Resume Writing
Purpose of a Resume A resume is a snapshot of your accomplishments, skills, and experiences for an employer to use in making a decision about your fit for a certain position. It should be neat, easy to read and uncluttered, as it is the first impression an employer is going to have of you. Typically, an employer spends about 15 seconds looking at your resume, therefore you want it to able to highlight what you have to offer to them in a concise, clear format. Begin to write your resume by taking an inventory of your accomplishments, skills, and experiences. The Chronological Resume Parts of your resume Heading: The heading is your contact information. Include your name, present and permanent address (if applicable), telephone number, and email address. Professional websites may also be included. Do not include personal information such as height, weight, social security number. Objective: The objective is your chance to tell the potential employer what you are looking for. Your objective should be as specific as possible and include the type of position you are looking for and the type of organization or field you are looking to enter. It should be precise and to the point: To obtain full-time entry level position in sports marketing; or Management trainee position with ABC Sports, Inc. Education. Education should be listed in reverse chronological order beginning with your most recent degree first. The section should include degree, major, school attended (including name, city and state), and graduation date. Honors and Awards. Highlight any honors, awards, or scholarships you have received. Place in order of relevance to your career objective. Experience. This section that demonstrates what you have done and what you can do. Use the word experience to include paid and unpaid experiences. Start with the most recent first. If you have related and unrelated experience, you can put those in separate sections. Include your job title, company, city and state, and dates of employment. Use bulleted statements beginning with action verbs to describe what you did. Be sure to include transferable skills, functional skills, and relevant job duties. Put bullets in order of relevance to career objective. Activities. Include organizations in which you have been an active member. Be sure to include any leadership positions. Begin with career related, then leadership positions, than others. Include dates. If involved in religious or political group and not applying for an affiliated position, be general about involvement.
Additional Information. This section can be used as the catch-all for information about you that you think is important, but does not seem to fit anywhere else on your resume. Some examples include computer skills, language skills, Eagle Scout award, etc. Students who work while attending school sometimes add a line such as “Financed 75% of education through employment and loans” Tips: Be consistent with punctuation, headings, font, margins, etc. Do not repeat yourself Do not use “my” or “I” on your resume Use phrases instead of sentences Attempt to get the most important or most relevant information closest to the top of the page Limit resume to one page Double-check spelling and grammar Use high quality (20#) white or cream-colored paper Use an easy-to-read font no smaller than 10-point and no larger than 14-point
Other Resume Types
Functional This format focuses on skills and is typically, used to take the focus off from unrelated skills or education. It can be used by career changers. Instead of having an experience section with bulleted statements, format includes a skills section with bulleted statements. Example: SKILLS Communication Answered multi-line telephone in busy office environment Dealt with customer complaints in retail environment Marketing Produced brochures for child care agency Developed slogan for home-based business
Scannable This format is used when requested by an employer. Employer will scan your resume into a database and utilize key word searches to find candidates that meet basic requirements for a position. The resume will need to look very plain and include only characters that can be typed on the computer (no italics, underlining or graphics). Text should be in a basic font, such as Arial, Helvetica, or Times, and line up with the lefthand margin. Use plain paper. Include as many key words from the job description and position-related vocabulary as possible.