BCE: HOW TO

WRITE RESUME
Prepared by: Aunkita Pandey
How to write Résumé
With the necessary information and a good plan in hand, you’re ready to begin writing.
If you feel uncomfortable writing about yourself, you’re not alone. Many people, even
accomplished writers, can find it difficult to write their own résumés. If you get stuck,
imagine you are somebody else, writing a résumé for this person called you. By “being
your own client” in this sense, you might find the words and ideas flow more easily. You
can also find a classmate or friend who is writing a résumé and swap projects for a while.
Working on each other’s résumés might speed up the process for both of you.
Keeping your Resume honest
Estimates v ary, but one comprehensiv e study uncovered lies about work history in more
than 40 percent of the résumés tested.18 And dishonest applicants are getting bolder all
the time—going so far as to buy fake diplomas online, pay a computer hacker to insert
their names into prestigious universities’ graduation records, and sign up for serv ices that
offer phony employment v erification or phony references.19 “It’s becoming common to
cheat,” observ es Professor George Gollin of the Univ ersity of Illinois, Urbana, mentioning
the 200,000 fake college degrees sold ev ery year as one example.

Applicants with integrity know they don’t need to stoop to lying. If you are tempted
to stretch the truth, bear in mind that professional recruiters have seen all sorts of fraud
by job applicants, and frustrated employers are working aggressiv ely to uncover the truth.
Nearly all employers do some form of background checking, from contacting references
and v erifying employment to checking criminal records and sending résumés through
v erification serv ices.21 Employers are also beginning to craft certain interv iew questions
specifically to uncover dishonest résumé entries
Most companies that find lies on résumés refuse to hire the
offending applicants, even if that means withdrawing formal
job offers. And if you do sneak past these filters and get hired,
you’ll probably be exposed on the job when you can’t live up to
your own résumé. Given the networked nature of today’s job
market, lying on a résumé could haunt you for years—and you
could be forced to keep lying throughout your career to hide
the misrepresentations on your original résumé.
Adapting your Resume as per the
Audience
◦ The importance of adapting your résumé to your target readers’ needs and interests cannot be
overstated. In a competitive job market, the more you seem like a good fit—a quality hire—the better
your chances of securing interviews. Address your readers’ business concerns by showing how your
capabilities meet the demands and expectations of the position and the organization as a whole. For
example, an in-house public relations (PR) department and an independent PR agency perform many of
the same tasks, but the outside agency must also sell its services to multiple clients. Consequently, it
needs employees who are skilled at attracting and keeping paying customers in addition to being skilled
at PR. If you are applying for both in-house and agency PR jobs, you need to adapt your résumé for each
of these audiences.
Compose your Resume
Write your résumé using a simple and direct style. Use short, crisp phrases instead of whole sentences
and focus on what your reader needs to know. Avoid using the word I, which can sound both self-involved
and repetitious by the time you outline all your skills and accomplishments. Instead, start your phrases
with strong action verbs such as these:
Accomplished, coordinated, initiated, participated, set up, achieved, created, installed, performed, simplified,
administered, demonstrated, introduced, planned, sparked, approved, developed, investigate, presented,
streamlined, arranged, directed, launched, proposed, strengthened, assisted, established maintained raised
succeeded, assumed, explored, managed, recommended, supervised, budgeted, forecasted, motivated, reduced,
systematized, chaired, generated, negotiated, reorganized targeted, changed, identified etc.
◦ For example, you might say, “Created a campus organization for students interested in
entrepreneurship” or “Managed a fast-food restaurant and four employees.” Whenever you can,
quantify the results so that your claims don’t come across as empty puffery. Don’t just say that you’re a
team player or detail oriented—show that you are by offering concrete proof.26 Here are some
examples of phrasing accomplishments using active statements that show results:
◦ Responsible for developing a new filing system instead write
Developed a new filing system that reducedpaperwork by 50 percent
Name and Contact information

