Writing an Effective Resume

Michael R. Wick
Department of Computer Science
University of Wisconsin, USA

Edited by
Dr. Muhammad Ajmal
Associate Professor
Agricultural Engineering Department
UET Peshawar, Pakistan
 Road Map
◼ Role of the Resume
◼ Types of Resumes
◼ Resume Formats
◼ Resume Sections
◼ Additional Documentation
◼ Miscellaneous Tips
◼ Miscellaneous Tilts
◼ Sample Resumes
◼ On-line Resources
 What is a Resume?

◼ A marketing tool
Your first tool for building a career
The first impression a prospective employer has of you
A selling tool that allows you to highlight to an employer how you
can contribute to the company
◼ Request for an interview
Purpose of the resume is to get you an interview
Must capture the reader’s interest and attention
Must convince the employer that you can fill their position
◼ Your “big picture”
A snapshot of what you believe are your most important
experiences and qualifications
 Types of Resumes

◼ A Paper Resume
A printed resume for use at job fairs, conferences, …
Should be clean, concise, professional, and pleasing to the eye
Use bullets, bolding, and indentation
Take this resume with you on job interviews, career breakfasts, …
◼ An Electronic Resume
A plain text resume for on-line submission
Typically, must conform to employer specifications
Use left-justified and space indented formatting
◼ An HTML Resume
Typically includes links to homepage, images, …
Avoid this type of resume
Most people don’t want an employer walking around in their homepage
 Resume Formats - Chronological
◼ Highlight your work
experience in reverse
chronological order

◼ Be sure to not leave gaps

◼ The most widely used

format for working
professionals

Cut off
 Resume Formats - Functional
◼ Highlight specific skills
for which the market has
high demand

◼ Seldom used by new

graduates

◼ Frequently used to
change jobs or careers

Again, cut off

 Resume Formats - Combinational
◼ Highlight specific work
experience
◼ Highlight marketable
skills
◼ Use reverse chronological
order
◼ The best resume style for
most college students

I would prefer bullets

 The Silver Bullet

◼ What Is Your “Story”?

What slant can you take on your resume?
Do you want to emphasize internship experience?
Do you want to emphasize work experience?
Do you want to emphasize course work?
Do you want to emphasize project experience?
Do you want to emphasize research experience?
Do you want to emphasize personal traits?
◼ What is unique or interesting about your college experience?
◼ My Recommendation
If you have an interesting internship – emphasize it
Most graduates have interesting project experience
 Standard Resume Sections
Move toward bottom
◼ Header
◼ Skills
◼ Education
◼ Work Experience
Additional
◼ Honors/Activities
◼ Relevant Courses
◼ Projects

I prefer other order

 The Header Section

◼ The first line should be your name

Larger than the largest font used in body
Avoid using decorative fonts
Don’t use black or gray shaded backgrounds
Exclude titles Mr., Mrs., Ms., …
◼ Include contact address
Permanent address
Current address
◼ Include your email address
Use your mostly used email address
Don’t use “BIGBOY@HOT_MAIL.COM”
◼ Include your phone number
Change the message machine to be appropriate
 The Projects Section

◼ Used correctly, this section can set you apart from other new graduates
Most new grads don’t get the opportunity to use this section

◼ Show any lengthy, impressive, or relevant projects to which you have

made real contribution

◼ Each project should have at least two bullets (focus on outcomes)

“Market Basket Analysis System
Designed and implemented a Java application for predicting future purchases
based on a probabilistic analysis of past purchase records
Deployed system as a web service using XML and SOAP and an Oracle
database on the backend
Used synchronized threads to increase overall throughput of the system to
handle up to 50 client requests per second”
 The Skills Section

◼ This is where you emphasize your technical skills

Programming Languages
Put in order of familiarity
Can use “Exposure to:” as the only modifier if you wish

Platforms
Nice to list Windows and Linux

Packages
Websphere Studio Application Developer, Eclipse, Oracle 9i, MS SQL
Server, ClearCase, Rational Rose, …
We make a concerted effort to use “real” products so make a
concerted effort to list them

Development Methodologies
Rational Unified Process, Extreme Programming, Agile Development
 The Work Experience Section
◼ Dedicated to most recent and relevant employment
◼ Format
Employer and location on the first line
Don’t need name of supervisor, complete address, or contact information
Position and time-span on the second line
Use only year, not month and year (avoids time gaps)
◼ Each position should have at least two bullets
Explain role and contributions
Don’t emphasize duties but rather emphasize outcomes
Descriptions should be consistent in wording
◼ Watch the tense
Current job uses present tense
Former jobs use past tense
 The Honors/Activities Section

◼ Should only contain honors and awards earned during

your time in college
◼ You can include academic or extracurricular items
I prefer only academic or service-related items
◼ Include a brief description if not self-evident from title
“Award given to top performer on the capstone exam”
◼ Don’t include hobbies or activities not related to the job
Good to include leadership positions in different organizations
Good to list membership with different organizations
◼ Don’t include volunteer work unless there is a direct and
positive link with the job
 The Relevant Courses Section

◼ The keyword is relevant courses

Don’t include Foundations of Computing
Don’t include Algorithms and Data Structures
Focus on courses that are either unique or would normally be
considered elective
Computer Security
Computer Graphics
Artificial Intelligence
Computer Networks
Database Systems
Data Mining

◼ Employers will assume you had the rest

Supporting Documentation – Cover Letter (1)

◼ Why do I need to write a cover letter?

