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| Resume
Writing |
The
purpose of having a strong resume is to arouse enough interest, curiosity
or astonishment to generate a telephone call or face-to-face meeting with
someone you want to meet. The resume will not get you a job. However, it
will get you in front of someone who might be persuaded to make you an
offer or introduce you to someone else who might need you. Once completed,
the finished resume should not be more than 3 pages in length. You should
assemble all the raw data you will need in three separate lists.
List
1
Write
down all the positions you have held so far in your career. For each
position, note the exact title, precise dates of incumbency, proper name
of the employing organization, its location, mailing address and
telephone number.
List
2
Write
down, as they occur to you, as many of your accomplishments as you can.
What is an accomplishment: Something you either recommended or did,
avoided, or caused to have done or not done, or an opportunity or threat
that you identified and flagged that made a positive difference for your
employing organization. Your resume must represent you as someone who
has a history of, and who takes pride in, making a positive difference.
Your list of accomplishments is this history. It is the most important
part of your resume. Your long list of accomplishments should be a
journalistic format consisting of what you did, why you did, how you did
it and with what results.
List
3
What
credits, degrees, honors can you claim and from what institutions and on
what dates. What non-degree or non-credit training have you had? Who
sponsored it? What important things have you trained yourself to do?
Note:
There is considerable variation available in structure. Nonetheless, all
contain the same three elements (positions, accomplishments and
education).
Personal
Information
- Name
- Full
address including postal code
- Home
and Office Telephone Number
- Fax
Number
- Internet
address
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Education
(Usually
means post-secondary, often comes first, especially if it is a strong
asset.)
- Special
Seminar
- Summer
Schools
- Night
School
- College
and University
- List
degrees and month/year obtained or expected to obtain
- Names
and locations of schools
- Major
and Minor
- Summary
of important/relevant courses
Experience
Functional
To emphasize skills
and talents, cluster experience under headings that highlight these
skills i.e., leadership, research, and computers. This format can be
helpful if you have little relevant job experience.
Chronological
To emphasize work
experience, list positions beginning with the most recent.
Hint: Write responsibilities
using action verbs: List most important responsibilities first, list
similar tasks together. Click here for a list of action verbs.
To support work experience,
your accomplishments could be highlighted in this section.
References
Prepare
a separate list of references include: complete name, title,
company name, address, and telephone numbers - offer list to prospective
employer after your interview.
Skills
List
computer languages and software, research, laboratory, teaching or
tutoring, communication and leadership skills. For specific technical
skills it is often helpful if you include some kind of assessment of your
level of skill and an indication of the number of years of experience with
that tool. If a skill is academic, say so.
Do
Not...
- Use
a cover page, a folder, an acetate cover or any other embellishment.
- Consider
putting your picture on it.
- Use
odd-sized or odd colored paper or colored inks.
- Do
something "cutesy" like printing it sideways.
- Put
a border around the text or heavy lines between sections.
- Use
desktop publishing to create the final product - it inspires far too
much non-standard format creativity.
- Hand-amend
a resume. Fix it on disk and print a new one.
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