How To Write A Resume

Knowing how to write a resume is essential to your job search. A resume is designed to get you an interview with a potential employer on the hunt for a problem solver. To write a resume, you’ve got to tailor it to the job that’s being offered and make sure that it meets the employer’s need as stated in posted job requirements, or discovered during research. A resume is not a one-shot deal. The first draft is never perfect, neither is the third or fifth. It’s a process that takes time and thought to complete.

Your resume copy must highlight your skills and abilities. Being objective about yourself is not an easy thing. Most people are reluctant to “toot” their own horn, never realizing that their knowledge and experiences are valuable commodities employers are willing to buy. Your goal is to create a sterling first impression. You can create a positive first impression by writing the resume from the employer’s point of view. Study the job description or company Web site to see what the employer is looking for and keep this information in mind as you write your draft.

Resume Skills List

The easiest way to begin looking at how to write a resume is to make a “laundry list“ of your skills and experience. Write down everything about yourself and what you did or accomplished at each job. Use whatever method is comfortable for you: super speed keyboarding, thoughtful contemplation with pen, or random thoughts with a recording device. Write or record everything, in any order, no matter how insignificant it may seem to you.

Jobs you’ve had: what was required, when, where, size of company, your responsibilities, position in the hierarchy, individual accomplishments or team efforts, projects worked on, problems solved, improvements and discoveries made.

Skills and abilities: attributes, your technical and computer skills, foreign languages read and spoken, public speaking experience and awards.

Publications: articles or books and Web sites

Affiliations: including terms served on committees or boards of directors at professional or trade associations, community organizations or volunteer service groups. Pull out your letters of appreciation to remind you where you served and when.

Education: including the name of the school, year graduated, degrees or certificates earned, post graduate work, continuing education classes or courses. Include employer training received on hardware and software; office equipment, management, accounting, sales, marketing and customer service procedures.

New graduate: list sports and other extracurricular activities, intern projects, committees chaired or associations you were part of, what offices you held.

Forget hobbies, physical descriptions, salary requirements, race, religious affiliations and social club memberships.

Fill In Resume Gaps

Employers don’t like them. They are red flags. If you’ve been unemployed, say so. Short of being incarcerated, state “Personal Projects” or the like, to explain unemployment gaps and be prepared to explain these time lapses when you’re interviewed.

Write Your Resume Yourself

Writing your own resume is a process that forces you to think of your own experiences. This exercise can help you flesh-out details and prepare you for future interview questions. Writing it yourself makes it easier to revise and tailor for various positions, because employers have their own unique job descriptions that don’t always follow conventional formulas.

Cut Mercilessly

Writing and Editing is a skill that you can benefit from. Writing the list was the easy part. The hard part is cutting all the stuff that’s not relevant and boiling everything down into a summary.

As you look at your list, rearrange facts and skill sets into categories. Revise, rearrange and revise again. This resume is a working tool, remember? Your goal is a single page, so keep at it. Let it go overnight and come back to it with fresh eyes. Summarize your accomplishments in terms of results you’ve achieved. Don’t list the activities that produced it. Cut adverbs, adjectives, articles and connectives and rambling descriptions. Name each draft as 1.0, 1.1, etc., in case you inadvertently delete something and need to retrieve it.

Revise And Polish

An effective resume must have logic and flow, like a news story that summarizes key points. Use a third person telegraph style. Leave out the “I dids.” Remember you only have 10 seconds to convey your potential. And this part is vital: your resume needs facts, not fiction.

Check your resume for typos, misspellings and double-run words. Don’t trust your spell checker. Use your eyes. Better still, give the copy to someone else to check. A spelling mistake in a resume will cost you the interview and the potential job.

How to Write a Resume Formatting Tips

Nowadays computers make formatting a snap and therein lies the problem. Resist the temptation to become artistic. Use a Times Roman or Arial font that a scanner can read. (Why? Read about the screening process at Resume_Writing Tip: Screening). Avoid italics, boldface, ALL CAPS, underlines and dashes. While sometimes impressive to humans, scanners have difficulty with these formatting techniques. If you wish, you can always send two resumes: one formatted for human consumption and one for scanning.

Don’t cram everything onto one page with a typeface so small you have to squint to read it. Fine print is for contracts, not easy reading. Ditto for margins. Use one-inch minimum margins on three sides, more at the top. White space was made for a reason. Colored paper and parchment stock are no-nos. Scanners have difficulty scanning colored stock documents, especially parchment designs or elaborate watermarks. Plain paper works best. That’s not to say that you should use the cheapest 20# stuff you can find. Use a quality 24# stock, one that feels good to your fingers. Use black inkjet or laser printing.

Forget attaching your picture. This ploy is an obvious attempt to call attention to oneself, useful if you’re a Hollywood starlet, useless when applying for a job. Don’t scan your photo into the resume body for the same reason. No one should care what you look like, only what you can do.

How to Write a Resume Length Recommendation

Unless you’ve done extraordinary things and accomplished mighty tasks over a lengthy career, limit your resume to one page. Save the details for the interview.

You can view examples of different resume writing styles at Functional Resume and Chronological Resume links.

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