Your Resume

Content

The following is a detailed description of the information expected within a resume, along with some tips on how to maximize your resume's impact ...

Contact Information: Name, Address, Phone number(s), Email Address
Objective: A resume may be used to present you to a variety of companies for any number of positions for which you may be both interested and qualified. Unless you are seeking a position with extremely specific criteria, this section offers little value and has the potential side effect of pre-screening you out of an interview. Your objective is best represented in a cover letter written specifically for a potential employer, directly addressing your interest in a particular position. If you do wish to include an objective on your resume, we suggest that you keep it brief and make it clear that your objective is directly tied to leverging your experience to contribute to the company's sucess. Avoid meaningless phrases such as "Seeking a challenging position in an exciting company".
Summary of Qualifications: Particularly useful when used to tie together key aspects from a number of different positions you may have held. Items in this section should highlight the value you bring to an organization based on your prior experience. This section should focus on general accomplishments, professional certifications, responsibility held, years of experience in a key role... the hiring manager should be able to conclude from this section "this candidate is qualified" for the position you seek.
Professional Experience: The most important section of your resume. A list of the companies you have worked for and the positions you held, including formal titles. These should be presented in reverse chronological order.
Dates should be "Month Year" specific. Example: 1998-1999 is vague, it could be 2 months (Dec 1998 - Jan 1999) or nearly 2 years (Jan 1998 - Dec 1999).
General Overview: A brief description of the duties and responsibilities of the position. For a sales representative, this should include the type of products and/or services you sold, the vertical markets you sold to, your territory, and key accounts developed and closed. For a technical position, this should be a description of your expertise with respect to the technologies, platforms, languages, and types of applications.
Specific Accomplishments: While the above sectioned detailed "what you do", this section should highlight "how well you do it".
- Promotions and awards received.
- Sales performance relative to quota.
- Ranking relative to peers.
- Number of people hired or managed.
Education: Name of School, Degree Earned, Date of Graduation. Honors earned. Grades and ranking should be included only if they demonstrate extraordinary achievement. Also include formal professional training.
Professional Societies: A list of memberships and leadership roles played in professional societies or organizations.
References: "Available on request." References are most often checked once a company has formally "met" the candidate, by way of phone or face-to-face interview. Candidates should be prepared to produce 3-4 references (name, company, title, phone number), and while we may ask for these along with your resume, they are typically submitted as a separate document. References listed should be aware that they may be asked to speak on your behalf.
Personal Interests, Hobbies: Inclusion in the resume is optional unless relevant to the skills or charactersitics required to meet the job objective.
Personal Data: (sex, age, height, marital status, religion, etc.) is NOT included.