I think everyone knows what a resume is, so I’m just going to pick at the weak points.
The Basic Bones
The Header:
- Full Name, Designated Titles (MBA, PhD, whatever)
- Telephone Number
- Email Address (Get a GMAIL or regular email address. Please, nothing stupid like “kewlduderawker38417@hotmail.com)
- Title/Role you consider yourself to be (IT Consultant for example)
The Meat:
- Summary of Skills and Certifications (Bullet points, 1 lines)
- RELEVANT Employers, Your Position & 1-2 sentences describing what you did (Fast Food Joints, out. Working in totally different roles/industries, out.)
- Include solid facts (I led a team of 50 employees)
- Include real numbers (As a result, our margins increased by 5% resulting in a $150,000 increase in profits)
- And include big client names if any (So-and-So company as a the Project Lead)
- Be choosy. (No need to put ALL of the employers on there even if they are all relevant.)
The Footer:
- Education (One-liner, please don’t detail that you were Lacrosse Captain and you like to ski while being on the Debate Team unless it’s relevant)
- Technical Skills that are not as important but good to have/know that you have (e.g. Microsoft Project proficient)
Keep it Brief
Short and sweet, and throw in spelled out acronyms of your industry with the acronyms in a bracket after it because a lot of recruiters do a Ctrl + F Find function to search for keywords their client is looking for in a candidate.
Example: Personal Finance (PF)
The actual person doing the hiring is typically NOT the same person who is scanning and filtering all the resumes.
Keep it Professional
No need to get cute. It’s one of those things that COULD go over well with an employer or recruiter, and put you at the top of the pile… but sarcasm will usually get you landed on the bottom of the pile because your resume is your black and white, hard paper copy of you.
And if you get stuck with a recruiter with no sense of humour, you’re risking it.
Keep the format clean
Don’t get fancy with fonts, colours and pictures.
Font sizes should be at a minimum 12 point font, usually in Times New Roman so it’s easiest to read.
Comic Sans in bright neon yellow on white paper will surely get you thrown into the wastebasket. Stick to black and white, this isn’t a creative assignment, it’s your resume.
If they want to see creativity, they’re going to ask for it.
With that being said, I’ve also heard that more creative industries like advertising do appreciate the thought that you put into your snapshot of yourself. Some made scrapbooks with pictures of themselves or a DVD that you popped in to play.
But in the majority of industries, keep it boring and Plain Joe/Jane.
Keep the language plain and simple
“Interacting with multi-logistical APT, BPT and XIO high-efficiency performance vehicles to ascertain the profitability of margins in..“I’m bored and confused already.
Stick to:
“Analyzed profits using X software with these integration points”
Capisce?
The person reading your resume is more than likely going to be a recruiter who doesn’t really know the industry in depth.
She or he, is just looking that you generally fit the profile, and to sort out the ones that don’t into the trash bin with a rejection letter saying: “Thanks but no thanks.”
Don’t irritate them.
Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.
I cleared $60,000 in 18 months earning $65,000 gross/year.
Now I am self-employed, and you can read more about 
Small bits of content which are explained in details, helps me understand the topic, thank you!
Bare bones networking
Always looking for res advice, and this couldn't have come at a better time. Thanks FB!!
I've had a variety of jobs in the past. I always provide a resume that speaks to the position. I also offer a line that suggests a more detailed work history and additional references are available upon request. I've always believed that keeping it to one page and using keywords used in the job position ad is the key to a successful first encounter (ie. they actually read it).
What I struggle with is the (da da DUM!) the cover letter. Any tips on how to write a cover letter that doesn't make you sound 1. too uptight 2. like a sycophant 3. like a psycho
For cover letters I always draft out what I want to communicate, then have my husband go over and give tips for smoothing it out. Because I know what I want to say, but I run into all three of the problems you mention.
Wow. A number of people seem to have missed the "Bare Bones" and "Basic" part of this post. I think this is a great post for getting your resume started. Then I think people who read the title should flesh it out by researching their particular industry and the type of job they're looking into.
And re: the McDonald's stint, I'm with you FB. My manager & I were talking about my work experience and she had no idea about a couple of the short-term jobs I had and said that my focus on the years and years of library experience I had was great. She confessed that she might have been less likely to call me if I'd included the three semesters I spent working as a cleaner in college, even though I was damn good at my job (and I did it because of the hours/mental level required while I was writing my senior project & senior honors project). Always exceptions, of course, like if you've got 5 years exp moving up from fry-gal to manager at McD's and only a year of relevant work experience…
@FB I don't know. I agree with you about leaving out the fast food joints if they're not relevant to the job you're applying for. For instance, I was in the journalism industry for a while, and none of my employers cared that I worked at CVS (a pharmacy) in high school. They only cared about my experience relevant to journalism.
Now, if you don't have enough work experience in your field, I would suggest keeping all employment experience on there. But even an unpaid internship in your field is better than listing a paying job in a totally unrelated field.
Some career paths may be different, but I don't think FB was talking about any specific industry. It's a good general rule to keep in mind. Thanks for the pointers, FB!
FB, here's a tip everybody should know. The average amount of time a prospective employer spends on a resume is 7 SECONDS! That's right, 7 seconds, and not too much more.
Any of you writing more than 1 page resumes are going to have your resumes thrown in the trash in 2 seconds.
Life is competitive, make things punchy and brief!
FB, thoughts on women, motherhood, and equal pay? I'd love to hear your female perspective over on my site!
Best,
Sam
Those are good points yet i'm still left with a question…
For a college student where they don't have much relevant job experience in their field what do you suggest.
For example: I am an accounting major with no relevant accounting experience YET! But when I go to the career services office they have never told me to remove my past work experience as a sales associate, computing consultant and resident advisor.
