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• Résumé


  A persuasive summary of your qualifications for employment
• Curriculum Vitae (CV)


  Used for academic purposes in the UK and other European countries, more akin to the résumé
• Writing a résumé is an ego-building experience: the person who looks so good on paper is you!
• If your skills are in great demand, you can violate every guideline and still get a good job, but when you must compete against many applicants, these guidelines will help you look as good on paper as you are in person
• How to encourage the employer to pay attention to your résumé

  1. Show how your qualifications fit the job and the company

  2. If people do the reading, your résumé may get a few seconds of the reader's attention to decide whether to choose the people for an interview or not

  3. If the résumé is electronically scanned by computer, the employer specifies keywords from the job description, listing the knowledge, skills, and abilities that the ideal applicant would have, sometimes including personal characteristics

  4. The employer receives the résumés that match the keywords, arranged with the most "hits" first, then decides who will be invited for interviews

  5. Do more than just list what you've done, show how it helped the organization, quantify achievements

  6. Emphasize achievements that are most relevant, show your superiority, and are recent

  7. Use the jargon and buzzwords of the industry and the organization

  8. Include skills that are helpful in almost every job

  9. Design one résumé to appeal to the human eye and the second to be easily processed by an electronic scanner

  10. Consider using a career objective with the employer's name
• These guidelines mean that you may need to produce several different résumés, but the more you adapt your résumé to a specific employer, the more likely it is that you will get a job with that employer
• Chronological résumé


  Summarizes what you did in reverse order, is the traditional résumé format, is used to show a logical preparation for the job or a steady progression leading to the present
• Skills résumé


  Emphasizes the skills you've used, is useful when your job history does not directly lead to the kind of job you're applying for
• How to write a chronological résumé

  Include position or job title, organization, city and state, dates of employment, and other details such as full- or part-time status, use details when they help you "tell how many people you trained or supervised"
• How to write a skills résumé

  Include the skills used in or the aspects of the job you are applying for, rather than the title, under each skill combine experience, use headings that reflect the jargon of the job for which you're applying, include at least three headings related to the job, include the skills that you know will be needed in the job you want
• Action Verbs for Résumés


  • (list of action verbs)
• How to create a scannable résumé

  Use a standard typeface, 12- or 14-point type, a ragged right margin rather than full justification, don't italicize or underline words, don't use lines, boxes, script, leader dots, or borders
• Video résumé


  Consider using if it's appropriate for the organization and job sought, otherwise stick to traditional methods