- Understand what makes a résumé effective and what to include in it
- Understand how to customize a résumé for the specific job you are applying for
- Understand what makes a cover letter effective
Crafting Your Résumé
A résumé is a written picture of who you are—it’s a marketing tool, a selling tool, and a promotion of you as an ideal candidate for any job you may be interested in. Résumés and cover letters work together to represent you in the brightest light to prospective employers. With a well-composed résumé and cover letter, you stand out—which may get you an interview and then a good shot at landing a job.
In this section, we discuss résumés and cover letters as key components of your career development tool kit. We explore some of the many ways you can design and develop them for the greatest impact in your job search.
Your Résumé: Purpose and Contents
Your résumé (sometimes spelled resumé or resume) is a written inventory of your education, work experience, job-related skills, accomplishments, volunteer history, internships, residencies, and more. It’s a professional autobiography in outline form to give the person who reads it a quick, general idea of who you are. With a better idea of who you are, prospective employers can see how well you might contribute to their workplace.
As a college student or recent graduate, though, you may be unsure about what to put in your résumé, especially if you don’t have much employment history. Still, employers don’t expect recent grads to have significant work experience. And even with little work experience, you may still have a host of worthy accomplishments to include. It’s all in how you present yourself.
Résumé Tips
You can view the transcript for “How to Write a Resume – LA Rams Employee” here (opens in a new window).
You can view the transcript for “Recruiter Advice: Resumes” here (opens in new window).
You can view the transcript for “COMPETITIVE RESUME TIPS That Got Me Internships at GOOGLE, NBC, and ELLE Magazine” here (opens in new window).
Format of Your Successful Résumé
Perhaps the hardest part of writing a résumé is figuring out what format to use to organize and present your information in the most effective way. Most résumés follow one of the four formats below.
Reverse Chronological Résumé
A reverse chronological résumé (sometimes also simply called a chronological résumé) lists your job experiences in reverse chronological order—that is, starting with the most recent job and working backward toward your first job. It includes starting and ending dates. Also included is a brief description of the work duties you performed for each job, and highlights of your formal education.
The reverse chronological résumé may be the most common and perhaps the most conservative résumé format. It is most suitable for demonstrating a solid work history, and growth and development in your skills. It may not suit you if you are light on skills in the area you are applying to, or if you’ve changed employers frequently, or if you are looking for your first job.
Functional Résumé
A functional résumé is organized around your talents, skills, and abilities (more so than work duties and job titles, as with the reverse chronological résumé). It emphasizes specific professional capabilities, like what you have done or what you can do. Specific dates may be included but are not as important.
If you are a new graduate entering your field with little or no actual work experience, the functional résumé may be a good format for you. It can also be useful when you are seeking work in a field that differs from what you have done in the past. It’s also well-suited for people in unconventional careers.
Hybrid Résumé
The hybrid, or combination, résumé is a format reflecting both the functional and chronological approaches. It’s also called a combination résumé. It highlights relevant skills, but it still provides information about your work experience. With a hybrid résumé, you may list your job skills as most prominent and then follow with a reverse chronological list of employers. This résumé format is most effective when your specific skills and job experience need to be emphasized.
Video, Infographic, and Website Résumé
Other formats you may wish to consider are the video résumé, the infographic résumé, or even a website résumé. These formats may be most suitable for people in multimedia and creative careers. Certainly with the expansive use of technology today, a job seeker might at least try to create a media-enhanced résumé. But the plain-text, traditional résumé is by far the most commonly used—in fact, some human resource departments may not permit submission of any format other than a document-based, plain-text résumé.
An important note about formatting is that initially, employers may spend only a few seconds reviewing each résumé. That’s why it’s important to choose your format carefully so that your skills stand out and you get past the first round of screening.
As potential employers do that first review, they are looking to see the evidence that you match as many of the specifications in their ad or job listing as possible.
See examples of: