RESUME WRITING AND STYLE GUIDE

RESUME FORMATS

Reverse-Chronological
The most commonly used resume format among job seekers
It accommodates all industries and levels of experience
This format is really nice for those who want to demonstrate a vertical career progression
Functional
Used to hide the fact that you have imperfect work experience, or because youre transferring industries
Combination
For those applying for a position that requires a lot of technical skills and expertise
Emphasizes relevant skills over prior work experience
THE ORDER OF A REVERSE-CHRONOLOGICAL RESUME

1. Contact Information
Name, address, E-mail, and phone number
If you want to go above and beyond, then try adding a link to your personal website (if its professional) or your
LinkedIn profile

2. Resume Introduction
A chronological format allows you to choose between three resume introductions:
Career Objective
Professional Profile
Qualifications Summarygreat for an applicant with a wealth of skills and abilities
THE ORDER OF A REVERSE-CHRONOLOGICAL RESUME

3. Professional Experience
The goal here is not to provide a list of tasks you performed at your past jobs, but rather to showcase your achievements and how you
excelled in previous roles
The best way to do that is to add measurable figures to your bullet points
Numbers help to illustrate your accomplishments and provide the employer with a better understanding of your abilities
Another way to make this section more impactful is to start each bullet point with an action verb
Action verbs target your bullet points, thereby making it clear to the HR manager exactly how you achieved your goal
Rather than beginning a description with a passive-sounding description such as Worked on creative projects to teach children, it is better
to start off using an action verb such as Designed and implemented a creative arts curriculum for elementary school children.
Try to avoid starting off descriptions with Responsible for and instead, use action verbs such as managed, implemented, or developed
Example
Problem: Identify a responsibility or issue at work
Action: Discuss how you addressed the problem
Results: What was the outcome of that action
Developed new filing and organizational practices, saving the company $3,000 per year in contracted labor expenses
Suggested a new tactic to persuade canceling customers to stay with the company, resulting in a 5% decrease in cancellations
THE ORDER OF A REVERSE-CHRONOLOGICAL RESUME

4. Education Section (#3 for students)

Unless you are a student or a recent graduate, your education section does not have to be too detailed. Providing
the name and location of your university, type of degree, when you graduated, and your GPA(if 3.0 or above) is
usually enough
However, if you are still in school or have just graduated, your education section will be a bit different. For
example, educational experience is listed before professional experience in a student resume

5. Additional Skills (optional)

Including an additional skills section to your resume allows you to add any extra skills that you did not have an
opportunity to add elsewhere
Make sure the skills you add are somehow applicable to the position you are applying for
HOW TO START A RESUME