You have your name written. All your contact information is listed. Your education is typed up and nicely spaced. Next section is your work history/skills. Sweat starts to form on your upper forehead. What do I write? What skills do I list? What jobs of employment are relevant?
Relax! You have the skills. You have the work experience. Part II will provide a guide to exploring the different styles of constructing a resume. Starting with the reverse chronological resume.
As mentioned in Part I there are three styles to constructing a resume: reverse chronological resume, functional resume, and hybrid resume.
A chronological resume, simply, is a timeline of your work history. You start the list with your most recent place of employment and then go backwards to your least recent place of employment. For each place of employments list the dates of employment, the job title, the location, and 3 to 4 bullet points of essential duties/job responsibilities you fulfilled in your role there. Remember to use action words rather than passive words such as “collaborate”, “supervise”, “counsel,” and “encourage.” Remember vary the actions words you use a the beginning of the bullet points. My rule of thumb when constructing a resume is to use an action word no more than two times. If possible, I try to use a different action word for each bullet point.
The purpose of a chronological resume is for potential employers to easily navigate your work history to see if you are a potential fit for the job offer. It is important to keep this in mind when constructing a layout for your resume. My rule of thumb is keep it simple. No fancy fonts or colors. Let your skills and experience do the talking.
Written by Audrey Haven, LMSW
Staff Writer
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Good basic advice here. I would only suggest that you not write your “essential duties/job responsibilities,” but rather what you did with those…your ACCOMPLISHMENTS! This is an important distinction. Your duties are what you were supposed to do. For example, “Responsible for managing a staff” is a duty, as in: the person hired for the job is going to have to manage a staff. But nowhere does this say if you actually managed a staff; how well you managed the staff; how you managed the staff; what the staff accomplished with you at the helm; and how you’ve grown as a manager. All of this is what you accomplished on the job…and what your target reader needs to see. Joseph Terach, CEO, Resume Deli
Do you want to make social justice history? Then vegan is the ticket!
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