The resume is a marketing tool which acts as a door opener and allows an employer to assess your qualifications quickly in the prescreening process before interviews.
Most resumes are initially read for 15 seconds or less (3-5 seconds if unsolicited).
Help the readers form mental pictures of you and your activities as they look for key words and phrases.
Among 10s, 100s, or 1000s of resumes, the employer needs to ascertain the benefits you are offering them, based on your past accomplishments.
Document the results you achieved by including numbers, e.g., supervised 50 volunteers; reduced waste material by 30%; managed $100,000 project, coming in on budget and 1 week ahead of schedule.

If your resumes seem to be taking you down a path similar to your last job(s) and you want to change direction, that is quite easily accomplished. You probably have explained your past jobs in terms of the duties and responsibilities that characterized that work. You need to interpret or reframe those experiences to meet the demands of the new work you would like to have.

The resume is a more concise presentation of credentials than a curriculum vitae which is prepared for a teaching/research position in a university or for inclusion in an application package for graduate school.

Focus

• It is important to tailor your qualifications to the job for which you are applying. To do this, review your SELF ASSESSMENT worksheets and the DESCRIPTION OF THE JOB information you have obtained.
• Before starting a draft of your resume, summarize your points on this Preparing for the Resume and Job Interview worksheet.

Style and Appearance 

• The first impression of your resume should be favourable for both your electronic and paper versions: well organized material, easy-to-read font, correct grammar and spelling, up-to-date information. Your paper copies should be printed on good quality paper and have no handwritten corrections or white out.

• One to two pages of information should be sufficient to present your credentials clearly and concisely for the position. Only in rare cases would you need to go to three pages, but then all three pages must contain essential information needed by an employer to judge your qualifications. You may get only one chance for that interview. Write in point form and double check that all pertinent key words are there. You want to make it easy for both a human reader and the computer to find the information they are looking for.

• Prepare a completely positive document to present your skills. Don't be shy! However, the resume must be an honest evaluation. Don't lie. The misrepresentation will come back to haunt you—if not in the interview, then on the job.

• There is no one right resume. Create a document that sells your strengths. Since employers are looking for the best value for their hiring dollar, you should market what makes you different from your classmates or anyone else wanting an interview for that job.

• Many of your strengths are revealed through both your content and style of writing, e.g., enthusiasm, confidence, reliability, communication skills. 

The major sections of a resume include: 

NAME, ADDRESS(ES), TELEPHONE NUMBERS (VOICE/FAX), E-MAIL, URL

• No other personal information is required.
• If you will be leaving a local address while your resume is in circulation, note when (e.g., until April 20, 19xx).
• If you will not be personally answering your phone during business hours, list a number where an employer can leave a message for you.
• Decide what headings you will use if you need to state two addresses, e.g., one "local" or "present" and the other perhaps "home" or "permanent" if applying in that community or "alternate" for applications further afield.
• If you include the URL for your web pages, make sure the pages are in professional, business-like condition. Your site can include your resume, examples of your work, e.g., code, drawings, etc.
• If you have no Canadian work experience and it may appear that you are not eligible to work in Canada, if applicable, note your Citizenship as Canadian Citizen or Landed Immigrant at the bottom of this section.
• After graduation, foreign students may have access to other opportunities to work in Canada on a temporary basis. Check with the Immigration Office. Decide whether you would like to include a notation about short-term employment on your resume, e.g., Available {month/day/year} for one-year contract. If you do not include this information on your resume, definitely discuss it in your interview.

JOB OBJECTIVE or CAREER GOAL

• For co-op, summer, internship, part-time jobs: a job objective is not essential but highly recommended to give the employer an idea of what you want to do.
• For on-going (permanent) or contract jobs: a focused statement is essential.
• "Career Goal" tends to refer to a desired position that has a longer term association, while "Job Objective" can refer to an interim or more temporary type of job, e.g., Forensic Chemist for a career goal and Laboratory Technician for a job objective.
• State your goal or objective in terms of what you can do for an employer, not what you want an employer to do for you. Avoid expressions such as "...where I can use my knowledge and skills to expand my expertise in...".
• Phrase statement in terms of the job you want now, by job title (e.g., Computer Programmer, Social Worker, Technical Writer) or area (e.g., Communications, Public Relations, Health Education).
• Prepare two or more resumes to tailor qualifications if you are seeking different types of jobs.  

SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS

• This section will provide a concise overview of your qualifications as they relate to your Job Objective or Career Goal as stated immediately above.
• Here is where you want the employer to recognize and become interested in the competitive advantage you bring to the position. Therefore, avoid a historical record. State the value you are offering.
• Include the key words that would be used in a computer search of a database.
• This is the most difficult section of your resume to write. Do not attempt it until the rest of your resume is completely written because you need to see and understand the information before you can summarize it.
• Include three to seven points, using nouns and adjectives, not action verbs.
• Draw upon your work experience, volunteer and/or extracurricular activities in terms of duration, scope, accomplishments, etc. If you lack relevant experience, emphasize those skills you have developed in terms of interpersonal, organizational, supervisory, etc.
• First statement summarizes the experience you have related to your job objective, e.g., One year experience in graphic design.
• Second statement describes your working knowledge of the various components or aspects of the position (e.g., budgeting, report writing, program planning).
• Third statement outlines the various skills you possess to do the work effectively (e.g., problem-solving, communication, time management).
• Fourth statement may refer to any academic background you have that complements your practical experience (e.g., machine design, resource assessment, marketing).
• Fifth statement lists your personal characteristics and attitudes as required on the job (e.g., reliable, able to work under pressure, creative).

SKILLS SUMMARY (in place of Job Objective and Summary of Qualifications sections)

• This section is essential for resumes without a Job Objective and Summary of Qualifications, and appears immediately after your Name and Address.
• Include three to six points outlining your most relevant strengths for the type of work you are looking for. Describe your competitive advantage—the value you offer.
• Draw upon your work experience, volunteer and/or extracurricular activities in terms of duration, scope, accomplishments, etc. If you lack relevant experience, emphasize those skills you have developed in terms of interpersonal, organizational, supervisory, etc.
• Indicate formal or professional training/education. It may also be helpful to note if you are bilingual (English/French) or speak other languages.
• List relevant areas of expertise, e.g., computer proficiency, scientific instrumentation, etc.
• Draw upon your personal characteristics that are requisites for the position you are seeking, e.g., enthusiastic, flexible, attentive to detail.

EDUCATION

• For students in postsecondary education, first year through six months prior to graduation: state Candidate for, Degree, Discipline (major/minor), University, and Year beginning program, e.g., Candidate for Honours Bachelor of Mathematics, Computer Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Sept. 19__ - present.
• Secondary school listing: it usually is not necessary to include your secondary school after your first year of a postsecondary program unless it is a prestigious institution or the entry will add valuable information when the reader considers you for an interview. Include CEGEP if applicable. Include Diploma, High School, Location, and Year diploma was received, e.g., Ontario Secondary School Diploma, ABC High School, Anytown, Ontario, 19__. You may wish to include specialization if applicable.
• For alumni and students in graduating year: state Degree, Discipline (major/minor), University, and Year degree obtained or the Month/Year degree will be obtained. Add Specialization or Option if you wish, e.g., Bachelor of Arts, History, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, May, 19__. Drop reference to the month by the end of the year.
• If you changed your program of studies while at university, you may wish to indicate as follows:

• Check the name of the degree you get (e.g., Bachelor of Applied Science for Engineering, Bachelor of Mathematics for Computer Science), and list it preferably unabbreviated.
• Multiple entries: when referring to additional studies at other schools or to more than one program at Waterloo (e.g., Bachelor, Master), arrange entries in reverse chronological order, i.e., most recent first.
• Co-op students in graduation year may wish to add a statement about co-operative education and alternating work/study periods to explain the jobs in "Work Experience" if you think employers you are applying to are not familiar with co-op education. 

