How To Write a Resume That Gets You the Job

By Paul Richlovsky, Managing Editor, YSGTS.com

A resume is often the difference between getting an interview and getting ignored. Unless you have a previous contact at the company or an established reputation for being good at what you do, your resume is the document that is going to convince your employer to give you a job interview. A resume is a vehicle for showing not only your past experience and transferable skills, but also your presentation and writing abilities.

There are plenty of places to find templates for resumes, both desktop- and web-based as well as in books (see below). This article is not about creating the perfect template--the ways and opinions of which are varied--but about the universal strategies and principles that convey information efficiently and make you look professional. Remember, HR managers and others with hiring authority will have different opinions on what makes the best-looking resume (Arial vs. Times New Roman font, for example), but if you can communicate how your relevant skills and experience match up to the requirements of a new job, your resume is effective. And that’s the bottom line.

How not to write a resume

Don’t let preconceived notions limit your resume:

MYTH: Your resume can only be one page. – Make it concise, but if you have relevant information that can’t fit on just one page, include it. Using a really small font to maximize the amount of information on one page is lame.

MYTH: List every job/date. It’s all about relevancy.
MYTH: Only list paying jobs – College students who don’t have a big work history but are active volunteers may be short-changing themselves.
MYTH: Make it “one-size-fits-all” – Each resume you create should be uniquely tailored to the particular job opening and company. The main principle here is including details irrelevant to a specific position/employer wastes valuable resume space that could otherwise be used to make an argument for your candidacy. This is more necessary for older job-seekers than traditional college students, although applicable to those with extensive work histories.

More things not to do

Be vague in job details – Use specific “action” words and numbers to show evidence of accomplishments.
Using present tense for past jobs
Hide your contact info (this should be front and center)
Make careless errors. Spelling, grammar and punctuation should be checked by at least one pair of human eyes. Computers can help, too.
Labeling a digital file generically … nothing is potentially more annoying for the recruiter trying to sort resumes than the non-descriptive file name. Imagine the hiring manager doing a search on her computer for documents by title, and she can’t find your resume by name or position opening.
Ignore gaps in employment history. Again, for traditional college students, this should not be a problem, but if you’ve never held a paying job and don’t have regular volunteer or leadership experience to speak of, then you may want to get some before you start applying for any competitive jobs.

Do …

Be sure to include keywords on your resume, either marked by a heading or just otherwise used in the copy. These are especially important if you are submitting your resume to an online database.

Free resources to help with writing a resume

There’s a lot of information out there, so this list is by no means comprehensive. Your college’s career center should have resume-writing classes or proofreading sessions, as do many libraries. Consider looking at your local newspaper (or newspaper website) for any career sections or career-advice writers. An insightful book that preaches going beyond the conventional, Don’t Send a Resume (Jeffrey J. Fox, Hyperion, 2001), instructs job seekers to write “resu-letters” and stand out from the herd, a beneficial status for any candidate.

Purdue OWL Resume Workshop -- Also includes PDF example.

“How To Write Impressive Resumes,” eHow.com
Resume-Help.org -- Extensive resources, including areas for cover-letter writing and job-finding tools.
About.com: Job Searching -- Guides, samples, tips, video resumes, portfolios, and more.

Pay for a resume

If your writing skills are sub-par, it could be worth the investment to hire a professional resume writer or writing service to produce a good one for you. Remember, a good resume could be the difference between getting the interview and getting your document tossed in the trash. Think of the job for which you’re applying as the potential return on the investment that is your resume.