English 327                                                 Spring 1998

     The following article was written by Dr. Peter Hadorn, formerly of VCU, now of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. Dr. Hadorn has generously allowed us permission to use his work.

RÉSUMÉS

Introduction

     A résumé is a persuasive document that sells you. It describes you and your qualifications. Consequently, you are the best person to put your résumé together. Educate yourself as best you can about how to put one together and then go with your own best judgment.

     Until the late ‘70s, the résumé often included such personal information as height, weight, marital status, health and interests, but these subjects are now fairly passé and are not persuasive. In fact, much of this is now illegal to ask. Best to leave such nonessentials off.

     There are three primary ways in which a potential employer uses your résumé:

 1. As a screening instrument prior to interviewing

     A résumé will not get you a job. It and the job letter will get you an interview, and the interview will get you a job.

     You send a résumé in response to a job ad, of course, along with an application letter. But even if you managed to obtain a job without one (say, they contacted you), you should give your future employer a copy of your résumé anyway as a courtesy. Also as a courtesy, you should give a copy of it to anyone you ask to be a reference. You might also give copies to friends and acquaintances who know people who might be looking for a person like you (don't underestimate this means of getting a job. Networking is a major source of job leads).

     If you are on the job market, you should update your résumé regularly (every time you have something new to add). A general rule of thumb is to remember that a résumé can always be better. Keep tinkering; you might find some typos. If you have a job, update your résumé every two to five years.

     Remember that in the application materials (résumé and job application letter), your reader will be looking for certain qualities. Gear your application to emphasize the following: ability to communicate effectively, ability to work collaboratively with others, leadership abilities, being responsible, and ability to solve problems. Finally, remember that throughout, they will be trying to get a sense of your personality: are you someone they will want to work with. This last is perhaps best achieved in the letter.

LENGTH

     A résumé should not exceed one page. Remember, for a job that might have as many as 100 applications (about average for an advertised job that requires a college education or a certain measure of experience), you have less than 60 seconds to catch your reader's attention. If you don't have that information well organized on one page, you may very well be cast aside for the next applicant.

     In some instances, however, it may exceed one page if you have what you feel is a good deal of persuasive information. In which case, you need not fill up the entirety of the second page as you did the first. If your résumé is more than one page, 1) never print on the back of it since your reader might not notice it and 2) staple the extra page(s) together so that they do not get misplaced.

     The only occasion for which your résumé might reach three pages occurs when you have been working for some time and have accumulated a lot of experience. No résumé should ever exceed three pages, although practices vary from discipline to discipline. (You might consider at this point having two documents: the résumé and the portfolio, or vita and dossier; terms differ depending on the discipline. Send the one- or two-page résumé with your letter and then state in the last paragraph of your letter that, if they wish to know more about you and your work, you could send them the dossier at their request.)

     If your résumé runs more than one page make sure your major qualifications for the job for which you are applying are on the first page. And remember, although a long résumé may look impressive on the surface, your reader will be able to tell where you are padding.

     For a new college grad, one page is enough.

     The résumé must be completely free from all errors.

 Content

     The traditional résumé includes your name, your address (both business and home, or school and home) and phone number, followed by such categories as career objective, education, experience, activities, and honors. References conclude the résumé. You may choose other titles for these categories and add categories that are relevant for your qualifications: COMPUTER SKILLS, FOREIGN LANGUAGES, LABORATORY EXPERIENCE.

NAME

     Your name best serves as your document's title. You rarely see a résumé titled "Résumé" anymore. (Notice that the word résumé, both in full caps and in lower case, is correctly spelled with accents over both e's. If your machine does not have an accent key, write them in by hand. Do not use the apostrophe key.) However, for some occasions, having more than one type of document may be appropriate. For example, you might have a brief one-page résumé that you send with your initial letter and also a several-page document that describes in detail your experience. This shorter résumé might be called a "Curriculum vitae" (literally, "summary of life"). The longer version might then be labeled "Dossier."

     On rare occasion you might have a title under your name describing what you are. In a sense, it replaces the job objective category. For instance, you might have under your name the title "Electrical Engineer." Some people consider titles to be gimmicky, however.

     Be sure that your name is in a position of emphasis: either centered or in the upper left corner, usually in full caps.

 
ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER

     Give your full address. Try not to abbreviate: it looks better. Instead of St., write Street. Instead of Blvd., write Boulevard. Sometimes you can’t avoid abbreviations. Use the two-letter post office designation for states (e.g., VA for Virginia, MD for Maryland). Include the area code with your phone number.

