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| | Resume Tips
A memorable resume can open doors to employment, internships, and
volunteer work. It can also provide an important supplement to help
writers of your letters of recommendation. A resume, sometimes referred
to as a CV (curriculum vitae) provides prospective employers with
a brief summary of your history and qualifications.
When designing your resume, the following tips may help you present
yourself as the most qualified candidate for the position you seek.
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Evaluate and organize the content. Consider the relevant skills and experiences you have to offer. For
example, if your prospective employer is the director of a day-care
facility, you'll want to provide information on your babysitting jobs
and summers as a camp counselor, but you might not need to list all
of your extracurricular activities. Organize a list of your jobs,
volunteer experiences, training sessions, extracurricular commitments,
awards, and honors. You should aim for a one-page resume, so emphasize
experiences that prove you are qualified for the position and reveal
you to be a well-rounded, responsible individual.
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Create an attractive, eye-catching layout. You'll want your resume to appear professional and organized, with
attractive fonts and a clean, concise presentation of the information.
Begin with your resume heading, typing your name, address, phone number(s),
and e-mail address at the top of the page. Look at some sample resumes
of friends or family to gather ideas about organizing the information
and selecting professional fonts. For example, you might decide to
center your personal information or type your name in all capital
letters in order to make it stand out. Remember that you want the
presentation to be effective, coordinated, and simple.
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Structure your resume. The body
should include the following components:
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| Objective: If you begin your resume
by stating your goal, you let your potential employers know what you
are seeking; for example, a position in sales. State the position
and level of responsibility. |
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| Summary of Qualifications: You might
provide three or four statements that describe you as the ideal candidate
for the job or position. A phrase like Proficient in French
and Spanish might set you apart from other applicants to
an English as a Second Language tutoring program, while a description
like Committed to environmental causes might
catch the attention of an earth-friendly nonprofit organization seeking
interns. Try to highlight strengths that you feel will make you good
at the job. To help you come up with useful descriptions, imagine
how a friend or family member who is proud of you would describe you. |
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| Related Work Experience or Professional Experience: Include paid work and volunteer
jobs in this section. List these experiences in chronological order,
starting with the most recent (or present) job. Include the dates
of your employment or volunteer position first and then provide a
brief description of each experience. |
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| Activities/Extracurricular Commitments: While running track might not relate to your desire to work at a
restaurant, you'll want to present yourself as the multitalented,
involved, and committed person you are. List a few of the interesting
things that you do with a very brief description of the activity or
interest. |
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| Awards/Honors: List any impressive
accomplishments that might set you apart from the rest of the applicant
pool, including community honors, academic achievements, contest victories,
or athletic accolades. You might also include your G.P.A. in this
section. |
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Watch your language. Think about
the writing of the resume as more than just creating a list of your
past experiences. Like any other writing exercise, carefully choosing
words and paying attention to style will result in a more effective
presentation.
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| Focus on results, not just duties. Rather than simply listing
your job duties, think about emphasizing results and accomplishments.
For example, instead of just explaining your responsibilities as a
cashier at the local grocery store, stress how your presence there
made the organization a better place and prepared you for your next
step. Emphasize your ability to work cooperatively with a team of customer service representatives for a national food-service chain. Use your
description to stress such strengths as your leadership skills, readiness
for teamwork, personality with customers, and trustworthiness as an
employee of a major organization. As you describe your extracurricular
activities, emphasize if you served as a founder, officer, captain,
etc. Use your brief description of each experience to let the reader
of the resume know the impact you had on the places where you have
worked. |
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| Shift your tenses. Resume-writing is a very rare situation
in which you can actually break the strict grammatical rule that all
verb tenses must be consistent. Consider writing the descriptions
of your current jobs in the present tense, while describing past experiences
in the past tense. |
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| A sample listing of work experience might appear as follows: |
2003–2005 Mystery Lover's Bookshop
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| Worked closely with other team members in an independently
owned local bookseller to provide outstanding customer service |
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| Collaborated with managers to create window displays |
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| Assisted in conducting and organizing monthly inventory
and ordering of new titles |
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Invest in quality paper. Splurge
a little on the good stuff in the paper aisle of the office supply
store. A fresh print on fine paper indicates that you care about the
presentation of your qualifications.
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Consider the competition. Even the
smallest typing error or sloppy printing job can influence an employer
to file your resume in the circular file (otherwise known as the trash
can). Edit your resume rigorously, read it again after you have checked
your spelling, and ask another person to proofread it for you. Paying
attention to all of the small details reveals that you believe in
a job well done, something all employers are looking for as they select
the members of their teams.
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Resume resources. The following
resources contain more tips and exemplary resumes to help you build
and format your own:
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