Breaking Free of Bad Resumes: Tips on How to Compose a Winning Resume

Many people, especially those who have just graduated college, struggle to come up with a good, worth while resume that will win them the job or career of their dreams. Some think that a resume has to be something that is at least ten pages in length with footnotes, endnotes, source citations, blah blah blah. Honestly, a good resume can be one page and very simple. If you think about it, why would a company want to read through possibly thousands of resumes that makes their everyday paperwork look like leisure reading? Keeping a resume simple is key to getting the person's attention. Now I'm not saying that it should one or two lines, but it should cover the necessary bits of information without going overboard. You have to remember, you're trying to write this thing so you can get an interview, so leave some information for the actual interview! By the time you're finished reading this article, you should have enough know-how to write your very own simplistic, yet effective, resume.

Now, some of you may have had a course, possibly in high school, that taught you how to write a resume. Why weren't you paying attention??? Those types of courses offer a lot of good information on how to write an effective resume without diving off the deep end with one. But since you've already come to me for help on this matter, I may as well help you out. First I will give you the most essential pieces to a great resume:

Objective: This is normally only one or two sentences in length and informs your possible future employer what you plan on achieving with this resume. Think of something very simplistic, yet to the point when writing this section.

Education: This section tells your employer that dished out enough money to go to school and get enough knowledge to prepare yourself for the career ahead of you. People typically add in the high school they went to along with any colleges you took courses at, and I mean any courses that pertain to this job! If you took English 101 over the summer at some other college just to get the credit, you don't need to add that on there!

Interests and Activities: Employers usually like to know that you do have a life outside of work and school so add whatever activities you like in this section, but keep it appropriate! This is going to effect you, not me!

Work Experience: OK, now is your chance to focus on the details. Try to include as much information as you can on the past jobs you have held. Now, if you have a lot of work experience, then you may want to cut it down to a certain amount of years ago. EX: If you have had a new job every year for the past 10 years, you might want to include only the past 5 or 6 years, they don't actually need your life story.

References: You definitely need to take your time with this section. Remember to only include people you can count on to give your future employer a good picture of you. Normally, people tend to have only 3 references, which is going to be your best bet. It's not too overwhelming and it's enough for the employer to get a good idea of how you react around other people. As for choosing your "Top 3" think about the people you've worked with as well as people who have at least seen you working at least a couple of times. Adding on a past manager or two is always good so long as they actually liked you! Just take your time and don't rush into anything.

Now that you have the basics covered it's time to think about beefing up that scrawny piece of paper you call a resume. I know I said to keep it short and sweet earlier, but I never said to let it starve. Most employers like to see a resume that at least goes above the average standards, but as long as it's not overwhelming. Some other headings you might consider putting into the final cut include:

Languages: Do you remember anything from that high school Spanish course? Or maybe you took another foreign language in college to escape the grip of taking a humanities course. Either way, if you still know some part of another language, add it on. Be sure to let them know how much of the language you know, otherwise it could lead to disaster!

Volunteer Work: If you ever did any type of volunteering, let them know! This is always a good little bit of info to add to any resume and it lets your employer know that you have a softer, caring side to you even if you don't normally show it.

Summary of Qualifications: It never hurts to explain, in your own words, why you think you deserve to get this job/career more than the next guy. This is an excellent way to prepare yourself for a potential interview, but remember that your employer may ask you about what you wrote so be careful about what you say and how you say it.

I bet that you're wondering, "Now that I know what to put in this resume, how do I go about doing that?" You have a few options. You can do a little trail and error and try putting it together yourself on some typing program, but I wouldn't recommend it. Especially since most versions of Microsoft® Word have some type of a template that allows you to easily put together all of these sections into a well-organized resume. Whenever you start Word, just look at the task pane on the right side of the screen and locate the button called "General Templates." From there you can browse through the different categories until you find one that says something along the lines of "Resume Wizard." This template is by far the easiest way to create a professional grade resume in a very little amount of time. Just be sure that you don't fall prey to one of those on-line scams where someone is supposed to help you make a resume for a price. You can easily make one yourself in as little as 20 minutes if you know what you're doing, if not maybe an hour or so which still is not bad compared to paying more money.

(Keep in mind that if you don't own a version of Microsft® Word, most libraries or computer labs do and they typically allow you to use them for free.)