How to Make a Resume

Want to make your résumé shine? Here's how to put together a résumé that will impress any prospective employer.

1

Understand the purpose of a resume. This will help you to identify what is really important to focus on when putting yours together. Basically, a résumé is a brief overview of your experience and credentials put together in such a way as to sell you as one of the best choices for a prospective employer to interview. It initiates the process of introducing yourself to the employer. Therefore, given that a résumé is both introductory and a personal sales presentation, a good résumé will be concise, easy to read, positive, and interesting.

• A résumé is not a mere summary of what you've done – a résumé needs to be focused on the job targeted, making the content relevant to the hiring team's viewpoint.^[1] An often-made mistake is to develop a "one-size-fits-all" résumé without tailoring it to the specifics of the job.^[2]
• Look at existing résumé examples to get a good feel for putting together a good résumé. Borrow books on résumé writing from the local library, or get online and check out résumés uploaded by various people. Within your industry, it's often possible to get a search return for people who have submitted résumés that have been made public and stored electronically, and this gives you a great opportunity to see how the top people in your industry prepare their résumés.
• Know what the reader will be looking to get out of a résumé. Key professional behaviors that a reader will want to see leap out from reading your resume include communication and listening skills, ability to be a team player, goal orientation, analytical skills, motivation and initiative, reliability and dedication, determination, confidence, pride and integrity, efficiency, and the ability to follow directions.^[3]

2

Make it easy to read. The manner of presentation will impact how easy it is to read the résumé. Use good taste when developing a résumé and forget gimmicks; in general, recruiters approach resumes conservatively and do not like or trust being presented with resumes printed on color paper, in 3D, with unusual fonts, or shaped like whatever product the company's trying to sell.^[4] Stay with what is tried and trusted because recruiters like the familiar, and anything that bucks that trend risks a negative reaction.

• Use the font size 10-12. For a traditional look, use the serif Times New Roman. Use Century Old Style for traditional business jobs. For a more contemporary look, use the sans serif fonts Helvetica or Arial. Non-traditional fonts not only risk looking unprofessional but if you're emailing them and your employer doesn't have the font type, your resume will end up unformatted as it's replaced by a different font, with the end result probably looking unreadable.^[5] You can avoid this problem by emailing the document as a PDF file.
• Avoid switching between too many fonts. Sans serif fonts are best for headers, serif fonts are best for listing the content details.
• Use bold and italics to make important information stand out but use bold sparingly. Also make use of white space; ensure there is enough to make it easier to read.
• Use black and white. Color should be used restrictively and preferably not at all.
• Keep the format neat and well organized. Format consistently throughout the document.
• If printing hard copies to send, use quality paper

Choose a style you'll use. Leaving out personal pronouns is commonplace but the use of third person or first person is really up to you and your personal style. What matters is that you come across as personable and someone people want to work with. Don't make it overly stiff or overly casual; try to find a perfect medium. Be careful to maintain the correct tense throughout the résumé.

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