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Job Search Skills: Resumes
Research the Position
A resume is a one page summary for potential employers highlighting your work experience both paid and unpaid, education, and other qualifications pertinent to your job search. Your resume announces who you are, what you know, what you have accomplished, and what you can and would like to do for the employer.
It is illegal for employers to request information about age, sex, marital status, race, religion, national origin, and date or place of birth until you are hired. However, if you are applying for a job in another country, their customs, laws and expectations regarding personal information may be different. If you cannot find this information about the country through research, leave this information off your resume, but be prepared to answer personal questions in the interview.
Professional Image: Less is Better
Experience has shown that resumes that are visually unattractive get tossed. Plan a balance of white space and typewritten information. Highlight key information. The resume should be easy to scan. Your abilities and strengths should be clear. Be sure to use active, past tense verbs to describe your experiences. Information should be organized and highlighted using a combination of capitalization, headings, italics, bold print, and marginal descriptions. Be flexible and creative in your approach, but be sure to ask for feedback. With the exception of fine arts, almost all resumes are conservatively developed (i.e. , avoid extremes in color, font style, graphics, etc.).
Chronological
Most job seekers choose to organize their employment background and education in a chronological order. Begin with your present situation and work back, identifying and dating your positions and describing each in terms of responsibilities, skills and accomplishments.
Understand Who is Your Target Audience
Your resume should communicate specifically to your audience and its particular needs. You want to present a clear and consistent image in your resume as well as in person to demonstrate that you are the person they desire. Create a theme by using keywords of the language of the field you are seeking to enter.
Be Succint
Use positive language that is specific, succinct, non-repetitive, persuasive, and descriptive of you. Avoid lengthy paragraphs; use short, concise sentences.
Proofread Your Resume
Check for misspellings, grammatical errors, or misrepresentations. Utilize spell check and ask someone familiar with resume development to proofread and evaluate the content.
Have a Clear Copy of Your Resume
Use a conservative color of resume quality paper- white, ivory, beige, or light gray. Use matching paper for your cover letter and any follow-up correspondence.
Effective Resume Do's and Don'ts
Do
- Be brief, selective, clear, concise and specific.
- Be positive and honest.
- List competencies or skills.
- Show value you can bring to employer.
- Focus on accomplishments.
- Use action words and phrases.
- Seek feedback on the format and content.
- Balance white space and text.
Don't
- Use the pronouns I, me, or my.
- Include any personal information.
- Use abbreviations.
- Be purposely misleading.
- Dwell on the negative.
- Send out a resume without a letter of application
References
The phrase “References Available Upon Request” at the bottom of the resume is no longer necessary. It is assumed that you will come to an interview with a prepared list of references on a separate sheet of resume paper. List the names, titles, addresses, and day phone number of references. Choose your references wisely. Identify three to four people who know you well and can positively describe your character, work traits, abilities and accomplishments. Use an employer who knows you in a work setting. Be sure to request permission well in advance from the people you are listing as references, and ask them directly whether they feel comfortable giving you a positive reference. You may also want to send your references a copy of your current resume.
Templates and Samples
Additional Resources
- JobStar - Resume and cover letter writing tips and examples.
- Monster.com - The Monster Career Center on writing resumes, including a resume builder for electronic use on the Monster network.
- Excite Careers - Listing of guides for writing resumes.
- ProvenResumes.com - Resume writing tips and tools to create a better resume.
- Writing a Vita (Courtesy of the University of Virginia) [PDF, Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader]
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