Your Resume A Necessary Life Document
What is a Resume? The American Heritage Dictionary says that it is “a brief account of one’s professional or work experience and qualifications, often submitted with an employment application” or “a summary” IT IS NOT YOUR ENTIRE LIFE’S STORY! It also allows you to market yourself and may be your first impression to a professor or future employer.
A Summary of Your Work Experience As difficult as it might be, a resume should NEVER be more than two pages long! It will also include other pertinent information like: Contact Information Job Objective Education Volunteer Work
Contact Information Should be at the top and contain your proper name, address, phone number or cell phone number, and .
What does your say about you? Be careful with your ! If your is or this does NOT make a good first You may want to set up a new with a more professional sound. Check out Dr. Berg’s posting on this subject: htmlhttp://stevenlberg.info/blog/ html
Objective Since it usually accompanies a job application or is sent in place of a job application, you place the job title of what you’re applying for in the Objective. Keep it short! This does not need to be a sentence. Academic Librarian Arc Welder Middle School English Teacher
Work History These should be listed as most recent first and should include: Name of Company Position Title How long you worked there What your job responsibilities were Use ACTIVE verbs – not Passive Verbs Keep this short, sweet and concise!
I don’t suggest… Using a Template from Microsoft Word Yes, all you have to do is fill in the blanks, but… The trouble happens when you want to drastically modify, add or delete sections of your resume. In my experience, the templates don’t adapt well to major modifications, and major changes mess up the formatting.
I suggest… Making a document that you can continue to modify over the years by using Microsoft Word. You can do all your own formatting after the fact. I suggest: Using a standard, professional font like Times New Roman or Ariel. Use Bullet Points Use Bold OR Underline – probably not both
This is what the top of my resume looks like.
If you’d like help writing a resume… You could go to Schoolcraft’s Career and Transfer Center (CTC) McDowell Center - RM 205 (734) Hours are: Monday & Thursday, 8am - 7:30pm; Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, 8am - 4:30pm
You could also go to the LIBRARY and find BOOKS to help you write a resume!
There are also plenty of websites to help you create a resume. About.com – Career Planning: writing/Resume_Writing.htm writing/Resume_Writing.htm How to write a resume: OWL – Online Writing Lab from Purdue University: / /