How to write a resume?

You have skills that employers want. But those skills won’t get you a job if no one knows you have them. Good resumes, applications, and cover letters broadcast your abilities.

They tell employers how your qualifications match a job’s responsibilities. If these paper preliminaries are constructed well, you have a better chance of landing interviews; and, eventually, a job.

Modern technology has added a new twist to preparing resumes and cover letters. The availability of personal computers and laser printers has raised employers’ expectations of the quality of resumes and cover letters applicants produce.

Electronic mail, Internet postings, and software that “reads” resumes help some employers sort and track hundreds of resumes. Technology has also given resume writers greater flexibility; page limits and formatting standards are no longer as rigid as they were several years ago.

When writing your resume, you still have to consider what is reasonable and appropriate for the job you want. Advertisements for a single job opening can generate dozens, even hundreds, of responses.

Our article on how to write a resume describes what information they should contain and how to highlight your skills for the job you want.

Resumes: Marketing your skills

A resume is a brief summary of your experience, education, and skills. It is a marketing piece, usually one or two pages long, designed to make an employer want to interview you.

Good resumes match the jobseeker’s abilities to the job’s requirements. The best resumes highlight an applicant’s strengths and accomplishments.

There are four main steps to creating a resume:

Compiling information about yourself and the occupations that interest you, choosing a resume format, adding style, and proofreading the final document.

You may also want to prepare your resume for computer scanning, e-mailing, and Internet posting, especially if you are pursuing a computer-intensive field.

Gathering and organizing the facts

Start working on your resume by collecting and reviewing information about yourself: Previous positions, job duties, volunteer work, skills, accomplishments, education, and activities. These are the raw materials of your resume. This is also a good time to review your career goals and to think about which past jobs you have liked, and why.

After compiling this information, research the occupations that interest you. Determine what duties they entail, what credentials they require, and what skills they use. Your resume will use your autobiographical information to show that you meet an occupation’s requirements.

You will probably need to write a different resume for each occupation that interests you. Each resume will emphasize what is relevant to one occupation. Remember: Even if you do not have many specialized and technical skills, most occupations also require abilities like reliability, teamwork, and communication. These are particularly important for entry-level workers.

The next step is to organize the personal information you have assembled. Most resume writers use the following components.

Contact information

This includes your name; permanent and/or college campus addresses, if they are different; phone number; and e-mail address, if you have one.

Place your full legal name at the top of your resume and your contact information underneath it. This information should be easy to see; reviewers who can’t find your phone number can’t call you for an interview.

Also, make sure the outgoing message on your answering machine sounds professional. If you list an e-mail address, remember to check your inbox regularly.

Objective statement

Placed immediately below your contact information, the objective statement tells the reviewer what kind of position you want, for example, “Seeking a position as an administrative assistant.”

Some objectives include more detail, such as “Seeking an administrative position using my organizational, word processing, and customer service skills.” Objective statements are optional and are most often used by recent graduates and career changers.

Writing objectives can be tricky. A vague statement, such as “Seeking a position that uses my skills and experience,” is meaningless. And an overly specific objective can backfire, eliminating you from jobs you want that are slightly different from your objective. If you decide to include an objective statement, make sure it fits the job you are applying for. Tailoring is expected. A statement should show that you know the type of work the company does and the type of position it needs to fill.

Qualifications summary

The qualifications summary, which evolved from the objective, is an overview designed to quickly answer the employer’s question “Why should I hire you?”

It lists a few of your best qualifications and belongs below your contact information or objective statement.

A qualifications summary, like an objective, is optional. It can be particularly effective for applicants with extensive or varied experience because it prevents the important facts from being lost among the details.

Most resume writers choose either an objective or a summary, but some use both.

Education

List all of the relevant training, certifications, and education on your resume. Start with the most recent and work backward.

For each school you have attended, list the school’s name and location; diploma, certificate, or degree earned, along with year of completion; field of study; and honours received. If you have not yet completed one of your degrees, use the word expected before your graduation date. If you do not know when you will graduate, add in progress after the name of the unfinished degree.

The education section is especially important for recent graduates. Include your overall grade point average, average within major, or class standing, if it helps your case.

The general guideline is to include averages of 3.0 and above, but the minimum useful average is still widely debated. Graduates should also consider listing relevant courses under a separate heading. Listing four to eight courses related to a particular occupation shows a connection between education and work. College graduates need not list their high school credentials.

Experience

Resumes should include your job history: The name and location of the organizations you have worked for, years you worked there, title of your job, a few of the duties you performed, and results you achieved. Also, describe relevant volunteer activities, internships, and school projects, especially if you have little paid experience.

When describing your job duties, emphasize results instead of responsibilities and performance rather than qualities. It is not enough, for example, to claim you are organized; you must use your experience to prove it.

Job descriptions often specify the scope of a position’s duties—such as the number of phone lines answered, forms processed, or people supervised. If you worked on a project with other people, tell the reviewer your accomplishments came from a team effort. Also, mention any promotions or increases in responsibility you received.

Use specific accomplishments to give your experience impact. Note any improvements you made, any time or money you saved, and any problems you solved—for example, were you praised for handling difficult customers? Were you always on time or available for overtime? Did you save time by reorganizing a filing system? Did you start a new program?

Mention quantifiable results you accomplished, such as a 10-percent increase in sales, a 90-percent accuracy rate, a 25-percent increase in student participation, or an A grade.

Activities and associations

Activities can be an excellent source of additional experience. Activities might include participation in organizations, associations, student government, clubs, or community activities, especially those related to the position you are applying for or that demonstrate hard work and leadership skills.

Special skills

If you have specific computer, foreign language, typing, or other technical skills, consider highlighting them by giving them their own category even if they don’t relate directly to the occupation you’re pursuing.

Awards and honours

Include formal recognition you have received. Do not omit professional or academic awards. These are often listed with an applicant’s experience or education, but some list them at the end of their resume.

References

Usually, resumes do not include names of references, but some reviewers suggest breaking this rule if the names are recognizable in the occupation or industry.

Most resume writers end with the statement “References available upon request.”

Others assume reference availability is understood and use that space for more important information. Regardless of whether you mention it on the resume, you will need to create a separate reference sheet to provide when requested and to carry with you to interviews.

A reference sheet lists the name, title, office address, and phone number of three to five people who know your abilities.

Before offering them as references, of course, make sure these people have agreed to recommend you. At the top of the sheet, type your name and contact information, repeating the format you used in your resume.

Other personal information

Your resume should include any other information that is important to your occupation, such as a completed portfolio or a willingness to travel.

Your resume is your own, and you should customize it to fit your needs. However, some information does not belong on a resume. Do not disclose your health, disability, marital status, age, or ethnicity.

This information is illegal for most employers to request.

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2. Resume formats – Choosing the correct format for your resume
3. Digital Resume – Writing a Plain Text Resume

Each is defined by the way it organizes your experience. Choose the one that shows your experience to its best advantage.

Chronological Resume format

This resume type is the most common. It organizes your experience around the jobs you have held. This format is an excellent choice for people with steady work histories or previous jobs that relate closely to their career objective. To create a chronological resume, list each position you have held, starting with the most recent and working backward. For each position, give the title of your job, name of the organization you worked for, and years you worked there.

Next, relate the duties and accomplishments of that job. When describing your jobs, use action statements, not sentences. Instead of writing “I managed a fundraising campaign,” write, “Managed a fundraising campaign.” Use strong verbs to begin each statement.

Be specific, but not overly detailed, in describing what you did. Employers say three to five statements are usually sufficient for each job. And no job should have more than four consecutive lines of information under it; large blocks of text are difficult to read. If you must use more space, find some way to divide the information into categories.

Your most important positions should occupy the most space on your resume. If you’ve had jobs that do not relate to the position you want, consider dividing your experience into two categories: Relevant experience and other experience.

Describe the relevant jobs thoroughly, and briefly mention the others. If you have had many jobs, you probably do not need to mention the oldest or least important ones. Just be careful not to create damaging gaps in your work history.

Because the chronological format emphasizes dates and job titles, it is often a poor format for career changers, people with inconsistent work histories, or new entrants to the work force.

For these applicants, the functional resume is a better choice.

Functional Resume format

The functional resume organizes your experience around skills rather than job titles. “I often recommend the functional format to students who have not had positions that relate directly to the job they want,” says Bryan Kempton, Program Director of the Career Centre at the University of Maryland, College Park. “By organizing their experiences around skills, they can connect less relevant jobs to the career qualifications they need. For instance, a job waiting tables can be combined with other examples to show organizational or customer service skills.”

To create a functional resume, identify three or four skills required for your target job. For each skill, identify three to five concrete examples to demonstrate that ability. Again, use action phrases—not complete sentences—when writing your list. Arrange your skill headings in order of importance. If you have a specific vacancy announcement, match the arrangement of your headings to that of its listed requirements. The closer the match between your skill headings and the reviewer’s expectations, the more qualified you seem. The last part of the functional resume is a brief work history.

