Career Services

RESUME WRITING

A resume is a concisely written summary of your educational, work, and personal experience intended to:

• Introduce you to a prospective employer.
• Organize the relevant facts about you in a written presentation.
• Focus attention on your qualifications and accomplishments and demonstrate why you are an attractive candidate for the position being sought.
• Obtain an interview.

The process of writing a resume is similar to that of marketing a product or service. The key is to know your product, which is you, and to also know your audience, which is the employer.

Resumes may vary in content as well as form, appearance, style, and layout. It is important to remember that a resume is a personally written document that allows for some individual creativity. It should present a positive image to the potential employer. Highlight your strengths by positioning the most important information related to your objective first and devoting the most space to it.

Many employers use optical scanners to enter resumes into databases and then electronically search for candidates using identified criteria. Even small employers may use scanners by hiring the services of a company whose business is to scan resumes.

The same basic principles apply to all resumes. Everything that makes sense for computer scanners to easily “read” resumes makes sense for human readers, too. The simpler your resume, the better. Once a computer has selected your resume, based on the identified criteria, a human will read it to make the final decision about contacting you for an interview.

There are a number of ways you might write your resume—all depending upon who you are, what you have to offer, and what kind of position you are seeking. The three types of resume formats most frequently used are:

Chronological resume - lists your education, experience, and other relevant information in chronological order.

Functional resume - focuses on a summary of the functions you performed (merchandising, counseling, etc.) and plays down dates. The functional resume often is used by people without experience directly related to their current objectives, people with several career changes and people re-entering the job market.

Combination resume - uses elements of both the chronological and functional resumes.