Frequently people ask me for opinions on resume styles. This document is meant to answer these questions. While I do not claim to be an expert, I have had the fortune/misfortune of reading several hundreds of these. After a while, one develops a feel for them, and notices what catches one's eyes.
My general approach to a resume is more from the sales/marketing perspective. Think of it as an advertisement for yourself. What kind of advertisement catches your attention? The purpose of a resume is to evoke enough interest so a potential employer would want to know more about you, and give you a chance to get a foot in the door. We may analyze a resume both in terms of its layout and content.
Like any packaging, it's all about the presentation. So the typography and layout are important.
I prefer a serif font, such as "Times". It's known to enhance readability. I would avoid San Serif such as "Helvetica" or "Arial". I would especially avoid Arial because this is the default font for Word. It does not appear as professional. It almost gives a feel that the person doesn't even know how to change fonts in Word. If you are using "Arial Narrow." I would change it to "Times" instead.
Another well recognized font is "Computer Modern," that is the default font for TeX and LaTeX. Since TeX and LaTeX are widely used in academia, "Computer Modern" conveys a very academic feel to the resume. This may or may not be what you want.
Size wise, 12-pt fonts are easy to read, and may even be slightly on the big side. 10-pt fonts are also popular. Take care not to use any smaller fonts. At 9-pt, the print becomes difficult to read even for people with perfect vision. If you expect your readers to be older, you may want to make it easy for them by using bigger size fonts, such as 12-pt.
Try to use the same font for the entire resume. One can vary the style (underline, bold, italics), and case (lower case, upper case, capitalization) for emphasis. However, avoid mixing different font faces, such as Times with Helvetica, etc. It's distracting. You would want the reader to focus on the content of the resume, instead of being distracted by its layout.
The font you use says a lot about you, just as the clothes you wear.
Unless it's for a high level job such as an executive, I would keep the resume within one or two pages. Most employers go through so many resumes that very few of them will ever make it to the second page. Focus on important and distinguishing achievements in your work experience (more about this in the "Content" section). Then again if one has over 10 years of working experience with many accomplishments, one would be pressed to squeeze all that into one page.
In general, the rule of thumb is to have near 1-inch margins on all sides (top, bottom, left, right). White space is important in a page layout. Margins are also useful for annotations. If you are pressed for space, I would first shrink the font size from 12 point to 10 first, then reduce the top and bottom margin, and finally the left and right.
The bullet points seems to be favored over paragraphs. Specifically, instead of describing your accomplishments at your last job in a 10 line paragraph, break them up into individual bullet points. This seems to borrow heavily from slide making techniques.
Many of you probably have experience with making slides (PowerPoint?). It's commonly known that long paragraphs can easily bore the audience. It's better to use bullet points with simple short sentences.
Of course, one needs to balance this with the length, since bullet points tend to take up more space.
There are many ways to organize a resume. The following seems to be
the current convention. Here is also a decent online reference from
Career Services of Ohio-State especially for those just
graduated.
http://career.asc.ohio-state.edu/workshops/resume/resuident.htm
If you are applying for a position or going through a recruiter, this is not necessary. One would assume that your objective is the position you are applying.
However, it's important to have this if you are simply posting your resume on a job site, or sending it to a recruiter w/o a particular position in mind. You want to let the reader know what you are looking for. Try to keep this within one line.
This is probably the most important section. This is where you tell the potential employers your "features". Think of yourself as a product. If you are a consumer, wouldn't you want to know the features of a product first? What does it do for you? If it sounds as if it does what you need, then maybe you would read its specifications, and even call up to find out more.
List your degrees, special training, certifications, etc. I wouldn't bother including the GPA unless this is the first job after graduation.
It's understood that it refers to work experience, so there is no need to spell it out (the same apply to "summary"). The reverse chronological order is the convention these days. Try to focus (more details) on the recent jobs.
Who is your audience? Are you going for a job in academia, finance, or high tech? So prepare customized resumes for each segment. If you are going for a management position, then focus more on your people, communication, and team building skills. If it's a techie spot, focus on your technical accomplishments.
Just as all advertisements, the focus is to secure the reader's attention. So get rid of all non-essentials. Forget "References Available Upon Request". It's understood.
Most big companies and professional recruiters all use search engines. So put in the buzz words. For example, if you are looking for a position as a network manager, one may expect to see buzz words, such as "Cisco", "CCNE", "RADIUS", "DNS", "DHCP", "switch", "router", etc.
This is the age of databases and search engines. Make them work for you.
Most employers and recruiters accept resumes submitted in electronic forms. Word documents are among one of the most well accepted file formats. However, it's not exactly one of the most secure. For one thing, it's wrought w/ the risk of Macro viruses and other similar perils. Instead, I would suggest using RTF files, but renaming the extension to ".doc". Microsoft Word would recognize it and do the right things.
Another popular format is PDF. Postscript is ok too, except many non-tech savvy Human Resource representatives may not know how to deal with this.
No matter how you generate your resume, always make sure that you have an ASCII version. Many online resume submissions only accept ASCII. Many tech firms or security conscious establishments that are less Microsoft friendly will not accept Word documents.
The safest bet is to have your resume in several formats, RTF, Word, HTML, and ASCII. Before you send in your resume, pay attention to the employer's preference, and send in the resume in the appropriate format.
Speaking of search engines, there is a trend for the employer to check out the candidates with the search engines. This is especially true for techies. The premise is that if one claims to be an accomplished techie, he/she ought to have a net-presence and leave some trails on the net.
So check yourself out on the popular search engines, such as
by your name or your email address. This is also known as a "vanity search." You may be surprised to discover what other people can find about you on the net. DejaNews has made UseNet archive from the last 20 years available online. So be cautious when you post on the net. It's forever.Making a good first impression is half of the battle. A finely tuned resume is the key to get your foot in the door. The above comments are simply some pointers. The most important part is for you to spend the time and effort to craft your resume and carefully examine the message you are conveying.
Especially in a difficult job market, a winning resume makes a dramatic difference. I wish you best of the luck. And don't forget to keep your resume updated, you never know when opportunities will come knocking on your door.
Keep an eye for other articles in this series. I will be posting other articles commenting on job seeking techniques, and how to find a good recruiter.
Here are a few other pointers that you may look up else where. They are cited in many other sources in sufficient regularity, that I will not delve into. As a friend pointed out, it's still useful to make a brief mention.Copyright (c) 2001, http://remus.rutgers.edu/~petechen/ , All rights reserved.
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