Relevant Courses

• A sub heading of the Education section.
• Choose six to ten courses related to your Job Objective where you have not utilized this knowledge yet in a work environment. Do not include course numbers. If the name of the course as listed in the Calendar does not adequately convey the information you wish, elaborate to show the relevance.
• Prioritize the list, or arrange by themes, to avoid a random assortment of names.
• Place in columns for easy reading.

Project/Thesis 

• A sub heading of Education.
• Any relevant project, report, thesis, etc. that you have prepared can be referred to by its title in quotation marks (if the title is sufficiently clear enough to give the reader a feeling for scope), or by using a group of words to show its significance or relevance to the employer. 

COMPUTER PROFICIENCY

• List both your theoretical and working knowledge.
• Categorize an extensive background in columns with headings such as Hardware, Operating Systems, Software, Languages.

WORK EXPERIENCE

• The Chronological style of resume is the most widely accepted format for outlining work experience. Try this type of format first. If you are not getting your best credentials onto page one, then try the Modified Chronological style. If that still does not help, try the Functional model.
• Examples of formatting the Chronological, Modified Chronological and Functional types of resumes follow. 

Chronological Resume

• Organize jobs in reverse chronological order, stating:
• Dates, beginning and terminating, in words not numbers, e.g., May, not 05. Note the auspices under which the work took place if the position was a co-op work term, an internship, a contract, or part-time. For full-time, on-going (permanent) positions of at least one year, it is not necessary to include a reference to the months.
• Job Title: create an accurate one if you had none.
• Name of Company or Organization and Location (city/province). Do not include supervisor's name or employer's street address or telephone number.
• In point form, talk about what you contributed to or accomplished on the job. The employer is usually not interested in a recitation of your responsibilities. Also, don't use the generic points from the ad you saw or the written job description given to you on that job. You need to personalize your document. Employers complain that it is too difficult to determine the distinguishing characteristics among applicants.
• Ask yourself if you did more than was required of you by your supervisor. If yes, be sure to indicate the circumstances and outcome.
• Indicate the level of responsibility you were entrusted with, e.g., depositing cash, managing department during absence of supervisor. Employers also look for evidence of your having been promoted.
• Begin each entry with an action verb, listing accomplishments, tasks performed, skills developed, or, if appropriate, specialties learned.
• The amount of specific detail will be determined by the relevance to the job you are applying for, e.g., report writing - more information about literature search and computer analysis of data would be included only when the reader needs to evaluate the relevance of your past experience.
• Use the present tense of the verb for work continuing as you write your resume and the past tense for work that has ceased.
• In less relevant work, emphasize transferable skills (e.g., for an administrative job objective, use points such as ability to work under pressure/stress, communicative/interpersonal skills, attention to detail, etc. when describing a waiter/waitress position).
• Do not use abbreviations, slang, sarcasm or humour.
• Do not use personal pronouns, such as "my", "their", or definite and indefinite articles, such as "a", "an", "the".
• Prioritize the points when you are describing your work as they relate to your job objective, not as they related to the job you are describing. Have at least one point of explanation under the job entry.
• For jobs you want to include but not give details, add a sub-section at the end of Work Experience called Other Work Experience (dates if you wish, e.g., 19__ - __) with job titles, or job titles and type of work environment if helpful, e.g., camp counsellor, waiter in fast-paced truck stop, stock clerk in automotive store.
• If you started/ran your own business, refer to it by its proper name and your official title. Example: if you are John Smith, you could say:

Modified Chronological Resume

• The only difference between this type of resume and the Chronological one is the section on work experience, as it enables you to feature related experience, or to move to the top of the section those jobs which would ordinarily be listed after less pertinent ones.
• Replace the words, Work Experience, with a descriptor about the type of experience (e.g., Research Experience, Business Experience). Collect in one section all jobs of similar type and list them in reverse chronological order.
• Be sure that the theme word you use to describe each Experience section is descriptive of aspects of the job you stated in your Job Objective.

