RESUME WRITING

What is a Resume

A resume is a clear and concise summary of your experience and education as it applies to your job search goals. It is also:

• an advertisement for you, highlighting your relevant strengths and abilities for the position for which you are applying,
• easy to read, well organized, and error-free, so that an employer can scan it briefly and gather key information about your qualifications, and
• used for many purposes, including applying for posted positions, distributing at job fairs, offering at informational interviews, and applying for internships.

A resume is not your autobiography, a list of previous employers' names, addresses, and phone numbers, an exaggeration of your accomplishments, or boring!

General Resume Guidelines

Length: Most education and human services employers will accept either a one or two page resume. Business employers prefer one page, especially for new professionals. Your goal should be to use the most concise format which includes highlights of your background which are relevant. An exception is the curriculum vitae (c.v.), which is an academic version of a resume used most frequently by college professors, physicians, and scientists. Although this style will not be covered in this handout, there are resources in the CRC Library on c.v.'s.

Tone: Your resume should be targeted to a particular career field or type of position. If you do not know what kind of position you will be applying for, see a career counselor to clarify your skills, interests, and values in order to come up with a clearer goal. In writing your resume, try to take the employer's perspective, thinking of the questions that he or she might have about your background.

Accuracy: Everything on your resume must be true. Do not include any exaggerations or falsehoods; this could be grounds for getting fired. While you certainly do not want to be overly modest, it is critical that everything you state is factually true.

Common mistakes: Your resume must be error free. Some common mistakes found on resumes include:

• leaving on too many jobs from long ago,
• vague job descriptions,
• information about your height, weight, sex, marital status, health, age, or race,
• listing jobs in an inconsistent manner,
• being unclear about the exact name of your degree and major,
• overusing boldface print, and
• spelling errors.

Types of Resumes

Chronological resumes are the most common style, and include your accomplishments listed in reverse chronological order (i.e., most recent first). Each entry includes a brief description of your accomplishments and responsibilities. This format works well for most people, especially those who have some recent relevant experience. Most employers say chronological resumes are the easiest to decipher.

Functional resumes list accomplishments in categories such as "Administrative Experience" or "Publishing Experience," followed by a section at the end of the resume which lists position titles, employers and dates. The main difference from the chronological resume is that you list your accomplishments by the functional area into which they fit, rather than by the position you held. This type of resume is most useful for those with significant gaps in their experience, little relevant experience or education, or a series of unrelated positions. This type of resume is not favored by some employers, because it can be used to cover up weaknesses or gaps.

Combination resumes include the best of both the chronological and functional resumes. In this format, relevant experiences are listed in categories, with specific positions listed within each category. For example, someone who is changing careers from business to teaching might have a category called "Teaching Experience" and another category called "Business Experience." The category most relevant to your job objective is listed first, and the positions within each category are listed in reverse chronological order. The categories themselves do not have to be in chronological order, so this format is helpful for someone who has relevant experience which is not recent.

Sections of a Resume

Identifying information: At the top of the resume, put your name, address, and telephone numbers with area code. Include any daytime numbers where you may be reached, because it will make it easier for employers to reach you. Include your email address if you have one and check it at least once per day. If you have a current address and a temporary address, include both by putting your name in the center, then putting one address in the right corner, and the other in the left corner. It is essential that you have an answering machine with a professional message connected to all telephone numbers listed on your resume so an employer can leave a message.

Objective: Including an objective is optional. For many Lesley graduates, their Lesley degree serves as an objective. If you do include an objective, it should be specific and relevant to the job for which you are applying. A good objective includes information on the kind of position you are seeking, the kind of function, the kind of organization, and/or the skills you want to use.

Objective example #1
Before: A position in personnel.
Improved: A position in human resources in a health care organization.
More improved: A position in human resources in a health care organization, utilizing skills in employee relations, compensation, and recruiting.

Avoid generic objective statements that provide little information about what you want to do.

Objective example #2
Before: A position with a growing organization, offering opportunities for challenge and advancement and professional growth.
This objective is so broad and vague that it is nearly meaningless, and most of these qualities are subjective. Therefore, it will not help and will probably hurt the job seeker.
Improved: A position in community outreach with a non-profit organization.

If you do decide to include an objective, be sure that it is relevant to the position for which you are applying. If your resume says you are seeking "A position in human services working with geriatric clients," do not use it to apply for a position at an adolescent center. For many education students, certification functions to clarify the objective; therefore, an objective is not usually necessary on their resumes. Whether or not you decide to include an objective on your resume, your objective is always explained in the accompanying cover letter.

