C r a f t i n g   Y o u r   R e s u m é

The job of a resume is to get you an interview. The resume will be the first impression a potential employer will have of you and should give an overview of your skills, strengths, experience, and education. It also functions as a reminder of your assets during and after the interview.

The resume should showcase your strongest skills and achievements providing a view of what you do best. It should point out your strongest skills and those you wish to continue to use and develop. Therefore, the resume should be concise and factual; not a recant of every skill you have ever used or every aspect of your career.

The resume should give scope to your responsibilities. This can be accomplished by including the size of the organizations where you’ve been employed, the numbers of people managed, the size of budgets managed, the number of servers managed, the number of users supported, etc. It should be easy to ascertain the industries you have worked in; this can be accomplished by a short description of the companies for which you have worked.

In some cases, it may be appropriate to have more than one version of your resume. If, for instance, you have a broad background that includes both technical disciplines and project management expertise, you might want a separate resume which accentuates the appropriate skills and experiences applicable to each background. You may want to customize a resume for a particular opportunity by emphasizing your skills that match the job requirements. In all cases, you should never overstate or misrepresent your abilities.

If you are of foreign nationality, it is helpful to state your right to work status. Never provide personal information such as marital status, health, age, race, etc. No employer intends to discriminate; however, our philosophy is not to give any information that would aid in unintentional discrimination. Finally, never provide your references as part of the resume. This opens up the possibility of unauthorized contact to the reference (see the Career Advice section on References)