Functional Resume

• A Functional format may be useful for individuals who:
• have little or no relevant experience, but do have qualifications for the job,
• have relevant experience but these positions would be lost among the other jobs in a Chronological resume and the Modified Chronological format would not be suitable,
• have a number of similar work experiences which would require repeating the same points under several job listings,
• have so much good material to say that it would take over three pages to do it.
• The work experience section is very different from that in the Chronological resume as it is divided into two parts entitled Qualifications and Work History.
• The Qualifications section comprises the individual points of the job descriptions as organized by major functions or skills. Identify three to six major areas required for the position being sought (e.g., Research Design, Statistical Analysis, Report Writing).
• The Work History section comprises, in reverse chronological order, a listing of your employment: date, job title, company/organization, location (no job description details).

Process to create a Functional Resume:

• It is essential that you have a good Chronological resume from which to work as it is difficult to think creatively and evaluate the information at the same time. Ensure that each point starts with the appropriate action verb.
• Take each point in the job description section of Work Experience and assign a code for the type of function, e.g., planning, scheduling, debugging, teaching, etc.
• In the Qualifications section of your Functional resume:
• Identify three to six major function/skill areas related to your Job Objective, e.g., Supervision, Organization, Program Planning, etc. Be consistent—use either all nouns or all adjectives.
• Take the related point as it appears in the Chronological resume and place it with all the other similar function/skill points in order of importance to your Job Objective.
• Since the points are removed from the employers they were associated with, you may have to add some generic information on setting, population, etc. Example: under Kitchener Parks and Recreation Department in your Chronological resume you have "organized Friday afternoon drop-in leisure activities for seniors". In your Functional resume, add "in a recreational setting" so that the reader will not wonder in what context (medical, psychological, etc.).
• Try to combine points whenever possible to make clear, concise entries. The number of points for each function/skill ranges from three to seven.
• In formulating the points for each thematic qualification, you can also draw upon your academics (projects, papers, etc.), extracurricular activities, and volunteer work as long as the reader knows the setting and does not think you have done the work in one of your paid positions.
• Make sure there is no overlap in meaning when selecting the names for your function/skill sections. As you take each point from your Chronological resume, you will then find that it clearly fits in only one section.

LABORATORY SKILLS, SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTATION, CERTIFICATION 

• Present an overview of qualifications relating to your Job Objective.
• If dates are added, list in reverse chronological order. 

AWARDS, SCHOLARSHIPS

• State name of award, name of institution award received from, and date.
• Include important awards from both university and high school in reverse chronological order.
• Explain the meaning of the recognition if the reader would not understand its significance. 

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

• List those with some relevance to the jobs to which you are applying.

PUBLICATIONS

• List in bibliographic form only those publications that the reader of your resume would be interested in.
• Include the work which has been published, has been submitted for publication, and is in progress.
• Include also the papers you presented as a guest speaker.
• If your list is lengthy, include only those relevant to your Job Objective by stating the heading as Selected Publications. 

LANGUAGES

• Include those for which you are fluent or have a working knowledge (other than English).
• Indicate if you can speak and/or write the language. 

ACTIVITIES/INTERESTS

• Volunteer work can be included in different ways, depending on the message you want to give.
• Include volunteer work in this section if you are demonstrating the breadth of your leisure-time activities.
• If you wish to highlight or emphasize these activities, create a separate heading, e.g., Volunteer Activities, Volunteer Experience, Community Service. In this section you can either list the organizations, or you can add to the listing more detail about your contributions, beginning each point with an action verb. You can include your Volunteer Experience before Work Experience in your resume if it would be to your advantage.
• If your volunteer activities are as important as your paid work experience, add your information to your Work Experience section, with a volunteer notation, e.g., Assistant to Director (volunteer).
• In listings for activities, state role (e.g., Member, President), name of organization, dates. Organize in reverse chronological order. State if any positions were elected or appointed.
• At the bottom of the section include interests such as physical fitness, hobbies, sports or leisure activities. Generally, employers are interested in how you spend your time outside of academics and work, e.g., independent/team activities, as well as your well-roundedness because of the transferability to the work you are applying for. However, when in doubt about including this section, leave it off the resume. 

