Resume Quick Sheet

A quick guide for writing effective resumes

Considerations:

Conservative and appropriate for a particular position

Each resume MUST be catered to a specific position
Resumes should highlight ANY work experiences

positively

To begin:

Layout that highlights information

Heavy use of action words and descriptors
Direct and to the point
Brainstorm about possible experiences in and out of a classroom
Ex: Long term projects for Science, Math, English, etc.
Activities for church, family, work
Fundraising, project planning and involvement
Once you have a list of several activities, think about what you
did
Be sure to write detailed DESCRIPTIONS with ACTION words
Ex: Volunteered at my churchs vacation Bible camp
Assisted in the organization of Bible camp activities
Supervised 30 children ages 5-7
Trained an assistant volunteer to use the church security
system

Refining
Descriptors:
Once you have a comprehensive list of experiences and
activities, work to enhance your descriptions with details and action
words
Ex: Designed and planned camp activities to be
conducted for the children Implemented the daily
schedule, directed and supervised children in
spontaneous/planned activities.(www.job-interviewsite.com) (Note the highlighted action words)
Beyond work
and school:
What things have you done that would make you an interesting
candidate for a position? Awards, accolades, honors, organizations.
Ex: Maryland film Festival Honorable mention (student category)
Highlights
of
Qualifications:
Now that you have written down the substantive part of your
resume, summarize some of your strengths based on your
job/school/work experiences so that you can have several entries in a
summary/highlights of qualifications heading on your resume
Ex: (based on the above example) Highly organized and
an Effective planner

Collect
Information:
Collect information on jobs and experiences, dates, contacts,
places, positions, GPAs, honors, graduation dates, POSSIBLE
OBJECTIVES, possible references

Putting it all together

Organize and develop your resume using the following outline. It is not
recommended that you
use the Microsoft resume templates as they limit your ability to manipulate
information. MAKE SURE
that your layout and design has purpose in that these elements combine to make
key ideas and
strengths stand out. The average time to review a resume is less than ONE minute.
Between your
resume and the first 5 minutes of your interview, an employer will know whether
they want to hire you.
Heading -(Typeface must be larger than the rest of the resume-it may be centered
or left, or even right justified-centered or left justification is preferred)
This will include your name and contact information.
Objective-This helps to give your resume reader focus. It is a way to let them know
for what you want.
To secure a position that utilizes my experience as a
Highlights of qualifications-The general soft work skills and technical skills/and
strengths you will be bringing to the job. Remember you have skills,
and they need to know what they are. This section will allow them to
see quickly what you have to offer.
Skills This is where you will let them know what experiences you have based on
the descriptions and ACTION words you choose to reflect your
experiences, work or otherwise.
Work experience- In this section you will outline your jobs if you have them. This
should just consist of dates, company, location, job title and order the
information from most recent (first) to oldest, which should be last on
the list. (see the example below-notice the use of bold and italics to
offset important information)
2000-present
Principal
Towson High school, Towson Maryland
Education- Let them know what degrees you have and OR when you are expecting
your next degree

Maryland High school Diploma expected June 20--

Activities-This is where you add a bit more personality to your resume. Think of the
interesting things you have done and how they may reflect on your
abilities (awards, activities, accolades)
Eagle Scout rank obtained 2014 (if this was the case, you probably had to
do a project that
might fill in for resume experience)
Maryland Film Festival, student entries, Honorable mention
Layout and design tips: Use bullets sparingly to highlight subsections and specific
information. Do not forget that you can use bold, italics and bold italics to offset
information. Additionally, spacing and tabs (with both positive and negative
spacing) can also highlight information and make things easy to find. Make sure that
your layout and design calls attention to the important elements on your resume.

Managing and developing your ideas.

Lets begin with something simple. You are looking to turn your experience into
resume gold and need to figure out a way to effectively present your experience,
past and present, on a one page resume.
Here is the scenario:

You have been mowing lawns for the past few summers with some friends. You are
putting together a resume for a job with a local plumber. The position is for a
plumbers helper, something you hope will turn into an apprenticeship that will lead
you to become a certified plumber. The latter is a long-term goal, you know that any
advantage to get you in the door with your immediate goal would be helpful. While
you can fill out an application, it might be best for you to also include a resume that
further highlights the skills you can bring to the workplace.

So, how do you turn lawn mowing into something that will look strong on a
resume?
1. To begin, you need to break down ALL of the responsibilities that you had as a
lawn mower. For starters, you may want to reconsider the moniker, lawn
mower and change it to Lawn Care Specialist.
2. Next, you want to go through a day as a lawn care specialist and consider
EVERYTHING you do before going to the job site to prepare, ALL of your
responsibilities while on the job site, and everything you need to do the job at
the end of the day. In this situation, you could start with the following:

How do you prepare for the day at work? Do you begin by

looking at who is on the list
of lawns to mow? Do you plan to bring certain kinds of things
along knowing that you
have a client whose lawn may need special treatment? When
you get there, how do you
manage the site, do you begin with the front first, then the
back? While all of this may
seem a bit silly, it does reflect several things that could be used
on a resume. Action
words like Plan, Maintain, Organize, Prepare Evaluate
are just some of the
words you can include in your descriptions.
3. Now, review the detailed descriptions in your outlined duties and try to make
them simple, direct and clear by incorporating action words to show what you
can do.
Try to change the following into resume ready sentences using action
words. Refer to your action word list for synonyms:
a. Cleaned up yard by raking and edging property
b. Took trimmings to the dump
c. Put everything back where it belonged
d. Checked to make sure there was gas in the mowers

Lets consider your work, school, volunteer, and project history. Apply the
brainstorming to a job or
activity that you have had and come up with a comprehensive list of ALL the things
that were part of
what you did.
Job/Activity: _______________________________
Descriptions:
a. A brief summary of the job/activity and what it was.

b. List SEVERAL things that you did/do starting from beginning to end (a
typical day, or for the activity)
a)
b)
c)
d)

e)
Resume Ready
a. What action words from the list could you use to describe what you did
for your job/activity?
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
b. Now generate a paragraph description (3-4 sentences) that outlines your
job duties. REMEMBER that you are trying to tell a future employer
what skills you will be bringing to them based on what you have been,
or are currently doing.

Share the above paragraph with a partner and work together to tweak the
paragraph so that people
will know what experience you have and how that experience will benefit them