How to Design a One Page Resume

Sample Resume

A good resume can capture an employer's attention with only one glance. If your resume is visually appealing and contains all of your pertinent information on only one page, your resume will have a better chance of topping the stack of resumes on the hiring authority's desk. Job number one if you are looking to get hired is to create a good one page resume.

Instructions

1. Open a new document and insert a table (2 columns, 8 rows). Drag the column centerline to the left so that you have one skinny column and one fat column. At this point all the rows will be at the top of the page. The table will fill the page when the resume is complete. Select table tools/table properties (right click on mouse)and erase all the cell borders.

2. 

   Label the left column cells. Top left cell CONTACT(font 12 Times New Roman underlined) followed by your Name, address and telephone/email in font 9. Skip the next cell. ***Third-eigth cells will be bold, size 11 font labeled as follows:
   ***third cell OBJECTIVE***
   ***fourth cell QUALIFICATIONS***
   ***fifth cell WORK HISTORY***
   ***sixth cell SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE, ABILITIES***
   ***seventh cell ACHIEVEMENTS***
   ***eighth cell REFERENCES***

3. 

   Fill in the right column. Start at the top with your name in capital letters, bold, font 16. Underneath your name, write a short quote from one of your reference letters "A vital member of our clerical team", or you could write a short phrase highlighting your goals or strengths such as "Pursuing a career in physical therapy".***
   ***Your OBJECTIVE is a single sentence describing the type of work you are looking for. (You will need a separate resume for each job category, a clerical objective resume to apply for office work, a sales objective resume for a store job, etc.)***

   ***Your WORK HISTORY is simply that, a chronological list of the past three to five jobs you did starting with your most current job. Be sure to include your former employer's address, phone, and supervisor's name if you can remember it. If you want to include schooling, label the left column WORK HISTORY/EDUCATION and limit your work history to three at the most followed by your Education (School, Town, State, diploma for high school, degree or degree pursued for colleges attended.) Education is not really necessary in a short resume because you will fill out a job application at some point and your education will show up there. This type of resume is simply to get you noticed, to get your foot in the door.***

   ***Your SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE, ABILITIES is simply a list of everything you have learned to do. You can write it in paragraph form if you need to take up space, or if you have lots of work history, then you may need to compact things and simply list your skills separating each skill by a semi colon [;].***

   ***Your ACHIEVEMENTS would include anything someone praised you about. Or it could be an award you received for a school event, hobby, or on the job. Or if you did not include education in your work history block, you could include and classes you might have taken such as Red Cross CPR.***

   ***Your REFERENCES can either be attached or "References will be provided upon request."***

4. Finally, to dress it up, create a watermark to outline the top and margins. To create a watermark using Office 2997 go to http://www.ehow.com/how_2243882_watermark-using-microsoft-office.html A colored line draws the eye to the page, but don't overdo it. Keep your watermark a simple line that looks professional, not cute. No hearts or smiley faces.

   Top your resume with a cover letter introducing yourself and asking "if your company has any job openings or is anticipating any job openings in the near future. If so, please accept this resume as my application for consideration for employment." Put your name, address and phone number at the top of your letter, the date,Dear Sir/Madam: and then end your letter with "Thank you for reviewing my resume. Sincerely," (be sure to spell sincerely correctly), and sign your name in blue ink. Then scope out the yellow pages and send out a dozen resume/cover letters to businesses that interest you. Sit back and see what happens.