REFERENCES and PORTFOLIO

• A reference notation such as Available on Request is becoming optional.
• Add the name of a reference if that person is well known by the employer who may be more inclined to interview you because of its presence.
• Without reference names on your resume, you will be able to meet with the perspective employer to sell yourself rather than trusting that one of your references would do the job better than you could. Also, your references will not be bothered with unnecessary phone calls.
• Ask the person you would like to use as a reference for permission to do so, and check out what that individual will say about you if contacted by a prospective employer. Do they see your strengths and weaknesses as you see them? It is important to discuss what that person’s response might be to potentially embarrassing questions. A bad reference is a job offer killer!
• Choose someone who has seen your work in as similar a situation as possible to the job for which you are applying. You do not necessarily need to use your immediate supervisor.
• Give your references a copy of the relevant resume(s) for the type(s) of jobs you are applying to.
• Type or word process the name, address, telephone number of two or three references on a sheet of paper which you can hand to an employer when asked for reference names.
• If an employer will require a portfolio, or if you think that one would enhance your application, e.g., graphic design, technical writing, teaching, then add the words, Portfolio Available on Request, to your resume.

Additional Tips

• Omit personal information such as age, marital status. If you are applying to a job overseas where age, marital status and nationality are required, then add those details to the bottom of your resume.
• Do not include the word, Resume, at the top of page one or the date you prepared the document.
• Ensure that your name is at the top of all pages.
• Include the page number at the top of all pages other than page one.
• Use a dictionary and thesaurus to understand and express accurately your skills/abilities for the job, and the contribution you can make to the organization.
• Check your first draft for accuracy and completeness of information. Check your final copy for errors before printing.
• The more in-depth the material and your preparation, the more informative your resume will be to the prospective employer, and the easier it will be for you to answer subsequent interview questions.
• Keep all your notes from which you prepared this resume on file and add to them periodically (yearly/twice yearly) information about your recent activities, job, etc. so that you will always have up-to-date data to generate future resumes. 

To Review

• Make complete, written, self-assessment notes.
• Obtain good job description information for the type(s) of work you want to do.
• Prepare a draft of a Chronological resume.
• If desired, draft a Modified Chronological or a Functional resume.
• Organize major sections in order of importance:

• Job Objective or Career Goal is always first, with Summary of Qualifications always second.
• Skills Summary is always first when you do not have a Job Objective or Career Goal section.
• Other major sections are arranged in order of importance related to your Job Objective or Career Goal so that the most important information is on page 1. Example: if your Work Experience would be of greater interest to the employer than your Education, put it first. If your Activities have greater appeal than Awards, put Activities first.

• Before printing a number of copies, check the final draft of your resume for:
  
• Appearance - At first glance, will the employer find the resume attractive and want to read it (paper weight/colour, layout of sections/points/margins, font size/style, uncrumpled/unfolded, no corrections in handwriting, etc.)? Don’t use resume preparation software as your resume will appear mass produced. More information on preparing your electronic version as well as paper resumes for scanning is included after the "Verbs Describing Skills" section.
• Accomplishments - Does the document present your qualifications from both theoretical and practical perspectives regarding education, skills, experience, personality, etc.?
• Writing/Presentation - Is every word necessary to determine the meaning of the point? Is the point relevant to the job you are applying to? Does the writing style clearly and completely convey what you want the reader to know? Are your words precise, and action-oriented? Are there spelling, typographical or grammatical errors?
• Sales Appeal - Have you told the reader in a positive, interesting way what you can do for his/her organization, and given sufficient proof of expertise that the reader will want to meet you personally in an interview?
• Personal Identification - Do you have your name, street/e-mail addresses, voice/fax numbers on the top of page 1 so that an employer can easily reach you?

Serious problems arise when you write imprecisely:

• Avoid verbs such as assisted, helped, aided, participated, involved as you do not say precisely what you did and the employer will not know what your contribution was.
• To eliminate any misconception that you might be responsible for the total project when you were not, you can add at the end of your statement "in conjunction with", "in collaboration with", "as a member of [design] team", etc., or if you and another person worked together, you could start statement with "co-", e.g., co-designed.
• Avoid weak verbs such as did, had, handled.
• Do not use nouns when talking about your contribution (e.g., organization of new committee and promotion of programs...) because what you did, is not defined precisely enough. Use verbs, e.g., wrote newspaper and flyer copy to promote....
• Avoid expressions such as responsible for, duties included, involved in, worked on, participated in, as nouns follow these words, and your accomplishments are not understood. 