Write only job titles, company names, and employment years. If you have gaps in your work history, you could use the cover letter to explain them, or you could fill them by adding volunteer work, community activities, or family responsibilities to your job list.

Combination Resume format

This format combines the best of the chronological format with the best of the functional format. Combination resumes are as varied as the histories they summarize. One variation begins with a chronological format but then subdivides each job description into skill categories. Another variation uses a functional format but, for each example of a skill, identifies the organization where the example occurred.

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1. Functional Resume Template
2. Chronological Resume Template
3. Digital Resume – Writing a Plain Text Resume

To make your resume easier to read and copy, print it on white or lightly coloured paper. Loud, garish colours may attract attention, but they risk creating an unprofessional impression.

Also, use a laser printer and keep the font size at 10 point or above. The reviewer shouldn’t have to struggle to read your words.

Design

Good resume writers use design elements strategically.

Boldface, large type, capital letters, centring, or horizontal lines can be used to make headings stand out on the page. Bullets or italics can draw attention to key accomplishments. One inch margins around the page and blank lines between sections will make all the information easier to see.

Any graphics you use should be consistent with your occupation’s standards. Graphics appropriate for one occupation might be inappropriate for another.

To give your resume a consistent flow, maintain the same style from beginning to end. Every section should have the same design elements. For example, if your education heading is bold and centered, every heading should be bold and centered.

In the same way, chose one typeface, such as Arial, Courier, or Times New Roman, and use it throughout.

When you have finished, hold your resume at arm’s length and examine it. Make sure the type is easy to read and that the material lays out evenly on the page. You may need to experiment with different styles before deciding which you like best.

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1. Resume length – How long should your resume be?
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3. Resume formats – Choosing the correct format for your resume

Although rules about the length of your resume are more flexible than they once were, general guidelines still exist.

Most students and recent graduates use a one page resume, other workers use one or two pages, and the very experienced use two or three pages.

If your resume doesn’t match this pattern, it probably contains unnecessary words or irrelevant information.

Eliminate anything that does not help prove you’re qualified for the job, however don’t sacrifice your resume’s readability to make it conform to any arbitrary “rules” about resume length.

Remember your resume is YOUR document. Resume length is important however don’t let the notions of resume length control the message you’re trying to get across to prospective employer.

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1. Digital Resume – Writing a Plain Text Resume
2. Resume formats – Choosing the correct format for your resume
3. Adding style to your resume

But digital resumes use simpler, technologically friendly formatting, and they emphasize keywords. This section describes two types of digital resumes: Plain text resumes that can be e-mailed to employers or posted to databases and scannable paper resumes that can be read by computer optics.

Plain text resumes

Resumes that are e-mailed or posted to Internet databases are designed for computer use. These resumes must be written using the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII), also known as plain text.

Plain text contains no special formatting codes, so every computer can understand it.

To create a plain text resume, open your existing resume document with a word processing program, and save it as a text or ASCII file.

This will eliminate formatting codes. You can use the computer’s built-in text editor application, such as Notepad for Windows or Simpletext for Macintosh, to edit the resume.

The success of your resume depends, in part, on the number of keywords it contains—the number of times its words match the words requested by a manager. You can add keywords to your resume by scrutinizing job announcements and, where appropriate, copying their exact words when describing your skills.

Fill your resume with important nouns the computer will recognize, such as professional organizations and industry jargon.

Each abbreviation you use should be followed by the phrase it stands for, with the exception of B.S. and B.A. for Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts.

List every keyword that applies to you; do not expect the computer to infer. For example, don’t simply write “word processing: Microsoft Office.” Instead, write “word processing: Microsoft Office, WordPerfect, Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.” Rules about length are relaxed for digital resumes.

Some career counsellors even suggest adding a keyword paragraph to the top of your resume, but others do not believe such paragraphs are useful.

Writers of plain text resumes should not use any characters or formatting not found on a standard keyboard. Boldface, italics, and underlining are unavailable, as are tabs, bullets, and multiple font sizes. But alternative attention-getting devices are still useful; asterisks and plus signs can replace bullets, rows of dashes can separate sections, and all capital letters can emphasize headings. The word wrap function is also disabled when writing in ASCII.

Words will not automatically move from one line to the next. Instead, you must hit the enter key at the end of every line. A line should hold only 65 characters, or it may not fit on the reviewer’s screen. To be certain your line lengths are correct, count characters and use a standard-width typeface, such as Courier. Times New Roman is not a standard-width typeface, so 65 of its characters will not always translate to 65 of the reviewer’s characters.

