Selecting Your Resume Type

Class Location: The Internet.

Description: This course gives students an overview of the basic information which is necessary to include in resumes as well as the different types of resumes to chose from.

Objective: Learn the basics of a resume, including what information to include.

Your resume is the best tool you have to get your foot in the door with a potential employer. It summarizes your skills, accomplishments and experience and gives you a place to try to sell yourself to an interviewer.

A resume includes several basic elements:

• Contact information. You want to make it easy for an interviewer to reach you by including mailing address, e-mail address and all phone numbers.

• Summary. This section highlights your strengths and how you plan to use them for this specific job. It emphasizes your skills, experience and accomplishments and how they relate to your job objective.

• Work experience and accomplishments. This section should highlight what you've accomplished rather than list all your duties. Be as brief, clear and specific as possible. Use action verbs, and describe the problems you've solved and the impact of your achievements.

• Education and training. Outline all relevant education, training and certifications that apply to the specific job you want. List education in reverse order from your highest degree. Also include any seminars, workshops or other training relevant to your job objective.

• Additional information. Outline any other information that will help sell you to the interviewer, such as professional memberships, military service or awards.

You want to make sure your resume appears professional and focused. Tailor each resume you submit to that particular job or employer. Read and re-read your resume to make sure you have no typos or misspellings.

You can present your resume in several different formats, including chronological, functional or a combination of the two.

• The chronological format is the most common and traditional way to present a resume. It lists your employment history in reverse chronological order, with the job title, employer name and location, dates of employment and accomplishments. Use the chronological format when most of your employment has been in the same field, you want to stay in that field, and you don't have large gaps between jobs. List only those jobs that relate to your current work goal.

• The functional format organizes skills in clusters, intentionally omitting job titles, names of employers and dates of employment. Use this format if you are changing careers or your employment has been sporadic. This format might work for homemakers returning to the work force or recent graduates. It should highlight your work objective, accomplishments and transferable skills and omit anything not directly related to the job you’re seeking. This format has limited uses and is not very common.

• The combination format, or hybrid, allows a job-seeker using the functional format to include a skeleton work history in reverse chronological order. The work history includes only job titles, employer names and dates. The job experience goes in the function clusters. This format focuses on clusters of transferable skills and experience that most relate to the job you're seeking. It works well if you have had a lot of short-term jobs, are older or have changed careers. However, many employers prefer the chronological format to both the functional and hybrid formats.

Once you've completed your resume, you should have it in an electronic format that you can e-mail as an attachment for the interviewer to print. You should also prepare it as text only with minimal formatting so that you can paste it into an e-mail or an online application.