15-Minute Resume Manual: Writing an Effective Resume

15-Minute Resume Manual

This online resume manual takes you through the complete process of writing an effective resume, from a blank document screen to the final printed (or electronic) product. The manual is organized into the following sections.

Caution to Federal job hunters: Not everything contained here applies to a "Federal resume." See our Insider's Guide for detailed information applicable to preparing a Federal employment application using a form OF 612, resume, or any other format.

General Format

Choose a chronological format unless you have an overriding reason not to. Your experience in a chronological resume is organized by position held in reverse chronological order. Four out of five recruiters prefer chronological resumes.

Avoid a functional (or "skills-based") format. Your experience in a functional resume is organized into several categories of skills, followed by a brief work history (one or two lines per job). Consider a functional resume only if:

You have little relevant experience.

You are changing careers or returning to a previous career.
You have been unemployed for a substantial period of time.
You need to de-emphasize your most recent experience for any reason.

This manual focuses on chronological resumes. If you are preparing a functional resume, choose about three skills-based headings, such as "Research & Analysis," "New Product Development," and "Management & Administration" for a market research analyst. Focus on accomplishment statements (discussed below) to illustrate your skills in each area. Avoid mentioning employers by name in your "Experience" section, since they will be listed in the subsequent "Employment History" section. Instead, describe them where appropriate, such as "for a major pharmaceutical manufacturer."

How Far Back?

Start anywhere in your career you choose, but do not omit any jobs from that point to the present. Often experience older than ten years or so does not add any strength to your resume, but just consumes valuable space. Showing at least your last three positions is often a good idea.

How Many Pages?

Use one page if (and only if) your experience can effectively be presented in one page. Two pages are acceptable, if required. Do not be misled that "one page is always better." If limiting yourself to one page means omitting important qualifications or accomplishments, use a second page. Do not exceed two pages unless you are in a profession (e.g., university teaching or scientific research) where extensive lists of publications or other items are customary.

Layout

Use a word processor. Typewritten resumes are no longer acceptable. Use a secretarial service or print shop if necessary.

Avoid wide left margins for headings or dates. Use the space saved for content. Consider a wide left margin only if you are having trouble filling up a page. (If you have this problem, you are probably not trying hard enough to strengthen your resume.)

Limit your fonts to one or two families. Consider one of the following schemes.

A single serif font family (such as Times New Roman) throughout, with the body set at 11 or 12 points and bold centered headings at 13 or 14 points.
A single sans-serif font family (such as Arial) throughout, with the body set at 10 or 11 points and bold centered headings at 12 or 13 points.
A serif font for the body at 11 or 12 points, with a bold sans-serif font for centered headings at 13 or 14 points.

Keep dates simple by showing years only. Months can be distracting and are usually not significant.

Use bulleted statements rather than long paragraphs. Paragraphs longer than three or four lines are more difficult to read and encourage the reviewer to skim over the text. Important points in the middle of longer paragraphs may be lost.

Major Sections

Job Objective

Use one. A job objective statement can show that you have a sense of direction (even if you do not) and sets a positive tone for what follows. If you have alternative career paths in mind or are not sure for what type of position you may be using the resume, rewrite the objective for each job opportunity.

Qualification Highlights

Use four to six concise, bulleted phrases. Consider including each of the following:

Education, functional nature of experience, and industries in which you have experience, in one or two statements. For example, "Degree in Computer Science, with more than 10 years experience as a programmer analyst in business and government."
Interpersonal and communications skills. For example, "Excellent interpersonal and communication skills; relate well to individuals at all organizational levels."
Foreign language skills, if potentially relevant. For example, "Bilingual; fluent in English and Spanish."
Specific computer skills, if the list is short. If the list is long, use a separate section at the end of the resume but summarize them here. For example, "Computer literate; experienced using word processing, spreadsheet, and database software." If the list is long but critical to your profession (e.g., computer programmer) list all your major skills here.

Relevant Experience

For each job described, state your title, employer's name, city, and state, and beginning and ending year of employment. Use one line if the information will fit, with suggested formatting as follows:

Job Title, Employer, City, State

1995-Present

Never use the pronoun "I." Every statement should begin with an action verb. It is understood that you are the subject.

Summarize the scope of your responsibilities in a brief lead paragraph. Include the line of business of your employer if not obvious, and a reference to its size or importance in the industry if impressive. Do not exceed about three or four lines. Include number and types of any employees supervised.

Give preference to accomplishment statements over general duties and responsibilities in bulleted verb phrases. If an accomplishment statement illustrates a responsibility, avoid stating the responsibility in general terms. If some responsibilities will be assumed by the reviewer, do not use space to state the obvious.

