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Resume Writing Guide

GENERAL
o Create a master resume, which includes all your information, jobs, skills, and activities you ever did
across your life. This resume isn’t the one you send to employers.
o For each job/company you apply for, create a targeted resume specifically for this job/company, by
removing and editing information in the master resume.
o Include only information that is relevant to the job/company you are applying for.
o Try to use words from the job posting when writing the objective and the descriptions in the work
experience.
o Remember, the objective of the resume is to get you an interview, not get you the job.

CONTACT INFORMATION
o It includes your name,1 phone number, 1 professional email address, and 1 address, in that order.
(Double check that all the information is current and accurate).
o Your name shouldn’t be long, try to include 3 names max. and include the names that are a bit catchy
and memorable, and consistent with your name on online profiles/platforms.
o Don't add your landline unless you must. In this case, you must confirm with whoever picks up the phone
to reply in a good manner.
o Don't use your current employer’s phone number or email address.
o You can remove your home address if you feel it might affect your chances in getting an interview. For
example, if you are living too far from the company or in another governorate, you can remove your
address.
o Your address doesn’t have to be detailed, it is enough to write the area and city, i.e. Nasr City, Cairo.
o If available, contact information may include links to a professional portfolio, website, or LinkedIn page.
But, make sure they are up to date, and don’t put your Facebook or Twitter accounts.

OBJECTIVE
o It is optional to add an objective when you are still a fresh graduate (from 0-2 years of experience).
o If you decide to include one, it should be short, specific, and concise and states a specific position.
o It shouldn’t be something you copy of the internet.
o Make sure you customize it for each vacancy you apply for.
o Refer to https://resumegenius.com/how-to-write-a-resume/career-objective-writing-guide for guidelines
on writing an objective.
o The objective is the only thing in the resume that is written as a paragraph not bullet points.
o If you are a graduate, with 3+ years of experience, you can include a “Qualifications Summary”, not an
objective. Refer to https://resumegenius.com/how-to-write-a-resume/qualifications-summary-writing-
guide for guidelines on writing a qualifications summary.
o In case you are career shifter/changer, use a “Career Profile” instead of objective. Refer to for guidelines
on writing a career profile.

EDUCATION
o When writing your educational qualifications, include the degree, name of university/school, year of
graduation, and major and minor if applicable.
o Below are a few ways to write your degree:
➢ You can either spell out your degree “Master of Arts” or just use initials “MA.”
➢ You can either use periods to separate initials “M.A.” - or not “MA.”
➢ You can write out the name of your major “MA in Psychology” or simply separate your degree
from your major with a comma “MA, Psychology.”

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 o Even if you are still an undergrad, you should write your degree the same way as described in the
previous point. However, when it comes to the date, you can write it in either of the following ways:
➢ Anticipated + date
➢ Expected + date
➢ Expected Graduation + date
o Your overall grade when included should be “Good” or higher - 3.0 or higher. Otherwise, don’t include it.
o If you have little to no experience of internships or extracurricular activities, list-optional- selected
courses relevant to job/internship, and your awards and honours if any
o Your graduation project can also be included, if relevant to job/internship, like this project name, your
role/position (if you were the project lead for example), and action verb/statement presenting your
achievements.
o If you finished college, don’t add your high school information, unless it was a language or international
school, or your certificate was IGSCE or American Diploma, to reflect your language skills.
o If you entered one of the top faculties like Engineering, Medicine, etc., you don’t need to add your grade
in high school.

EXPERIENCE
o For the section’s name, there are 2 options:
➢ In case you’re still ungraduated and you only have trainings or internships, you can name the
section Trainings/Internships.
➢ In case it’s a mix of summer trainings and work experience, it should be named “Experience”.
o This section can include your work experience (full/part time or freelance jobs), summer trainings and
internships.
o It might include extracurricular activities or volunteer work in case they’re relevant to what you’re
applying for and are like a real work environment.
o Writing your experience should cover 4 elements: your job tittle, Company/Organization name, Location
(optional), and Date.
o Date can be written as follows; MM/YYYY or Season/Year. However, don’t write days even if it was a
one-week training.
o Write a one sentence description of your employers if a smaller font size and in Italic, if they are not well
known.
o Under each job, you should write a description with the following criteria
➢ Use action verbs to explain what you’ve done in that job/training and to highlight the skills and
the knowledge you acquired.
➢ Be very specific about what you were exactly doing, don’t use generic sentences.
➢ Include all accomplishments and achievements you did in that job.
➢ Make the descriptions result oriented and use quantitative information to prove results.
➢ Use bullet points, not paragraphs, but maximum 2 lines per bullet point.
➢ Use present tense in the descriptions for current work, and past tense for previous work.
o If you held multiple positions with the same employer, don’t repeat the employer for each position, just
write the employer name one time, and under it write the first position and the dates, then 3 bullet points
for the description. Afterwards move to the second position.

EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
o For fresh grads, this is a very important section to add as it reflects your skills and work attitude as well.
o It includes any volunteer work, all the student activities (inside or outside your Faculty – technical and
non-technical)
o Competitions can be included as well (if it’s only one, then you don’t have to open a new section for it)
o It might also include any kind of sports, interests or hobbies, in case you turned any of them into
achievement.

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 o All the guidelines mentioned above for the experience on writing and formatting the section, applies in
the extracurricular activities section as well.

Courses
o This section reflects non-experiential training experiences, like when you are just listening, not doing
anything practical, in a class/ lecture/session setting.
o To express a course in your resume you have to mention 3 things:
➢ Course name
➢ The entity that provided the course and its location
➢ End date of the course and number of hours spent in this course
o Online courses can be mentioned using the same technique yet they have to be related to the applied
job.
o Don’t mention English courses or ICDL/ software courses. These courses are better to be reflected as
skills in the skills section.
o This section could be named workshops, or courses and workshops, then include all workshops you
attended including the experiential ones.

SKILLS
o Skills can be listed as a separate category.
o Skills are identified by type, including computer, language and/or technical.
o Proficiency level is included for languages (native, fluent, proficient).
o Do not include personal attributes or soft skills (e.g., teamwork, communication).
o It is usually the last section mentioned in your resume. For technical major students it can be mentioned
sooner in the resume like computer science students.
o You can add technical skills section for things you can do away from languages and computer, like
hardware maintenance, or coding languages.

FORMATTING
o The most important aspect is that the resume is easy to read for the recipient and that the format stays
consistent.
o Use a standard resume formatting, unless you are applying for a job that requires artistic creativity. In
this case, you may want to design an out-of-the-box resume to show your skills.
o Your master resume can be any number of pages you need. However, the customized resume should be
a maximum of 2 pages, without overcrowding.
o Try to avoid narrow margin, in the page layout.
o Your name should be the first thing on the resume, with font size 14 and bold.
o Contact information should be write after the name with 12-13 font size.
o As for the rest of the resume font size is 10-12 point, professional and uniform throughout resume. (Right
use of bold, italics, and underlines, margins).
o Regarding the font type, it can be anything you’d like. However, we have some recommendations for you
to make it stand out:
➢ Cambria for headers, with Calibri for body
➢ Ariel for headers, with Arial Narrow for body
➢ Tahoma for headers and body
➢ Verdana for headers and body
➢ Helvetica Neue for headers and body
o Don’t use more than 2 font types or colours.
o There are no errors in capitalization, spelling, word usage, grammar, and punctuation.
o Entries are listed in reverse chronological order (current to oldest) in each section.
o Make sure you have a consistent formatting across the entire document (if one title is bold, then all titles
should be bold)

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ARRANGEMENT:
o There’s no one right way to order the sections, but it’s preferably to write the most important parts at
first to attract the employer then the least.
o Remember it takes the recruiter from 3-7 seconds to decide what they will do with your resume, ignore
it, continue reading or call you.
o The arrangement shall be based on your situation, as follows:
➢ For fresh grads (0-2 years of experience), it should be arranged; Contact information, Objective
(optional), Education, Experience, Extracurricular activities, and Skills.
➢ For professionals (3+ years of experience), it should be arranged; Contact information, Summary
of Qualifications (optional), Experience, Education, Professional Organizations / Community
Involvement (optional) and Skills.
➢ For career changers/shifters: Contact information, Career Profile, Experience, Education,
Extracurricular activities, and Skills. However, if you took new certifications that are relevant to
the new career then Education should come before Experience.

OTHER TIPS
o Don’t add a photo to your resume, unless it was requested by the employer. In this case, don't use an
unprofessional one.
o Interests and hobbies shouldn’t be included in your resume.
o Personal information like marital status, date of birth, religion and nationality, shouldn’t be mentioned in
the resume.
o Document does not include use of personal pronouns (I, me, we) or articles (a, the).
o Don't use the phrase “References available upon request”
o Don’t ever lie on your resume.
o Your resume should be sent in PDF format, not word or others.
o Don't include in your resume anything you didn't achieve or anything you don't remember.
o Don’t write “CV” or “Resume” in your resume.
o Write an email message to send with your resume, don’t send an email with an empty body or subject.
o Don’t use jargons or abbreviations in your resume.
o Name your resume as follows “Your name – Resume”.