Your name and contact information constitute the heading of your résumé; include the following:
◦ ●● Name
◦ ●● Address (both permanent and temporary, if you’re likely to move during the job search
process)
◦ ●● Email address
◦ ●● Phone number(s)
◦ ●● The URL of your personal webpage, e-portfolio, or social media résumé (if you have one)
◦ If the only email address you have is through your current employer, get a free personal email address
from one of the many services that offer them. It’s not fair to your current employer to use company
resources for a job search, and doing so sends a bad signal to potential employers. Also, if your personal
email address is anything like precious .princess@something. com or PsychoDawg@something. com, get
a new email address for your business correspondence.
◦ introductory Statement
You have three options for a brief introductory statement that follows your name and contact
information:30
●● Career objective. A career objective identifies either a specific job you want to land of general career
track you would like to pursue. Some experts advise against including a career objective because it can
categorize you so narrowly that you miss out on interesting opportunities, and it is essentially about
fulfilling your desires, not about meeting the employer’s needs. In the past, most résumés included a
career objective, but in recent years more job seekers are using a qualifications summary or a career
summary. However, if you have little or no work experience in your target profession, a career objective
might be your best option. If you do opt for an objective, word it in a way that relates your qualifications
to employer needs.
◦ ● Qualifications summary. A qualifications summary offers a brief view of your key qualifications. The
goal is to let a reader know within a few seconds what you can deliver. You can title this section
generically as “Qualifications Summary” or “Summary of Qualifications,” or, if you have one dominant
qualification, you can use that as the title. Consider using a qualifications summary if you have one or
more important qualifications but don’t yet have a long career history. Also, if you haven’t been working
long but your college education has given you a dominant professional “theme,” such as multimedia
design or statistical analysis, you can craft a qualifications summary that highlights your educational
preparedness.
◦ Career summary. A career summary offers a brief recap of your career with the goal of presenting
increasing levels of responsibility and performance. A career summary can be particularly useful for
managers who have demonstrated the ability to manage increasingly larger and more complicated
business operations—a key consideration when companies look to hire upperlevel executives.
Whichever option you choose, make sure it includes many of the essential keywords you identified in
your research—and adapt these words and phrases to each job opportunity as needed.
◦ Education
◦ If you’re still in college or have recently graduated, education is probably your strongest selling point.
Present your educational background in depth, choosing facts that support your professional theme.
Give this section a heading such as “Education,” “Technical Training,” or “Academic Preparation,” as
appropriate. Then, starting with the most recent, list the name and location of each school you have
attended, the month and year of your graduation (say “anticipated graduation: ______” if you haven’t
graduated yet), your major and minor fields of study, significant skills and abilities you’ve developed in
your course work, and the degrees or certificates you’ve earned. Fine-tune your message by listing
courses that are most relevant to each job opening, and indicate any scholarships, awards, or academic
honors you’ve received.
◦ Education
If you’re still in college or have recently graduated, education is probably your strongest selling point.
Present your educational background in depth, choosing facts that support your professional theme. Give
this section a heading such as “Education,” “Technical Training,” or “Academic Preparation,” as
appropriate. Then, starting with the most recent, list the name and location of each school you have
attended, the month and year of your graduation (say “anticipated graduation: ______” if you haven’t
graduated yet), your major and minor fields of study, significant skills and abilities you’ve developed in
your course work, and the degrees or certificates you’ve earned. Fine-tune your message by listing
courses that are most relevant to each job opening, and indicate any scholarships, awards, or academic
honors you’ve received.
◦ Work Experience, Skills, and accomplishments
This section can be called “Work Experience,” “Professional Experience,” or “Work and Volunteer
Experience,” if you have limited work experience and want to bolster that with volunteer experience. Like
the education section, the work experience section should focus on your overall theme in a way that
shows how your past can contribute to an employer’s future. Use keywords to call attention to the skills
you’ve developed on the job and to your ability to handle responsibility. Emphasize what you
accomplished in each position, not just the generic responsibilities of the job.
◦ List your jobs in reverse chronological order, starting with the most recent. Include military service and
any internships and part-time or temporary jobs related to your career objective. Include the name and
location of the employer, and if readers are unlikely to recognize the organization, briefly describe what
it does. When you want to keep the name of your current employer confidential, you can identify the
firm by industry only (“a large video game developer”). If an organization’s name or location has
changed since you worked there, state the current name and location and include the old information
preceded by “formerly . . .” Before or after each job listing, state your job title and give the years you
worked in the job; use the phrase “to present” to denote current employment. Indicate whether a job
was part time.
◦ Devote the most space to the jobs that are most recent or most closely related to your target position. If
you were personally responsible for something significant, be sure to mention it. Facts about your skills
and accomplishments are the most important information you can give a prospective employer, so
quantify them whenever possible. One helpful exercise is to write a 30-second “commercial” for each
major skill you want to highlight. The commercial should offer proof that you really do possess the skill.
For your résumé, distill the commercials down to brief phrases; you can use the more detailed proof
statements in cover letters and as answers to interview questions. If you have a number of part-time,
temporary, or entry-level jobs that don’t relate to your career objective, you have to use your best
judgment when it comes to including or excluding them. Too many minor and irrelevant work details can
clutter your résumé, particularly if you’ve been in the professional workforce for a few years. However, if
you don’t have a long employment history, including these jobs shows your ability and willingness to
keep working.
activities and achievements
◦ This optional section can be used to highlight activities and achievements outside of a work or
educational context—but only if they make you a more attractive job candidate. For example, traveling,
studying, or working abroad and fluency in multiple languages could weigh heavily in your favor with
employers who do business internationally. Because many employers are involved in their local
communities, they tend to look positively on applicants who are active and concerned members of their
communities as well. Consider including community service activities that suggest leadership,
teamwork, communication skills, technical aptitude, or other valuable attributes.
You should generally avoid indicating membership or significant activity in religious or political
organizations (unless, of course, you’re applying to such an organization) because doing so might raise
concerns for people with differing beliefs or affiliations. However, if you want to highlight skills you
developed while involved with such a group, you can refer to it generically as a “not-for-profit
organization.” Finally, if you have little or no job experience and not much to discuss outside of your
education, indicating involvement in athletics or other organized student activities lets employers know
that you don’t spend all your free time hanging around your apartmen playing video games. Also consider
mentioning publications, projects, and other accomplishments that required relevant business skills.
Personal Data and references
◦ In nearly all instances your résumé should not include any personal data beyond the information described in
the previous sections. When applying to U.S. companies, never include any of the following: physical
characteristics, age, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, religious or political affiliations, race, national
origin, salary history, reasons for leaving jobs, names of previous supervisors, names of references, Social
Security number, or student ID number. However, be aware that standards can vary in other countries. For
example, some international employers might require you to include your citizenship, nationality, or marital
status. The availability of references is assumed, so you don’t need to put “References available upon request”
at the end of your résumé. However, be sure to have a list of several references ready when you begin
applying for jobs. Prepare your reference sheet with your name and contact information at the top. For a
finished look, use the same design and layout you use for your résumé. Then list three or four people who
have agreed to serve as references. Include each person’s name, job title, organization, address, telephone
number, email address (if the reference prefers to be contacted by email). Refer 577