Use the cover letter to focus attention on elements of your
background that are particularly relevant to the company
Letter acts as your verbal introduction to the employer
◼ Send it to a person, not a place
Avoid “To Whom It May Concern,”
Worst case “Dear Recruiter:”
◼ First sentence should tell why you are writing
“I am writing in regard to your posting listed on …”
“Mr. Qasim at UET Peshawar suggested that I …”
“As you may recall, I spoke with you briefly at …”
If unsolicited, indicate why you are interested in the company
Supporting Documentation – Cover Letter (2)

◼ Highlight your skills

Use two to three paragraphs to given in-depth description of your
selling points
Each paragraph should be stand alone (could be moved to
different location in text)
◼ Close with a promise of action
If possible, indicating that you will be contacting them in the near
future to set up a mutually acceptable meeting time or to further
discuss your qualifications
Nice if you can say “during my Winter Break, between December
28 and January 12, I will be in your Minneapolis. I will contact
your office when I arrive to arrange a possible meeting time”
Supporting Documentation – Cover Letter (3)
 Scannable Resumes

◼ Most large employers will scan your resume into a central

database
◼ Tips to assist the scanning process
Don’t use italics, underlining, or graphics
Use bold only for headers
Use “scanner-friendly” fonts (Serif or Sans Serif fonts)
Times New Roman, Courier, Helvetica, or Arial are good examples
Font sizes of between 9 and 12
Use black ink on white background
◼ Tips to assist the retrieval process
Most lookup is keyword-based
Samples: Unix, C++, Java, hardware, networking, trouble-
shooting, testing
 Tips on Delivery of Your Resume

◼ Posting Online
Relatively new and “rules” are still emerging
Common mistake – formatting that doesn’t make the trip
Convert to text only
Proofread carefully after conversion
If they ask about salary, leave it empty
If they force salary, be honest but don’t shoot for the moon
◼ Emailing your resume
Attach resume as word document
75 – 80% of companies are running Windows
Also include text version in the email message
Attachments can get dropped or filtered
Test before deploy
Send to at least three friends, ask them to print it and send it back to
you
 Miscellaneous Tips (1)

◼ Use action words in your descriptions

 Miscellaneous Tips (2)

◼ Act like a professional

Avoid inappropriate graphics, images, formats, …
◼ One page only
You are a fresh graduate, don’t assume that the one-page rule
doesn’t apply to you!
◼ Stick to the truth
Don’t sprinkle buzzwords in that you really don’t understand
It speaks volumes about your character when you can’t explain
your own resume
◼ Focus on achievements and results
Laundry lists of duties are not impressive
 Miscellaneous Tips (3)

◼ Use easy-to-read language

Winston Churchill - “Use short, old words.”
◼ Get the words and punctuation correct
Errors or “broken English” are the kiss of death
◼ Follow the instructions
If the company asks for specific information then give it to them
◼ Follow up
If you said you would call, then call
◼ Maintain a consistent writing style
Avoid “To apply …” then “Applying …”
◼ Avoid the use of “I” or “my”
 Miscellaneous Tilts (1)
How about
◼ USE ALL CAPITAL LETTERS him?

Much harder to read

◼ Avoidwhitespace
Use white space (not borders) to break sections apart
◼ Include a picture of yourself Would you hire
this guy?
You’re not THAT good looking!
◼ Use several fonts to catch their attention
Creates a “ransom note” effect
◼ Printyour
Print yourresume
resumeon
on“day
“dayglow”
glow”paper
paper
Be professional
◼ Illogical Order Use
Resume is a story – put most interesting parts at the beginning
 Miscellaneous Tilts (2)

◼ Focus on you and your needs

Employers have better things to do than hear about you
They want to know “what can you do for me”
◼ Use templates to construct your resume
Give cookie-cutter look
Lacks flexibility to your “silver bullet”
◼ Use superlatives to emphasis your work
Great performance as …
Stick to the facts and figures – not your own evaluation of yourself
◼ Use long flowing sentences
Short and to the point
Sentence fragments are fine if they are understandable
 Don’t Make These Famous Mistakes

◼ “Education: Curses in liberal arts, curses in computer

science, curses in accounting”

◼ “Personal: Married, 1992 Chevrolet”

◼ “Proven ability to track down and correct erors.”

◼ “Disposed of $2.5 billion in assets”

◼ “Accomplishments: Oversight of entire department”

◼ Cover Letter: “Thank you for your consideration. I hope

to hear from you shorty!”
Good Examples (1)
Good Examples (2)
Bad Examples (1)
Bad Examples (2)
 On-Line Resources

◼ www.collegerecruiter.com
◼ www.developercareers.com
◼ www.writinglettersandresumes.com
◼ www.professional-resumes.com
Free
◼ www.1stresumes.com
◼ www.a1resumes.net

◼ www.10minuteresume.com
◼ www.crsresume.com
Not
◼ www.resumeservice.com Free