Profile/Summary/Qualifications: This is another optional category, usually used instead of an objective. If done well, a summary can give your key qualifications for the position and start the resume with a strong statement. Often these statements are more effective for individuals who are experienced in their fields and have specific areas of expertise which they want to highlight.

Example: (for a psychotherapist)
Qualifications:

As with the objective, you want to be sure to include fairly specific content areas. Avoid statements like "Excellent interpersonal skills" or "well organized." While these are important, they are not appropriate at the very top of the resume because they are too general, and the reader may assume that you do not have any specific relevant skills. You could mention some of those more general qualifications in the cover letter. In the interview, you will have an opportunity to share this information and provide examples.

Education: Put your education first if you recently completed a degree which is relevant to the field in which you are seeking employment or if you are seeking an internship. After you have worked professionally in the field a few years, you will put experience first. If your education is not relevant to the field, or you received your degree a long time ago and have worked in the field since then, put experience first.

List your graduate degree (if you have one) and undergraduate degree, field of study, school name and location, and year of degree. If you are more than six months away from receiving your degree, state "Candidate for....(degree)". Check with the Registrar or advisor if you are not sure about the exact field in which you will be receiving your degree; your resume and your transcript should agree. Use the same format for each degree: if you say Master of Education, say Bachelor of Science. Alternatively, you can use M.Ed. and B.S.

The education section generally includes degrees in programs where you were matriculated. Short courses or non-credit courses would usually go later in the resume in another section called "Additional Training" or "Professional Development."

Other information which can be included under Education is any academic honors you received (Dean's List, Latin honors such as cum laude), and the title of your thesis (if it is relevant to your job search). Study abroad can also be included in the education section.

Experience: Your relevant experience, whether paid or unpaid, including jobs, field placements, internships, and volunteer work, is included in this section. Using a consistent format, list the organization name and location (city, state - do not include street address or zip code), the position title, and dates of employment.

Next, include a description of your responsibilities and accomplishments. Start out by writing as much as you can, then go back and edit. You should plan to write several drafts of this section, because this is the most critical part of the resume. Describe all your responsibilities (avoid using the term "responsibilities included") and major tasks using action verbs. Think about what you did in each position which was original, creative, or especially significant. This is the place where your resume can show how your background is distinctive from other candidates. What you did beyond the minimum requirements and routine duties is what will make your resume interesting. Include key words which indicate your knowledge of the jargon of your field.

Action Verbs (selected list)

If you have experience in several fields, it is often helpful to use a combination format, in which experience is categorized. For example, you may divide your experience into Human Services Experience and Business Experience. Positions are listed in reverse chronological order (most recent first) within categories, but the categories can be listed in whatever order is most related to the candidate's job search goal.

If you have many jobs, consider omitting some. A good general guideline is to go back about ten years in a resume. You may go back further if you have relevant experience which is older; you may not go back ten years if some of your previous experience is irrelevant or unimportant. A good guideline to use is to think about whether the experience is important to you. Remember that for many teaching positions, experience outside the classroom is quite relevant to teaching.

If there is a gap in your employment, deleting the months may be helpful. If there is a gap, you do not need to explain it on the resume (saying "1992-1994: Raising a family" is not necessary). You may be asked to explain gaps in the interview.

While each person's background and resume are different, think about the following questions as you prepare your Experience section.

• Is the job/internship relevant to the job for which I am applying?
• If someone has not heard of the name of an organization, will the organization's purpose be clear from the description of my position?

Is my description distinctive and interesting?

• If possible, have I included information on the scope of my responsibilities: how many and how much, (rather than "supervised staff", say "supervised four professional staff members")? Provide quantitative details when possible.
• Have I avoided use of all personal pronouns (I, me, you), prepositions (of, on), articles (the, a, an), helping verbs (have, had, may, might), and being verbs (am, is, are, was, were) whenever possible?
• Is my description results-oriented?
• Have I used action verbs (created, designed, implemented) whenever possible and used the most powerful (facilitated instead of helped, coordinated instead of assisted with) and specific verbs (taught rather than worked with, counseled rather than met with)?
• Are the action verbs in the past tense for previous positions and in the present tense for current positions?
• Have I eliminated all non-essential phrases (responsibilities included, activities such as)?
• Have I used language indicating my knowledge of the techniques, skills, and content areas in my field?

Description example #1
Before: I helped work on bringing in many new clients to the agency.
Improved: Designed and implemented comprehensive community outreach program; increased agency's service population by 25%.

Description example #2
Before: Responsible for teaching reading groups and working with individual students.
Improved: Led individual and group reading lessons. Supplemented basal reading program with teacher-made materials and dramatizations.

