The purpose of a resumé is to arouse enough interest and curiosity in the person who reads it to prompt them to call you or schedule a meeting. While even a strong resumé cannot – on its own – get you a job, it can get you a face-to-face meeting with someone in a position to hire you or introduce you to someone else who might need you. That meeting is your opportunity to persuade them you’re the right person for the job.

Interviewers can literally go through hundreds of resumés and generally the ones that are easy to read will be selected for further review. You should make it easy as possible for an interviewer to select your resumé.

Before you start to write your resumé, it’s a good idea to assemble all of the information you will need in three separate lists:

List 1
Write down all the positions you have held so far in your career. For each job, note the exact title, the precise period during which you held the position and the full name of the organization you worked for, as well as its location.

List 2
Write down as many of your accomplishments as you can think of. What is an accomplishment? Something you did or recommended, or caused to be done or not done, or an opportunity or threat you identified and flagged that had a positive impact on the organization that employed you. Your resumé should represent you as someone with a history of making a meaningful difference. Your list of accomplishments documents that history, and is the most important part of your resumé. It should be presented in a journalistic format; in other words, it should concisely explain what you did, why you did it, how you did it and what the results were.

List 3
What credits, degrees or honours can you claim? What non-degree or non-credit training have you had? Be sure to clearly indicate the institutions and dates you attended or received your degrees. What other important things have you trained yourself to do?

Notes: Resumés vary considerably in structure. Nonetheless, all contain the same three basic components: positions, accomplishments and education.

Try to limit your resumé to no more than two or three pages.

Personal Information

• Name
• Full address including postal code
• Home and office telephone numbers
• Fax number
• Internet address

Education

This section often comes first, especially if it is a strong asset.

• List education in reverse chronological order (most recent first)
• Provide names and locations of schools (usually post-secondary only)
• List degrees and month/year obtained or expected
• If relevant, provide major and minor
• Summarize important/relevant courses
• Summer school courses
• Night school courses
• Special workshops or seminars

Experience

Functional Format

To highlight skills and talents, cluster experience under appropriate headings, e.g., Leadership, Research, Computer Skills, Communication Skills. This format can be especially helpful if you have little relevant job experience.

Chronological Format

To emphasize work experience, list positions beginning with the most recent.

Hint: Describe responsibilities using action verbs: List most important responsibilities first, group similar tasks together.

Highlight your accomplishments in this section.

References

Prepare a separate list of references, including complete name, title, company name, address, and telephone number. It’s wise to get permission from the people on your list. Offer list to prospective employer after your interview.

Skills

List computer languages and software, research, laboratory, teaching or tutoring, communication and leadership skills. For specific technical skills, it is often helpful to include some kind of assessment of your skill level (e.g., type 60 wpm) and an indication of the number of years of experience with that tool. If a skill is academic, say so.

Do not…

1. Use a cover page, a folder, an acetate cover or any other embellishment.

2. Put your picture on your resumé.

3. Use odd-sized or odd-coloured paper or coloured inks.

4. Do anything “gimmicky” (e.g., print sideways).

5. Put a border around the text or heavy lines between sections.

6. Use desk-top publishing to create the final product – it inspires non-standard format creativity.

7. Make corrections by hand. Make changes on disk and print a clean copy.