Resume

The purpose of a resume is to convince an employer to invite you for an interview. Your resume does the following:

• Allows you to present the image you desire
• Allows you to be personal and creative
• Is an opportunity to emphasize and highlight your assets
• Serves as preparation for an interview
• Reminds the interviewer about you after the interview

• Use precise language
• Use the language of the career field you seek to enter
• Be concise (write in phrases)
• Make sure your resume looks professional
• Focus on what you have accomplished
• Use specific quantities or percentages when possible to demonstrate accomplishments
• Make your resume original (set a tone that is you)
• Be patient, you will enjoy the results

• Do not overpower the reader
• Avoid use of personal pronouns such as I, my, and me
• Do not paper clip or staple a two page resume
• Avoid high school information unless it is important and relevant to your objective
• Do use big words or professional jargon
• Do not exaggerate your accomplishments (be honest)
• Avoid trite and slang expressions

• The objective should describe both the job you want and the type of work environment you prefer.
• You must tailor your objective to the employer's needs.
• Objectives can be too narrow, eliminating you from jobs you might wish to consider.
• Objectives can be to broad and meaningless, communicating indecision and lack of direction.
• Limit your statement of objective to two lines at most.

• Write a description of the job you want.
• Read classified newspaper listings that describe jobs similar to the one you want.
• Research organizations you might like to work for; discover their employment needs and, if your interests and qualifications match, design your objective to meet these needs.
• Study the sample statements of objective.

• Counseling position emphasizing crisis intervention with children and adolescents
• Management trainee position in retail buying with advancement opportunity
• Elementary Education Teacher

• Lived two years overseas in United Arab Emirates, observed cultural differences, learned to adapt and benefit from new experiences.
• Personable, open-minded, honest, and outgoing
• Maintain confidentiality
• Excellent public speaker
• Hard-working and committed to quality

 Design the layout of your resume according to your needs, the format you choose, and why you want the resume to do for you. Some helpful hints include the following:

• Resume should be centered on the page with neat margins.
• There should be good balance between copy and white space.
• One page resumes are the general rule, but one-page plus is acceptable if your accomplishments warrant.
• Use headings, capitalization, underlining, or bold print conservatively to provide emphasis and guide the reader's eye.
• Be consistent with highlighting techniques, tense, and punctuation.
• Avoid sentences, abbreviations, and jargon.
• The resume must be free of spelling, grammatical, and typographical errors.
• Be concise.
• Be sure that the layout calls attention to your most positive features or accomplishments.
• White or off-white is the preferred paper color. Light gray or subtle hues are acceptable.
• Envelopes should be the same color and bond.
• Your resume should be professionally prepared or laser printed to ensure a polished professional appearance. It should be visually appealing so that it will stand out from other resumes and make the reader want to meet the person behind the paper.

• Include nothing in your resume that may tap into a reader's area of prejudice.
• The person who gets the job is not always the one who is best qualified, but rather is the one who understands the job search process. Applicants are screened out on the basis of sloppy or vague resumes.
• Be positive and capitalize on your strengths. Avoid negative words, apologizing for lack of experience, and reference to your limitations.
• Proofread your resume, and then have a friend proofread it. Spelling, grammatical, and typographical errors are unforgiven. A single error can ruin your chances.
• Don't worry if you seem to have very little on your resume. One or two relevant experiences, plus the proper reporting of other information is sufficient of a college graduate.
• Approach your resume strategically. List your section headings and experiences within sections in priority order based on:
  • How well they support your job objective.
  • What the reader needs to know first
• Keep in mind that the reader's eyes review from the top down and from left to right. Using this knowledge, locate the best or most important facts first.
• For example, the graduating college student will list education near the top of the resume because the reader wants to know first whether the applicant has the proper educational background. Likewise, with the Education section, degree earned is listed before college attended.
• Managers often question post-college gaps in work history. Here are a few strategies for solving this problem:
  • Use a functional format (no emphasis on dates)
  • Briefly, and in positive terms, explain a period of non-employment in your cover letter
  • Define period of employment in terms of years vs. months and years to eliminate brief gaps in work history
• List only one telephone number. Train parents or friends who will be receiving employer calls how to respond properly. Use your cover letter to inform employers about changes in phone numbers and mailing addresses. Update your resume soon after changes occur.
• Follow your resume with a phone call in a week or so. Such a contact, even if it is with office staff, will draw positive attention to your application and will enable you to verify that your materials have arrived.

If you are considering posting your resume on one of the many on-line databases, you should visit . It is a good site for help with writing the online resume and the development of keywords. Keywords are words you choose to have your resume identified with. They also are the determining factor when employers seek to pull resumes from the database to review.