Your Curriculum Vitae: The Resume

Your Curriculum Vitae: The Resume

This may date me, but I vividly remember a scene in the movie Legally Blonde, where the main character, Elle, leaves her resume with her law professor for a potential internship.  The resume is on pink stationary and scented, to paraphrase, “…to add a little something…”  You got to love it….

In today’s day and age, the reality is resumes are rarely mailed or handed out - they are sent electronically, via email or uploaded into a resume database, leaving no room for that ‘little something.’

So, how do you get your resume noticed?  For years, I’ve told undergrads and grads alike that there is no magic secret to the perfect resume – that if you asked 10 recruiters for their opinion on your resume, you would get 15 responses! 

In my opinion, it’s really simple; keep it short and sweet and to the point. Some general tips:

·         Use bullets to summarize your experience – reading paragraph format is exhausting and time consuming.

·         Use action words to start each bullet. For example, “Managed staff of….. “ or “Created……”  or “Provided administrative support to….” Etc.

·         For people w. 5+ years of experience, add 1-3 key accomplishments where relevant.  As you progress up the career ladder, recruiters and managers want to know about your contributions.

·         SPELL correctly – especially the company name!

·         Your resume does not have to be one page – as long as your experience, education, and accomplishments warrant the length.

·         NO pictures, logos, age, weight, height, etc.  Not relevant to a professional job – unless you are a model or actor. J

Remember, you do only have about 3-5 seconds to capture the recruiter’s attention – use words and terminology that is relevant to the job – NOW, don’t lie on your resume, just ‘tweek’ it a bit to make it pertinent.