Resume Templates

How to Write a Resume

For any prospective job hunter, making good first impression is very important as it represents whether a person gets a chance for an interview. That is why writing a good resume is necessary. Another reason is that businesses do not have the time to meet with every potential job candidate that applies for a job opening. The human resource managers can tell a lot about a person just by looking at their resume. Does this person know how to organize their thoughts and communicate clearly? Do they stand out with certain accomplishments that are highlighted by the use of action words? What has this person been doing with his time? Does this person seem like full of energy or a complete bore? Companies use resumes to easily eliminate obvious bad job applicants. Know what to include in your resume and how to make a resume that will get you an interview.

What to Put on a Resume

A resume should consist of several parts including:

Contact Information
Objective for Resume (Optional)
Education
Work Experience
Skills
Interests (Optional)

Contact Information – This should be located at the top of the resume and be easy for recruiters to find. Contact information that is centered on top is common. It is important to include your name, address, phone number, and email. Make sure you check your email frequently in case a potential employer tries to contact you.

Resume Objective – While this is optional, including one shows potential employers that you are focused and know what type of position that you want. However, it is important to write a very focused objective that is tailored to each and every job submitted because employers can tell when resume objectives are generic. Writing a bad objective for resume can do more harm than good.

Education – List your education including college(s) attended, degree(s) or certification(s) earned, major, date they were earned, location of the college, and other notable college achievements. Also, if you have done well in college, be sure to include your grade point average. Anything above a 3.0 is good enough. Otherwise, leave it out of your resume.

Work Experience - Include the past companies that you have worked for including the location, department, employment dates, and job duties. Prioritize the important duties in your previous job and list them first. It is also important to turn job responsibilities into achievements while also including action words to do so. Lastly, make sure to add work-related keywords that matches the job opening that you are applying for.

Resume Skills – The skills to put on a resume should include any special skills that make you stand out from the crowd. This can include technical skills such as knowing how to write macros or non-technical skills such as debate. This could be especially helpful if the skill set is related to the job that you are applying for.

Interests – While this part of the resume is not mandatory, it is nice to include personal interests to show what kind of person you are. Include interests that are non-job related to demonstrate that you aren’t a boring person. It adds some personality to your resume and while it is not a make or break situation, it can certainly tilt things in your favor.

Additional Resume Tips on How to Do a Resume:

If you are printing out a hard copy of your resume to hand out, use high quality resume paper that is sturdy and not flimsy and go for laser printing to avoid ink smears
Use a professional font such as Arial and Times Roman
Include bullet points to easily highlight your main accomplishments
Don’t lie on your resume because companies will verify certain facts such as degrees earned, grade point average, and employment dates
Check for any grammatical or spelling errors
Be concise and to the point
Don’t exceed 1 page
Resume formats should layout information clearly
For an additional touch, include a cover letter along with your resume

How to Write a Resume

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