Right out of college, I was under a false impression that landing a job wouldn't be as complicated as landing on the moon. I watched my friends - the business majors and teaching majors - entertain offers from various companies and establishments, while I - the English major - began to realize that the literature firms of our nation were 1) not hiring and 2) not actually in existence.

I eventually got a job as a recruiter for an employment placement agency. It was here that I learned the importance of a resume. I would soon learn that resumes weren't only important in getting a job, but they were also important once you had a job. To get promotions, win proposals, and bid on projects, your resume is an important vehicle on the highway of your career. Thus, it is essential to do them right.

Presentation: One day at my recruiting job, I met with an applicant who came in with a resume written on a napkin. Now, in this applicant's defense, she was under the impression that our agency would write a proper resume for her and she only needed to bring in a general outline. Also in her defense, the napkin wasn't used. Nonetheless, because of this occurrence, I find a need to clarify a few things about proper resume presentation.

Basic Paper: Resumes should be typed on plain white paper. Plain and simple.

Cover all bases: Including a cover letter, when the cover letter is professionally written, can benefit the applicant greatly. Though many times the employer will bypass reading the cover letter, as a means to get right to the meat of the resume, the fact that a cover letter was written, and the overall presentation was professional, will be noted.

Short and Sweet: Resumes are synonymous with the word "summary" and antonymous to the word "epic." While they should be written in a manner that conveys all the applicants qualifications, actual resumes should not exceed one or two pages. Employers are busy people and they will surely ignore John Does Resume: Volume 1 for a shorter, more precise rundown.

Friendly Font: Just because a resume shouldn't be lengthy, the font on a resume shouldn't be so small that the employer needs a magnifying glass to read it. If the font is too small, the employer will likely pass it up for a resume that doesn't have a built in vision test. On the flip side, however, a resume possessing font that is too large may convey that the person writing is trying to stretch out or exaggerate limited skills, limited knowledge, or a limited amount of computer ink.

Format: The best resumes, written in a simple, easy to follow manner, convey the most important information first. Resumes should start off with a centered, bolded heading of the applicant's name, address, phone number and e-mail address. Next, the objective (or purpose of the applicant) is listed. This is followed by either education or employment history. Choosing whether to list education first or employment history first should be decided based on which entity serves as the most qualifying experience. Educational background and job history should always include dates and should be listed with most current credentials first. These are followed by a list of honors, professional development classes/organizations affiliated with and skills. Each of these qualifying units should serve as a section and include bold type (for educational institution, previous companies, etc.) and bullets (for degrees held, duties performed, etc.).

Spacing: Double-spacing a resume is not necessary, but the use of space between sections (i.e., between educational background and job experience) should be implemented in a consistent manner. Along these lines, capitalization, punctuation, and underlining should all be used and used steadily.

Sentence Structure: When listing the duties involved in each individual job, some people write in complete sentences and some write in fragments. Both ways will suffice but the applicant should not deviate between the two. If the applicant writes about the most recent job with complete sentences, and then writes about the most previous job in chopped up fragments, the format of the resume will begin to suffer.

Content: While working with a variety of employers, I learned what is really wanted in a resume and, more importantly, what is not wanted. Does the employer need to know everything about an applicant? No. Does the employer need to know what kind of car an applicant drives or place of birth? No. Does the employer need to know what the applicant finds romantic? No, unless the applicant is applying for an internship at the Oval Office.

Job Duties: There are two things that should always be considered when relaying past job experiences: honesty and specifics.

Be honest: Past experience and qualifications are often directly proportional to one another; hence, the more duties a person has under his/her belt, the more qualified he/she becomes. However, the overzealous applicant may list responsibilities that they rarely if ever possessed. For instance, if an applicant was once given petty cash and sent to fetch lunch at the local sandwich shop, the job description of "handled company money and bookkeeping on a regular basis" should not be used. Employers are generally well versed in dissecting a resume, and they will know if the listed job duties do not match up to the listed job title.

Be Specific: A lot of times people assume that writing with detail, or being descriptive, simply means using a lot of adjectives. Thus, a sentence might be found on a resume that resembles one such as: "I was responsible for faxing crispy, white paper that resembled the ocean's tide."

However, the specifics of a job description should be limited to what a job entailed and, more importantly, how the job was done. For example, instead of writing "possessed leadership skills by supervising," an applicant should relay how leadership skills were demonstrated by stating how many people were supervised, what kind of policies were upheld, and what tasks presented themselves on a daily basis. Along these lines, numbers should always be included. Writing "increased company profit by 50 percent in the first quarter" will speak volumes over a simple "increased profits."

Awards and accolades: There are certain awards and accolades that should definitely be mentioned on a resume. For example, "employee of the year," "salesman of the quarter" and graduating with honors are all very valid and applicable awards. But, some people tend to get carried away and list every award or acknowledgement they have ever received. And, with this, the applicant begins to lose credibility. The person applying for an internship at a sports magazine presenting a resume that includes, "MVP of Sophomore Basketball Team, 1988" will look about the same as the aspiring artist who presents a portfolio boasting, "drawings were displayed on parents refrigerator three years running."

Organizations / Extracurricular Activities: Similarly to awards, organizations and / or clubs affiliated with should only be listed if they are applicable to the position for which an applicant is applying. A potential employer does not need to know about clubs or organizations that are not related. They don't need to know if a candidate plays intramural basketball, or belongs to a church. And, the employer definitely doesn't need to know about certain clubs (AA) or classes (Anger Management) and applicant may be involved in.

Skills and hobbies: One of the most important skills a person should list is whether or not they are bilingual (from personal experience, employers do not count Pig Latin as a second language). Other skills that should be listed are clerical skills, computer skills (listing specific programs), accounting skills, typed words per minute and any applicable certifications an applicant may possess.

Salary requirements: Always omit salary requirements, unless specifically asked to include them. An applicant must first charm an employer before automatically ruling themselves out by asking for too much money.

References: Do not list references, but instead write "references available upon request" and have them ready to supply if asked. It's a good idea to give references a heads up; I always called mine ahead of time to let them know that I am using them for a reference, and more importantly, to let them know to lie.

Final Details: A person's resume needs to have confidence, but also humility. Being overly timid, or overly boastful, will both work against the job contender. The writer must remember that he/she is asking for a "chance" at a job. Ultimately, the applicant needs to make the employer think that they walk on water, without actually saying that they do. A resume should be eloquent and intellectual, but not overly verbose with big-worded vocabulary. An employer doesn't want to, and probably won't, consult a dictionary to decipher what a resume is trying to convey. Finally, the checking of spelling and grammar is an essential part of the resume process. An applicant should proofread their resume like someone with obsessive compulsive disorder. Nothing will hurt a resume more than typos, spelling mistakes, or incorrect usage of grammar.

If even after a stellar resume is written, and sent to prospective employers, the applicant still has no hope at finding a job, simply tell them to stay tuned for my next article, How to Marry Rich.

Jennifer Jordan
http://turbocellcharge.com