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Résumé Basics

• Use an abbreviated style of writing. Be concise. Every phrase must provide worthwhile information to the potential employer.
• Avoid using personal pronouns such as "I" and "me" and unnecessary words such as "a," "an," and "the."
• Use past tense action verbs when describing your experience (see Skills as Verbs and Transferable Skills for lists of examples). Stress the skills you developed and the results you achieved rather than simply listing your job responsibilities.
• Make your résumé visually attractive by using proper spacing and adequate margins; content should be balanced and centered on the page. Be consistent with use of headings and indentations. Do not clutter.
• Avoid references to specific religious or political organizations unless your affiliation with a particular group is relevant to the position you are seeking.
• Your résumé should be flawless. It is often the first (and sometimes only) representation of you, so spelling and grammar should be perfect. Check to be certain that punctuation, capitalization, and spacing are consistent throughout the résumé. Have someone else read your résumé to check for typos and spacing.
• When mailing or faxing your résumé, it should ALWAYS be accompanied by a cover letter (see “Job Search Letters;” print copies are also available in the Career Center).
• Include an objective. If you are applying for a variety of positions, it is better to create more than one résumé (each with a different objective).
• Do not include personal information such as height, weight, health condition, and marital status. In most cases this information has little to do with your ability to perform the duties of a position and, by law, employers should not be using such factors when determining your status as a candidate.
• Be honest—don't be afraid to "toot your own horn." But at the same time do not overestimate your experience and abilities.

 

Your final product should be printed on bond paper using laser-quality print. When choosing the paper color for your résumé, be as conservative as the position for which you are applying. White, tan, gray, beige, or off-white colors are appropriate for most positions and pastel shades are sometimes acceptable when applying for positions involving creativity. You should purchase extra matching paper to individually produce your cover letters. The Career Center maintains a supply of résumé paper for you to purchase at a minimal cost. If you are sending your résumé electronically, please attach the document, including your cover letter, to the e-mail. In the body of the e-mail, enter the phrase “Please see attached”.

Format

There is no single "correct" résumé format. Since individuals have different career interests, apply for different positions, and possess a unique set of skills and experiences, every résumé should reflect that uniqueness and individuality. Copying someone else's résumé is seldom a good idea since they possess different skills, abilities, and experiences.

The CHRONOLOGICAL RÉSUMÉ is the most commonly used type. Education and experience are listed with the most recent first. The information is typically divided into sections and listed under headings such as career objective, education, related experience, skills, co-curricular activities and interests. Titles, organizations, and dates are emphasized and duties and accomplishments are briefly described. A chronological résumé is best used when moving from one position to another in a similar field.
(Chronological Résumé: Sample 1; Sample 2)

The COMBINATION RÉSUMÉ emphasizes major areas of accomplishment and skills and allows you to organize them in a way that supports your career objective. A combination résumé is the better format to use when looking to move from one career field to another. If, in creating descriptions for your résumé, you notice patterns of skills emerging from your various experiences, the combination type of résumé may work best for you. Organize your skills under headings such as administrative and management, human relations, research and analytical (see Transferable Skills). Beneath these headings you can describe your experiences comprehensively, whether the experiences were paid, volunteer, or co-curricular. Dates, actual titles, and places of employment are in a subordinate position, usually at the bottom of the document.
(Combination Résumé: Sample 1; Sample 2)

The FUNCTIONAL RÉSUMÉ is a variation on the combination résumé. It focuses on a clear, specific job target (you would have a different résumé for each type of position for which you are applying). It lists only capabilities and supporting accomplishments that relate to the job target listed at the top. This format is best for those individuals looking to re-enter the workforce after a period of absence.
(Functional Résumé: Sample 1; Sample 2)

Résumés for musicians (and other performing artists) often take on a much different format. See the handout "Résumé Preparation for Musicians," available in the Career Center.

Recent technological advances make it important for most job seekers to develop SCANNABLE, PLAIN TEXT, OR ELECTRONIC RÉSUMÉS. These formats make it possible for an organization to store many résumés and select résumés by searching for key words that indicate your experience, skills, and training. Some Internet job sites also allow for a posting of your entire résumé, rather than requiring you to enter all of your information on their form. Although these résumés can resemble any of the above-mentioned formats, there are important characteristics that must be met to ensure that your résumé will have the intended impact. These characteristics are discussed here.

Style

A résumé should use a clear, easy-to-read font style. You may wish to highlight certain words or phrases by using bold letters, italics, a larger font size, or "bullets" (except when developing a scannable résumé). Underlining often makes text seem blurry and difficult to read so it should be used sparingly. Do not overuse any highlighting technique or you defeat the purpose of drawing special attention to a few key words or phrases.

