentation tool for designers to show off their work in progress.

Another main draw of the PortfolioWall was its "awareness server," which helped facilitate collaboration across a network so that teams didn't have to be in the same room to review a project. Teams could have multiple walls in different spaces and still collaborate remotely.

The PortfolioWall was eventually laid to rest in 2008, but it was a prime example of how gestures interacting with the touchscreen could help control an entire operating system.

Find USB Flash Drive is Genuine or Fake

In my computing life, I have seen many USB flash drives, but not all the USB pen drives and memory card I have seen were genuine, yes there are times when I have seen people selling flash drives from genuine brands like Kingston, Transend and Sandisk etc.

Today we will tell you all the tools and ways you can use to find out whether a USB flash drive is fake or genuine and we will also tell you ways to identify the fake flash drive before buying. There are several free tools which will test your drive to find the right amount of space as claimed on the drive, as some of the drives are claimed to be 32 GB or 4 GB but when tested they are only like 2 GB or 4GB drives.

On the other hand some of these drives are really fake ones which does not store new data rather when ever you add more data it actually overwrite the new data in place of old data there by causing data loss. Most of these fake drives are so nicely packed that you can’t tell the difference in between a genuine USB flash drive and a fake one, by the packaging alone.

Kingston Did Took Action To Help Users Find The Fake Flash Drive

Kingston started engraving the silver usb connector tip. This is your most important evidence . On a genuine Kingston usb flash drive, as shown in the image below.

The image above is an example. Each model has different serial information.

If you do not have serial engraving information, you probably have a counterfeit! This is especially true for DataTraveler usb flash drives in the DT150, DT200, DT300, DT310, DT400 series. Engraving the usb flash drive connector is expected to continue for newer models.

Please Note: Not every USB Flash drive manufacturer has taken these initiatives to help users to detect the counterfeit drives which are fake.

Much Time Taken To Copy Data On USB Drive?

Normally when you copy 1 GB file on genuine flash drive, it should take around 50 to 180 seconds for storing the data to the drive. On the other hand, this time will be twice as long as the reading time and fake flash drive will take an excessively long time (1 to 7 hours) with only ‘pretending‘ that data is being written but the data was not actually being written on the drive or it might erase the already stored data on the drive.

Some Indications That You Have a Fake Flash Drive

Check The Price of USB Flash Drive

Yes, this would be the most easy and best way to decide if a USB flash drive is fake, if you think a large 64 GB or 32 Gb drive is coming at the price of a 4gb or 2 GB genuine drive. This will be a clear indication to you about a faulty fake USB drive.

Check The Actual Model Number on The Manufacturer Website

Yes, most of the times you may not see a Flash drive being actually manufactured by company whose big size capacity flash drive you are going to buy as some times if the company may not have that model actually being manufactured or sold in a their product line which again tells you the truth about the fake flash drive.

Cannot Format The Drive?

If you can’t format the drive through your computer, even if you select the forceful format option, and there is no file on the drive you could have opened. This symptom does indicate that it could possibly mean that your drive is either fake or its faulty.

You Cannot Copy Big Files On The Drive ?

Try coping a file of bigger size like more than a 4Gb or couple of files with more than 4 Gb in total, if the copy operation display some error or take too much time that could be mean you have a fake drive plugged in.

Check The Manufacturer Of The Flash Drive

One easy and direct way of checking a flash drive to be fake or genuine one is to check the manufacturer name under hardware options once you have plugged a pen drive and connected it to windows. In order to check the manufacturer you will need to right click on the drive icon shown in windows explorer and then go to Hardware tab and then click the properties button.

Click the details tab and then under the Property select Hardware Id and here you will see the genuine device manufacturer name, if you don’t see a name here same as written and claimed then its a fake drive. [ as shown in the image below ]

Check The Drive Space In Disk Management In Windows

If you check the drive details under disk management in windows, it will tell you correct information about the actual free space and total capacity of the drive with which you will get the idea that whether a flash drive have that much claimed space on it or not.

Software Tools To Detect Fake Flash Drives

H2testw is such popular tool which lets you test any flash drive or flash memory card which you can connect and test for right information about free space available. It will generate a report about the status of the flash drive. This tool also suitable for detection of manipulated USB sticks with the wrong size specification. We recommend to backup all data from the flash drive before running this tool, an empty flash drive would be best to test this tool.

Please Note: Use this tool only if no important data stored on the drive and it is not the boot disk on the system

It will give you a report whether the drive tested is defective in any way, as you can see in a example report snapshot below.

You can also watch the video below to know how to find a fake or genuine flash drive by watching the video below.

BurnInTest is a shareware tool which can actually test whether your USB flash drive has the amount of storage it claims or not, and test the ability of the drive to store and retrieve data without corruption. BurnInTest can be used to write, read and verify large amounts of data to and from the drive, detecting oversize capacity and poor quality drives in the process.

