Developing Your Resume

The Writing Center at Los Angeles Valley College

What is the purpose of a resume?

A resume functions a letter to a targeted reader and the purpose is to facilitate a conversation (the interview) with a potential employer.

A resume as an advertisement for yourself, where you can highlight all of your relevant accomplishments. It’s your entry ticket for the a possible interview

Common Resume Formats

Chronological

Functional

Combination

Chronological Resume

A chronological resume is advantageous when

Your recent employers and/or job titles are impressive

You are staying in the same career field

Your job history shows progress

This is the format preferred by many employers

Sample Resume: Download example

Functional ResumeA functional resume is

advantageous whenThere are gaps in your work History

You are changing careers

Your career growth in the past has not been continuous and progressive

You have worked in several unrelated fields/ work has been free-lance or temporary in nature

Sample Resume: Download example

Combined ResumeA combined resume is

advantageous when when your work experience includes a variety of career fields and you have gaps in your employment history.

This format is ideal for individuals with diverse experiences that do not add up to a clear cut career path or individuals who wish to enter a field very different from what their previous experience reflects.

Sample Resume: Download example

Typical Resume Contents

Header with contact information

Objective (optional)

Education: For degrees in progress: “Anticipated Completion Date ____”

Experience

Skills

Activities

Honors

Arguments against stating an Objective

Recruiters and hiring managers don’t like resume objectives because they focus on the needs of the job seeker rather than the needs of the potential employer.

“Seeking a software engineer position with a progressive employer where I can contribute to the development of new technologies and work with bright, committed people.”

This may be honest but it is irrelevant to the reader, who does not care what you want and only cares what you have to offer. Instead of an objective, use a positioning statement that clearly and concisely explains what you have to offer:

Taken from Louis Fletcher’s “Top ten Resume Tips”

Arguments against stating an Objective

Position Statement:

“Senior Software Engineer with 10 years experience developing leading-edge technologies.”

Now the reader can immediately see your value. (For even greater impact, tailor this statement for each position to highlight the match between the company’s needs and your skills.)

Taken from Louis Fletcher’s “Top ten Resume Tips”

Know your Audience

Customize your resume to the position.

Carefully review the language from the job posting and work this language into your position statement and other areas of the resume.

Resume Writing Steps

Target your job.

Choose a format.

Draft your resume.

Edit and critique.

Resume Do’sConsider page length: less than five years one page and more than five years two pages

Use adequate white space.

Use consistent format.

Use bullets instead of paragraphs.

Use all caps and bold to make important words stand out.

Determine appropriate keywords from job descriptions

Make headers & contact info larger.

Write in third person without “I” or “Me”

Choose an easy-to-read font.

Arial, Times New Roman, Palatino, Tahoma or VerdanaNo less than 11 points for smaller fontsLarger fonts can be 10 points

Resume BlundersSpelling, typos or poor grammar (proof backwards)

Using cliches like “self-motivated” Instead, demonstrate these qualities through powerful Action-Benefit statements (showing that your action had a positive benefit). For example: Designed and implemented employee evaluation protocols.

Poor presentation (poor formatting, too wordy or poor paper selection)

Unprofessional e-mail address

Using underlining/italics , which can cause problems for resumes that are scanned

Resume Blunders

• Using colored or printed paper• Including hobbies (unless relevant to job)• Including personal information (religion,

marital status, etc.)• Putting the word “Resume” at the top• Including salary information• Including reasons for leaving jobs• Including references on the same page as

the resume

Additional Resources

• Writing Center Resume Handout• Additional Action Verbs for resumes• Resume Worksheets• Guide for writing descriptive bullet points