Components of a Good Resume

Posted in: Blog by admin1 on July 14, 2011 | No Comments

When planning to be employed, it is important that you know how to make a resume. A resume is usually the first impression for a prospective employee. Therefore, it is imperative that you make an excellent resume because it could be your last if you haven’t created a good one. Before any company considers you for an interview, the hiring team will go over your resume and screen your qualifications whether or not you are the most fitting for the position desired to be filled in. Thus, putting altogether the right components in creating a good resume will pave your way to the interview.

What are these important components of a good resume?

First is the contact information. In an ideal resume, the contact information should include your name, address and phone number and this section is usually found at the topmost of the resume. You may also choose to include your Cellphone number, email address and website if you have one. It is important to include your current information in your resume so that employers could contact you in cases when they have decided to invite you for an interview.

Include also your objectives in the job application. Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab has clearly emphasized the importance of writing brief yet concise objectives that are focused more on the needs of the company and not your own. This section of the resume must name the company, the position you are applying for and how you can help the company if ever you get the job.

You also have to include in the components of a good resume your educational background and history. The education component starts off with the listing of the highest degree attained. It includes the name of the college, state or university you have attended, the year you graduated, the type of degree and the course or field of specialty. In this section of your resume, it is a plus to include information such as a Grade Point Average or GPA of 3.0 or higher and also some awards, honors and recognitions that you received. It is also permissible to mention a senior thesis title in this component of the resume. High school grades and activities may be omitted after finishing college or a previous, significant work experience.

More importantly, another component of a good resume is your work experience. In this section, an employee must have a comprehensive list of the names and addresses of the company, dates of employment, job titles and responsibilities he/she had in the past. It is highly recommended to include listing relevant internships and voluntary services on top of the paid employment experiences.

The contents and components are what make or break the success of your employment since these information and what your employers will base their final decisions on. So, make it an effort to make sure that each component of the resume becomes an unforgettable masterpiece. Each of these components must be worth the time and effort of employers to go over to lead to your success.

Avoiding Common Resume Writing Mistakes

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When planning to make a resume for a job application, there is certainly no room for mistakes and errors. Your resume depicts your future. It either makes or breaks your career as an employee. In line with this, you have to be very knowledgeable on what things you have to consider when writing one. Outlined below are some general guidelines to avoid the common mistakes when writing a resume.

Tip 1: It is never good to prepare a resume that exceeds 2 pages, unless ofcourse you have been in the field of employment for at least five years. You have to inculcate in your mind that the purpose of the resume is to get interviewed and not to directly land a job. A resume only serves as a highlight to what your abilities are and leave all the rest to reveal during the interview portion.

Tip 2: Only include work experience which are relevant to the current job or position you are applying for. You may also choose the most recent experiences in your work history. Do away with the unnecessary information just to lengthen your resume.

Tip 3: Never attempt to omit or alter dates of employment so as to hide undesirable information such as age, unstable work history and the likes. At any point in time, your employer would still eventually know about it no matter how much you try to hide it.

Tip 4: Avoid mentioning about salaries and pays or reasons for job terminations on your resume unless you are applying for a position in the federal government. These should be kept at confidential until you are interviewed.

Tip 5: Never use unreliable and unbelievable claims and abused statements. This only means that it is not advisable to claim anything about you unless it really reflects your personality and working abilities. Let us take for example; you don’t have to say that you have ‘excellent communication skills’ most especially if you are not that confident enough to prove to them that you really are.

Tip 6: It is rather discouraged that you put thorough descriptions and details in your resume about your previous work experiences. The reader of your resume would only want to know or be familiar the kind of person that you are. This is also a way to avoid redundancy or such cases of repeating the obvious. For example, you had an experience on being a receptionist. Everyone knows what a receptionist does, so there is no need to elaborate on the job description.

Tip 7: Do not place at the end of your resume a note that other references shall be available upon request of the concerned. Employers and recruiters find this notion amusing since as an employee, you are expected to provide all relevant references as possible.

So those are basically some helpful that you can follow to avoid the common mistakes in writing a resume. However, if your resume gets you to job interviews, do not change anything in it, no matter how much it violates the rules of resume writing. On the other hand, it is still best that you heed to the norms and standards of effective resume writing.