Resume Tips

The following is intended to provide some general information on the writing of a resume.

The basics…

• The resume should provide a snapshot of your career, not a biography. Keep it to 2 or 3 pages maximum, with the first page containing most relevant information.
  
• Have your name, address, phone numbers and email at the top of the resume.
  
• Don’t use separate header or tables. Many clients and consulting firms have scanners or applicant tracking systems that populate primary data fields with resume data. Data that comes from headers or tables will often not transfer properly. 10 or 12 point black and white resumes are best.
  
• Make sure you spell check, capitalize when appropriate, use proper sentence structure and grammar.
  
• Use action verbs when describing your roles such as designed, developed, administered…
  
• Do not include personal information.
  
• Either summarize or do not include jobs or roles that are no longer relevant.
  
• Be honest.

The body…

SUMMARY:

• A three or four sentence summary of what your abilities are and what you are looking to do.

SKILLS:

• Include the skills you have actually used in working situations. Categorize skills in logical groupings, ie. languages, tools, operating systems.

EXPERIENCE:

• Include employer, location, title and beginning and end dates
  
• Describe technical environment and your role.
  
• Include projects and skills used including technologies. The experiences you have should also reference the skills from the ‘skills’ section of the resume.
  
• Include accomplishments and promotions.
  
• Use bullet points over paragraphs to improve readability.

EDUCATION:

• Include college, location, degree, major and minor, date and GPA (if over 3.0).
  
• Have education follow experience if your experience is more important.
  
• TRAINING: List relevant training with dates.
  

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