Writing Your Resume

GETTING STARTED ON YOUR RESUME

        Having read through this section on resumes and having completed your job sketches, it’s time to start writing your resume. I can’t emphasize enough how valuable you will find your job sketches as you write your resume.

        Once you have reviewed your job sketches, you’re ready to start. Use a pencil and feel free to erase. If you compose well at a computer, by all means use one, but double space so you can write and edit between the lines. I always begin by writing the name, address and phone number at the top. Next, I write the objective. After that I then write in “Qualifications” and skip enough space to complete it after I’ve written the rest of the resume. Since the qualifi­cations section is often the most difficult section to write, I leave it until last.

        At that point I have spent only about three minutes writing, but psycho­logically I am totally involved with the resume. Three minutes earlier I had been looking for an excuse to postpone the writing, but now I’m into it. Next I tackle employment, the section which nearly always requires the most time and thought. Be prepared to spend three or more hours on your first draft. It may be frustrating at times, but keep plugging away. The effort will all be worth it in the end. Once you’ve completed a first and second draft of your employment section, you’ll be ready to work on the qualifications section.

DON’T HESITATE

        You should write your first draft relatively quickly without worrying about perfection. Concentrate on getting your thoughts on paper; you can polish the phrasing later. Once you write a phrase, read it out loud to get a feel for how it sounds. When reading, most people subvocalize; while they may not move their lips, their mind is actually saying each word almost audibly. In other words, the way a phrase sounds to you when you say it out loud is the same way it sounds when read by an employer. By the time I finish writing a resume I have read every phrase aloud four to ten times. While I don’t worry about perfection on the first draft, I will rewrite some phrases and add or delete words as I go along.

        Frequently I will finish the first draft of a resume late in the afternoon. While I may not be satisfied with it, I do know that all the main thoughts and descrip­tions are there. I will simply set it aside until the next morning. When I pick it up the next day, my thoughts are fresh and I’m able to look at it objectively. Improvements often come spontaneously.

        Read over the resume and ask yourself if all the important points have been made. You might think of a point that could be covered in the employment section or an important idea you want to get across in qualifications. Make those changes on the original draft. Go through the draft sentence by sentence and phrase by phrase, rereading them out loud. Cross out extraneous phrases. Ask yourself if you can make the same point with fewer words. Use action words whenever possible. Once you’ve finished this process, retype or rewrite the resume, incorporating the changes you’ve made. You have completed your second draft. Set it aside for at least half a day.

SPIT AND POLISH

        When you pick up the resume again, take care as you go through it; this may be your last draft. As you read your resume out loud, it should flow. Are there any phrases or words you have used more than twice? If so, look for alternatives. Are all of your sentences very long or all very short? A mixture of short, medium, and long sentences reads best. Too many short sentences makes the resume seem choppy and abrupt. Lots of long sentences cause a reader to forget the main point. Long sentences can often be made into two sentences. This adds clarity and punch.

        Look for any troublesome phrases that sound awkward, unclear, or confus­ing. Your desire is to have employers read your resume completely and thor­oughly. You don’t want them to stop at any point and wonder what you mean. Just one awkwardly written, hard-to-understand sentence can reduce your perceived value by 10%. Don’t let that happen.

        Of course you know exactly what you mean by everything you’ve written, so unclear sentences may be hard for you to spot. Have others read your resume and ask if any sentences tripped them up. Ask for their overall impression.

        Avoid big, unfamiliar words. The mark of a good writer is the ability to say exactly what is meant by using everyday words.

        Spelling must be perfect. It is worth it to make one quick pass through your resume, dictionary in hand, looking up words you “know” are correct. You may be surprised to find that you have been misspelling a word for years. Do not depend solely on computerized spell checkers. If your misspelling is an actual word in the spell checker, it will go undetected. Ask someone to review it to make sure it is grammatically correct and that words are used correctly.

        Type the final draft and review it one last time for phrasing, spelling, and punctuation. If you use a word processing service, presenting a typed draft will help reduce your cost and will ensure that everything is readable.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

            Essentially, writing a resume consists of putting all of the pieces together. Most sections, such as education, training, special projects, and employment are independent of each other. So, if each section is well written, the entire resume will be effective when you pull them all together.