Introduction
A resume and a CV (curriculum vitae) are persuasive summaries of your qualifications for employment. When you have a job, a current resume or CV makes it easier for you to apply for a better job. If you are on the job market, having a resume or CV makes you seem organized and prepared. If you are several years from a professional job hunt, preparing a resume or CV now will help you become more conscious of what you will need to do to make yourself an attractive candidate.
Preparation
Your informal preparation for a job hunt needs to begin when you arrive at campus. Join extracurricular organizations on campus and in the community to increase your knowledge and to create a network for information about jobs. You may want to find a job that will give you experience in a field that interests you. Consider which courses you enjoy and the reasons you like them.
Your formal preparation for a job hunt needs to begin a full year before you start to interview for positions. Visit a placement office or career center to discover which services it provides. Ask relatives or friends who are on the job market about their experiences with respect to the market and their interviews. You may want to apply for an internship or a cooperative job that will provide relative experience before you begin to interview for professional positions.
You will want to register with a placement office or career center about a year before your graduation. If you will graduate in the spring, create your resume and plan your interview strategy early in the fall. Initial campus/community interviews occur from October to February for graduations in May or June. In January or February, write to any business or organization for which you want to work that did not conduct interviews on campus or in the community. From February to April, you hopefully will go to another interview. Your goal is to have an offer before you receive a degree.
Which Job?
A self-assessment is the first step in the creation of a persuasive resume or CV.* Personality and aptitude tests may reveal your strengths, but they will not specify which job is ideal for you. To determine the latter, you need to answer the following questions.
A resume and a CV (curriculum vitae) are persuasive summaries of your qualifications for employment. When you have a job, a current resume or CV makes it easier for you to apply for a better job. If you are on the job market, having a resume or CV makes you seem organized and prepared. If you are several years from a professional job hunt, preparing a resume or CV now will help you become more conscious of what you will need to do to make yourself an attractive candidate.
Preparation
Your informal preparation for a job hunt needs to begin when you arrive at campus. Join extracurricular organizations on campus and in the community to increase your knowledge and to create a network for information about jobs. You may want to find a job that will give you experience in a field that interests you. Consider which courses you enjoy and the reasons you like them.
Your formal preparation for a job hunt needs to begin a full year before you start to interview for positions. Visit a placement office or career center to discover which services it provides. Ask relatives or friends who are on the job market about their experiences with respect to the market and their interviews. You may want to apply for an internship or a cooperative job that will provide relative experience before you begin to interview for professional positions.
You will want to register with a placement office or career center about a year before your graduation. If you will graduate in the spring, create your resume and plan your interview strategy early in the fall. Initial campus/community interviews occur from October to February for graduations in May or June. In January or February, write to any business or organization for which you want to work that did not conduct interviews on campus or in the community. From February to April, you hopefully will go to another interview. Your goal is to have an offer before you receive a degree.
Which Job?
A self-assessment is the first step in the creation of a persuasive resume or CV.* Personality and aptitude tests may reveal your strengths, but they will not specify which job is ideal for you. To determine the latter, you need to answer the following questions.
- Which achievements gave you the most satisfaction, and why did you enjoy them?
- Do you enjoy firm deadlines or a flexible schedule? Do you prefer to work alone or with other people? Do you like specific instructions and standards for evaluation, or do you enjoy freedom and uncertainty? Are you willing to work for several years before a promotion? How much challenge do you want?
- Are you willing to bring work home, to work from home, or to travel? How important is money and prestige to you? Do you want to spend time with family and friends?
- Where do you want to live? What features with respect to geography, weather, culture, et cetera are ideal for you?
- Is it important to you that your work achieve certain purposes or values, or do you view work as simply a way to make money? Are an organization's cultural and ethical standards important to you?
After you realize what is important to you, analyze the job market to see where you may find what you want. Each candidate needs to use the Internet as a part of his/her search for a job.
Audience
Divisions of human resource use resumes to decide which candidates to interview; thus, you will need to omit anything that may create a negative impression. Many companies scan resumes into an electronic system that tracks job applicants. An employee will review only resumes that match key words, and he/she will do such for 3 to 30 seconds before he/she decides to keep it or to discard it. Neatness and accuracy are essential. Do not use acronyms, and fully explain Greek-letter societies, job titles, and unfamiliar organizations.
