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The Résumé: Do It Right And Keep It Short

The résumé is a professional marketing tool. It sells a potential employee and makes a first impression. Assume your résumé will be given 90 seconds of attention. A good résumé is the front line of attack in the job hunt. It can land a candidate the interview, structure the interview, remind the interviewer about him or her, and justify the hiring decision for others.

A résumé’s style, organization, and content can make or break the job search. Generally, the guidelines for preparing résumés call for a conservative and professional approach. Refer to books on résumé preparations (The Résumé Kit, by Richard Beatty, is one) for more detail. It is best to avoid unusual résumé styles and to stick with a reverse-chronological format. Don't split your job history and accomplishments into separate sections. Many employers don’t like functional résumés, which group skills or accomplishments under headings such as “management experience ” then list all the positions and employers at the bottom.

Essential components of a professional résumé are:

  • A clearly stated professional summary, with everything on the résumé relating to it
  • A work history with most recent experience at the top
  • Highlights of accomplishments (listed in bullet form under job title)
  • A listing of relevant education and training

A number of mistakes lead to rejected résumés. These “bad” résumés most commonly do one or more of the following:

  • Are not visually easy to read
  • Contain dishonest information
  • Aren’t accompanied by a cover letter
  • Go on too long (it should be three pages or shorter)
  • Are poorly written, with misspellings, typos, or poor grammar (use active, direct verbage)
  • Look homemade (have it professionally prepared if you are not proficient on your computer)
  • Fail to illustrate accomplishments/reads like a job description
  • Include irrelevant information, such as hobbies, health or marital status
  • Use the functional format
  • Don’t contain concise information on each job. Do not include lengthy job descriptions, but do list highlights in bullet form. Use less space on less current or relevant jobs.
  • Don't take the jargon of your industry for granted

Click Here for a sample resume.