About Résumés
Show a résumé to 10 different people and they’ll come back with 16 different opinions. While there is no one right way to write and design a résumé, there are plenty of wrong ways. A recruiter who is inundated with resumes probably won’t have the time or patience to piece together a résumé’s message or plow through a dense, text-laden document. Design is almost as important as content. There is a great value to open space on a résumé. If the design is poor, then a recruiter won’t see the content.
While you want your résumé to stand out, you don’t want it to stand out for the wrong reasons. You are going to be compared to other students and recent alumni. Résumé design is a function of where you are in your career, while content is based on not only what you have done, but also where you want to go. That is why you may have to have two or three “versions” of your résumé. When you write a cover letter, you should tailor it to the needs of the specific job; the same can be true with your résumé. What you will usually discover is that the changes are minor and may only mean moving experiences around so certain skills get more attention.
There are two important points to remember when writing your résumé. First, a résumé is not a listing of job descriptions; it should be results oriented. Second, it is not written for you, it is written for the reader. These can be two audiences with two very different objectives, so remember to be reader focused when you write it.
Make sure you have several people read the résumé and edit it. If a recruiter or employer finds a typo (spelling mistake or grammar error), he is likely to dismiss it. His thought is if you can’t write an error-free document when it is this important, how good will your work be?
Commercially available résumé guides offer numerous examples and designs, usually doing more harm than good. If you want to work for an American company, you should follow the American private sector design. See the example at the end of this section. This is the same design used at Harvard Business School.
Your résumé should be one-page. At this point in your career, one page should be ample space to explain your accomplishments in school, at work and with extracurricular activities. When you first write it, you should include everything. List jobs, school activities, sports, awards, honors, travel, musical talent, hobbies, foreign languages, office skills, computer skills, every skill and talent that you have — anything that you feel is important. We do this exercise to help build your confidence. Most people understate and underestimate their skills and the value of those skills. Chances are that you have accomplished a great deal, but you take it for granted or dismiss it as “no big thing,” where an employer would view it as a skill and would value it.
Now that you have listed everything, review it to determine if each experience adds value to the overall picture you’re trying to paint or story you’re trying to tell. Ask yourself, is this important enough to be on the resume? If not, cut it. Chances are you’ll soon be down to one page. If not, go back through the document, or have a professor or mentor go through the document, and eliminate what’s not relevant.