How to Write a Resume

Whether you call it a curriculum vitae, a cv, or a resume, it basically
comes down to the same thing: it should be a fairly complete
description of yourself, since it is one of the major selling points of
your professional portfolio. Here are important details on how to write
a resume.


A resume is a one or two page summary of yourself; your skills,
accomplishments, work experience, and education; all aimed at piquing
your future employer's interest.
A resume is like life itself: it goes through many changes. It must be
updated and tailored constantly. It's important to make different
drafts of your resume to come out with the best possible one,
especially if you venture into different fields of work. If you are
applying to different jobs, better yet, different industries, each
resume requires a targeted evaluation of your skills according to the
job in question.
The purpose of this article is to provide you with suggestions and
guidelines on how to write a resume, by taking you through the
necessary steps of the cover letter and the resume itself.



Anytime we write a resume, we have to put ourselves in the shoes of the
employer that's rummaging through the stack of (probably unsolicited)
resumes piling up on his desk. What s/he wants to do is cut through all
the crap and get down to the good stuff -- the resumes that stand out
and are associated with qualified applicants.
Employers want to know why they should hire you , as opposed to the
hundreds of other applicants -- but most importantly, they want to see
it. You have to stick it in their face and let them know that you are
the best person for the job.


Cover Letter
The cover letter should be kept to a minimum in terms of information
with a brief overview of yourself, and should never be longer than a
page. It shouldn't unnecessarily repeat the information throughout the
document. This page should consist of approximately three paragraphs,
in the following format:

First paragraph

No more than two or three sentences, with a brief introduction of
yourself and your career objective. Also, include the information of
where you heard about the job opening, be it a newspaper or a contact
within the company.

Second paragraph

This part includes relevant information in terms of your education,
professional skills and pertinent abilities that would be of great use
to the company. Don't be afraid to throw in some numbers indicating
that you increased productivity by 25% in your past job or efficiently
reduced the advertising cost by 33%. Catch my drift?

Third paragraph

This closing paragraph serves to provide the employer with
straightforward personal information so they can reach you easily. Be
sure to include your name, phone number, email, and fax number, if
available. You want to give them every way to contact you and make it
as simple as possible.

Your email address should be clear and professional in nature. If your name is Mike Smith, the email should be something like mikesmith@email.com or msmith@email.com
. Try to stay clear of hyphens (-) and underscores (_) to avoid any
possible confusion. The last thing you want is to be a perfect
contender for the position, but you can't be reached by the potential
employer.
Remember that a well-written cover letter is a window into your
personality more than your actual skills. This is a basis for employers
to evaluate how your personality would mold with the company culture.
Do you share the same vision? Can you buy into what the company does
and how they do it? Along with the remainder of the document, the
resume serves as a pop quiz where the employer uses your information as
answers to the questions they need answers to.

If you want to learn how to write a resume, then there's five main components you should use:

Career Objective

Work Experience

Education

Additional Information

References

Career Objective
The career objective serves as a prelude to the more systematic resume
where personal information is listed in a fairly technical matter. This
section serves to illustrate what your short and long-term goals as a
professional are, and how you see yourself developing and honing your
skills over the years.
It indicates your work preferences in a brief and consistent manner
with the rest of the resume, and can be used as an alternative to an
objective statement. This is the perfect opportunity to highlight your
strengths at the very beginning of your resume.
Make sure not to repeat yourself. Paraphrase, improvise; do whatever
needs to be done, but be creative and original because employers have
seen it all!


Work Experience
This part is more of a point-form approach at describing what you can
do, and how you learned to do it. You might have an idea of the
requirements needed for a specific job, but specifying what these
skills are might actually show your future boss that you would be
better suited for another position maybe even with better pay.

Be sure to include all your work experience in reverse chronological order. Include the following for every description:

Title of the position

Name of the organization

Location of work

Date of employment

You should describe your work responsibilities using action words,
such as produced and created , and emphasize your best and most
relevant achievements. Don't feel the need to fully describe your areas
of non-expertise; omit them if need be.
Once you have described your actual on-the-field experience, some
employers are very keen on learning about your education and training.

Education
This part is especially important if you do not have extensive work
experience for the applied position. Follow the same reverse
chronological listing as for the work experience.

The following are the basic aspects that should be mentioned in this section:

Degree

Institution(s)

Major/Minor, Concentration Classes

Seminars; Special Workshops; Related Courses

Overall G.P.A.

Additional Information
This part of the resume can include various sub-sections such as
interests, computer knowledge, activities, language proficiency, etc.
This section is the melting pot of all other relevant information that
did not find a spot in your resume earlier.

Interests

Sometimes used to evaluate the personality of the applicant, it serves
the same purpose as the cover letter, with which the employer gathers a
personality profile. Include your passion for biking and the
wilderness, which shows that you enjoy life and like different things.
Be honest, but don't include things that might hinder your
opportunities of being hired.

Computer Knowledge

Some job openings require some technical training in various computer
software programs like Microsoft Word, Excel, Lotus, Real World
Accounting, and so on. Inform them that you're an apprentice
computer-geek.

Activities

This is the miscellaneous section used to mention the spelling bee
championship you won, or the Scout of the Year award you earned. Let
them know that you are a well-rounded individual that applies himself
and excels in various endeavors. Leadership roles like president of a
university association also helps gather points in the eye of the
beholder... I mean employer.

Language Proficiency

Although this information might be of more relevance in your cover
letter, this is a great place to bring up your language proficiency
again, without making it seem repetitive. If you speak Spanish, they might need you to act as a translator when the new production plant is set up in Mexico City next summer. Who knows?


References
Although names of individuals are not usually listed on the resume,
including them might facilitate the task of the employer who wishes to
phone some old bosses of yours. In case you decide not to include this,
the statement "References available upon request" is a clear indication
to the employer that if he wants a list of references, one is always
readily available.

You should have a prepared list available to hand out, in case an employer might wish to get one right away.
But before you hand out reference sheets to every interested party,
make sure to contact the people on the sheet to advise them of what you
have written and the possibility of a future phone call.

So now that you are equipped with all the tools on how to write a resume that is foolproof, always keep in mind that the purpose of a great resume is to get an interview!