Keep phrases short. Any statement longer than two lines should be examined for the possibility of substituting two shorter statements. Do not string statements together with semicolons.

Avoid weak constructions, such as:

"Responsible for handling all customer inquiries." Instead, begin with an active verb, as in "Respond to all customer inquiries."

"Perform analysis of year-end financial reports." Substitute "Analyze year-end financial reports."

"Conduct interviews of terminating employees." Try "Interview all terminating employees."

Use accomplishment statements that are results oriented. Where possible, explain benefits to your employer of each accomplishment. Possibilities for accomplishment statements include (but are not limited to):

Anything that can be quantified -- impressive number of items processed, percentage increases in productivity, etc.
Major project examples.
Examples of initiatives, especially if outside the normal scope of your duties.
Exceeding quotas.
Awards and commendations.
Promotions.

Do not rely solely on your initial ideas. A common mistake that individuals make when describing positions held is to jot down everything that comes to mind for a given job then go on to the next position. Try asking yourself what you did in a typical day. Add what you did each week, each quarter, each year. What did you do that was outside your "official" job functions? Consider reviewing the following sources for inspiration, especially if you draw a blank.

Your official position description.
The Dictionary of Occupational Titles and the Occupational Outlook Handbook.
A Web search for resumes of individuals with similar job titles. Use a full-text search engine like HotBot and structure your search similar to this:
["computer programmer" resume]

Education

For each degree, include a line similar to:

B.S., Accounting, 1985. University of Maryland, College Park, MD.

If you attended college without obtaining a degree, use a line like:

Liberal Arts Program, 1988-1990. Montgomery College, Rockville, MD.

If you had an area of concentration within your major that is related to your job objective, briefly describe it or list coursework. Consider including the title of any dissertation (in italics).

Special Training

List significant training courses or programs completed that are related to your job objective. Usually course titles are sufficient, but dates (year only) may also be important. If this section would be short, consider a combined "Education & Training" section.

Special Skills

Most often this section will consist of a list of computer software skills. If so, use the heading "Computer Skills." Other possibilities are language skills or office skills. Omit this section if it would simply merely duplicate information in your Qualification Highlights section.

Review & Enhancement

Use your word processing tools. Spell check your document immediately before printing, even if you have already done so previously. If you have never used your word processor's grammar checking tool, now is the time to learn.

Always proofread the printed version. It is sometimes easier to spot errors on paper than on a monitor.

Get someone else to review it. The quality of your writing may be critical to the success of your job hunt. A family member or friend with strong verbal skills may be able to contribute valuable comments. A professional resume preparer is unlikely to be willing to do anything for less than one to three hundred dollars (other than tell you how much work your resume needs and give you a price quote). Our own economical Resume Insurance is a writing assistance service designed for individuals who have drafted resumes but want to ensure that their writing is as professional and effective as possible.

Final Production

Print originals or photocopy using high quality paper. The difference between ordinary laser or copier paper and quality paper not only can be seen, it can be felt. Choose a white or light-colored paper with at least some cotton content, preferably 24-pound. Avoid "parchment" or other multi-colored styles.

Do not use offset printing. Offset printing is a waste of money and will prevent you from editing your resume to fit special opportunities.

Electronic Resumes

Scannable Resumes. Modern optical character recognition (OCR) software should have few problems with resumes produced using the format guidelines above. To increase scannability, (1) use a sans-serif font like Arial rather than a serif font like Times New Roman, and (2) turn off hyphenation, and (3) Contrary to what you may have read, a "Keywords" section is unnecessary; important, relevant keywords should already exist somewhere in a well written resume.
For the ultimate in scannability, also (1) use a fixed-width font like Courier, (2) avoid italics and underlining, (2) substitute full caps for bold, (3) use left alignment or justification, rather than justify or full justification, and (4) substitute "--" plus a space for each bullet plus indent. The result will be ugly and less readable by humans. If you are asked to submit a highly scannable resume, submit a resume designed for the human eye as well.

ASCII Resumes. For a resume suitable for insertion into an email message or submission in a form to an Internet job site, follow the instructions above for "ultimate scannability" and save the file as a text file (*.txt). In Microsoft Word, save as file type "MS-DOS Text File" with no line breaks. In WordPerfect, save as "ASCII (DOS) Generic Word Processor" These choices avoid inserting line breaks at the end of each line, which will allow your file to neatly fit the space available in your email message or web page form.

Web Page Resumes. From your word processor, save the original, formatted version of your resume as an "HTML" file. Reopen the file in your word processor and make any final formatting adjustments using the formatting tools provided.

This manual was written by Bill Haaf, our resident job search consultant. Bill personally provides all writing assistance for Princeton Resumes, and is the author of our Insider's Guide.