VERBS DESCRIBING SKILLS. Watch overuse of a word.

Activities form into themes such as communicating, showing, analyzing, organizing, creating, managing.

Preparing your Resume for the Internet and a Database 

There are 3 kinds of resumes:
electronic version, paper version for scanning, and standardized form which requires you to fill in the blanks as you would with the CACEE form, or an application form from an employer or company which matches resumes to jobs.
Submitting a resume targeted to a specific job is recommended when organizations do not have a computer database.
The managers can see more specifically your qualifications for their areas, (e.g., machine design department vs. production unit).
However, when a computer tracking system is used to generate data on people with certain qualifications, if you have 2 resumes on file (e.g., one for machine design, one for production), both may come up.
Depending on the employer, that may work in your favour, or it may not. The answer will likely depend on your presentation.
Do you appear to be one person with two strengths, rather than being two different people? 

An electronic version of your resume is somewhat different from those prepared on paper. Some points:

1. An employer can view the document one screen at a time, rather than glancing at the 1 or 2 pages to get a sense of your qualifications. Try to limit your information to 5 or 6 screens, with the first being the attention grabber.
2. Name and Summary of Qualifications in point form are at the top of the first screen. You may also be able to get your name, address, phone, fax, e-mail at the bottom of the first screen. If not, that information will be at the top of the second screen, to be followed by your Job Objective. The order of your other headings can be similar to those on your paper resume. Keep the information in each section targeted to the job you want: leave off old or unrelated jobs and activities.
3. You don’t want to get a message from an employer saying that your resume was unreadable. You may want to check with the computer databases you are considering listing your resume with, or the recent software and books, for more information about formatting. ASCII (text only) and HTML are currently being used. In some instances, the usual formatting techniques to create interest and readability, such as italicizing, bolding, underlining, may make your words illegible as some computer equipment cannot process those features. Bullets before points sometimes also cause problems. There may be several options you can choose from, some creating very attractive resumes which can be sent through e-mail.

Points you need to consider when preparing a paper resume for scanning into an employer’s database:

1. As part of the research you do on an organization, you may want to determine if you need to submit a resume for scanning.
2. Supply a good laser quality document, on 8½ x 11, white or very light-coloured paper; use a sans serif font such as Arial, with point size 10 or larger; avoid embellishments such as parentheses, brackets, horizontal lines. 
3. As mentioned in #3 above, italics, bolding, etc. may also prove problematic in some instances.
4. If using a very basic formatting program, ensure that your headings are clearly seen by being featured at the left margin. By indenting your text under your heading, you will be able to show visually what belongs together. 

Additional Tips

1. Employers looking at your resume want to easily find the keywords relating to their needs. Also, when your resume is stored in a database, an employer will use the computer to conduct a keyword search. Your resume will not be selected unless you have a "hit" with the minimum number of keywords requested. Your resume will not be near the top of the list unless you have all or most of the keywords they used.
2. Interactive multimedia resumes are becoming more common with the advances in both hardware and software. If you choose this type, remember that some employers may not have the latest equipment to download your resume with sound and complex graphics quickly, or at all. But you could try—you may get noticed over other applicants.
3. Always have a subject in your subject line when sending an e-mail resume to an employer. A precise reference to their job and your fit may spark their desire to read your resume rather than to hit the delete key.

Sample Resume Writing Resources in Career Services

 Good, Edward C. & William G. Fitzpatrick. Does Your Resume Wear Blue Jeans? Rocklin, CA: Prima Publishing. 1993.

 Jackson, Tom. The Perfect Resume. New York, NY: Doubleday. 1990.

 Lewis, Adele & David Moore. Best Resumes for Scientists and Engineers. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. 1993.