Career Services: Writing Your Resume - General Hints
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Determine Your Target
Stress your achievements that will be most important to your reader,
not the ones that may be most important to you. If you have varied
career fields you are pursuing in your job search, you will in all
likelihood have more than one resume.
Keep it Short
One page or two at most. Your resume will be reviewed in 20 to
45 seconds. Tell your story precisely and concisely. Recent graduates
should almost always keep it to one page.
Be Concise
Use a journalistic writing style utilizing short sentences and
positive verbs and adjectives.
Examples: Verbs: Initiated, organized, created, improved, supervised,
trained, managed, directed, led, achieved, accomplished, built,
researched, developed, established. Adjectives: successful, efficient,
consistent, dependable, productive, resourceful and effective.
Avoid using the first person "I"
You only have so much space and a short crisp writing style is
the norm for resumes. Quantify - Substantiate what you've done or
achieved using specific examples.
For example: "Increased sales volume by 15%" or "Supervised
15 campers, 8 to 12 years old."
Show Development
Indicate to the employer how you progressed in a position or within
an organization. For example: "Started lawn care business.
Grew from 2 employees to 13 in three years. Grossed $12,000 last
year.
Don't Leave Holes
While not as important for recent graduates as it is for experienced
alumni, you should attempt to account for all periods of time. If
you must leave gaps in your resume be prepared to address these
periods during interviews.
Never Lie
Inaccuracies in your resume can come back to haunt you. Many employers
will immediately dismiss an employee for lying on their resume no
matter how long ago the employee was hired. Instead of misrepresenting
yourself, be selective about what you choose to include on the resume,
for example. if your Cumulative GPA is 2.6 and 3.3 in your major,
refer to the latter as it is more complimentary.
Omit Irrelevant Personal Information
Do not include information that has no bearing on your ability
to perform a given job. In general, you are advised to leave out
the following: height, sex, marital status, religion, health, birth
date or age, political affiliation. In most cases it is illegal
for employers to ask you about these areas because such information
can only be used to discriminate. The exception to this are jobs,
such as acting that may require certain characteristics to be performed
effectively.
A good rule of thumb is to avoid saying anything on the resume
that might jeopardize your candidacy or negatively bias a prospective
employer.
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