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How  to  write  an  effective  resume

A well-written resume is one of your most valuable tools in a job search. It summarizes your education, work experience and other qualifications, and often makes that important first impression about you with potential employers. As you develop your resume, be sure to:

• Schedule an appointment with a counselor/friend to assist you.
• Review the sample resume books for your major in the Library Resource Center.
• Consider which format (chronological, functional or combination) best suits you - chronological format are the easiest to prepare and to read, and they appear to be the most popular style of resume in use.
• Keep it short-limit yourself to one or two pages.
• Write a clearly stated employment objective and support it in the body of your resume.
• Provide your employment history.
• List your accomplishments and responsibilities.
• Emphasize your skills.
• Use action words (such as supervised, managed, directed) instead of passive phrases like "responsible for" or "duties included".
• Organize the layout-a simple, logical format directs readers to pertinent facts quickly and easily.
• Proofread carefully to produce a perfect product-correct all misspellings, typographical errors and poor grammar.
• Reproduce your resume on quality paper with a high quality copier, laser printer or printing service.
• Prepare some model cover letters to accompany your resume.

CONTACT INFORMATION

• Name
• Address (both permanent and local, if appropriate)
• Telephone Number

OBJECTIVE

Briefly describe the type of position you seek. Employers prefer candidates who are focused and directed. If you do not include an objective, you must include the position title or your area of interest in your cover letter.

EDUCATION

List educational institutions you have graduated from or expect to graduate from. Begin with the most recent school, indicating degree, major, minor and concentrations; and indicate your date of graduation. Grade point average is optional. Academic honors and other recognition may be included.

WORK EXPERIENCE

Work experience can be listed chronologically or in order of relevance to your work objective. Briefly list your position title, company (city/state), dates of employment, responsibilities and skills required.

HONORS/ACTIVITIES

Indicate your activities, interests, awards, volunteer experience and memberships-both school and non-school related. High school activities may be included, if you are a freshman or sophomore.

REFERENCES

Separately on a single sheet of paper. Be sure to request the permission of anyone you list as a reference to use their names.