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A resume is professional, well-written and focuses on its primary purpose: to get you selected and win in an interview. Your resume is the first impression potential employers have of you and should give them a snapshot of your best attributes.
What is a resume?
Your resume should be only one or two pages. It contains only relevant information about yourself and should be tailored for specific employers. You may want to consider having different versions of your resume designed for different employers. Your resume will grow and change as you grow and change. It is a living document and should be kept up-to-date. This is a life long process.
Why do you need a resume?
Obviously to get a job, but also:
- To convince people that you are the best person for the job
- To establish your credibility
- To look more professional
- To provide an example of your written communication skills
How does it work?
A resume should be tailored to the audience. It should be well researched. You need to know what areas of yourself to highlight to make yourself stand out above all the other applicants. You need to be aware that readers of resumes begin by skimming and then will look more closely at your resume. To pass this inspection, the design and organization are both very important.
You must ask yourself the journalist question while developing your resume: who (who were your supervisors, leaders, etc), what (what did you do), where (where did you work), when (the dates you worked or dates you did something), why (goals, objective, etc), and how (how have accomplished goals).
You must also make the task of reading your resume easier. Create headings, make things easy to find. A common approach is to have your name at the top, contact information immediately following, and then have an objective statement (why do you want a job? What is the purpose of this resume?). Then you have your education, work experience, and awards and honors. You may also include continuing education, if it is relevant. While deciding the order of your headings, remember to keep the impressive stuff at the top.
Parts of a resume:
What exactly is the contact section?
This is the one section that does not have a heading. It is not tailored in same manner the other sections are. This simply allows employers to contact you.
You need to include your name, address, email, and phone numbers.
Why do you need an objective?
An objective statement tells the reader why you want a job, what you are hoping to gain, and from this they can infer what you will contribute to their business. It established your professional identity from the beginning.
What is an education section?
This section provides the reader with relevant training information that is connect with your schooling. It includes the names of your schools, the locations, date of graduation (or anticipated date), degrees, and GPA (unless very low and unimpressive). You should use reverse chronology in listing these schools. This section generally follows the objective, however if your chose, your experience can come first.
What is an experience section?
It is the heart and soul of your resume. It includes all relevant career experience, including internships, part-time work, volunteer work, etc. The section provides the journalist questions: where did you gain your experience, when did you gain your experience, what were your responsibilities, and how did you gain this experience. It tells the reader what you have done in your life to be prepared to work for this company, school, etc. In this section you can sell yourself. Use carefully selected diction. This section should be in reverse chronology and follow the education section, but as stated before, the two sections can be switched.
What is an honors and activities section?
This section gives additional information about you and your quality of work. You should include the name of the award and the date, the type of activity, any offices your have held, and the dates. It generally comes near the end of the resume as it acts as the icing on the cake.
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