Resume Writing

101
What do we
mean by a
resume?
Simply defined…

A resume is:
“ a written compilation of your education, work
experience, credentials, and accomplishments “
So it is basically a document used and created by a
person to present their background, skills, and
accomplishments to another person.
Resume vs CV
Have you ever
submitted a
resume?
Paper Resume vs
Electronic
Resume
 What is the amount of
time an employer takes
to review an applicant’s
resume?
1.Less than 1 minute
2.1 – 3 minutes
3.5 - 10 minutes
4.More than 10 minutes
The answer is:

 15 – 20 seconds minimum - 45 seconds maximum.

Why?

So, it’s incredibly

important to make
those few seconds
count!
It’s one of the Make it
or Break it moments
What is a cover
letter?
 Cover letter vs Resume
• A good cover letter complements a resume
(applications) by expanding on items
relevant to the job.
• It introduces you in a more personal way
and supplements the info on your resume.
• In essence, it's a sales pitch that describes
why the applicant is the best person for the
position.
What is a
Portfolio?
 Your resume is…

 An essential marketing tool that you

will use to obtain an interview, not
a job.
 It starts with the resume, then
moves on to the interview.
Resumes are required by almost all
organization during any regular
recruitment process for many
reasons, like…
Resume-hidden Messages
RESUME YOU
 Neat Neat

 Well-organized Well-organized

 Error free Attention to detail

 Professional appearance Careful & Competent

Generally speaking…
 How well you have educated yourself about current job searching
practices.
 Your ability to concisely summarize information.
 Your attention to detail.
 How seriously you take yourself and this potential job. 
In a nutshell, your resume tells a story about you and
whether that story is a good one or not is completely up to
you.
Make it a good one!
 How can you turn
that glance into a 60-
minutes interview?
 Divide your resume into
sections!
Your student resume could include the following sections:
1.Contact Information
2.Resume Objective
3.Education
4.Skills
5.Work Experience (If you got any!)
 Divide your resume into
sections!
Additional Sections can include:
• Honors and Awards
• Volunteer Experience
• Certifications, Trainings
• Affiliations and Activities
• Hobbies and Interests
 Resumes Formats
There are 3 types of resume formats that are most
common:
1.Reverse-chronological resume format
2.Functional (or skills-based) resume format
3.Combination (or hybrid or chrono-functional) resume
format
The main difference between them is the chief focus.
 The Difference…
•The chronological resume format focuses on work
experience.
•The skills-based resume format is based on, well, skills.
•The hybrid / combination resume format highlights
both your experience and skills, linking the skills in the
skills summary to real-life experience that shows how
you gained them.
Sections of a
Resume
 Reverse-Chronological
Resume Template
 
1.Contact information
2.Resume Summary or Resume Objective
3.Work Experience
4.Education
5.Skills
6.Additional Sections
 Personal Information
What should be included?
◦ Name
◦ Permanent and present address (Especially if
applying for a position outside the country of
residence).
◦ E-mail address
◦ Telephone number
◦ Social Media Accounts
Exclude information like your birth date or marital status and
keep in mind that you do not have to respond to questions about
religion, race, or gender on an application.
 Your E-mail Address
Tutu1997@gmail.com
Black_Scorpion123@hotmail.com
Mtn98349394@yahoo.com

•Create a professional email address.

•You may consider creating a custom email
address using your own domain name.
 Objective Statement / Career
Objective
Purpose
• Communicate the type of position you are
interested in.
Examples
• Management trainee position with a specialty retailer.
• Technical sales with an energy related industry in the
Southwest.
• To obtain a position as field service representative
with XYZ Software Corporation.
 Which one is better?
English graduate with proven communication, travel
planning, and email management skills. Seeking a position
as an administrative assistant at Acme Inc., to leverage
organizational and research skills to support internal and
external communication.

Looking for an admin assistant role where I can apply my

skills. Not much office experience yet, but I’m a self-starter
and I want to make a difference.
 The Twist…
In the right example, she refers to skills she
learned through internships, volunteering, and in
college. And she clearly shows how her
qualifications will benefit the employer.

In the wrong example, she just said what she

wanted out of the job. That won’t be enough to
impress recruiters. All other candidates are looking
for an admin assistant role.
 When to use a resume
objective?
Career objectives for a resume should be used by
candidates with little or no professional
experience in the industry. These are:
◦ People who are entering the job market for the first time.
◦ People who are switching industries, changing careers, or
need to explain an unclear career path.
So yeahh, there are many other resume
introductions…
 Here’s how to write an
objective for a resume:
 Start with a strong trait, add 2–3 skills, describe your career goals, and
say what you hope to do for the company.
 State the position to which you’re applying and use the name of the
company.
 Keep it short. 2–3 sentences or 30–50 words is the sweet spot.
 Avoid first-person pronouns.
Another tip..keep it for the last…
And keep in mind that you can’t just write one general resume
objective and put it on every resume you send out! Tailor says Hi 
 Tailor your resume to the job
description 
Read the whole job description…read it again…one more
time…
Make sure you’re qualified, an attractive job title is not
enough to send your CV immediately.
Mine the description for keywords (soft or technical skills,
qualifications…etc).
Identifying the keyword skills in the offer and then add
these skills throughout your resume (whatever applies).
Know your audience…what are their needs…keywords
are what hiring managers are looking for when they scan
your resume.
 Use Action Verbs

