Everyone’s had the fantasy of getting a phone call out of the blue from a Fortune 500 employer and before they know it, they have their feet up on a desk in the corner office without doing any work. Yes, it would be nice, but unfortunately we live in reality and this scenario will probably never happen (unless you are a celebrity). The truth is, everyone has to go through the laborious process of résumé writing, so here is the best guide of how to write a resume.

Take the advice of Jonathan Buffey, a recent college graduate, and Robin Ryan, a professional career counselor/author who shows you how to write a résumé that is professional and will help you “sell yourself.”

With the right attitude and the right information, figuring out how to write a résumé can be a journey of self-discovery and your résumé will serve as an important tool to help you score a great job.

Before getting started, it’s a good idea to know exactly what a résumé is. A résumé is a one-page document that concisely displays your relevant work and educational experiences. Employers look at your résumé to determine whether you have the skills and personality traits necessary to succeed in a particular position. Therefore, you want your résumé to show your potential employer that you are 1) unique and 2) well-qualified.

But before you can add your own individuality to your résumé, you need to know the basics. Like any project, the basics start with a planning phase. Jonathan Buffey, a computer software engineer and recent graduate of Radford University, has some great advice for a starting point when considering how to write a résumé:

“Drafting ideas on notecards can help with keeping your ideas concise. Take a single notecard and write out the following three elements for your résumé: your good qualities, your work experience, and any projects you wish to mention. Depending on how you prioritize, you’ll probably come up with about 2-3 ideas per category. These will be your ‘heavy hitters.’ You will want to make sure these are displayed prominently on your résumé.”

“Next, take three additional notecards and devote each to one of the aforementioned topics. With an entire notecard dedicated to each topic, you will have additional room to include items that you could not before. These entries will help to keep your ideas concise, consistent and focused on your most important qualities as a potential employee.”

Notecards are an excellent way to stay organized while generating ideas for your résumé. Another good strategy is to list all of your school and work experiences in chronological order. Under each heading, write down the tasks you performed. Then look at each task and consider what skills you learned. Write the skills on a separate line under all of your tasks. No matter which planning strategy you use, keep in mind that the point of a résumé is to highlight the skills and experiences that you possess that will make you a great employee.

Now that the planning phase is done and you’ve identified your superior skills and traits, it’s time to put all of that information into a specific format so your potential employer can see them too. Robin Ryan, Career Counselor and author of Winning Resumes (Wiley Press), shares her successful formula for how to write a résumé, and adds extra advice wherever you see Robin’s Tip.

Robin’s Tip:

Before getting started “take résumé [writing] classes at your college, buy a book or get sample [résumés] from the Career Center. Don’t get [a sample résumé] from a friend because they might have gotten [the format] wrong.”

Robin Ryan’s Blueprint on How to Write a Résumé
*note: do not include the underlined headers in your résumé; do, however, include the subheadings

Heading: Name, address, telephone number and e-mail

Robin’s Tip: “You want a permanent address that won’t expire so use your parents’ address if you have to.”

Body:

Education

List your institution, degree, major, years attended and graduation date (or anticipated graduation date if you haven’t graduated yet). List some of your most relevant courses if applicable.

Robin’s Tip: “If you have good grades, list your G.P.A.” You can list your overall G.P.A. or the G.P.A. for your major, or both. “But if you don’t have good grades, don’t list it.” Ms. Ryan advises that the cutoff for any G.P.A. listing to be a 3.0.

Career Objective (optional)

Four to six sentences that summarize your qualifications and describe your background and strengths

Robin’s Tip: “Employers read this first, so don’t underplay the skills you have.”

Work Experience

List all relevant work experience in reverse chronological order (the entries start with most current and get older as you proceed down the page). For each work experience include: the name of the organization, your position in that organization, and your starting and ending dates (it’s ok to simply list the month and year). Then make a list of bullet-pointed tasks that you performed and any results you achieved. Make statements about your tasks concise and make sure that they highlight skills that the job description is looking for. A good idea is to print out the job description and circle the key words and skills that the employer uses. Then try to incorporate those words into your résumé, if not directly then include experiences that demonstrate those personality traits and skills. 

Robin’s Tip: “You want to list anything that shows initiative, ambition, or talent. Even if you worked at McDonald’s, you still learned important things like teamwork and customer service.” Each work experience has something to offer if you can present it in the right way.

Robin’s Tip: “Find that job field’s buzzwords. Go to the association Web site and look at conferences and articles.” What words appear frequently? Those are the ones you should try to incorporate into your résumé.

Honors and Awards

Here you can list things that make you stand out as an employee or as a student. Examples include being named Employee of the Month, getting published in an academic journal or winning a contest or a scholarship.

Skills

Whereas the Work Experience section has you incorporate the skills you learned into your task descriptions, here you will overtly display the skills you acquired that may be valuable to the potential employer. These include computer skills, language skills, research skills and familiarity with any specialized software.

Robin’s Tip: Try to be specific in listing your skills. Instead of saying “familiar with design software,” say “familiar with Flash and Dreamweaver.”

References

Due to space limitations (remember, your résumé should only be a page long), you probably won’t be able to list the three references required by most employers. It is best to include a statement at the end of your résumé saying something like “references available upon request.”

Samples

Whether you are a writer or an artist, a graphic designer or an architect, some potential employers are going to want to see examples of your work. It is not a good idea to try and incorporate some of your artistic flair into your résumé. As with references, include a statement that says “clips/samples available upon request.”

Robin’s Tip: Create a website or a CD to display samples of your work. You can refer to the hyperlink or CD in your cover letter, thus allowing your potential employer to see your work without wasting precious space on your résumé.

Tada! That is the basic structure of a good résumé. Now that you have the gist of what a résumé should contain, it is important to mention what a résumé should look like. Unlike Elle Woods, you should not do something cutesy like spray your résumé with perfume. Your résumé should speak for itself without all the little extras. Resist the urge to include clip art, your personal photograph or a whimsical font. Here is what Robin Ryan suggests a perfect résumé should look like: “easy to read, a font size of at least 12 points, no graphics or lines across the page and everything should be in black and white.”

Furthermore, Ms. Ryan presents a good point when she adds that “most software doesn’t recognize color, so [your résumé] will show up as nothing. Also, company software may not recognize lines and could interpret them as page breaks.” So as boring as you think it is to craft your résumé in plain black Times New Roman 12pt font, you will save yourself the possibility of being rejected simply because there were formatting errors on the employer’s end.

Now that you have a solid résumé written and designed, it’s time to change it! Why the extra work when you’ve just spent hours creating this résumé? Because most of us have an interest in applying to a variety of career fields. According to Ms. Ryan, “99% of people who graduate from college don’t know what they want to do.” But don’t despair. The résumé that you’ve created can serve as a base if it contains experiences that have taught you universally acceptable skills, like teamwork and communication skills. Just realize that it is important that you create a different résumé for each career field, highlighting the experiences and skills relevant to that field. A specifically tailored résumé will save your potential employer the stress of sifting through to find the skills and qualities that make you great for that job. If you would like help writing your resume, go to Amazing Resume Creator and they will create the perfect resume for you.

It’s pretty clear that your résumé is an important weapon when on the job hunt. At a glance, it lets your potential employer see your skills, personality, and knowledge of the industry. A well-crafted résumé will give you a leg up over your competition by showing your potential employer that you are professional, competent and an excellent candidate to call for an interview, which we all know can lead to getting hired. 

For some great resources on how to write a résumé, check out:

Winning Resumes, 2nd Edition
($10.85 on Amazon.com)

Careerbuilder.com Advice and Resources Page

Examplerésumés.org