Resume Hints and Tips
The goal of a good resume is to generate an interview. Here's a quick article that shows you how to transform your resume into a great personal marketing tool.
- Getting your resume started
- Resume Template
- Customizing your resume for each job
- Resume Dos and Don'ts
Introduction
A resume is a page or two of personal information as it applies to a specific job. Your resume should effectively:
- Summarize your past - describe your education, skills, work experience, and extra-curricular activities
- Illustrate your organizational skills - use an easy to read, concise layout
- Stimulate interest - get employers interested in your abilities and to encourage them to contact you for an interview
- Represent you as an individual in a professional and businesslike manner
Your Resume - How Do You Start?
Do you know what you know, what you have accomplished, what your potential is? In order to lay the groundwork for your resume, create a simple record on paper, in rough, of all your past activities. List all your major experiences - jobs, clubs, sports, projects at school, any other long-term activities - and describe them:
- What you did
- Outcomes: what your learned, achieved, contributed, what you were commended for
- Explain them in as much detail as you can, using one page for each activity
- Rank the points in order of levels of responsibility, importance, and recency.
This forms the basis of your resume. Now organize your information into one, big overall resume which includes everything about you that an employer would ever want to know. This version will help you to collect data and will never be sent to an employer. Follow the basic resume format listed below. When you work on the finished product for a specific job, you'll take from each section the most relevant information for the position that you are applying for.
Example Resume Template
We've provided a simple template that you can use to help formulate your resume.
- Download Resume Template (doc file)
How to Customize your Resume for Each Application
The best way to make yourself stand out to an employer is to tailor your resume specifically to the job and the company that you are applying to. You should develop a general resume including all of your accomplishments that you can use a guideline to customize for each job application. Before including any piece of information, ask yourself:
- Does this information add anything to my objective of being hired for this job? If not, leave it out.
- Does this information say (or suggest) what I can do for the employer? If not, leave it out.
Use the following tips to customize your resume:
- Keep the same general format for all resumes you do - utilize the basic category and heading layout as your structure template for each resume
- General details such as job titles, company, dates and educational information will usually remain the same for each resume
- Highlight relevant projects, labs or classes from school that emphasize skills or technologies relevant to the job
- Focus on job responsibilities that utilize skills or technologies requested in the job description
- Utilize key words from the job description throughout your resume
- Make sure that all technical skills and associated computer knowledge required in the job description are listed in your Skills section (if you have that knowledge)
- Alter extra-curricular activities section to highlight specific soft skills (eg. - leadership, team work, interpersonal skills) requested in the job description
- If you have any previous exposure to this company, be sure to include their name prominently in your resume - for example, if the company where you did your co-op placement was a customer of this company, if you completed an Engineering & Management project on their company practices or if you were a recipient of a Company Scholarship, be sure to mention the company connection
- Compose a list of industry keywords of skills and qualifications valued in general by most companies in your field - utilize keywords that employer hasn't mentioned specifically but those which you believe are relevant to the job you are applying for
- Visit the employer's website for additional information about what the company values as well as their goals and corporate philosophy so that you can work this into your resume
Resume Dos and Don'ts
- Do make your resume well-organized and easy to read
- Do tailor your resume specifically to the job and company that you are applying to
- Do use action verbs to describe your experiences and remember to include industry keywords and phrases
- Do utilize your resume's style and content to reveal your personality, individuality and those qualities which set you apart from others
- Do keep your resume short, simple and organized in such a way that it draws immediate attention to your most significant skills and achievements and how they relate to the job you are applying for
- Do organize your resume chronologically - list most recent information first for each section
- Do feature your contact information prominently on your resume - be sure to include your name, mailing address, phone number and area code and a professional sounding email address
- Do include your name on the second page of your resume - if your resume pages get separated, you want the employer to be able to easily pair them up again
- Do use subheadings in your technical skills section to make it easier for employers to find the skills that are most important to them
- Don't just list courses taken in your education section - instead describe what key areas you are focusing your studies on and highlight projects, lab reports & other academic experiences related to the job you are applying for
- Don't use paragraphs for your descriptions - bullet points are much more effective at highlighting your accomplishments and employers are more likely to read them
- Don't overuse underlining, bold print or italics - you should use these features to make special qualifications on your resume stand out, but if you overuse them nothing will stand out to the employer
- Don't just list job responsibilities - remember to highlight accomplishments, list skills acquired, quantify your descriptions using #'s, $'s & %'s and give outcomes
- Don't include everything you have ever done on your resume - your resume should be a maximum of 2 pages and should include only information relevant to the job you are applying for
- Don't allow any spelling, grammar or punctuation errors on your resume - utilize spell check and grammar check program features or have a friend proof-read it for errors
- Don't exclude the extra-curricular activities section of your resume - employers like to see that you are a well-rounded person and this section is particularly useful in highlighting your soft skills
- Don't exaggerate or misrepresent your skills or accomplishments - employers will find out and you will risk losing the job, as well as your professional reputation