Can you leave responsible

for, managed and
communicated alone please?
 Resume Design
Don’t Over-Design Your
Resume!
•Keep it simple, include relevant
information and don’t try to use
it as a creative showcase. That’s
what your portfolio is for.  
Make good use of the top
third of your
resume/section
 Colors…
• Using color on your resume can help to make your resume
look attractive and easy-on-the-eye.
• It can also help to emphasize the most important parts
which you want to draw the employer’s attention to.
• The best resume colors depend on the profession you’re
applying for and the impression you want to give.
However, there are some basic principles to keep in mind…
 Colors…
• Using black, white, and a third color (such as blue or green)
is a safe resume color scheme. (there are some
exceptions!)
• Make one color dominant, one secondary, and use the
third to place emphasis.
• One tasteful way is to use white for the background, black
for the text, and the remaining color to highlight
important parts.
• It is a good idea, if possible, to use the same colors for
your cover letter as you use in your resume, this helps to
create a personal brand.
 Inconsistencies are baaaad
Make sure the color scheme, fonts, style,
margin sizes and use of bold and underlining
are consistent throughout your resume.
 Avoid Long Texts
• Content is everything but…large, unbroken
paragraphs are off-putting for employers as they
simply don’t want to read them.
• Use bullet points, headings, bold, plenty of white
space, and short, concise sentences.
• You have a cover letter if you feel that you need to
further explain something.
Font Style and Size
If you choose a font that is hard to
read or childish, a hiring manager
might toss your resume in the
trash.
Comic Sans
Papyrus
Curlz MT
.
.

Stick to fonts that sound like the

names of hipster children: 
 
Verdana 
Arial
Helvetica 
.
.
.
Get rid of nonsensical
jargon
 Education
In each education entry, include:
1.Your Degree
2.The name of your institution
3.Graduation date (or a prospective graduation date if you’re still in this
school)

These are included in a basic resume for students. But

a basic student resume won’t impress anyone!
 
 Education
To make your resume more impressive, add
the following to your education entries:
◦ Relevant Coursework
◦ Favourite fields of study
◦ Thesis/dissertation titles
◦ Key academic achievements, e.g., Dean’s List
 Education
Name of Institution
• Include city and state if not part of the title

Name of your degree and major

• Bachelor of _________ in ___________
Bachelor of Science in Electronic Marketing and Social Media

List degrees in reverse chronological order

• Most recent degree is listed first.
 Education
Date or expected date of graduation
•Graduation Date: June 2019
•Expected Graduation Date: June 2019

GPA

High School Information

• IB, IGCSE, SAT, Tawjihi
 Consider adding a
coursework description
• Adding a coursework description is a good start.
Especially for fresh graduates.
• Your education section is still your strongest asset.
• Listing or describing courses and listing the
projects you have worked on can show recruiters
that you have skills related to the job. 
 Experience
Use the term "experience”
What is considered experience?
• Full and part-time jobs
• Self-employment
• Volunteer work
• Practicum, field, and cooperative education
• Internships
Information to include
• Job Title
• Dates of employment
• Company name
• City
• Responsibilities
 Listing Responsibilities
•Use bullet points
•Start of each line with an action verb
Present tense if currently employed
Past tense if no longer employed
Vary your choice of verbs
• Be concise while providing enough detail.
 Add achievements to your
experience…if any
• This way you are showing what it looks like when you
put your skills to work.

• When adding achievements to your resume, use

the X, Y, Z approach.

In situation X I did Y, which resulted in Z. 

  
 
 X,Y,Z Approach Example
To generate user I won an employee
engagement, I performed
multiple A/B tests, resulting of the year award.
in a 20% decrease in
bounce rates and a 15%
increase in sales
conversions. 
 Skills
• Make a separate skills section. (Can include your trainings and
certefications).
• Put your strongest, most relevant skills here.
• By relevant, I mean these skills that will help you perform well in the
job you’re trying to land.
• Next, have a look at a job description. See some skills-related words?
• Ask yourself how many of these skills you have. Quite a few?
• Include some in your resume objective, coursework description, and
experience section.
• You may use a standalone section for you technical skills.
 Honors & Awards
•You could add a separate section if you received quite a few
awards in school.
•Add them to your education section if you received only
one or two, e.g. dean’s list.
•Order by dates (reverse chronological).
Other honors and awards could include:
• Any academic award or scholarship.
• Academic Honors - making the Dean’s List.
• Work-related awards or honors (these can go in an honors and awards
section or under the relevant job in your experience section).
Professional Affiliations & Activities

• It gives you a chance to show where and how

you developed certain skill sets. 
• Rank order by importance to the career objective
• Spell out the organization’s name and do not use
abbreviations or acronyms
 Hobbies and Interests
• Adding a hobbies and interests section boosts just about
any resume.
• It’s a super easy section to put on a student resume
because you probably have a lot of hobbies and interests
beyond your school activities.
• The key is matching your hobbies to your future company’s
work culture.
 Name your files properly
Resume – Ahmad Khaled Resume Final
Cover Letter – Ahmad Khaled Cover Letter 5
Transcript – Ahmad Khaled asohfjaskhfkjash
Save as a PDF
Proofread!
 Beware of ATS!
• Some companies use ATS for handling resumes.
• These systems let companies to automatically filter
candidates based on some criteria.
• According to most ATS guidelines, your resumes should not
contain any graphic element (no images, icons, tables or
any shapes).
• If any of these are present, ATS could jumble up your
information while reading your resumes and you could lose
a potential job opportunity. 
Thank You!