Resume Writing Tips

Your résumé should present your business experience and academic credentials, plus extras such as specific work-related skills, awards, or professional memberships. One page is preferred, but never use more than two. Organize it consistently, use phrases rather than sentences and bullets if appropriate to set off or highlight items, and double-check your spelling and grammar. Ask a friend with good language skills to read it, too, as if he or she were a potential employer.

• Include all your contact information at the top of your résumé, and if you must use a second page, put your name and “page 2” on top.
  
  
• List an objective only if it is not clear from your work history, for example, if you are pursuing a career change. If so, make sure it pertains to the job you’re applying for.
  
  
• Begin the work history (often headed “Professional experience”) with your current or most recent position. For each job, list the month and year of your start and end dates. If you are a recent graduate and have not had relevant work experience, list any jobs you held while in school, including summer.
  
  
• Quantify whatever information you can: for example, the amount of money or time you saved the firm by taking a specified action; the rate or number of items you produced within a specified time period; the number or types of clients you served.
  
  
• List any work-related skills you possess, particularly computer programs and knowledge of, for example, specific citation styles. Also list any languages in which you are fluent if relevant to the position.
  
  
• In the education portion—which should follow the work history or skills section unless you are a recent graduate—list your college or university and the degree(s) you earned with the year you received it. If you have won awards or honors in school rather than in subsequent jobs, list them in this section; otherwise, put them in a separate section before or after this one.
  
  
• Do not list personal interests unless they are relevant to the job you’re applying for, such as knowledge of the stock market if you’re applying to an investment firm.