At times I feel that this isn't relevant but then there were aspects of the job that can pertain to my field and i've gained skills frome thise jobs.
What do you suggest on that?
In that case, if you don't have much relevant job experience, pick out your past jobs that showcase what you do.
I wasn't suggesting that ANYONE remove ALL irrelevant job experience, but from my experience, I've held down about 7-8 jobs.. and not all of them are relevant.
So I just stick to the 2-3 that make sense, and leave the rest out.
No one needs to know I worked at a fast food restaurant for example.
You can also make a stronger statement, if you list "Essential Skills", and gather from all of your job experience those skills — then if you want to be detailed, back it up when they ask you where you learned those skills.
I'm a recruiter in the Transportation industry and 10 years full work history is the absolute minimum we will except on a resume. Leaving employment off that may or may not appear to be relevant is not an option and usually leads to a more detailed back ground search or questioning. Your resume tips are good but not necessarily for all.
And that’s why the title says “BASIC RESUME”
When the typical applicant in our industry only requires a high school diploma, that's pretty BASIC.
That wasn’t the point of this resume post.
I never once mentioned if the applicant had basic skills or basic credentials — in fact, I find it kind of odd that you brought that up, considering I wasn’t writing a post targeting your industry.
What did that tidbit about a “high school diploma” applicant have to do with the post?
I was just talking about the bare bones of a basic resume that can be applied to any industry and any line of work.
In IT for example, I have a 5 page resume because of the detail I need to go into for projects. But I don’t list the last 10 years of my experience.
I avoided giving that kind of advice, because this is a post on the bare bones of any basic resume.
If you want to get specific, then you have to do further research on what other applicants are putting out there, so you can mimic what is expected.
From then on, you have to tweak it on your own based on your industry, skills, etc.
Basic skills or basic credentials would be the primary reason one would use a basic resume regardless of the industry so finding it "odd" that I would mention what industry I'm in is surprising to me considering in your explanation you did the same thing.
Having a high school diploma or college degree (sorry perhaps I should have said that as well) without any relevant experience (as another reader of this blog has commented about) leaves very little in the way of job history. In cases such as that, it is only to the applicant's benefit to list all past employment as the skills developed are relevant in many industries and positions.
I think your recommendations are actually better suited to a higher level position. But again that is just my opinion. I don't believe I have missed the point of your post, I was just sharing what knowledge I have. I should have just kept lerking instead. Sorry
See, that makes more sense to me — listing skills you got from other jobs, but not necessarily things like: “closed cash register and counted money at the end of the day”.
But all of that can be listed under “Essential Skills” and if they ask, you can reference to what jobs you learned those skills at.
I still am not convinced that putting ALL of your work experience on there is relevant unless you have nothing else to put (as you pointed out with the lack of work experience).
And another thought came to mind — if they are high school students applying to your jobs, then that's another story.
Of course they need to list all of the work experience they have, relevant or not
But I was targeting more towards people who have had many jobs, and can't figure out what to leave out and what to keep, to try and stick to a 1-pager.
But if they only have 3 jobs, then there's no point in leaving out anything, if they can list skills within those occupations.
Don't stop delurking!
I am not trying to alienate you — it's just that we had a miscommunication on the blog, which happens from time to time.
"RELEVANT Employers…Disagree.
I've had various successful people tell me the first thing they look for is life experience and that comes in the form of a variety of employment. I always leave something from my "real" life before my career – especially as a young professional. It always comes up. All of my employers love that I've had my hands dirty and earned minimum wage. Also, if you worked in other industries it may mean you have contacts – smart businesses (that you want to work for) knows this means clients. For example, I worked in PR for a large government body as a student and I can tell you a lot about who to tap to get a contract there.
So you’d put your McDonald’s stint on there, if you are applying for a job as a manager?
I write this as someone hired first in my (very competitive) class in college who has since recieved every job she wanted, mostly avoiding interviews, on the basis of my resume. Four for four, I make bank, and now have very powerful references. Just for a different point of view:
"Education (One-liner)… " Disagree.
Alumni from my school are a tight network and regularly on hiring committees. They like people who did extracurrciulars – especially the ones they remember fondly – and it's the easiest thing to talk about at an interview. Once someone let it slip I got a call because I participated in an annual drama production. Similarly, when I screen resumes and dont' see extracurriculars from my school I point it out. It also implies ability to multi task – while similar students may have similar grades, I was able to get the same results and pursue other activities. University alone, frankly, is not that hard and a 4.0 GPA often won't set you apart.
I’ve never had that experience from sending out my resumes.
They couldn’t care less what I did as extracurriculars.
I totally agree. I might include activities on my CV where I have more space, but I stick to basic info on my resume.
That's interesting. I think this pointer would work if, like you, the person had tons of connections on hiring committees. Otherwise, I don't think a company full of people who don't know me would care that I was in College Democrats.
Wow! I'm glad that you went to such a prestige university, and have the opportunity to have jobs handed to you. However, I think this post was more of a helpful goto guide for making sure your resume gets noticed for what you do in a work environment and not how much money you can give alumni to hand you a job.
FB does a good job at remembering her audience. I would assume you have no idea what an audience is with that post.
I also want to note that no one has ever asked me about my GPA, nor is it relevant AFTER you get work experience.
Maybe what you're referring to is right out of college rather than after 3-5 years in the business.
I'd also add that HR people are CRAZY busy these days, so the simpler your resume is, the better. I get a lot of attention from my resumes because I utilize white space and 14 point fonts in my headers. It still says everything I need it to say, but it's super easy to read and gets to the point. Good stuff!
Good points. I'll have to keep this in mind the next time I update my resume. Thanks for providing.