There are two types of resumes: chronological and skills. A chronological resume summarizes what you have done, beginning with the most recent events and moving backward in reverse chronology. It emphasizes degrees, job titles, and dates. Use a chronological resume when (1) your education and experience are a logical preparation for the position for which you are applying and (2) you have impressive titles, offices or honors.
A skills resume emphasizes the skills you have gained and applied, rather than the jobs in which or the dates when you used them. Use a skills resume when (1) your education and experience are not the usual routes to the position for which you are applying; (2) you are changing fields; and (3) you want to combine your experience from various jobs, activities, volunteer work, and courses to show the extent of such experience in particular areas relevant to the job.
Your audience will ask four questions with respect to your resume or CV. Answering the following questions in a persuasive way will increase your chances of employment. The answers are the basic elements of any resume or CV.
Audience
Divisions of human resource use resumes to decide which candidates to interview; thus, you will need to omit anything that may create a negative impression. Many companies scan resumes into an electronic system that tracks job applicants. An employee will review only resumes that match key words, and he/she will do such for 3 to 30 seconds before he/she decides to keep it or to discard it. Neatness and accuracy are essential. Do not use acronyms, and fully explain Greek-letter societies, job titles, and unfamiliar organizations.
There are two types of resumes: chronological and skills. A chronological resume summarizes what you have done, beginning with the most recent events and moving backward in reverse chronology. It emphasizes degrees, job titles, and dates. Use a chronological resume when (1) your education and experience are a logical preparation for the position for which you are applying and (2) you have impressive titles, offices or honors.
A skills resume emphasizes the skills you have gained and applied, rather than the jobs in which or the dates when you used them. Use a skills resume when (1) your education and experience are not the usual routes to the position for which you are applying; (2) you are changing fields; and (3) you want to combine your experience from various jobs, activities, volunteer work, and courses to show the extent of such experience in particular areas relevant to the job.
Your audience will ask four questions with respect to your resume or CV. Answering the following questions in a persuasive way will increase your chances of employment. The answers are the basic elements of any resume or CV.
- What do you want to do? The answer will be your goal (objective), and you will need to base your resume on your goal so prospective employers can realize immediately to which position you are applying.
- What are your qualifications? Your answer is all of the skills and credentials that qualify you for the job. You can divide your skills and credentials into functional sections or use bullets to highlight key points. If you are able to create this section properly, you will convince prospective employers that the rest of your resume is worth reading, leading them to the next question.
- Where have you worked? The reader needs to know for whom you worked, where (city and state), and what you did. Your job descriptions need to include active verbs, key words, and functional skills that are relevant to the job you are seeking.
- How well have you performed? Listing accomplishments and projects shows via example that you contributed to previous employers' bottom lines. The best accomplishments are those that demonstrate quantifiable results or your willingness to do more than others. Did you propose an idea that saved the company money? Were you promoted because of your collaborative skills? Were you selected for a project because of your positive attitude? Whenever possible, describe the way(s) you improved previous employers' bottom lines--doubled sales, cut costs, reduced errors, streamlined processing, or improved efficiency, for examples.
Guidelines
There is no universal format; there are only guidelines. In fact, if your skills are in demand, you can violate the following guidelines and still receive a good job. However, when you are competing against numerous applicants, the following guidelines will help you to look as good on paper as you are in person.
Length: a one-page resume or CV is sufficient, but you must fill the page with pertinent information. Anything less suggests you do not have much to say about yourself. The average resume is now two pages. If you use more than one page, the second page must have at least 10 to 12 lines. Place your full name and "Page 2" at the top of the page.
Diction: without sacrificing content, be as concise as possible, using phrases and sentential fragments. Complete sentences are acceptable if they are the briefest way to present information. To save space and to avoid an arrogant tone, never use I in a resume. Me and my are acceptable if they are necessary for comprehension and if they reduce wordiness. Verbs or gerunds (the -ing form of verbs) create a more dynamic image than do nouns, so use them when people, not computers, will read your resume or CV.
Details
Details provide evidence to support your claims, to persuade the reader, and to separate you from other applicants. They also describe the aspects of a job--revealing how many people you trained or supervised, how much money you budgeted or raised, et cetera. Omit details that add nothing to a title, are less impressive than the title itself, or suggest a faulty sense of priorities--for example, listing minor offices in an organization that gives everyone something to do. Either use strong details or list the office or job title without any details.
