Resume Writing Tips

Writing a resume is not a hard task. There are several things to keep in mind that will help the reader go through your resume one step at a time. When you sit down to design your resume, you should first decide how to organize the material. The major headings are Experience, Education and Skills.  If you are a recent college graduate and don’t have too much work experience, you should start by listing your education first after the objective part of the resume. The Objective part of the resume is very important because it lets the employer know what type of job you want. It lets the recruiter know your aim. Next, you should list your schools and degrees, certificates or diplomas. Let me give you some useful tips. For those of you who don’t have too much work experience and are looking to get your foot in the door, you should also list all the courses in your major on your resume. This is a good way to let a potential employer know that you have mastered these skills and are ready to apply them. If you have received any honors or awards, you can also list them on your resume. Another tip is to use the font and bold features of your Word program in order to highlight your qualifications and make your resume stand out. 

Now you are ready to sort your work experience. Start by listing your most recent employment. You will need to analyze your work experience accordingly by the skills that you have mastered. For instance, don’t just say that you worked for Morgan & Morgan’s Law Office from Oct 2007- present. Make sure that you list what your tasks were and use bullets or numbers. Don’t list any jobs prior to ten years. Remember that your resume should be one page or two the most. You should try to condense the information to at least one page. Employers are not interested in reading about how you enjoy playing the flute and traveling abroad on your spare time. The key is to make is simple. For those of you who have been out of school for some time, you might want to start your resume by listing your job experience. It is important to highlight your strengths relating to the job that you want. So we have talked about Objective, Education and Experience. Now I am going to talk about skills.  At the end of your resume, list computer programs and types of computer hardware programs that you have worked on. If you speak several languages, this is an asset in today’s job market. Make sure that you list this as well. If you have been unemployed for a while, list any skills that you might have gained. For example, for those of you who are not journalists or writers and still enjoy writing, list your writing and publishing experience for Triond under skills. Also, if you have done any volunteer or community service in the past, you might want to list that on your resume as well on a separate column. And finally, I want to talk about the importance of writing a cover letter. A cover letter should always be sent along with your resume. Let me explain why. When you write a cover letter, you are selling yourself. Why should you hire me? What is so special about me? What am I bringing to your company? Remember that there are a number of resumes and you want to make yours stand out. In a cover letter, do not mention anything that you already listed in your resume otherwise you will sound redundant. When writing a cover letter, focus on your strengths. On your first paragraph, talk about your most relevant work experience and skills. Second paragraph, talk about what position your are looking for and what skills you are going to bring with you to this company and third paragraph mention where you can be reached and that you are looking forward to hearing from them. And if you don’t hear from them, you will follow through in another week. This last statement shows that you are not only interested in being hired but that you are committed.