Resume Writing
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Gather your information
We will help you find your most marketable skills, then find achievements in your past that prove you have those skills. The data you assemble will help you write your own resume.
Find your marketable skills
Your guaranteed resume will highlight your most marketable skills in such a way that employers are more likely to call you. What are your most marketable skills? Answer these two questions:
1.- What do you do well?
What do you most enjoy doing? Is it the job you’re doing now? Your course work in school? If not, what do you do well? Is it a hobby? Volunteer work? Other? Write your answers on a sheet of paper.
2.- What do you enjoy doing?
What skills do you most enjoy using on the job or in school right now? What skills would you use even if you weren’t paid? Write out your answers. If you enjoy doing something that you’ve already written down in answer to the first question, underline it this time.
Ideally, you’ll have several skills underlined at the end of this exercise. These are things you do well and enjoy doing.
Now, list your 2-3 most marketable skills.
From your list of underlined skills, choose the 2 or 3 you think will be most attractive to the person reading your resume.
These are your most marketable skills. You’ll use them later to write your resume.
This is the most important step in the process of writing your resume.
Why? Because if you know what your most marketable skills are, you can highlight your most relevant experience, which will help you find the job that’s best for you.
Prove your case with achievements
Now, what achievements prove the 2-3 most marketable skills you listed above? Write at least three things you did that you’re proud of and their results.
What have you done to increase productivity, profits, efficiency, sales, etc.? Use facts, figures, years and be as specific as possible. Your achievements can be from paid or volunteer employment, school projects or even hobbies. As long as they’re relevant to the work you want to do, you may include them in your resume.
What to leave out
Some things don’t belong in your resume. Here’s a list of six things you should not include:
* Title at the top of the page, such as "Resume of Qualifications", "Confidential Resume", etc.
If the reader needs to be told that he’s reading a resume, he’s in no position to hire you.
* Months of employment.
While you must include the years you were at each job, don’t include the months. This is perfectly acceptable and helps cover up any short gaps in employment. Your dates should look like this: (1997-1998).
* Reasons for leaving.
This information is irrelevant and uses valuable space. You can always discuss these facts in a job interview. If you feel compelled to explain why you left a job after a few weeks or months, just leave it out of the resume.
* Age, sex, religion or health.
In the United States and in many other countries, it’s illegal to discriminate against you because of these. Don’t refer to them in your resume.
* References.
Write these on a separate sheet and bring them to the interview. And don't include the phrase: "References available upon request". It's understood that you have them so this line wastes space.
* Salary.
Never discuss this until you have a job offer.
If you’re in doubt about whether or not to include something in your resume, ask yourself: "Will this make an employer more likely to call me?" If the answer is a definite "Yes", include it. If the answer is "No", consider leaving it out.
Objective / Summary of your resume
Spend as much time on this section as necessary to create a powerful opening for your resume.
Your Objective or Summary should be two or three lines long at most.
Don’t talk about yourself and your career goals. You can do that in the interview.
Avoid such phrases as: "seeking a chance for advancement", or "where my skills will be utilized", or "where I can further my career".
Your goal is to focus on the employer and his or her needs.
See our resume templates for help.
An Objective or Summary can be a sticking point for some people.
They want a resume that gives them enough flexibility to apply for any job that might even remotely match their skills and experience.
As we saw earlier, you must focus on the job you want.
You must tell employers what job you can do, not force them to think of a job that might suit you.
Career profile
You can also call this section Professional Profile, Technical Skills (for programmers and other technical types), Highlights or Qualifications.
Here you should include between four and six bulleted paragraphs that cover your best skills, as well as some of the best things you’ve ever done on the job.
Reason? The goal of your resume is to get employers to call you. And the Profile section is a crucial method of achieving this goal.
Example Profile section:
PROFESSIONAL PROFILE
* Strong background in journalism, with firsthand knowledge of press community. Includes seven years of experience writing, editing and delivering on-air news and breaking stories.
* Superior verbal and written communication skills. Twice awarded by AP for reporting skills in 1998. Proven ability to balance needs of competing groups on controversial issues.
* Three years of business management experience as owner of small business. Gained press coverage, overhauled marketing, increased sales and sold for 100% profit (1990-1993).
* Cited for "considerable news judgment", by WXXX-TV GM, who said: "Joe is a well-organized self-starter (who) would make an outstanding employee in public relations".
Another Profile section, this for an entry-level programmer:
TECHNICAL SKILLS
* Operating Systems: Windows 95/98, UNIX on Sun SPARC and MS-DOS.
* Programming Languages: C, C++, HTML and JavaScript.
* Software: Microsoft FrontPage, Image Composer and Word; Lotus 1-2-3 and mSQL.
Once you’ve written the Objective/Summary and Profile sections, you’ve finished the most important job.
Your work is now half done!
Experience
When writing about your experience, follow a consistent, easy-to-read format.
We suggest you follow this example:
LAN/WAN Administrator: US Marine Corps, Camp Lejeune, NC (1993-1999).
For each job you’ve had, include your title, company name, city, state and the years you worked there.
Don’t include the months, as this may highlight any gaps in employment.
Below this first line, describe your typical daily duties in one or two sentences. But don’t on duties or responsibilities. You want to emphasize achievements, effective projects and other good things you did on each job.
So, your description for a typical job might look like this:
Account Executive: WWWW Radio 107 (CBS), Southfield, MI (1994-1995).
Handled spot radio sales involving business-to-business, sports and retail accounts.
* Served as marketing/advertising consultant to businesses.
* Grew account billings from $10,000/month to $60,000/month in under one year.
* Worked on radio, Yellow Pages, direct mail and TV campaigns.
Note for recent graduates from college or high school:
if you don’t have much work experience, be sure to make the most of your education and training. For example: in your Profile section, include 5-10 of the classes that are most relevant to the job you seek. You can also include volunteer work in your experience section; work is work, even if you didn’t get paid for it!
Education
You must include a section describing your education.
Follow this format:
EDUCATION
* Master of Arts: Communications, University of Florida (1984).
* Bachelor of Arts: Art History, San Diego State University (1982).
You can also call it Education/Training if you’d like to list any training received after your formal education ended.
This is also a great way to give more substance to an otherwise-skimpy Education section.
Yours could look like this:
EDUCATION/TRAINING
* Ongoing professional training includes courses in sales, problem-solving, leadership, management, quality, market research and presentation skills (1985-present).
* Bachelor of Civil Engineering, Trafalgar University, Algeria (1984).
If you went to college but didn’t graduate, you can describe your course of study like this:
EDUCATION
BS: Finance course work, Ohio State University (two years).
If you’re currently in school, include your expected year of graduation, it like this:
EDUCATION
MBA: Finance, Michigan State University (expected late 1999).
Quotes
Few (if any) resumes use quotes.
As mentioned previously, this powerful technique is one of the reasons all resumes are guaranteed to produce results. Why?
1.- Quotes do more than just prove your claims. They make employers curious about you. Which makes them more likely to call and find out more. And this is what resume writing is all about!
For ideas on using quotes, see our resume templates.
2.- You may not be able to find written quotes. That’s OK. Try to recall good things that managers/clients have said about you.
As long as they really said it, you can use these indirect quotes in the resume.
Example indirect quote:
* Cited by supervisor for problem-solving skills and ability to train staff.
Other facts
If space allows, you can include an Other Facts section to combine good things about you that don’t fit in other parts of the resume.
We recommend you put this section last, to finish the resume with a bang.
Follow this format:
OTHER FACTS
* Languages: Arabic, French and English (fluent).
* Computer skills include Windows, Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Internet research.
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