Writing Your Resume

A resume is a brief summary or overview of your education, skills, experience, and accomplishments. The purpose of the resume is to get a phone screen or interview. While a resume will rarely get you a job, it can easily and quickly eliminate you from consideration. How? Hiring managers are looking for resumes that don't go in the trash. In other words, your resume is successful if it does not exclude you from consideration.

A typical resume is 1, 2 or possibly 3 pages. Anything more is not going to be considered; it is too much information for the hiring manager to review. That third page is ok if your experiences or employment history warrant it. After a few jobs, however, you need to start pruning.

What style to use? Chronological or functional?
Chronological resumes list previous work experience in reverse chronological order (most recent job first). This style allows the hiring manager to easily scan each previous position, look for increasing responsibilities, and see how long you stay with an employer.

The functional resume focuses on skills and accomplishments and avoids dates or specific employers. This style is good for people with little or no experience or who have gaps in their work history.

Which style should you use? That's for you to decide. You must be confortable with the style and content of your resume.

Writing style:

• Use action words (e.g. "Developed ...", "Designed ...", etc)
• Be sure your resume can be scanned (skimmed)
• Be clear and avoid acronyms unless you define them

Content of your resume:

1. Contact information goes at the top of the first page.

You MUST incude your name and some method to contact you. Here's where a print resume and electronic resume can differ. If you are posting a resume for download where anyone can see it (such as your web site), do not include your mailing address and phone. Print resumes should always include address and phone.

Your e-mail address is acceptable as long as it sounds professional. That is, "pussycat@aol.com" is not acceptable. If necessary, get a hotmail, gmail or Yahoo! address that does not contain sex or other inappropriate references.

You can include your web site address if your site reflects your professional ambitions. A web designer, for example, should include a site he or she designed.

2. Objective or summary

Be specific. Generic objectives that say, "to find a challenging position in my field" is a waste of time. If you cannot write a summary of the type of job you want then leave this section out.

On the other hand, you might have several versions of your resume for different positions (e.g. Systems Analyst, Project Manager, Programmer).

3. Education

Early in your career, your education should be toward the front of your resume. After 15 or 20 years it should take a backseat to your work experience; that is, keep the section... just move it to the end of the resume.

Identify the school, college or university; the degree earned; major/minor; and graduation year.

Rochester Institute of Technology · College of Applied Science and Technology · Rochester NY
   1983 · Bachelor of Technology (BT) · System Software Science
   1980 · Associate of Applied Science (AAS) · Computer Science

Show most recent degrees first. Note that the above format is ok for one college but takes up a lot of room if you went to more than one school.

Include any academic honors. Recent graduates should also include their GPA (if over 3.0) but you can remove it when this section is moved after your work experience.

4. Work Experience

Describe each position, including multiple positions at the same employer. Recent positions should get more attention and be given more space. Older positions should only take one or two lines to show your work history.

Identify each company or organization, location (city/state), dates (month/year or just year) of employment, and job title. Add bullet lists for responsibilities and accomplishments (two separate lists) for the two or three most recent positions.

The responsibilities and accomplishments lists should be written using action words ("Developed ...", "Designed ...", etc). Be brief and to the point. The hiring manager will be scanning these for key words or phrases that meet his or her job description.

5. References

Not on the resume. Write up a list of 3 to 5 references with name, telephone, and best time to call. Get permission each time you start a job search; don't just expect these people to remember you.

Proof Read!
Check and check again for spelling, grammar, and context. Does it make sense? Get someone else to read it. Then find someone else.

Nothing fancy.

• Use standard white or off-white paper. Colored paper is never an option in our business.
• Print on one side only. Use at least 10 point font... or maybe 12 point.
• Use standard, easy to read fonts... no cursive or cartoon fonts!
• Use one font... don't mix fonts on a resume.
• Do no overuse bold.
• Avoid italics or underlined text.
• Do not folder or staple your resume; use a large envelope to mail it.