The Resume

Unlike the Cover Letter, your Resume is a concise, bulleted overview of your skills, experience, and qualifications. You must be strategic in the action verbs you implement to articulate your professionalism to reflect the impact you have made in previous workplaces as well as the skills you have obtained. Your future employer will judge your preparedness for the position you are applying for as well as pull interview questions from this one page document.

Therefore, in addition to a careful construction of your resume, it is important to know your resume extremely well. In other words, know why you are qualified and be able to discuss that qualification in an interview setting. Again, constructing this type of document is difficult and requires many proofreads and revisions. Take a glance at our tips, templates, and strategies to make your resume as polished as your attire.

DO’S AND DON’TS

DO
  • Be honest and use your own words – you are the expert on you!
  • Use Arial or Times New Roman as a font – clear and crisp
  • Choose between 10-12pt font size
  • Insert page numbers
  • Keep it short and concise, between 1 – 2 pages maximum
  • Use short, bulleted statements to make resume easy to read
  • Align text to the left
  • Write in the past tense and be consistent – ensure you use the same style
  • Use strong action words
  • Spell-check your resume
  • Review it with a couple of people to gain their feedback on grammar, layout etc.
  • Print on white, good quality paper (avoid using colored paper)
    DON’T
    • Use the word ‘Resume’ as a title
    • Include your date of birth, gender, ethnicity, disability, health or nationality
    • State your marital status and/or children
    • Give reason(s) for leaving a job
    • Include pre age 16 education
    • Don’t use slang or jargon
    • Provide incorrect information or lies
    • State your salary requirements (these will be negotiated later)
    • Don’t include reference names or the words ‘References available upon request’
    • Avoid using ‘I’ ‘my’ ‘me’ – do not write in the first person
    • Write long paragraphs of writing