Emphasis
Emphasize the things you have done that (a) are most relevant to the position for which you are applying, (b) reveal your superiority to other applicants, and (c) are recent. Show your qualifications by providing details on relevant course projects, activities, and jobs in which you have done similar work. Be brief about low-level jobs that simply exhibit dependability. To prove that you are the best candidate for the job, emphasize items that set you apart from other applicants: promotions, honors and achievements, experience with computers, competence of a foreign language, et cetera.
If you are earning a two- or four-year degree, omit high-school jobs, activities and honors, unless you need them to fill the page. Focus on achievements in the last three to five years. Include full-time work after high school before you entered college and work during college. If the jobs were low-level, present them briefly or combine them.
You can emphasize information by placing it at the top or the bottom of a page, by giving it more space, or by setting it apart with white space. The beginning and end--of a document, a page, a list--are positions of emphasis. When you have an option, place less important information in the middle, not at the end. You can also emphasize information by presenting it in a vertical list, by using a phrase as a heading, and by providing details. For example, rather than presenting your work as an intern in a long paragraph, use bullets to make your accomplishments easily recognizable.
Finishing Touches
Use one-inch margins on all sides and a 10- to 12-point, easily readable font in the body of the resume or CV. Ensure that e-mail accounts are professional. Keep a separate list of references, and make them available only when requested. Experiment with fonts, layout and spacing to create an attractive, personal document. Consider a letterhead that you can use for both your resume and your cover letter. Use enough white space to make your resume easy to read, but not too much that you seem to pad. Print your document with a laser printer on standard 8.5-by-11-inch, cotton paper.
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*A comprehensive guide to self-assessment, to the job-hunt process is Richard Nelson BollesThere is no universal format; there are only guidelines. In fact, if your skills are in demand, you can violate the following guidelines and still receive a good job. However, when you are competing against numerous applicants, the following guidelines will help you to look as good on paper as you are in person.
Length: a one-page resume or CV is sufficient, but you must fill the page with pertinent information. Anything less suggests you do not have much to say about yourself. The average resume is now two pages. If you use more than one page, the second page must have at least 10 to 12 lines. Place your full name and "Page 2" at the top of the page.
Diction: without sacrificing content, be as concise as possible, using phrases and sentential fragments. Complete sentences are acceptable if they are the briefest way to present information. To save space and to avoid an arrogant tone, never use I in a resume. Me and my are acceptable if they are necessary for comprehension and if they reduce wordiness. Verbs or gerunds (the -ing form of verbs) create a more dynamic image than do nouns, so use them when people, not computers, will read your resume or CV.
Details
Details provide evidence to support your claims, to persuade the reader, and to separate you from other applicants. They also describe the aspects of a job--revealing how many people you trained or supervised, how much money you budgeted or raised, et cetera. Omit details that add nothing to a title, are less impressive than the title itself, or suggest a faulty sense of priorities--for example, listing minor offices in an organization that gives everyone something to do. Either use strong details or list the office or job title without any details.
Emphasis
Emphasize the things you have done that (a) are most relevant to the position for which you are applying, (b) reveal your superiority to other applicants, and (c) are recent. Show your qualifications by providing details on relevant course projects, activities, and jobs in which you have done similar work. Be brief about low-level jobs that simply exhibit dependability. To prove that you are the best candidate for the job, emphasize items that set you apart from other applicants: promotions, honors and achievements, experience with computers, competence of a foreign language, et cetera.
If you are earning a two- or four-year degree, omit high-school jobs, activities and honors, unless you need them to fill the page. Focus on achievements in the last three to five years. Include full-time work after high school before you entered college and work during college. If the jobs were low-level, present them briefly or combine them.
You can emphasize information by placing it at the top or the bottom of a page, by giving it more space, or by setting it apart with white space. The beginning and end--of a document, a page, a list--are positions of emphasis. When you have an option, place less important information in the middle, not at the end. You can also emphasize information by presenting it in a vertical list, by using a phrase as a heading, and by providing details. For example, rather than presenting your work as an intern in a long paragraph, use bullets to make your accomplishments easily recognizable.
Finishing Touches
Use one-inch margins on all sides and a 10- to 12-point, easily readable font in the body of the resume or CV. Ensure that e-mail accounts are professional. Keep a separate list of references, and make them available only when requested. Experiment with fonts, layout and spacing to create an attractive, personal document. Consider a letterhead that you can use for both your resume and your cover letter. Use enough white space to make your resume easy to read, but not too much that you seem to pad. Print your document with a laser printer on standard 8.5-by-11-inch, cotton paper.
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' What Color Is Your Parachute? (Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 2006).