Before e-mailing your resume to an employer, e-mail it to yourself and a friend to see how it transmits. That way, you may be able to uncover some formatting errors. When an employer asks for an e-mailed resume, never attach a word-processed document unless specifically requested to do so. Employers may not be able to open a word-processed document. Even if they can, they may not want to risk receiving a computer virus. Always send your cover letter and resume as text in a single message.

If you are responding to an advertisement or job posting, use that posting as the subject line of your message. You can also post your plain text resume to Internet databases and apply instantly to thousands of companies. When you do this, the posted resume becomes public information.

Take precautions, such as omitting your home address and the address of your current employer. The Internet can be part of a complete job search effort, but it should not be your sole job searching technique. Most companies still do not use Internet recruiting.

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When managers need to fill a position, they program the computer with keywords that describe the qualifications they want in a candidate. The computer then searches its database for resumes that include those keywords.

The resumes with the most matches are forwarded to the managers. This new technology is good news for jobseekers. Now when these companies put your resume on file, your qualifications are ready and waiting to be electronically retrieved, not languishing in a desk drawer.

Before you submit your resume to a company, call the company to find out if it scans. If it does, you will need to make sure your resume’s design is computer friendly.

Stylistic touches that are easy on a human’s eyes may not be so easy on a computer scanner. Resumes that will be scanned should be devoid of any graphics or formatting that a computer might misinterpret. The following steps will increase a scanner’s ability to read your resume:

• Use nontextured white or off white paper with black letters.
• Choose a well-known font such as Helvetica, Arial, or Courier.
• Pick a font size of 10 to 14 points, and do not condense spacing between letters.
• Do not underline or italicize text, and do not use asterisks or parentheses. Modern systems can understand bold, but older systems might not. You can still distinguish headings by using capital letters.
• Avoid boxes, graphics, columns, and horizontal or vertical lines.
• Put your name on its own line at the top of each page. Also, give telephone numbers their own lines.
• Do not staple or fold your resume.

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Download our free Chronological Resume template in Microsoft Word Format

The Chronological CV is the  most widely used format of Resume and is classed by some as being a more traditional and widely used approach to CV writing.

It places an emphasis on your employment history, where you worked and for how long. Your job titles, accomplishmetns and the results that you attained whilst being in this position.

Your jobs are listed in reverse chronological order so make sure you put your most recent job first.

When detailing your previous roles, a  complete record of your career history is required along with a complete education record. Aim to keep your chronological resume to 2 – 3 sides  of A4 in length.

Remember that you don’t have much time (30 – 40 seconds) to impress your potential employer or recruitment agent and convince him/her that you’re the right match for the job advertised.

Use the chronological style of CV when:

• You are looking for work in the same type of field as you are currently working in.
• You are transferring your current skills and experiece to the same or similar industry.
• Your work history identifies significant career growth with increasing responsibility.

To Download our Free Chronological Resume Template in Microsoft Word Format then please click the link below:

Free Chronological Resume CV Template in Microsoft Word Format

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1. Functional Resume Template
2. Resume formats – Choosing the correct format for your resume
3. Digital Resume – Writing a Plain Text Resume

Download our free Functional Resume template in Microsoft Word Format

This Functional Resume is designed to to emphasise your main skills, competencies or expertise that you may have in a specific area (e.g. IT, Finance, Project Management) rather than concentrating on employers and dates.

In a lot of cases it would be used to demonstrate your expertise in a particular skill, functional area or field of business.

Functional CVs are a lot more adaptable to certain circumstances, such as a lack of specific experience in a particular field, or gaps in between job changes which you may find difficult to explain.

You need to be aware however that because of these reasons functional CVs are often viewed with suspicion by many recruitment personnel because they often appear to hide some information which often has the effect of making them difficult to follow.

The functional CV may irritate those people who are doing the initial screening of applications for a role because they appear to conceal information and they are often not what they are accustomed to looking for.

If you really need a functional CV you will probably be aiming at a different target anyway, such as the decision maker.

Consider using the Functional CV if:

• You wish to sell yourself on competencies and skills not reflected in your recent job history.
• You have been a regular job or career changer.
• You have an inconsistent work history that you do not want to be obvious.
• You are at entry level, having just left school or university or reentering the job market after significant absence.

To Download our Free Functional Resume Template in Microsoft Word Format then please click the link below:

Free Functional Resume CV Template in Microsoft Word Format

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1. Chronological Resume Template
2. Resume formats – Choosing the correct format for your resume
3. Digital Resume – Writing a Plain Text Resume