Resume Writing
Your resume is a professional communication tool you use to market yourself to prospective employers. Read this article on key elements you should include in your resume, a living document you should modify as you grow and apply for different types of position openings. It should highlight how your skills and experience align with the employer's needs.
A résumé is a document that summarizes your education, skills, talents, employment history, and experiences in a clear and concise format for potential employers. The résumé serves three distinct purposes that define its format, design, and presentation:
- To represent your professional information in writing.
- To demonstrate the relationship between your professional information and the problem or challenge the potential employer hopes to solve or address, often represented in the form of a job description or duties.
- To get you an interview by clearly demonstrating you meet the minimum qualifications and have the professional background to help the organization meet its goals.
An online profile page is similar to a résumé in that it represents you, your background, and your qualifications and adds participation to the publication. People network, link, and connect in new ways via online profiles or professional sites like LinkedIn. In many ways, your online profile is an online version of your résumé with connections and friends on public display. Your MySpace and Facebook pages are also often accessible to the public, so never post anything you wouldn't want your employer (current or future) to read, see, or hear. This chapter covers a traditional résumé, as well as the more popular scannable features, but the elements and tips could equally apply to your online profile.
Main Parts of a Résumé
Regardless of the format, employers have expectations for your résumé. They expect it to be clear, accurate, and up-to-date. This document represents you in your absence, and you want it to do the best job possible. You do not want to be represented by spelling or grammatical errors, as they may raise questions about your education and attention to detail. Someone reading your résumé with errors will only wonder what kind of work you might produce that will poorly reflect on their company. There is going to be enough competition that you do not want to provide an easy excuse to toss your résumé at the start of the process. Do your best work the first time.
Résumés have several basic elements that employers look for, including your contact information, objective or goal, education and work experience, and so on. Each résumé format may organize the information in distinct ways based on the overall design strategy, but all information should be clear, concise, and accurate.
Contact Information
This
section is often located at the top of the document. The first element
of the contact information is your name. You should use your full, legal
name even if you go by your middle name or use a nickname. There will be plenty of time later to clarify what you prefer to be called, but all
your application documents, including those that relate to payroll, your
social security number, drug screenings, background checks, fingerprint
records, transcripts, certificates, or degrees, should feature your
legal name. Other necessary information includes your address, phone
number(s), and e-mail address. If you maintain two addresses (e.g., a
campus and a residential address), make it clear where you can be
contacted by indicating the primary address. For business purposes, do
not use an unprofessional e-mail address like sexiluvr93@hotmale.com or
tutifruti@yafoo.com. Create a new email account, if needed, with an
address suitable for professional use.
Figure 9.7 Sample Contact Information
Objective
This
is one part of your résumé that is relatively simple to customize for
an individual application. Your objective should reflect the audience's
need to quickly understand how you will help the organization achieve
its goals.
Figure 9.8 Sample Objective
Education
You
need to list your education in reverse chronological order, with your
most recent degree first. List the school, degree, and grade point
average (GPA). If there is a difference between the GPA in your major
courses and your overall GPA, you may want to list them separately to
demonstrate your success in your chosen field. You may also want to
highlight relevant coursework that directly relates to the position.
Figure 9.9 Sample Education Field
Work Experience
List
in reverse chronological order your employment history, including the
positions, companies, locations, dates, duties, and skills demonstrated
or acquired. You may choose to use active, descriptive sentences or
bullet lists, but be consistent. Emphasize responsibilities that
involved budgets, teamwork, supervision, and customer service when
applying for positions in business and industry, but do not let emphasis
become an exaggeration. This document represents you in your absence, and
if the information is false, at a minimum, you could lose your job.
Figure 9.10 Sample Work Experience
| Type | Function | Advantage | Disadvantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Reverse Chronological | Reverse chronological résumés (also called reverse time order) focus on work history. | Demonstrates a consistent work history | It may be difficult to highlight skills and experience. |
| 2. Functional | Functional résumés (also called competency-based résumés) focus on skills. | Demonstrates skills that can clearly link to job functions or duties | It is often associated with people who have gaps in their employment history. |
| 3. Combination | A combination résumé lists your skills and experience first, then employment history and education. | Highlights the skills you have that are relevant to the job and provides a reverse chronological work history | Some employers prefer a reverse chronological order. |
| 4. Targeted | A targeted résumé is a custom document that specifically highlights the experience and skills that are relevant to the job. | Points out to the reader how your qualifications and experience clearly match the job duties | Custom documents take additional time, preparation, and analysis of the job announcement and may not fit the established guidelines. |
| 5. Scannable | A scannable résumé is specifically formatted to be read by a scanner and converted to digital information. | Increasingly used to facilitate search and retrieval and to reduce physical storage costs | Scanners may not read the résumé correctly. |
Table 9.5 Types of Résumés
You
may choose to include references at the end of your résumé, though
"references upon request" is common. You may also be tempted to extend
your résumé to more than one page, but do not exceed that limit unless
the additional page will feature specific, relevant information that
represents several years of work that directly relates to the position.
The person reading your résumé may be sifting through many applicants
and will not spend time reading extra pages. Use the one-page format to
put your best foot forward, remembering that you may never get a second
chance to make a good first impression.
Maximize Scannable Résumé Content
Use Key Words
Just as there are common search terms and common words in relation to each position, job description, or description of duties, your scannable résumé needs to mirror these common terms. Use of nonstandard terms may not stand out, and your indication of "managed employees" may not get the same attention as the word "supervision" or "management."
Follow Directions
If a job description uses specific terms or refers to computer programs, skills, or previous experience, make sure you incorporate that language in your scannable résumé. You know that when given a class assignment, you are expected to follow directions; similarly, the employer is looking for specific skills and experience. By mirroring the employer's language and submitting your application documents in accordance with their instructions, you convey a spirit of cooperation and an understanding of how to follow instructions.
Insert a Key Word Section
Consider a brief section that lists common words associated with the position as a skills summary: customer service, business communication, sales, or terms and acronyms common to the business or industry.
Make It Easy to Read
You need to make sure your résumé is easy to read by a computer, including a character recognition program. That means no italics, underlining, shading, boxes, or lines. Choose a sans serif (without serif or decorative end) font like Arial or Tahoma that will not be misread. Simple, clear fonts that demonstrate no points at which letters may appear to overlap will increase the probability of the computer getting it right the first time. In order for the computer to do this, you have to consider your audience - a computer program that will not be able to interpret your unusual font or odd word choice. A font size of eleven or twelve is easier to read for most people, and while the computer does not care about font size, the smaller your font, the more likely the computer is to make the error of combining adjacent letters.
Printing, Packaging, and Delivery
Use
a laser printer to get crisp letter formation. Inkjet printers can have
some "bleed" between characters that may make them overlap and
therefore be misunderstood. Folds can make it hard to scan your
document. E-mail your résumé as an attachment if possible, but if a
paper version is required, do not fold it. Use a clean, white piece of
paper with black ink; colors will only confuse the computer. Deliver the
document in a nine-by-twelve-inch envelope, stiffened with a sheet of
cardstock (heavy paper or cardboard) to help prevent damage to the
document.
Figure 9.11 Sample Format for Chronological Résumé
Figure 9.12 Sample Format for Functional Résumé
Figure 9.13 Sample Format for Scannable Résumé
Key Takeaway
A résumé will represent your skills, education, and experience in your absence. Businesses increasingly scan résumés into searchable databases.
This text was adapted by Saylor Academy under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License without attribution as requested by the work's original creator or licensor.