JOB OBJECTIVE

    Alternative headings: Career Objective, Position Sought, Employment Goal, Job Desired, or Objective.

    A job objective is not required, though many people believe that it is. Include this section if your reader will not be able to tell what job you want by looking at your degree and your experience. Include it if your résumé might be routed to other offices and the job letter might not follow. It is also a good idea to put one on if you are applying for an internship. In these cases, your reader wants to know what you're interested in. Leave the career objective off if you are submitting your résumé for different types of jobs. Having a too specific objective might not be appropriate for all positions. Leave it off if you need the room. Remember, your job letter states why you are applying.

     A job objective is extremely difficult to write: it either makes you sound too ambitious or not ambitious enough. If you say "I want a career in advertising," you have wasted this section. If you include an objective, be as brief and as specific as you can. It should sound like the job description an employer might use in a job listing. A good way to structure it is to start by saying what you want to begin doing and then state what you eventually want to do. The career objective should not run more than two sentences. As always, use your best judgment and get plenty of opinions.

EDUCATION

     For your degree and your field are different, people look for this section next. If you have been working for many years or if you are putting together a functional résumé, this section can come later.

     An employer is interested in what you have been doing recently. Therefore, leave off of your résumé all references to your high school, unless it is a nationally recognized school, it is in the city where you wish to be employed (not as effective if you are from a large city), you achieved some state or national award there. If you were valedictorian, think twice before putting it on your résumé. Remember, that was at least four years ago. Your reader will want to know what you have done recently that is equally impressive. It’s also not as effective if you came from a small school.

    You are not obligated to include your GPA. Leave it off if it is lower than a B average. Leave it off anyway if you have better things to say. Once you have graduated and have worked for awhile, leave it off because otherwise it will label you as a student rather than as a professional. In some fields, though, they require a GPA, particularly for new grads. Find out what’s expected in your field. If you have at least a B average in your major you might say that instead. For example, 3.2/4.0 in major. The number after the slash indicates the grading scale your school uses. For some schools, an A average is 5.0.

    There are only three reasons to list classes that you took in school: 1) you need to fill up space on your résumé, 2) you took some very unusual courses, and 3) you don’t have much experience in your field. Remember, the fact that you received a degree means that you had to take certain courses; thus a mere list of them is not very persuasive. If you do include courses you should list at least 8 if they are basic courses; otherwise it will be rather conspicuous. You can list only 3 or 4, though, if they are very impressive. Be sure that they are all relevant to the job you want and that they are all intermediate and advanced courses. Include basic courses only if they are useful in your field. Use short descriptive titles rather than course numbers.

     Include professional certification (include date of exams you will take in next 6 months). Include summer school if taken to accelerate progress, provide extra electives; omit if taken to repeat a course previously taken. Include percent of college expenses paid for through scholarships and jobs, esp. if 33% or more (if all money was from jobs, put this fact under "Experience").

     The following categories can be combined if needed. Do not use a separate heading unless you have at least two long or three short things to put under it. Activities, Honors and Awards, and even Experience can be subsumed under Education, but that de-emphasizes them and works against you. The category immediately following Education should be the one in which your credentials are strongest.

     Be sure to include dates for your activity and/or the number of times you did it, especially if you did it more than once (e.g., appear on the Dean's List); otherwise the reader will presume least case and think you only did it once.

EXPERIENCE/EMPLOYMENT

     "Experience" can imply experience in your field; "employment" suggests jobs you had that paid the bills. You can have several categories to highlight your qualifications. Alternative headings: "Work Experience," "Accounting Experience," "Summer and Part-Time Employment," etc.

     Omit jobs you held during high school unless they are impressive. Include jobs no matter how minor. Employers want to see that you are willing to work.

     For each entry begin each sentence with a strong action verb that describes what you did. Omit the personal pronoun. E.g.:

     Note that this entry begins with the job title, which is most persuasive. You can begin the entry with the name of the business, particularly if you did more than one thing at the same place. Beginning with dates is least persuasive. Whatever you do, be consistent for all items in this section. Do not include full addresses, phone numbers, names of employers: this information goes in the reference section.

HONORS AND AWARDS

     Nice to have one of these words in a heading. If you have fewer than three and therefore cannot justify a separate heading, consider a heading "Activities and Honors" to get that important word in a position of emphasis.

     Include: scholarships, including honorary scholarships for which you get no money; college or departmental honor societies; university or national honor societies. It is frequently useful to specify the nature of Greek-letter honor societies.

     Include high school honors and awards ONLY if you have college honors and awards in the same field, OR, if you received an award in h.s. which only a few people in the state (as opposed to only one in your school) received. Being valedictorian should be included under education.

