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Resume Builder 101 (Tutorial for Beginners)
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Resumes
Resume Builder 101
Can Power Verbs Really Improve A Resume?
A Volunteer Job Does A Resume Good
"Resume," Just Easier To Work With
Tricks To Help Extend Short Resumes
Job Letters
Informational-Interview Request Letter
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Interviewing
Requesting Feedback After A Failed Interview
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CAREER TOOLS►
Education
Once you've finished typing your job duties, you'll need to move onto the Education section. However, if you're a recent college graduate with tons of academic achievements to highlight and very little work experience to help fill up the page, then you may want to consider setting up your resume slightly different from our current example. Instead of following your personal contact information with the usual work experience section, you may want to switch the order, you may want to instead type the Educational Background section first. This way, by listing your scholastic achievements before your job experiences, you'll help to bring immediate focus to your educational background and also hopefully help detract from the fact that you have few to perhaps no job experiences.
When describing your educational background make sure to include the type of degree you received or expect to receive, the year your degree was earned or will be earned, and the school where it was obtained. To help guide you in completing this section, I included an illustration just below.
Also, whatever you can do to get your educational accomplishments to stand out from other job applicants the hiring person may be considering, you should definitely do so. If you earned a high GPA in college, you should certainly note this. If you were ranked near the top of your graduating class or mentioned on the dean's list before, then be sure to include this. This information helps to give hiring personnel a better sense of how disciplined you were in school towards achieving your goals, which also, coincidentally, may help to illustrate your determination and resolve in completing future work assignments in a timely fashion for the company you're now considering.
New & Experienced Jobseekers: Resume Layout
So far, on your resume, that's if you have more work experience to sell over educational achievements, then your information should be illustrated in the following order: 1) name and personal contact information at the top of document, 2) summary of professional experiences next, and 3) educational accomplishments last. If you're still not clear on what order your information should be listed, then review the illustration just below.
Computer Skills
If you possess any special computer skills or have knowledge of special software that may be required of you at the company you're considering, be sure to include this information also on your resume. See our sample resume to make sure you're following along correctly.
Hobbies
Don't make the mistake of including a hobby. While many of you may be proud of the fact that you're either a great swimmer, great dancer, or great cook, make sure not to include this information on your resume. Unless the position you're applying for directly relates to your hobby (e.g. hobby is swimming and you're applying for a position as a highschool swimming instructor or swim coach), then you're better off keeping this information off your resume.
Salary
Don't include any reference to salary, past or present. Including this sort of information on your resume can help to get you eliminated from a job really quick. Employers that are looking to pay just so much or who have a certain pay range in mind will quickly take a pass on you if your quoted salary exceeds what they are looking to pay.
References
Make sure you don't include references at the bottom of your resume. While many jobseekers with few to no work experiences may be extremely tempted to add a lengthy reference section to help fill up unwanted blank space usually found at the bottom of their resumes, I still urge new jobseekers not to go this route.
The reference section is not essential in constructing resumes. It doesn't provide useful information to aid hiring personnel in assessing your actual capabilities for performing a particular job well. Besides, employers are not going to waste valuable time checking your references before they meet with you. Additionally, most employers naturally assume that you'll furnish them with a list of references when you come in to complete an employment application or on the day of your job interview.
Personal Information
Be sure not to include any personal information on the resume about yourself such as your marital status, age, ethnicity, religious preference, political affiliations or anything else of a personal nature. This information is not suitable for your resume and could ultimately be used as unlawful ammunition to disqualify you from a position by a bigoted or discriminating hiring director.
Your Availability
Don't include any statements about your availability. Nobody cares when you're able to start work before they've even had a chance to meet with you so make sure to keep this information off your resume.
Attachments (photos, transcripts, testimonials, etc.)
Don’t send in copies of your school transcripts, certificates, letters of recommendations, photographs of yourself, written testimonials or anything else unless you're specifically asked to do so. Recruitment departments at large companies usually have countless resumes to comb through each week and the last thing they need is to have to review a resume with numerous papers attached to it as well. If anything, the hiring director or overworked resume screener will simply get exasperated staring at your different papers and probably end up placing your clump of documents right at the top of the nearest do not-invite-in pile.
Paper Type
Use good quality bond paper whenever possible for printing your resume on. If your resume needs to be photocopied for different interviewers within a company, the document's text will retain its detail better on good stock paper. Also, don't stray from the traditional colors of white and or cream colored paper. Colorful paper or paper with excessive fancy borders will only make your resume more difficult to read and may ultimately end up sending your resume to the dreaded circular file.
Proofread Document
Make sure you proofread your resume before putting it in the mail or emailing it. The last thing I'm sure you want is to be eliminated for a position you desperately wanted simply because of a careless typo you might've missed. You should look your resume over several times and then you should have a friend or family member look it over for you as well to make sure you don’t miss anything.
More Resume Help
For further examples/illustrations to help aid you in developing your resume or to possibly provide you with alternative ideas in where to place main headers and/or sub-headers within your document, please see our current assortment of resume designs. For a quick recap of resume structuring tips, review 10 Don'ts to Creating Resumes and Document Builders Tips page.
Finally, for those of you with very little work experience and who need serious help in getting resumes to look like there's more on the page, then make sure to review the tutorial Tricks To Help Extend Short Resumes.
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This article is © 2003-2005 by Tracy Miller and may not be reposted without written permission from the author and may not be reprinted for profit.