Excelle

Step-by-Step Guide to a Traditional Résumé Template

Job Seeker’s First and Last Name
Street Address – City, State ZIP
Telephone Number – Email Address

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY AND OBJECTIVE

Your professional summary is your persuasive sales pitch that introduces you to potential employers and allows them to place you in context based on their hiring needs. Compose three to five sentences touting your key capabilities and unique experience, with an emphasis on results. This section focuses on a combination of hard and soft skills. Tie your qualifications to the type of position you’re seeking.

EXPERIENCE

Most Recent Job Title, City, State
(Month Year to Month Year)

Brief overview of the position’s responsibilities, including an explanation of the organization if it’s not well known.

- Outline your most impressive accomplishments using bullet points. Focus on the results of your actions, not just your responsibilities. Include industry buzzwords and tangible numbers to support your experience. The eye is drawn to figures, especially on a sales résumé.

- Focus on leadership roles and demonstrate how you’ve found solutions to challenges.

- Start every bullet with an impressive action word, and vary words throughout your résumé. Avoid fancy fonts.

Previous Job Title, company City, State
(Month Year – Month Year)

- Keep position summaries short and relevant. A potential employer is scanning your résumé to see if you merit an interview—clear and concise is ideal.

- Don’t try to include your whole life story. Outline your most important and impressive accomplishments, not a complete menu of every task you’ve ever performed.

- As a general rule, the amount of information—both summaries and bullets—beneath each position should decrease as you move toward older assignments.

Earlier Job Title, Yet Another company City, State
(Month Year to Month Year)

- Earlier jobs require minimal information, though they are important to demonstrate career advancement.

EDUCATION

MBA, University (Most recent degree goes on top) BA, College, 2002 (Date is optional, but usually included especially if it’s recent)

- GPA only if it is above 3.0, Honors Received (e.g. magna cum laude or Dean’s List)

- Leadership roles and impressive recognition

SKILLS/QUALIFICATIONS

- This optional section can be used to enhance your summary and experience while highlighting specific qualifications that are either required for a particular job or are unique about you.

- (Note: If you’re in a technology field, this section should appear at the top under professional summary.)

- You can expand this section when posting your résumé online to increase the number of keywords.

MEMBERSHIPS/AFFILIATIONS

- Professional memberships and volunteer work show your commitment to your industry and community. Mention leadership positions and briefly note relevant achievements. p((. – This is especially valuable for recent grads and career changers to demonstrate that you’re making an effort to establish yourself in a new field.

Pointers for Perfection
Don’t use funky pet names or inappropriate terms in the email address on your résumé, such as bigbootybeauty@womenforhire.com or lilprincess@womenforhire.com. Instead, opt for a more professional address, such as firstinitial.lastname@womenforhire.com.

Avoid generic or vague phrases such as “looking for a position at a well-known company with room for growth.” Use the space to tout specific goals and accomplishments, and to tout your desire to work in a specific field.

Don’t rely on spell-check to proof your résumé. While it is a great tool, it will not pick up mistakes such as “and” when you meant “an,” which is a very common résumé error.

Tailor your résumé for each position by tweaking your most relevant responsibilities and accomplishments based on the needs of the opening you’re seeking to fill.

Don’t use your marketing-focused résumé for an IT position. Have multiple version if you’re pursuing several different options.

Skip marbled, fancy paper. Plain white is still the best option.

Try to limit your résumé to one page. Professionals with 10 years or more experience may expand to two pages. Beyond that, seek a second opinion to determine if your expertise justifies any more space.

Ask friends and colleagues to thoroughly review your résumé. They should easily be able to tell you what position you are looking for and a few of your most impressive qualifications. It may seem obvious to you, but are your goals clear to others?

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