How To Write A Resume

The first step in writing your resume is to assemble the necessary facts. When you have assembled all the necessary facts to be entered into yoru resume, you can start writing your resume.

Use active verbs and short words. Easier said than done, right?

To test what you've written, read it aloud. Does it sound like something a Congressman might say? That's bad. (Example: "Implementation of various project-management techniques resulted in above-average productivity.")

Does it sound like something you would say during a job interview? That's good! (Example: "Managed three projects, resulting in 32% higher profits.")
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The style I recommend is journalistic, with few of the following words: the, a, an and my. There are exceptions, of course, but always look to prune extra words. Pretend you're sending a telegram and cut accordingly.
The easiest way to do this is to write two drafts of your resume. In the first, rough draft, pour out all the ideas that come to you. Don.t worry about how anything sounds or whether it fits nicely on the page. What you produce will be a diamond in the rough.
You'll revise this rough draft later and gradually eliminate material until what's left is a Guaranteed Resume. The first and most important part of your Guaranteed Resume is the Objective or Summary.

Writing Resume Objective/Summary

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 ¾ 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 the example resumes in Appendix I 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. Second in importance (and order) is the Profile section.

Writing 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 Guaranteed 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!

Quotes in Resume

Few (if any) resumes use quotes. As mentioned previously, this powerful technique is one of the reasons all Guaranteed Resumes are guaranteed to produce results. Why?

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 the example resumes in Appendix I.

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.

Writing Experience in Resume

When writing about your experience, follow a consistent, easy-to-read format. I 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 dwell 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!

While there are exceptions to these rules, this format gives you a lot of flexibility to describe your experience in an effective manner.

Writing Education in Resume

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).

Other Facts about Resume Writing

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. I recommend you put this section last, to finish the resume with a bang. Follow this format:

OTHER FACTS

Languages: Arabic, French and English (fluent).
Computerskills include Windows, Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Internet research.

Revising Your Resume

After you've written the first draft of your resume, put it down for a few hours and go do something totally unrelated. Get your mind off your resume for awhile. When you return and read it again, you'll see areas that you want to change or improve.

How long should your resume be? If you can get everything to fit on one page, great. In most cases, a one-page resume more effective that two pages. But a two-page resume is fine for technical careers or people with more than 10-15 years of experience.

How do you make room for more information? There are four areas you can make smaller to fit more text onto page:

Name and/or address - shrink the font size by two points
Spacing between sections - shrink the font size from 12 to 8 points.
Section headings - shrink the font size from 14 to 13 or 12 points.
The body copy - shrink the font size from 12 to 11 points.

How to Proofread Your Resume

Your resume must be error-free. Just one misspelled word or punctuation error can ruin all your hard work. I've spoken with several hiring managers who say they won't call a candidate whose resume contains typos.

You should proofread your resume four times for four areas: spelling, spacing, punctuation and content. Print the resume before you proofread it. This makes it much easier to read. You'd be surprised how many errors become visible on a printed page versus a computer screen.

For help, see the professional proofreading checklist - the same one I use every day - below.

Professional Resume Proofreading Checklist

Print this checklist for easy reference. Proofread your resume twice for each section below. Check the box after completing each task.

Contact information. Verify your name, address, ZIP code and phone are correct.
Facts and figures. Check all years and numbers in the resume and cover letter. Do they add up? Are they consistent?
Clarity and content. Read the resume aloud for awkward, missing or extra words.
Spacing. Make sure the space between each sentence and section is the same.
Spelling. Use your word processor's spell checker AND read it yourself. Most misspelled words occur in the headings and in software/business names.
Punctuation. Read the resume BACKWARDS, looking for missing or incorrect punctuation, such as commas, dashes between dates, apostrophes, etc.
Layout. Are the upper and lower margins even and pleasing to the eye? Is there white space throughout the document, or is the text too dense? Print the resume and show it to friends for their comments.

Printing Your Resume

Use a laser printer. Never use an inkjet or dot matrix printer. Visit your local printer if necessary. Only a laser printer will create the kind of quality necessary for your resume.

Use high-quality stationery. Print your Guaranteed Resume on cream or ivory-colored paper, of at least 24 pounds in weight. Other colors don't look as professional. (I've asked recruiters and hiring managers and they agree.) You can find suitable paper at an office supply store or copy center. Avoid heavy paper, which can crease and damage the print.

Resume Writing Mistakes to Avoid

Here are four mistakes that hinder most resumes. I see them over and over again in the hundreds of resumes I review each year from prospective clients.

Errors in spelling and punctuation. This is the most common (and deadly) error!!! Your spell-checker is not enough. You must read through the resume once for accuracy (numbers, dates, city names, etc.), once for missing/extra words, and once more for spelling.
Then, show your resume to several friends and ask them to read it out loud. Listen to where they pause; this could mean you've written something confusing or inaccurate. After you get their feedback, revise the resume so that it's 100% error-free.
No objective or summary. By not choosing what job you want to do, you start your resume off on the wrong foot. Why? You force the employer to read it all the way through to figure out what kind of job you're suited for. You create more work for your busy reader. This is the last thing you want to do!
Focus on responsibilities instead of results. While it's important to tell the reader what you did at each job, it's far more important to spend most of your time talking about what you accomplished and how you made yourself valuable to past employers. Focus on results and achievements. The more specific, the better.
Too many big words. It's a shame how often a resume is ruined when the author utilizes a superabundance of polysyllabic terminology, or uses too many big words. Don't hide behind your vocabulary. When your resume is not clear and to the point, the reader gets bored, time is wasted and your resume goes in the trash.
Simplify! Write as if you were talking to a class of sixth grade students. That's the reading level all journalists are trained to appeal to in their writing. If it works for America's newspapers, it ought to work for you.
Instead of saying "implemented," try "adopted" or "set up," for example. Never "utilize" what you can simply "use." Don't "interface" with people; "work" with them. And never use "impact" as a verb. (Meteorites hitting the moon are about the only thing that should "impact.") Use "affect" instead.

We hope that this page have helped you in answering the question of how to write a resume. Go ahead and create your great resume for your next job.

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