Resume Guide

The purpose of your resume is to describe your work experience to the fullest for prospective employers. It should be a precise description about your accomplishments, skills and experience so that employers will want to bring you into their office for a face to face interview. Remember, your resume is an extension of yourself. Your resume should include:

Contact Information: Your full name, address, phone numbers and email.
Education: Type of degree earned, year and GPA if you’re a recent graduate.
Employment: A chronological list of work experience with dates, titles, employers, accomplishments related to your job function and discipline. Quantify statements using statistics, percentages and numbers to add value to your presentation.
References: Make a list of reference names and any contact information you may have. Listing “References available upon request” is not required; it’s assumed.

Make sure to check for typos and grammatical errors. You don’t want to give the impression that your work is careless. Bullets are a great tool for highlighting accomplishments and keeping your resume easier to read. Resumes are reviewed fast so you want the reader to move quickly and efficiently through the document. You might want to consider an easier font to read such as Arial or New Times Roman in 10 or 11 point. Your resume may be more than one page with experience but not more than two.

Express action verbs and industry key words to show benefits and/or results of the work you have performed. Try to begin statements with actions words such as prepared, preformed or analyzed that are followed by results to add enthusiasm to your resume. You may want to give examples of those accomplishments. Once again, list anything from percentages, dollar amounts and numbers in your bullet sentences to quantify your accomplishments. Use present tense to describe your current job. All previous positions should be described in past tense. Describe specific responsibilities that paint a picture in the mind of the person reading your resume. As a rule of thumb, be consistent with your choice of format. Make sure to explain what makes you stand out from your peers. You have to think, “Why would a potential employer want to hire me?” Write all numerals up to and including the number “nine”. Use the numerical digit for 10-999,999.

Do not use abbreviations. Do not include your picture with your resume. You may not want to list your GPA or college honors unless you are a recent graduate. Do not devote more space to earlier jobs than to more recent employment. Employers are interested in most recent and relevant employment.