Tips and techniques
written by HJ Marano, FM Recruitment Services Pty Ltd

A resume is a concise description of an individual’s employment history, skills, abilities, qualifications, contributions and achievements.

Your resume provides you with a unique opportunity to promote yourself directly to a potential employer or recruiter. Keep in mind that they will most likely spend only half a minute reading your resume, so it must be easy to read, logical, concise and engaging.

Your resume must be an honest and positive representation of your experiences and abilities.

There are five important points to remember when writing your resume.

1)    Tailor your resume to the job

It is important to tailor your resume to each job you are applying for. Not all information will be important for each position you apply for and should be removed to keep your resume relevant. Some information will be more important for a particular job and therefore must be emphasised.

If you are applying for several jobs across a range of industries you should write several resumes which highlight the skills and experiences relevant to those industries. These resumes may then be tailored to suit the particular job at hand.

2)    Choose your words carefully

Your resume must be professional yet easy to read. Your choice of words makes a big impact on how your resume flows and whether it is logical.

Try to avoid using technical language whenever possible. Avoid using abbreviations as they can seem unprofessional and may not be understood or accepted. It is never appropriate to use colloquial language. Use synonyms when expressing the same idea again to avoid repetition.

Use action words in your resume. This will force you to explain your achievements rather than simply list your duties. Some examples of action words include:

 
Conducted
Coordinated
Created
Developed
Established
Formed
Founded
Implemented
Interpreted
Maintained
Managed
Organised
Produced
Provided
Streamlined
 

3)    Use the active voice

Use the active voice rather than the passive voice as often as possible. The active voice is more direct, more concise and improves the clarity of content.

Compare these two examples of a sentence written in the passive voice versus the active voice.

Passive voice:

“Through exercising sound time management skills and an ability to prioritise tasks, I met strict deadlines and targets.”

Active voice:

“I met strict deadlines and targets through exercising sound time management skills and an ability to prioritise tasks.”  

4)    Use a consistent and clear layout

Use bullet points where appropriate to ensure the content is concise and clear.

Make sure you leave enough space between paragraphs to ensure that the resume is easy to read. Ensure that your borders, spacing, margins and text styles are consistent.

Use different text styles to emphasise headings and improve clarity. This may include using bold, italics, underlining, different fonts, font sizes or caps.

5)    Minimise grammar and spelling errors

If there are spelling or grammatical errors in your resume it looks highly unprofessional. Potential employers and recruiters will question your written communication skills and your attention to detail. It is essential that you proof-read your resume several times.

Resume format

There are two main resume formats. The chronological resume format lists employment history in chronological order with the most recent employment at the top. This is the most common resume format. The functional resume format lists information by relevance.  

Both formats are highly useful and both will be accepted by a potential employer or recruiter so long as the resume is logical. It may be useful to blend both formats.

Below is an example of a common way to list information within a chronological resume format.

•    Personal information
•    Objective (optional)
•    Skills and abilities (optional)
•    Work experience
•    Qualifications / Education
•    Computer skills (optional)
•    Additional information (optional)
•    References

Resume content

Regardless of how you format your resume there is important information that you will almost always need to include. The following categories can be ordered differently or can use different headings where appropriate. Not all categories are compulsory to use in a resume.

1)    Personal information

Personal information should always be placed at the beginning of your resume. This includes your full name, address, phone numbers and email. You do not need to include your age, sex, ethnicity, marital status or religion.

If you are not an Australian or New Zealand citizen, include details of your visa here.

2)    Objective (optional)

Listing an objective is optional, but is a good way to tailor your resume to a particular job. An objective is a couple sentences regarding your career aspirations and goals.

3)    Skills and Abilities (optional)

When detailing your employment history you should endeavour to cover the skills and abilities acquired through your experiences and those utilised in your jobs. However, it is a good idea to include a list of skills and abilities if you want to promote them further or if you have limited work experience.

These may include:

 
Written communication  
Verbal communication  
Time management
Self management
Taking direction
Administration
Team work
Attention to detail
Interpersonal skills
Decision making  
Problem solving
Taking initiative
Conscientiousness
Judgement
Leadership
Organisational skills
Building rapport
Project management   
 

4)    Employment History

List all relevant paid and unpaid employment including volunteer work, internships and fieldwork.

You should list the details of each job in the following order:
•    Job title
•    Company name
•    Length of employment – For example, May 2006 to February 2009
•    Company description (optional)
•    Responsibilities
•    Achievements

Use action words to describe your responsibilities and achievements. Consider the following examples.

“Coordinated with the program team to ensure that the program ran efficiently.”

“Provided excellent customer service to maintain customer loyalty.”

Your achievements should relate to gains you made which directly benefited the organisation. This may include saving money or time, increasing efficiency, developing new policies, programs or procedures, streamlining processes, exceeding targets and solving problems.

Emphasise the jobs that exhibit the best experience and skills for the job you are applying for. Use less detail for jobs which are not relevant.

5)    Qualifications / Education

List degrees, diplomas, certifications, honours, awards, scholarships, dissertations, research projects, and any other training you have acquired. If you prefer, you may list some of this data along with the additional information toward the end of the resume.

Include the institution the qualification was acquired through and the dates that the qualification was achieved or is expected to be achieved.

Include majors, minors, and other areas of specialisation. Include your GPA if it is impressive.

6)    Computer Skills (optional)

Include a separate section for computer skills if your skills are extensive. If you have had little exposure to computer processes, list any skills you do have in additional information.

In this section you should list your computer skills including your level of proficiency in software programs, internet, word processing, spreadsheets and so on, and your typing speed if relevant.

7)    Additional Information (optional)

Include any other information which is important toward the end of your resume. This may include a proficiency in a foreign language, positions held in associations or student organisations, published works, travel or anything relevant that hasn’t fit anywhere else.

It is also a good idea to list interests or hobbies in this section if desired and if they don’t naturally fit elsewhere.

8)    References

Do not list your reference’s contact details on your resume. Many referees will not want their personal contact details distributed too widely. It is best to write “References available upon request”.

Have at least 3 references who can attest to either your work experience or character. When providing a referee list, ensure that you list the referees names, job titles, addresses and phone numbers and also explain the nature of your relationship.

Take the courtesy of notifying your references when a potential employer or recruiter indicates that they will contact them.

 FM Recruitment Services Pty Ltd
Making a real Difference
Ph- 02 9858 5473 Office Mobile- 0403 640 120
heather@fmrecruitment.com.au
PO Box 117 Eastwood NSW
Corporate Member Recruitment & Consulting Services Association LTD
www.fmrecruitment.com.au