Margins and tabs should be used so that the content is centered and comfortably fills a page. Avoid abbreviations (exceptions include GPA and the two-letter state abbreviations) and slashes wherever possible. In addition, indicate dates in simple terms (e.g., "Summer 1999" rather than "June - August 1999" or "6/99 - 8/99").

Content

Contact Information

List your full name (middle initial can be used), temporary school and/or permanent address, telephone number and e-mail address at the top of the page. Listing your personal web page is generally not a good idea, as most information on personal websites is not relevant to an employer. Do not use a heading such as "Résumé of..." or "Personal Data Sheet."

Career Objective

A brief description of your Career Objective (also called Professional Objective or Job Target) is encouraged for new graduates. An objective is a short statement that identifies your goal. It is useful to include a career objective since it indicates your interest in the specific type of position that employers offer. In addition, a clearly stated objective allows the employer to direct your résumé to the appropriate hiring official. A career objective should not be so narrowly defined that it limits your job options, nor should it be so vague that it gives the impression that you do not know what you want. An alternative is to develop more than one targeted résumé, each with a different objective and relating to a specific area of interest.

Examples of career objectives:

• Entry-level human resources position in a manufacturing setting where strong organizational skills and proven communication skills would be assets
  
• Position as investment banker in a savings and loan organization where strong analytical and proven interpersonal skills would be utilized
  
• To obtain a research position in a large pharmaceutical firm requiring strong laboratory and analytical skills
  

Education

List all entries in reverse chronological order. If you are a recent graduate or will be graduating soon, list your Lawrence education first. Emphasize names of institutions, degree(s) and month/year received, major(s), minor(s), interdisciplinary areas, independent studies, academic honors (if you have many, they can be highlighted by creating a separate section), study abroad, and GPA if above 3.0. If you have stated a Career Objective, you may wish to list "Related Coursework" within the Education category. List only a few of the most relevant courses, and refer to them by name rather than department and course number.

First year students and sophomores may choose to include high school on their résumé, but it is not necessary for those soon to graduate. High school can be included if you had a unique high school experience (school abroad), the type of school you attended is related to the kind of employment you seek, or you are trying to obtain a position in your hometown and your school will have name recognition.

Experience

NOTE: How the "Experience" section is arranged and titled will depend on the content and format of your individual résumé.

You should list your work experience, generally citing your most recent and relevant experience first. Expand on those positions pertinent to the work you are seeking. Include job title, organization for which you worked, city, state, dates of employment (write out names of months or seasons rather than using numerals), and a brief action-oriented description that shows the skills you used. Generally, you should not include work history that goes back to high school, unless it is noteworthy or especially relevant to the position you are seeking./p>

This section may include paid and non-paid positions, full-time or part-time work, summer employment, internships, volunteer activities, leadership positions, etc.

Co-curricular Activities

The decision about what to include depends on how active and involved you have been outside the classroom. If you have held leadership positions, you will want to list those and perhaps provide a brief description of your accomplishments; if you were a member of a number of organizations, you may simply want to list them. You are encouraged to list dates for co-curricular activities.

Special Skills and Interests

These categories can be separate or combined and can include such things as language abilities, musical talents, computer knowledge, laboratory and research experience, office skills, special licenses or certifications, or other skills that are not highlighted elsewhere on your résumé. By including some of your interests, an employer can learn more about you as a total person. What you include should be dictated by the requirements of the position you seek.

References

A statement indicating "references available upon request" is optional. Do not list names of references on your résumé. Remember that references are almost always checked; be sure to consider that as you prepare them. Reference checks can play a large role in whether or not you are offered the position or scholarship. Don’t choose references solely for name recognition. Be sure they can speak for you.
(References: Sample 1; Sample 2)

• Choose your references based on the type of job you are applying for.
• Select references that are familiar with your academic or work capabilities.
• Check with those individuals to make certain they are willing to serve as references.
• Prepare them for reference calls by providing them with your résumé and discussing your career goals.
• Prepare a separate sheet listing references’ current:
  • Names
    
  • Titles
    
  • Places of Employment
    
  • Addresses
    
  • Telephone Numbers
    
  • E-mail Addresses
    

IMPORTANT:

• Do not send photocopied résumés.
  
• Proofread your résumé very carefully before final printing or sending electronically.
  

