The

World of Heavy Paper:

An introduction to writing, formatting, and organizing resumes
ENG 332

Resumes: A Summary of the Medium

A resume is a brief summary of your abilities, education, experience, and skills.

website or sending it to multiple employers, make it more general. But, in most cases you should highlight the skills you have that fit the specific job for which you are applying.

Purpose:
The purpose of a resume is to convince prospective employers to contact you for an interview.

Style:
Try to appear confident, but not aggressive or arrogant. Do not exaggerate your skills. Write concisely.

Repetition of words is kept to a minimum Capitalization, punctuation, font, and date formats are consistent Margins and line spacing keep the page from looking too crowded No right justification PDF format

Planning:
Before you start writing your resume, make a list of skills and experiences (jobs, internships, volunteer positions) that demonstrate your skills.

Formatting:
Make your resume easy to read. Employers often are skimming through hundreds of resumes so you want them to get the important points quickly. General layout tips: Use a font size of 11 or 12 points. Use a single, nondecorative typefaces, or two typefaces at the most. NO typos

General printing tips: Use white or off-white paper. Use 8-1/2- x 11-inch paper. Print on one side of the paper.

Revisions:
Use spell check and have somebody else proof your resume.

Length:
For most applications, generally 1-2 pages. (Curriculum vitae are used in academics and can be longer)

File name:
If you are sending your resume as an attachment make sure to name it clearly (i.e. Holl-resume or Resume_Smith_2010, not just resume)

Audience:
Tailor your resume to the target audience. If you are posting it on a

Resumes: The Sections Involved

The sections of a resume should be well organized and should follow some sense of both chronological order and order of importance.

Mention academic honors (unless you have a separate Award & Honors section). IMPORTANT: You may need to have two separate sections, one Relevant Experience and another Work Experience so that you can separate important positions (internships, related jobs) from other work (food service, retail). Use action words to describe job duties. Organize in reverse chronological order. Internships, leadership positions, or project-based classes could count as experience. Include: o title of position o name of organization o location of work o dates of employment o descriptions of your work responsibilities, skills, achievements

Skills:
You may want to add additional skills that are not demonstrated by your education or former positions (e.g. leadership experience in volunteer organizations, foreign language abilities, software proficiencies).

Relevant Experience:

Header:
Include all contact information in header Avoid nicknames Professional e-mail address Use a permanent address and telephone number Professional website only

References:
Can either submit a list or note that they are available upon request.

Other Optional Sections:

Leadership Experience, Community Development; for community/non-profit work Honors, Awards, or Honors & Awards; for achievements Research; highlight academic/published work Related Courses, if youd like to include a short list of relevant courses that illustrate skills; however, this is optional and can be cut if your resume is too long. Extra-Curricular Activities, typically only clubs where you held officer position.

Objective or Summary:
You can include an objective or summary statement. Always target it to the specific job. This is optional, and this section can be cut if your resume is too long.

Education:
List post-secondary education in reversechronological order. Include degree (A.S., B.S., B.A., etc.), major, institution, and minor/concentration GPA (only if > 3.0)