Please Note: You can use the evaluation version of BurnInTest, but the evaluation edition is limited to 15min runs which might not be not run long enough to test large drives.

Use BurnInTest with the following settings to test that the storage is really there.  In Configuration->Test Duty Cycles, select the Disk test, set Disk Duty cycle to 100%, duration to 0 (or a long period of time) and set number of cycles to at least 100. Turn all other tests off.

In the small test window you can see how much of the drive capacity has been tested and the current speed. Check that the entire drive capacity gets tested and check the speed is reasonable. Newer USB2.0 drives should peak above 5MB/sec

Check Flash is another free tool which another disk testing and maintaining tool. It can provide you with information regarding the speed that is achieved by the device in reading and writing operations.

To display the device information the application must perform a speed test to verify the read and write speed. The user can choose from three type of access types that are available in the application. Each type of access allows you to perform specific tests and provides useful data.

Flash Drive Tester is another freeware which allows testing of any removable media including SD, MMC, CF, USB flash pen drives for bad or unstable sectors. Especially useful for testing for fake sizes often seen on low quality USB pen drives.

Please Note: This program is not compatible with Win 7 x64 as does not work right for all the users.

USB Memory Stick Tester is another free open source application program which does test any USB based flash drive or memory card, it is designed to help testing removable storage media (such as USB memory sticks) for defects.

Please Note: This program as per the user reviews too slow and limited to 4Gb drives but a very good app indeed.

How to Write the Perfect Resume

It takes recruiters an average of "six seconds before they make the initial 'fit or no fit' decision" on candidates based on resumes, according to research conducted by TheLadders. With this kind of competition, you need to have a flawless resume to get through the screening process.

We write a lot about resumes — what to do, what not to do — so now we're introducing a guide to crafting a curriculum vitae that will get you into the interview room. However, these rules are general advice we compiled from career experts. Everyone should tailor their own resume depending on the industry they're in and the position they're applying for.

Tailor your resume to the specific position you're applying for.


You're basically selling yourself on that piece of paper, so mold the information to reflect what your potential employer is looking for in an ideal job candidate. This is different depending on your industry.

Miriam Salpeter advises in U.S.News & World Report that candidates should study the company's web site and "look for repeated words and phrases, taglines, and hints about their philosophical approaches."

Then, "mirror some of their language and values in your resume."

Put your name and contact info at the top.


This sounds simple, but Peter S. Herzog, author of the book "How To Prolong Your Job Search: A Humorous Guide to the Pitfalls of Resume Writing," says that applicants will try putting this important information on the side or bottom. 

This is how it should be done:
1. Put your name in bold face and/or regular caps.
2. Include your full address and home, work (optional) and/or cell phone numbers and your email address but do not bold these.


Decide if you want to include an objective.


We've heard experts go both ways on this, so you need to decide for yourself if you want to include an objective.

Peri Hansen, a principal with a recruiting firm, tells Penelope Patsuris at Forbes that an objective is "the fastest way to pigeon-hole yourself" and if you "specify 'Asset Manager' you may not even be considered for 'Financial Planner.'"

On the other hand, Alex Douzet, CEO of TheLadders, tells us that everyone should include an objective and compare it to a "30-second elevator pitch" where you should "explain who you are and what you're looking for."

The bottom line is to only include an objective if it's not generic.  

The length of your resume should reflect years of experience.


This might be difficult if you've had a lot of experience and you're proud of all of it. But this doesn't mean it's necessarily relevant. Cut it down.

If you're in your twenties, your resume should only be one page — there's not enough experience to justify a second one, Alison Green writes in U.S.News & World Report.

However, if you've had more than 10 years of experience, you can add a second page, Douzet tells us.


Don't list your hobbies.

Hiring managers only care about what you can do for the company, so if you can't connect your hobbies to the job you're applying for then leave them off your resume. If your extracurricular activities are relevant, you can include them at the bottom.

"I don't really care what kind of a person you are," Paul Ray Jr., CEO of recruiting firm Ray & Berndtson, tells Penelope Patsuris at Forbes. "I want to know what you can do for me."



Don't list your references.


If your prospective employer wants to speak to your references, they'll ask you. Also, it's better if you have a chance to tell your references ahead of time that a future employer might be calling.

Alison Green writes at U.S.News & World Report: "Unless the company has specifically asked for something other than a cover letter and resume, don't send it. Sometimes candidates include unsolicited writing samples, letters of recommendation, transcripts, and so forth. In most cases, sending these extras without being asked won't help you, and   in some cases it can actually hurt."

Create your own CV template.


The pre-made resume templates offered on word processing programs like Microsoft Word just scream "template," Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter writes in Glassdoor. You can use those templates as a guide, but create your own final copy. 