Electronic Résumés

This format allows employers ease of transporting, storing, and retrieving data from your résumé. Unlike a “scannable” résumé, which is a paper copy of a résumé for the employer to scan and enter into a system, the electronic résumé can be directly entered without scanning and risking losing information. With electronic résumés you can apply by e-mail, apply over the web via electronic forms, or apply as a web page. Many businesses, offices, and other jobs ask directly for résumés to be submitted electronically. Pay careful attention to their requirements. Remember that what type of résumé you submit should reflect the employers’ wishes. If you are not sure, ASK! You don’t want to risk having your résumé thrown out before you get a chance. Some employers will also ask you to provide a paper copy of your résumé along with the electronic version. When you are finished preparing your electronic résumé e-mail it to yourself or a friend to double check that it appears correctly.

Types of electronic résumés:

Plain Text (TXT)

A plain text résumé is useful when you aren’t sure what programs the employer uses to open attachments, or if their programs support attachments. A plain text résumé will be created in a text editor like Microsoft Notepad or Macintosh Simple Text. All programs are able to READ plain text documents. This version can be submitted in the body of an e-mail or cut and pasted into on-line forms.

Tips for Plain Text Résumés

1. Do not use pictures, special fonts, or stylistic formatting.
2. Employ careful spacing (for e-mail margins-count 65 characters across the screen and then hit Enter).
3. Use the space bar to indent lines.
4. Use capital letters for heading sections (no underlining).
5. Surround bold sections with asterisks (* *).
6. Use a hyphen (-), asterisk (*), or plus sign (+) for creating lists.
7. Use hyphens (-----) to create a line.
8. Save the file as (.txt).

Rich Text (RTF)

A Rich text résumé is a fully formatted version of a résumé that you would typically use to print out and give to an employer. The difference again, is that it is saved as a file so that it is easily transportable to the employer. The Rich text resume is typically created in a word processor and saved as (.rtf). The problem with Rich text resumes is that many e-mail editors do not support Rich text and cause a “jumbled” appearance or make the text unreadable. The other problem is if you send the Rich text résumé as an attachment the employers e-mail system may not support e-mail attachments or know which program to use to open the resume.

PDF

PDF or Portable Document Format allows electronic documents to be shared between different operating systems while maintaining the integrity of the original document. Whether you created your resume in Word 2003, Word 2007, Works, WordPerfect or other word processing software, when you convert your resume to PDF it will look exactly the way you intended for it to look. The document cannot be accidentally altered. The employer will need Adobe Acrobat Reader in order read the PDF, but many newer computers will have this software installed standard.

REMEMBER: Be sure to find out which type the employer wants you to use!

Scannable Résumés

A scannable résumé is a paper copy of your résumé that could be submitted with your regular traditional résumé. This is simply a way for employers to get your data from the printed page to their database. A way of double-checking to see that your résumé stands up to the scan test, is to scan it yourself and be sure that it is appropriate. Use some of the guidelines from the plain text section above for help in scannable renditions. This used to be very common practice however, now more employers are looking for electronically submitted resumes.

When sending your scannable résumé, use a laser-jet printer rather than a dot matrix to ensure the best print quality. Also, print on white letter size paper. Do not use colored or odd-sized paper. Do not send a photocopy as OCRs (Optical Character Readers) sometimes misread photocopied documents. Finally send the résumé (along with a cover letter) in a letter sized envelope. This will ensure that the scannable résumé does not become creased in any manner. Remember not to staple your résumé pages together. It is also a good idea to somehow identify the scannable résumé.
(Scannable Résumé: Sample)

Tips for creating a Scan Friendly Résumé

There are several easy steps you can follow to transform your existing résumé into one that is scannable.

1. Remove all underlining, lines, bolding, centering, italicizing, bullets, indents, or special commands.
2. Use the asterisk (*) or hyphen (-) to replace bullets.
3. Change the font of the résumé to a common typeface such as Times, Courier, or Ariel using a font size between 10 and 14. Larger or smaller characters may not scan properly.
4. Double check each line to make sure that it is word wrapped properly with no extra spaces.
5. Ensure that your name is on the first line with nothing before it.
6. Place a blank line between headings and paragraphs.
7. Remove any extra blank lines.

A Word About Keywords

Your résumé will be one of many stored in the employer’s database. Therefore, it is a good idea to include an extra category that would not be part of a traditional résumé. This category should be entitled “Keywords” or “Talents.” In this category you can list nouns used to describe the job and yourself. These nouns can encompass technical jargon, specific skills that relate to the job, degrees you hold, job titles, personal traits, and other buzzwords. This category should be the last section of your résumé. The advantage of this section is that by listing these descriptive words, you increase the chance that the computer will select your résumé when it is performing its search.

Full List of Sample Résumés, Verb Lists and Reference Sheets

Chronological Résumé: Sample 1; Sample 2
Combination Résumé: Sample 1; Sample 2
Functional Résumé: Sample 1; Sample 2
Scannable Résumé: Sample
Skills as Verbs: List
Transferable Skills: List
References: Sample 1; Sample 2