A ReaderCentered Approach to Creating Your Rsum

1
A Reader-Centered Approach to Creating Your Résumé

• By Carrie Damschroder
• carried_at_hotmail.com
• November 18, 2003

2
Résumé Goals

• Persuade the reader to change his or her attitude
  from neutral to favorable
• Write and design an effective résumé that
  emphasizes the qualities a potential employer
  seeks
• Present and organize data in a way that
  highlights important information
• Tailor your information to be effective for a
  particular audience

3
Types of Résumés

• Experiential Arrange information about yourself
  around your experiences describe each experience
  in ways that demonstrate that you have the
  qualification employers want
• Functional Organize a key portion of your résumé
  around your abilities and accomplishments (i.e.,
  Communication Skills, Management Experience, etc.)

4
Defining Objectives

• Identify the exact qualifications the employer is
  seeking
• Describe the way the employer will read your
  résumé
• Identify the practical results you would help to
  produce if you worked in the department to which
  you are applying
• State that your objective is to achieve those
  results
• Tell what you will give, not what you want to get

5
Professional Experience

• List accomplishments knowledge gained skills,
  equipment, and computer programs used, and
  responsibilities given
• Put your actions in strong verbs, not nouns
• Use parallel constructions

6
Education

• List colleges and degrees
• List special courses and training programs that
  are applicable to the job for which you are
  applying
• Honors
• Thesis

7
Professional Activities

• List skills, abilities, and interests that relate
  to the job for which you are applying
• List positions held, special projects, problem
  solving activities

8
References

• Select people who can speak about the range of
  your professional qualifications
• Choose at least three references
• Check with each person before listing him or her
  as a reference
• Make your references look important and easy to
  contact

9
Design Elements

• Use white space (create using tables)
• Add short, informative headings
• Properly use bulleted lists
• Use boldface, italics, and underline with
• Use correct type sizes (10-11 pts)
• Use different typefaces for headings (sans serif)
  and text (serif)
• Use ample margins (3/4 to 1)
• Be creative!

10
Principles of Design

• Contrast
• Alignment
• Repetition
• Proximity

11
Things to Consider

• One or two page
• Contact information
• Paper type
• E-mailing résumés
• Scanning résumés

12
Whats Next?

• Job Application Letter
• Introduction
• Qualifications Section
• Conclusion
• Portfolios
• Hardcopy
• Online (CD-ROM, Web site)

13
Resources

• Technical Communication A Reader-Centered
  Approach, by Paul V. Anderson
• Your Résumé is NOT Your Tombstone (PPT), by Brian
  McCaleb