Résumé

1. Résumé Guidelines for Writing

2. What We Willl Cover • Types of Résumés • Parts of a Résumé • Ways to use action words • Reasons Employers Discount a Résumé

3. Types of Résumés • Chronological • Functional • Combination

4. Chronological Résumés • The most popular • Reverse chronological order • Current job first • Demonstrates steady upward career growth • Focus on job continuity, growth, and achievements • Employers prefer

5. Functional Résumés • Focus on skills, credentials, and accomplishments • Emphasize what you did, not when or where you did it • Accomplishments, qualifications and experience are grouped together • Emphasize experience in specialty areas

6. Combinational Résumés • Functional style lists relevant skills and accomplishments • Describe employment and education histories in reverse chronological order • A combination of other résumés • The experience section directly supports the functional section

7. Which Résumé Should You Pick? • Whichever works best • Normally, Experience precedes Education • Situations where Education beats Experience: • Currently in school or a recent graduate • Changing careers • Specialized education is a prerequisite • Information on top will catch the employer’s attention first • Put your greatest asset first – whether education or experience

8. Parts of a Résumé • Heading / Identification • Job Objective • Summary / Profile • Work Experience • Qualifications / Skills • Education • Awards / Achievements / Honors • Activities / Associations

9. Heading/Identification • Required! • Include: • Your full name • Permanent address • Phone number with area code • Cell phone number with area code • E-mail address

10. Job Objective • State what you want to do, what position you are interested in and should be employer-focused • Modify your objective to fit each employer and position you target

11. Summary/Profile • Three or four bulleted statements highlighting your skills • Entice the reader to look at the rest of the résumé • Supports the objective • Quantify statements whenever possible

12. Work Experience • Required! • Name of the employer, geographic location (city and state only), position title, dates of employment, a brief statement of duties and your major contributions and accomplishments • Military experience, internships / cooperative and volunteer experience • reverse chronological order, most recent first

13. Qualifications/Skills • Required! • A concise list of your qualifications, skills, and accomplishments for the position you are seeking • Use action statements and quantify whenever possible • List in order of importance. • Include computer skills, technical skills, percent increase in production, sales, etc

14. Education • Required! • List relevant education, training, and certifications • List degrees, school, dates of attendance or year of graduation/completion and program/major • Include your GPA if B or better • reverse chronological order, most recent first

15. Awards, Achievementsand Honors • As a separate category or under Education • Highlight formal recognitions, professional and academic awards.

16. Activities/Associations • Participation in professional associations, student government, clubs, or community activities • Include the name of the organization and any leadership roles you held

17. References • Assumed – Don’t indicate that these are “available upon request” • Prepare a list of references on a separate piece of paper • Include the person’s name, job title, phone number, name, and address of the organization • Do not put references on the résumé

18. Action Words • Action keywords relate to the position • Words like prepared, managed, developed, championed, monitored, and presented will cause your resume to stand out • If your résumé stands out, so will you • If your résumé is scanned electronically, the computer will pick up on the words

19. Action Words Distinguished Encourage Earned Enhance Evaluate Examined Facilitate Formulate Fulfilled Forecasted Generated Gained Gathered Gave Headed Hosted Identified  Implemented Improved Improvised Influenced Launched Lobbied Maintained Managed Marketed Maximized Mediated Modernized Motivated Negotiated Observed Obtained Operated Organized Originated Overhauled Oversaw Participated Performed Pioneered Planned Prepared Presented Promoted Provided Published Pursued Quantified Ranked Received Recommended Redesigned Reengineered Reorganized Represented Restructured Revised Safeguarded Secured Selected Specified Spearheaded Standardized Strengthened Structured Suggested Superseded Supervised  Targeted Taught Tested Trained Transcended Unified Upgraded Utilized Validated Valued Wrote Assist Able Action Analysis Achievement Accomplished Advanced Conduct Consult Committed Conducted Contributed Coordinated Delegated  Develop Deliver Design Defined Diversified Devoted

20. What Not to Put on a Résumé

21. Employers Discard Résumés • PHYSICAL APPEARANCE IS SLOPPY: poorly typed and printed, uneven margins or inconsistent spacing, font too small or to fancy to read, paper not appropriate, looks unprofessional • ERRORS: misspelled or misuse of words, poor grammar, typographical errors • DISORGANIZED: information is scattered, hard to follow, employer has to search for information

22. Employers Discard Résumés • TOO LONG/OVERWRITTEN: more than two pages, unnecessary information, unrelated to your qualifications, long paragraphs and sentences • TOO SHORT: not enough information, gives only bare essentials of dates and job titles, sparse in describing duties or accomplishments on various jobs • WRONG RESUME: resume does not fit position applying for; content does not support objective

23. Employers Discard Résumés • INFORMATION NOT CURRENT: resume does not include current information • CONTACT INFORMATION MISSING: leaving out information such as your name, mailing address or telephone • CONTAINS PERSONAL INFORMATION: age, marital status, health, height, weight, gender, photographs, etc • NO COVER LETTER: resume misdirected, sending resume without a cover letter

24. Summary • Objective should be similar to job listing • Quantify your accomplishments • List your skill set • List your education • One page