Tips on How to Make A Good First Impression

By Doug Brown

Assistant Director - Graduate Career Service Center

Texas Christian University

You may be in a situation today where you must prepare a resume for the first time in 20 years. You might be graduating from school soon and preparing your first resume ever. No matter what the situation there are some basic rules of resume preparation everyone should follow.

First of all, your resume is a marketing brochure on you! It is the one time in life when it's okay to promote your skills and talents to anyone listening. It's important to identify key skills as they relate to the specific job you are seeking. If you're searching for a Financial Analyst position then it is important to identify the traits of financial analysts and reflect those traits on your resume. The key to creating a good resume is being concise, showing a history of success, and keeping it relevant to the job you are seeking.

The goal in writing a resume is to make it as easy as possible for the employer to grasp the important information. This means you should:

· Use bullet points instead of paragraphs when possible.

· Use short phrases instead of complete sentences.

· Put the most important information at the top of your resume and work down.

· Make section headings clear and easy to identify.

· Do not crowd your resume. Leave plenty of blank space.

· Target your resume for each employer. This may mean having different resumes for different industries or even for different job functions within an industry.

Once you get the content pulled together and targeted for the job you are seeking, you will need to organize the information in a way that best reflects your experiences. There are two primary methods to organize the content of your resume - Chronological and Functional.

· Chronological resumes are the most common. Chronological resumes simply list your work experience in reverse chronological order (starting with the most recent work experience and going backward). This type of resume works well when you are seeking a job similar to that in which you have a significant amount of experience. For example, if a banker at ABC Bank applied for a job at XYZ Bank then the most likely choice would be to use a chronological resume. The banker's skill set and experiences from past jobs will be directly transferable to the bank job being sought.

· A functional resume lists your work experience according to job function or specific skill set. Functional resumes are much more effective for people looking to change careers or job seekers who lack experience. It can also be used for professionals having significant work experience who want to keep the length of their resume within reason. Many people think of a functional resume as one that does not list employment dates. I would avoid the use of any resume format where dates of employment were omitted. Employers will view such resumes as questionable, assuming you are trying to hide something. To avoid any confusion you could use what is referred to as a combination resume. The goal here is to list your key attributes and functional skills but include employer names, dates, and locations.

A final note about resume style. If you are asked to email your resume you should never include it as an attachment unless you specifically ask to do so or the employer indicates that is their preference. Always include your resume in the body of the email. Do not include graphics or any other formatting techniques. Use a common font and, to insure that the receiver gets something that is readable, only use 65 characters across the width of your email page per line.

The above is an excerpt from The Last Job Search Guide You'll Ever Need: How to Find and Get the Job or Internship of Your Dreams, which is available for sale for $19.85 in our bookstore or $27.00 at Amazon.com but for free to those who subscriber to our free career newsletter. This hot new book contains job search secrets of the most experienced, most knowledgeable and most respected career experts. Learn career planning, job hunting tools and tactics, interviewing, cover letter and resume writing (lots of samples!), networking, and how to find an internship. Written by 149 career experts. To receive a free copy, subscribe to our free career newsletter.

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