People have lost jobs through negative references, so keep control of this important aspect to your
search.
Slide 33: In terms of formatting, you have a choice of doing a reverse chronological or functional
resume. Most experts recommend a reverse chronological format, which demonstrates recent
application of relevant skills; in other words, you can answer the question “What have you done for me
lately?”. If you are changing careers, and going in a totally new direction, you may opt to use a
functional resume, in which you focus more directly on your skills, especially in how they will transfer
into any field. The majority of recruiters only scan about the first third to half of the first page of your
resume – remember 6 seconds. So keep the most important information – that which specifically targets
the industry and position you’re seeking – on the top third to half of the first page, to grab an
employer’s attention, demonstrate that you have the basic qualities they’re looking for, and make them
want to read more. You’ll want to put your education category towards the end of your resume; the
longer you’re out of school, the less it’s emphasized, and the more emphasis is placed on your
experience. If you’ve been out of school for a long while, you can remove the dates, and just note the
fact that you have the degree. Again, make sure you have the appropriate and current contact
information, and a professional email. Lead with your profile, skills, and experience, and save the other
categories for further down the resume. Put your references on a separate page, not in the resume
itself. You may want to save your resume as a PDF, which saves the format as you’ve designed it, while
different people may have different forms of Word, and you may lose some formatting. Keep in mind,
though, that some Applicant Tracking Systems may not be able to read PDFs.
Slide 34: In general, one or two pages are acceptable for a resume; if you have the material to support
two pages, you should use two pages. It’s the quality of your experience that determines the length.
You want to include all important relevant information that will highlight your qualifications and set you
apart from the competition. You do not want to use more than two pages, however, as your resume is
meant to be a concise summary of your skills and qualifications. If you do use two pages, never print
them back to back, always use separate pages and staple together, with your name and page 2 at the
top of the second page. Again, with employers spending such a short amount of time reviewing a
resume, some don’t even look at a second page, so be sure you have your most important information
on the first page.
Slide 35: Here are some quick tips about layout and appearance of your resume. We recommend using
bullets in your categories, instead of paragraphs of information, as they make it easy to pick out the
keywords quickly, and skim the resume for relevant information. Use a standard font – Times New
Roman and Ariel are widely used – and don’t use a size smaller than 10 point, for easy reading. If you
use a less common font, some employers may not have access to that font and your resume may
become unreadable. Remember that your resume is a concise summary of your skills and
accomplishments, so keep your information to the point, focusing on your achievements, and save your
longer stories for the cover letter and interviews. Don’t ever lie or exaggerate on your resume – you will
get found out! It’s much better to honestly represent yourself, and connect with the companies that
genuinely want your experience and expertise, than to begin a relationship under false pretenses. Keep
your resume organized and attractive; make sure all your margins and tabs line up, and that it’s
generally easy to read and looks professional and well put together. You want it to be visually
stimulating, and easily scannable to the human eye. Some people are experimenting with adding visual
elements to their resume, including company and college logos, charts, or industry icons. These have