Creating a Powerful Resume: Tips and Tricks


A resume is a concise outline of your work history, related experience and education. The resume should never be self-serving or exaggerated but should have a positive, action-and-results oriented tone. A resume should be appealing to the reader, thought provoking and invite further questions. If you are updating your resume or writing your first draft, follow these guidelines for providing information:


Contact Information
Your resume must include your contact information if you want potential employers to contact you.

* Your personal data should include full legal name, permanent and school (if applicable) address, home telephone and/or cellular numbers, email address and web address (if applicable).
* For legal reasons, you should not include any physical characteristics, age, race, sex, martial status, dependents and health information.


Objective
An objective is a statement of your career direction and is optional. An objective is not typically necessary if a detailed cover letter is provided.

* If you chose to include an objective make sure you avoid vague and generalized statements, use reasonable statements, tie the object to a specific role or industry and change your objective for each resume.
* An example objective is: “Obtain a challenging, entry-level position in Broadcast Journalism, with a special interest in reporting, anchoring, and producing with a commercial television station.”


Education
As a recent or upcoming graduate, it is critical that your educational information be thorough and accurate.

* You should include: college or university name and location, expected degree(s), major(s), expected graduation month and year, and grade point average (GPA).
* When including your GPA you should clearly denote whether cumulative and/or major. Optional additions: applicable coursework, foreign languages and professional certifications.


Work/Professional Experience
This portion of your resume will highlight your previous work experiences for a potential employer. This section can be chronological or topical.

* Include professional societies, honor societies, student organizations, fraternities/sororities.
* Highlight leadership roles.
* Include dates of employment.
* List any rewards or recognitions.
* Always quantify the accomplishments and results of your work where possible.


Format and Layout
The format and layout both play important roles in conveying the key points of your resume. A recruiter may not even review a resume that is unorganized and difficult to read.

* Keep consistent font, tense and punctuation.
* Use white space effectively, keeping the space balanced and pleasing to the eye. Maintain margins of at least ¾ “.
* Use readable font (no less than 10 point).
* The average length for an entry level resume is one page. A significant amount of experiences or activities will justify a longer resume.
* Keep photocopies or soft copies of all documents sent.


References
Employers may or may not contact references to discuss your previous work and professional accomplishments.

* Your references should be familiar with your work, professional, leadership or academic accomplishments.
* Use professional acquaintances, employers or professors.
* Be certain to obtain permission in advance so that references are aware that your potential employer may contact them.
* Make a notation in your resume that ‘references are available upon request’. Prepare a neatly typed list of references with names, titles, addresses, phone number and email addresses.
* Provide references to potential employers after they have requested them and do not automatically include them in your resume.

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