Furthermore, you should always stick to a format that's appropriate in your industry.

Simone Fortunini was an online marketing manager when he decided to create a resume in the form of an interactive web site resembling a Google Analytics page.

Fortunini tells us that since his work experience stems from online marketing and advertising campaigns, Google Analytics is a basic tool that those in his industry work with, and he wanted to create a resume illustrating his understanding in online marketing, graphic design abilities and HTML skills. 
Use the right keywords.


Peplow says that "you must put some of the keywords from the job posting into your resume, or it will probably never be seen by human eyes."

This is because a lot of companies use online recruitment tools to sift through resumes, writes Lauren Weber in The Wall Street Journal.

Barbara Safani of CareerSolvers suggests using LinkedIn's skills section to find the keywords that would most likely be used in a company's search query database. To do this, click on the "More" tab in your LinkedIn profile and enter a type of skill or description into the search box. This will result in a list of related skills popping up, which you can use as keywords on your resume.

Only include relevant work experience.


Keep your resume focused and don't include every single job you've ever had. 

Eve Tahmincioglu at MSNBC writes: "In this economy, there’s a good chance a long-term job seeker has a part-time job (or jobs) under his or her belt just to make ends meet. But that doesn't mean you should include every burger flipping, or retail-selling job you've had. Putting too many of those jobs on your resume, especially if they have nothing to do with the job you want, can hurt your chances of landing a new position."

“Resumes are a summary of the most important data,” Debra Feldman, a job search expert, tells Tahmincioglu. “In my opinion, a part-time job just to pay the bills would not fall into that category."

Peplow tells us that even if you have minimal work experience, this doesn't mean that you have nothing to offer. Highlight your transferable skills, which are the ones that you can use from one job to the next — regardless of the position. 

Use bullet points to list responsibilities and accomplishments.


Under each job or experience you've had, list your responsibilities and accomplishments in no more than three to five bullet points, writes Jasper Anson in AskMen.

And don't use full sentences. 

Liz Wolgemuth at U.S.News & World Report writes: "[Compare] the process to flipping through a jumbo-size magazine. Readers don't spend a lot of time on each page. Full sentences are, quite simply, too time consuming in today's hiring world."

Put a number to your accomplishments.


Your resume is for experience and accomplishments only. It's not the place for subjective traits, like "great leadership skills" or "creative innovator, says Alison Green in U.S.News & World Report.

You should always try to quantify your accomplishments.

Suzanne Lucas at CBS Moneywatch writes: "Some departments have 1 person, and some have 350. Quantify yours. "Managed a department of 12 analysts" is a lot stronger than "Managed a department." Did you have budget responsibilities? "Managed a $2.3 Million budget" is very different from "Managed a $75,000 budget." How many clients did you juggle? 1, 2, 25? Quantify."

If you can't put a number on what you've done, try linking the impact of your projects to the company's "point of sales." For example, if you were in charge of creating a marketing campaign on Facebook, show that you were able to reach the company's target market without having to spend the money that is usually spent on advertising.

"Basically, if you can't prove that you have sales, you can prove that you saved the company money by reducing marketing expenses," Roderick Lewis, international relations director, ISCTE Business School, University Institute of Lisbon, tells us. 

Keep information about your education as short as possible.


Include only relevant education information: the name of your college, your degree, and the year you graduated. 

Susan Adams writes in Forbes that experienced workers should include their education at the end of their resumes. If you're a new graduate, you should consider including a list of course work that's relevant to the position you're applying for.

And don't even think about listing your high school education and activities — unless you're under 20 and "have no education or training beyond high school," according to Tracy Burns-Martin's book "Before and After Resumes."

Use a chronological resume format.


The chronological resume — which is really reverse-chronological — is the format most often used. On the other hand, a functional resume doesn't include a chronological job history, but instead focuses on skills and abilities. 

"Many hiring managers, me included, hate [functional resumes],"  Alison Green writes in her blog "Ask A Manager." She says: "Generally, the first thing I think when I see them is, 'What is this candidate trying to hide?' That’s because people tend to use functional resumes when they’re trying to hide an employment gap, or job-hopping, or outdated skills (because it matters if your Web design experience is from 10 years ago or one year ago), or other things I’d rather know about. And if I do remain interested in the candidate, the first thing I’m going to do when I talk to them is ask them to walk me through their job history, with dates — and it’s going to annoy me that I have to, and if I have other good candidates I may not even bother."

If you've been unemployed for a while and you're afraid a chronological resume format will work against you, include any volunteer work you did during this gap and use it as an asset, writes Burns-Martin in her book.

Don't reveal everything.

The goal of the resume is to get you an interview with the company.

Therefore, you shouldn't reveal everything about yourself in the resume — just enough to get the hiring manager's attention, Peplow tells us.