Description example #3
Before: Worked with my supervisor and the department head in writing new employee orientation.
Improved: Wrote new employee orientation program, in collaboration with management team.

Notice that descriptions are usually written in short verb phrases, not complete sentences.

Other Sections: There are a number of other optional sections, depending on your particular background. There may be other categories which are relevant for you.

Some examples include:

• Additional Training
• Professional Memberships
• Professional Activities
• Professional Development
• Service to University (Be sure that someone away from Lesley University will understand what you did; they will not understand if you simply list "Emerald Key Society.")
• Languages (If you say you are fluent in another language, you should be able to interview in that language!)
• Honors and Awards
• Skills
• Publications
• Travel (should be significant travel, not just short vacations)
• Community Service
• Professional Presentations
• Interests (Be sure that if you include them, they are significant and fairly original.)
• Special Skills (i.e., computer software)

Resume Design and Layout

Either a list ("bullet") or paragraph format is acceptable.

Your resume should be clear, readable, and well organized. Putting the dates in the right column de-emphasizes them and therefore emphasizes your job titles and locations rather than length of service.

Use a type size and style which is easy to read, being sure to leave enough white space on your resume to make it easy to read. There should be a generous margin. Do not crowd 1 1/2 pages of information onto one page in order to get a one page resume. If you have decided that your resume must be one page, delete selectively.

Techniques such as boldfacing and capitalizing can highlight different sections or elements of your resume. The key with any kind of highlighting is to be consistent (if category names are in bold print, be sure all names of categories are done that way) and not to overdo it. If all the job titles are bold, capitalized, and underlined, chances are that they will be hard to read. Make a decision whether your job titles or the names of the organization are more important on your resume.

Online Resumes

Online resumes are being used more frequently as more people use email and the Internet in job searching. An electronic resume is one which is sent via email or posted or sent via the Internet. A paper resume will require some adaptation in order to be effective as an electronic resume. A word of caution: If you post your resume online, your resume may be viewed by many employers, so there is no confidentiality.

Tips for online resumes:

• Leave a lot of space on your resume. Since the resume will be read on a computer screen, it should have adequate white space.
• Put the headings on the left so they are easy to read.
• Do not use boldface, italics, underlines, graphics or shading; use capital letters instead.
• Keep your resume brief. A full page of type will not fit on a computer screen, so even if your resume is one page long it will fill several computer screens.
• If you email your resume, send it as an attachment to your email message. Since employers may not have the correct software or computer to open it, also send it in the body of the message.

Scannable Resumes

Scannable resumes are read by computers. If an organization uses a computerized applicant tracking system, your resume needs to formatted appropriately. This topic will not be covered in detail in this handout, but the references section of this handout includes sources for additional assistance

Tips for scannable resumes:

• Use a simple, sans serif type face. While boldface is accepted by most systems, avoid italics, underlines, graphics, and shading.
• Do not fold your resume.
• Many scanning systems search for keywords, which are nouns. The computer searches for specific skills or knowledge areas, so it is essential to include the jargon or "buzzwords" for your field. Since you will not necessarily know if your resume will be scanned by a computer, it is advisable to include some keywords regardless of the format you use. The references section of this handout includes listings of books which have actual lists of keywords for different occupations.
• Spell out the entire name of your college or use only a well-recognized abbreviation.

Resume Reproduction

Create your original resume on a computer so that you can easily make changes. Print out copies of your resume as needed. You should use high quality paper, particularly cotton or letterhead paper available at most office supply stores. Resume paper should be white, cream, or very light gray. Avoid any dark color paper because it will not photocopy well. Avoid bright colors; most employers prefer a conservative style of resume. Your choice of paper is not the place to demonstrate your creativity.

It is recommended that you show a draft of your resume to a career counselor. Proof the resume very carefully, whether you did the word processing yourself or took it to a word processing business.

Further Help

Listed below are some of the resources in the "Job Search" section of the CRC Library that can help you with your resume writing:

• Lesley University Sample Resumes Binders
• 101 Grade A Resumes for Teachers, Rebecca Anthony & Gerald Roe, 1998.
• Asher's Bible of Executive Resumes, Donald Asher, 1997.
• Cyberspace Resume Kit, Mary B. Nemnich and Fred E. Jandt, 1999.
• Expert Resumes for People Returning to Work, Wendy S. Enelow & Louise M. Kursmark, 2003.
• From College to Career: Entry Level Resumes for Any Major, Donald Asher, 1999.
• Heart and Soul Resumes, Chuck Cochran & Donna Peirce, 1998.
• The Resume Kit, Richard H. Beatty, 1995.
• Resumes that Knock 'em Dead, Martin Yate, 2003.