A resume is a document that summarizes your education, skills, talents, employment history, and experiences in a clear and concise format for potential employers. The resume serves three distinct purposes that define its format, design, and presentation:

1. To represent your professional information in writing
2. To demonstrate the relationship between your professional information and the problem or challenge the potential employer hopes to solve or address, often represented in the form of a job description or duties
3. To get you an interview by clearly demonstrating you meet the minimum qualifications and have the professional background to help the organization meet its goals

An online profile page is similar to a resume in that it represents you, your background, and your qualifications and adds participation to the publication. People network, link, and connect in new ways via online profiles or professional sites like LinkedIn. In many ways, your online profile is an online version of your resume with connections and friends on public display. Your Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook pages are also often accessible to the public, so never post anything you wouldn’t want your employer (current or future) to read, see, or hear. This chapter covers a traditional resume and the more popular scannable features, but the elements and tips could equally apply to your online profile.

Main Parts of a Resume

Regardless of the format, employers have expectations for your resume. They expect it to be clear, accurate, and up-to-date (Bennett, 2005). This document represents you in your absence, and you want it to do the best job possible. You don’t want to be represented by spelling or grammatical errors, as they may raise questions about your education and attention to detail. Someone reading your resume with errors will only wonder what kind of work you might produce that will poorly reflect on their company. There will be enough competition that you don’t want to provide an easy excuse to toss your resume at the start of the process. Do your best work the first time.

Resumes have several basic elements that employers look for, including your contact information, objective or goal, education and work experience, and so on. Each resume format may organize the information differently based on the overall design strategy, but all information should be clear, concise, and accurate (Simons and Curtis, 2004).

Contact Information

This section is often located at the top of the document. The first element of the contact information is your name. You should use your full, legal name even if you go by your middle name or use a nickname. There will be plenty of time later to clarify what you prefer to be called, but all your application documents, including those that relate to payroll, your social security number, drug screenings, background checks, fingerprint records, transcripts, certificates, or degrees, should feature your legal name. Other necessary information includes your address, phone number(s), and e-mail address. If you maintain two addresses (e.g., a campus and a residential address), indicate where you can be contacted by indicating the primary address. For business purposes, do not use an unprofessional e-mail address like sexiluvr93@hotmale.com or tutifruti@yafoo.com. Create a new e-mail account with an address suitable for professional use.

Objective

This part of your resume is relatively simple to customize for an individual application. Your objective should reflect the audience’s need to quickly understand how you will help the organization achieve its goals.

Education

You need to list your education chronologically, with your most recent degree first. List the school, degree, and grade point average (GPA). If there is a difference between your major courses’ GPA and overall GPA, you may want to list them separately to demonstrate your success in your chosen field. You may also want to highlight relevant coursework directly related to the position.

Work Experience

List your employment history in reverse chronological order, including the positions, companies, locations, dates, duties, and skills demonstrated or acquired. You may choose to use active, descriptive sentences or bullet lists, but be consistent. Emphasize responsibilities that involve budgets, teamwork, supervision, and customer service when applying for positions in business and industry, but don’t let emphasis become an exaggeration. This document represents you in your absence, and if the information is false, at a minimum, you could lose your job.

You may choose to include references at the end of your resume, though “references upon request” is common. You may also be tempted to extend your resume to more than one page, but don’t exceed that limit unless the additional page features specific, relevant information representing several years of work directly related to the position. The person reading your resume may

be sifting through many applicants and will not spend time reading extra pages. Use the one-page format to put your best foot forward, remembering that you may never get a second chance to make a good first impression.

Maximize Scannable Resume Content

Use Key Words

Just as there are common search terms and words concerning each position, job description, or description of duties, your scannable résumé needs to mirror these common terms. Use of nonstandard terms may not stand out, and your indication of “managed employees” may not get the same attention as the word “supervision” or “management.”

Follow Directions

If a job description uses specific terms or refers to computer programs, skills, or previous experience, make sure you incorporate that language in your scannable resume. You know that when given a class assignment, you are expected to follow directions; similarly, the employer is looking for specific skills and experience. By mirroring the employer’s language and submitting your application documents per their instructions, you convey a spirit of cooperation and an understanding of how to follow instructions.

Insert a Key Word Section

Consider including a brief section listing common words associated with the position as a skills summary: customer service, business communication, sales, or terms and acronyms common to the business or industry.

Make It Easy to Read

You need to ensure your resume is easy to read by a computer, including a character recognition program. That means no italics, underlining, shading, boxes, or lines. Choose a sans serif (without serif or decorative end) font like Arial or Tahoma that won’t be misread. Simple, clear fonts that demonstrate no points at which letters may appear to overlap will increase the probability of the computer getting it right the first time. For the computer to do this, you have to consider your audience—a computer program that will not be able to interpret your unusual font or odd word choice. A font size of eleven or twelve is easier to read for most people, and while the computer doesn’t care about font size, the smaller your font, the more likely the computer is to make the error of combining adjacent letters.

Printing, Packaging, and Delivery

Use a laser printer to get crisp letter formation. Inkjet printers can have some “bleed” between characters that may make them overlap and, therefore, be misunderstood. Folds can make it hard to scan your document. E-mail your resume as an attachment if possible, but don’t fold it if a paper version is required. Use a clean, white piece of paper with black ink; colors will only confuse the computer. Deliver the document in a nine-by-twelve-inch envelope, stiffened with a sheet of card stock (heavy paper or cardboard) to help prevent damage to the document.

Key Takeaway

A resume will represent your skills, education, and experience in your absence. Businesses increasingly scan resumes into searchable databases.

Visit myperfectresume.com to see College Student Resume Examples & Templates.

 

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Bennett, S. A. (2005). The elements of résumé style: Essential rules and eye-opening advice for writing résumés and cover letters that work. AMACOM.

Simons, W., & Curtis, R. (2004). The Résumé.com guide to writing unbeatable résumés. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

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