A resume is a one- to two-page document summarizing your career objectives, professional experiences and achievements, and educational background.
The heading of the resume should contain your name, address and contact information. The body of the resume should be broken into the following sections: career objective, profile or summary, professional experience, achievements, scholastics, and references.
Your career objective should be brief, up to two sentences; it should give your potential employers an idea of how you wish to move forward in your professional life.
A concise profile or a summary should discuss who you are and how your skills and experience best apply to the job you are interested in.
The summary, as well as other parts of your resume, should not contain personal information that discloses ethnicity, sexual orientation, marital status, age, living situations, or any other personal information that is not directly related to your career.
Personal profile or summary should only contain a few well-written sentences that convey what you can bring to the table in terms of the specific job. Use this section to attract the employer's attention, but don't go overboard in trying to be creative.
Your experience listing should include information on one to five jobs you've held, starting with your current or last job, and listing previous positions in chronological order.
The listing should include the date range of your employment, name of the companies or person(s) you have worked for, and the city and state where the place of employment is located (full address of employment is not necessary).
List your title and your main responsibilities, with emphasis on duties that are applicable to the type of work you are seeking.
Your education should include college, graduate and post-graduate work, as well as any courses or professional certifications that are relevant to your career development.
Achievements, volunteer positions, publications and interests should only be listed if they apply to your professional work experience References should be listed if requested; best practices suggest not to list generic statements about references being available upon request as this is understood.
In the competitive, internet-driven world of job searches, your resume represents you to potential employers. It serves as your tool to attract attention, get the interview and/or get a job.
A great resume will make you stand out from other candidates by showcasing your aptitudes. Think of your resume as your sales pitch you need to sell yourself in the best possible way. Invest some time and research into developing your resume.
You will want to make sure that your resume is error free and double check your grammar and spelling, make sure that all company and school names and cities are spelled properly. A resume containing errors, no matter how minimal, will give your potential employer an impression that you do not have attention to detail, that you don't take time to double check your work, and that you are a poor communicator.
Additionally, make sure that your resume is formatted well. Stick to basic fonts, like Arial and Times New Roman. Keep the font size and color standard; don't use large fonts or multi-colors in your resume. Don't go overboard with bold, italicized, or large-cap text. Keep your format consistent and make sure that the resume looks great when viewed online as well as when printed out.
Keep your resume to one or two pages any additional pages give an impression that you either don't know how to concisely summarize your education and experience, or that you are listing unnecessary information for the sake of taking up space.
How To Make A Good Resume
After all, if your resume is no good, it won't get past the Human Resources department and you won't get a chance to shine at the job interview.
So your resume is your first step to making sure that you get the job you deserve.
Follow these top resume writing tips to give yourself the best possible chance of your CV making a good impression.
1. Don't be arty
Using too many fonts looks cluttered and awkward. Check your favorite newspaper or magazine. Chances are that you'll find they only use a couple fonts and these are the regular "boring" Times New Roman and Arial or their equivalents. Do the same or something close.
2. Bullet point your accomplishments
Unless you've just left school or have only ever flipped burgers for a living, chances are that you've done some things that can be counted as accomplishments. Sing your own praises here without sounding like you could make the president of the company relinquish command because you're so much better than them.
3. Write in the third person
Over-use of the word "I" is a common mistake in resumes. And only use the present tense if you're still doing the things you're writing about in your current job.
4. Cut out the irrelevant dead wood
Who cares what you did 30 years ago? Unless it really is relevant to the position you're applying for today and chances are that near enough every job has moved on in that kind of timescale. Sure, your school grades were important when you got your first job out of school. But are they still necessary?
5. Be careful what you give away that could stand against you
Equal opportunities employers are supposed to be everywhere. But we live in the real world. Even if your application has a separate section so that things like your ethnicity and sex, make sure other things don't give away too much if you think there's even a hint that your prospective employer is less "equal" than you might like. Sad that you may need to consider this, I know.
6. Show you're human
Unless you're applying to be a geek at the NSA then you need to have a life in the real world. Hobbies, interests, that kind of thing. Whether it's watching movies, being a member of your local cycle club or whatever. Make sure that you put down at least some hobbies and interests. Of course, your membership of the local peace activists society may not sit well with your application to join a producer of military hardware, so you may occasionally need to leave things unsaid.
7. Proofread. Then proofread again
Face it, spell checkers can't spell. They don't know their "no" from their "know". In fact, they're fairly clueless. And that grammar checker is a laugh. Don't rely on them. Start by printing off your resume and reading it out loud. Wherever you stumble is a place that needs improving. Ideally get a friend to read it out loud as well. They'll spot things you didn't. Correct these problems before sending off your resume.
Trevor Johnson has sinced written about articles on various topics from Brain Power, Travel and Leisure and Web Development. Get more tips and tricks on and increase your chances of. Trevor Johnson's top article generates over 165000 views. to your Favourites.
