How to write a professional resume
A great covering letter needs to be supported by a great resume – and vice versa.
A professional looking resume that clearly details your skills and experience will play a major part in whether or not you get an interview. The following guidelines may help.
What should your resume say?
Your resume should reflect your individual achievements and unique combination of skills, expertise and experience. Customise your resume for each job by focusing on experience and skills that are particularly relevant to the role. Think about reflecting the language of the job ad in your resume.
Your employment history should start with your most recent role. Include employer names, positions held and primary responsibilities and list leaving and joining dates using months and years. Do not leave gaps in your work experience history. If you have travelled for six months, say so.
In the notable achievements section, ensure you offer precise, measurable information. For example: ‘Increased profit by 25 per cent between Q1 and Q4’. Employers react strongly to the key skills/strengths section. Work hard on this.
Where possible, you should include contact details of three referees. At least two of these should be from your former employers. If you are a graduate without any work experience ask relevant lecturers to act as a referee.
Finally, make sure you have someone else proof read your resume, and ask for their feedback on both the content and presentation of the document.
How should you resume look?
Number of pages
You want to make sure you communicate all the relevant information, achievements and work experience without taxing the reader. As a general guideline a resume should be between two and four pages.
Resume formats
The two most popular formats for resumes are chronological and functional.
It is crucial you highlight your ‘selling points’ to the employer, regardless of which format you use. The most important thing is that a resume must grab the employers’ attention as soon as possible.
Chronological resume format
The traditional resume provides a chronological review of your employment history. The advantage of this format is that it highlights your past work experiences and performance.
The core topics covered in most chronological resumes are:
Personal information – what is your name and how can you be reached?
The contact information should be placed on top of your resume. It should include your name, address, phone number and email.
Education – your school, uni and postgraduate history attainments
Include your degrees, diplomas etc, school, college and uni name, certification and other relevant awards. Many people also include professional affiliations and memberships in this section.
Career objective – what do you want to do?
This is optional, but worth considering. It demonstrates to the employer the direction you want to take.
Employment experience – what can you do?
You should describe your experience in the most interesting and concise way. The more recent and relevant your former role is to the one that you are applying for, the more detail you should include. If you have a reasonable amount of experience, a prospective employer does not want to read information on part time university jobs you performed five years ago.
For each job list the following information:
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Full dates of employment
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The name of the organisation you worked for
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Your title
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Your reporting lines (optional)
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Description of the duties you performed
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Notable achievements
Skills and abilities
This is the place to put important and/or interesting information that does not fit anywhere else – for example, your proficiency with different software packages.
References – who can recommend you?
Referees attest to your personality and describe your skills. Preferably you should have at least three people who can serve as your referees. Most employers will want the referee to have been someone that you reported to.
Functional resume formats
The functional resume formats stresses your skills as opposed to the chronology of your career. The introduction is the same as the chronological format, but rather than talking about each company you worked for, you talk about the job functions your performed and skills you developed (such as customer service, administration, communication etc). Follow with a brief work history (if applicable). End with reference details.
General resume formatting tips
Things to include
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Use a common computer program such as MSWord.
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Ensure there is plenty of white space to make it easier to read.
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List your responsibilities in bullet point form to make them easier to scan.
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Avoid long complicated sentences.
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Use a standard easy to read font size.
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Keep it simple. The more graphics or design elements you incorporate into your resume, the more likely it is the recipient will have trouble accessing or printing it.
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Remember to keep all your dealings with a prospective employer polite, friendly and professional.
Things to avoid
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Don’t claim skills and experience you don’t have.
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Don’t make spelling or typing errors.
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Don’t list referees without checking with them first.
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Don’t include your salary in your resume. Talk money at the end of the selection process when you know the employer wants you and you can negotiate from a position of strength.