ACTIVITIES

     Employers are very interested in this category for new college grads, so include it if at all possible. It is unnecessary for people completing advanced degrees or those who have already had several years of work experience.

     When you are receiving an advanced degree and/or have worked several years, it is usual to omit "activities" of the sort described below and instead include "Professional Activities." "Professional Affiliations" may be a separate category, or it may be combined: "Professional Affiliations and Activities."

     Activities to include:

     In the entry, omit the words "Member of"; just include the name of the organization. Include dates if you have been doing it for awhile. Readers know that seniors join organizations just so they can get it on the résumé.

 
REFERENCES

     Always include this section. If it says at the bottom of your résumé "References Available Upon Request," the reader may assume that you don't have any yet. Including them demonstrates that you have prepared for the job search. Besides, you may have as one of your references someone particularly impressive to your reader. Finally, in a job market that is particularly tight, including them may give you an edge if your reader doesn't have to waste time calling you to send them. The only reason not to include references is if you currently have a job and you are hunting for another. Asking someone to be a reference before you have a good chance of getting another job may cause you to lose the one you have if word gets out.

     You need at least three references, usually no more than five, never more than six. New grads should include at least one professor, preferably in your major. It's good to include at least one employer. It is essential to include your most recent employer if you are leaving one full-time job to take another. Include personal references if your job involves working closely with people and personality counts a lot.

     If you have no room at the bottom of your résumé for references, you may attach a separate page that lists them. Be sure to include the name, title or position, business address (never home address), and business phone number.

     Include name, address, and phone number of placement office if written recommendations are on file there.

 Putting Together Your Résumé

     No two résumés are exactly alike, nor should they be. Your résumé is YOUR personal document. More and more people are having their résumé put together on computer so that they can take advantage of a choice of fonts and highlighting devices. If you do so, be conservative; don’t over do the number of fonts, etc. If you use a computer, never submit a résumé from a dot matrix printer unless, perhaps, it has a good looking letter-quality mode. It is still OK to type your résumé on a typewriter.

     Unlike other types of business communication, you want to fill up the page in order to give the impression that you have done a lot. If there is plenty of white space on your résumé, it will appear as if you have not very many accomplishments. On the other had, you want your résumé to be skimmable. Readers shouldn’t have to search for information.

     Most college grads will write what is known as a "Chronological Résumé," which lists education, experience, etc. in REVERSE chronological order. Remember that this format works with your readers’ expectations about how the résumé is put together. A "Functional" or "Skills Résumé" ignores chronology to emphasize experience in the field. This sort of résumé is best for people who have held so many jobs that it looks like you can’t hold one, or if the majority of your experience is in an area different from the one you want a job in.

     All headings should be consistent throughout the résumé. Headings that have been centered on the page are in danger of being lost.

      It will take you several attempts to get the résumé to look right. Cut and paste to get a sense of different layouts.

 
FORMAT

     There are three basic résumé formats. You must pick a single format for your main heads, but you can vary format within heads. That is, you could choose indented format but use two margins for "Work Experience."

 1. Indented

     Main heads are at left margin, full caps, no punctuation (also OK to use regular caps, underline). Indent 3-5 spaces for main item(s) under head; indent another 3 spaces for carry-over lines. Items that are logically equivalent should all begin at same indented margin:

 EDUCATION

           Bachelor of Science in Accounting, May 1994, Virginia Commonwealth                         University

    Can single- or double -space between items under head, depending on what produces best overall layout. Spacing for heads: either double-space before, single-space after or triple-space before, double-space after.

 2. Two Margin (Block)

     Main heads at margin. Options: full caps, regular caps; underlined or not, followed by colon or not. Skip at least 3 spaces after longest head. This will be the second margin and all items begin there. This two-margin format often doesn’t work well for an entire résumé because it takes up a lot of room. However, it may be used effectively in parts of the résumé.

     Be careful about putting dates in the left margin; they can make it look crowded.

 EXPERIENCE

Summers, 1991-present        XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX                                            XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

EXPERIENCE        Accountant. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX                                XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

                              Chef. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX                               XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

3. Centered

     Head either should be in full caps, in a larger point size, or underlined, because heads tend to get lost. A colon after the head is optional.

    Generally, be conservative in layout and paper selection (usually white or off-white).

     If you are in a creative field such as marketing, advertising, architecture, art, graphic design, etc., you should try to be more creative. Use colored paper; non-traditional layouts. They want to see an example of your creativity. As always, get plenty of opinions first.