Your resume is a one-page snapshot of yourself, your training, and your experience. Make sure that it is neat, free of errors, and easy to read. Often an employer will be sorting through dozens of resumes, so don’t give him or her reasons to pass yours over.
Use interesting, descriptive, and active words. If you were employed as a copywriter, instead of saying “Was advertising writer,” say “Wrote creative advertising copy for a direct-mail campaign.” Better yet, describe what benefit your employer derived from your efforts: “Wrote creative advertising copy which generated an above-average response rate for a direct-mail campaign.”
Make your resume look good. Use one typeface only, and jazz it up with consistent use of italics or bold face. For a page to be pleasing to the eye, it must include white space: don’t pack your resume to the gills with text. A graphic item such as a solid black line can be helpful, but keep it simple. Special hint: Check the visual appeal of your resume by shrinking it down to 50% or 33% using the view controls in the lower-left corner of the window. The text will be so small that you will be able to focus solely on the layout.
Think about how you want to portray yourself when writing your resume. Are you a person of diversity or of focus? Do you want to draw more attention to the type of work you’ve done, or to the particular firms you’ve worked for? Were your job titles important, or do they imply a lower level of responsibility than the work you actually performed? Answering questions like these can influence both what you write and how you format the information on the page.
Notice that you should list your most recent work experience first. Plan your resume so it doesn’t use more than one page.
Finally, your library or bookstore should carry a number of good books on resume writing, and many colleges have career counseling centers that can help you. Use them to your advantage.
Here is a short list of active verbs to get you started:
orchestrated • designed • fabricated • produced • planned • demonstrated • researched • analyzed • tested • conducted • calculated • established • determined • cultivated • developed • programmed
On the following pages are examples of a resume formatted two ways.