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The most important part of any resume, and the section many recruiters study most closely, is a job seeker’s experience. If you’re an experienced candidate, this section will highlight the past jobs you’ve held. Entry-level candidates can fill out this section with a combination of work experience, extracurricular activities, and volunteer work. To get started on your experience section, create a master list of your work history in reverse chronological order. List the month and year that you began and ended each job, your job title, the name of the company, and the responsibilities you held. Think about your experience in terms of results produced. Be short on the description of duties and long on verifiable outcomes. Quantify your results with numbers wherever possible to give the resume reader a clearer picture of your accomplishments. Always remember that your aim is to show in your resume not just the types of experience you’ve had, but also how effectively you performed your duties, what benefits you brought to your employer while working there, and how valuable you’ll be to your next employer. Finally, fill out your experience list by citing any particular accomplishments, including awards or special recognition, you received at each job. Effective resumes are “action-packed” documents! So after you’ve roughed out your experiences on your master list, you’re going to write them as achievement statements—phrases that emphasize actions and results.
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Experience
Every resume starts with a heading that displays the two most important pieces of information to supply to a potential employer: your name and contact information. Seems straightforward, but many people make the mistake of sending resumes with old contact information or of omitting telephone numbers and email addresses. Be sure to include the name you use professionally, a home address, and the personal telephone number or numbers where you are most easily reached. Note: If you have a two-page resume, your name, phone number, and email address should also appear at the top of the second page. Get a job search email account if you don’t already have one; using a unique email address for your job search will help you to avoid losing messages from employers among the many personal messages you receive each day. Select an email address that displays your name. For example: mary_johnson@hotmail.com. (See the Internet delivery chapter of this guide for additional dos and don’ts on formulating an email address.) You want your name to stand out and stick in the reader’s mind, which is why the heading should be highlighted using a bold or an enlarged typeface. Remember, a resume is a marketing piece about you, and subtle visual tricks like this can be very effective. Don’t go crazy, however, by using ridiculously huge letters. Stick with a font size between 12 and 18 points for the most effective visual punch. Finally, center your contact information on the page or align it along the left margin. This will make it easier to see if it’s filed in a folder or binder.
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FOR YOUR REFERENCE
Odd numbers are more believable and persuasive than even numbers. “19%” sounds like a number taken from a financial report, while “20%” sounds like a wild guess. Be exact!
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