How to Construct a Resume

A résumé should be neatly typed and printed on good-quality paper.

A résumé is often the first contact you make with a potential employer or scholarship committee. It tells an employer the most important facts about you in two pages or less. Most résumés get little more than a glance from the person in charge of sorting applications according to whether they deserve more time or not. If you submit a résumé that is less than perfect--has typos, misspellings or is disorganized--you can expect it to land in the "don't waste your time" pile.

Things You'll Need

• Good quality résumé paper

Instructions

1. Make a list of everything you want to include in your résumé. Don't worry about making it organized, just write down anything that occurs to you. Include jobs, awards, membership in organizations, leadership roles, education and skills.

2. Look over your list and make another list of potential headings--skills, education, employment, awards, etc.

3. List each of your accomplishments under the appropriate category. If you don't have a category for an item, put it under miscellaneous or create a new category for it.

4. Open a word processing program on a computer.

5. Create a heading for your résumé by listing your name, address, phone number, e-mail address and professional website, if applicable.

6. Decide if you will arrange your résumé chronologically or functionally. Chronological arrangement means you list your accomplishments in the order in which you achieved them. A functional arrangement puts the emphasis on your accomplishments rather than the order in which they were achieved.

7. Create an objective. This goes directly below the heading, before you list any accomplishment. Your objective should tell exactly what kind of job you are looking for and be tailored to each position for which you apply.

8. List the headings you decided on when you made your list. This should include some form of education, experience, skills and awards. Use only those that fit your experiences and don't try to fill in categories for which you don't have appropriate experiences--leave those categories out.

9. Fill in your experiences with the list you made.

10. Format your résumé, using bullet points, varying the spacing and using bold text, different fonts, or larger fonts for headings. The résumé should be easy to read and not look cluttered.

11. Spell-check the entire document, paying special attention to areas where spell-check won't be able to help, such as your name, address and phone number.

12. Have a friend read through the résumé to catch any typos or information that doesn't make sense.

Tips & Warnings

• A résumé should be no more than two pages.

References

• University of Texas at Austin: Undergraduate Writing Center Handouts
• Transition Assistance Program: Create an Effective Resume