Writing an effective resume
Australian Human Resources Institute fact sheet

A resume is your chance to present all of the information that proves that you
have the required skills and experience for the job. Writing an effective resume
takes time - you need to ensure that you have included all the desired
information clearly and succinctly.

Objectives
When writing your resume, remember that its purpose is to persuade an employer
to consider you for the position over the other applicants. It is a compilation
of your skills, achievements, employment history and personal interests, and
provides the important first impression of you and your skills and experience.

The difference between gaining an interview or not is approximately two minutes.
That is the period of time it is estimated an employer will devote to reading a
resume to decide whether to consider you further as a potential candidate.
Having decided this, they will probably re-examine your resume in more detail,
but it is this first impression that can make or break your initial application.

Content
When writing your resume it is important to remember your objectives of making
it clear and easy to read and understand quickly.

Your prospective employer wants to read only information that is relevant to the
position on offer, so think of your resume as a series of facts. Keep sentences
short and list your most recent jobs first. Before you decide on the layout of
your resume, do some research and prepare the content.

Your resume should contain the following information about yourself:

1. Educational qualifications
List the qualifications you have gained since leaving school;

2. Vocational and professional qualifications
List details of any apprentice training, industry accredited courses in specific
skills, technical training, management courses etc.

3. Career history, past employers and job descriptions
Your approach to supplying details of your employment history can vary depending
on your situation - you could list your previous employers in chronological
order, or you may choose to concentrate on job descriptions or the skills used
or developed. This is the most important section of your resume, and you should
focus on the following areas:

o Skills;

o Experience;

o Responsibilities;

o Achievements;

o Evidence of progression.

Think about your previous positions and the specific situations where your work
or actions made a task simpler or easier or solved a problem. Did you save the
company money, increase efficiency, identify or act quickly to deal with a
problem?

If you have been out of work for a longer period, you may find it difficult to
think of example - if so, try talking to friends or ex-colleagues who may be
able to help you. For this reason it is important to regularly update your
resume so as to ensure that all details are correct and up-to-date.

4. Awards and achievements
Make sure you include a list of your achievements - your accomplishments are an
important selling point.

5. Personal details
It is essential to include contact details in your resume to enable interested
employers to get in touch with you. They should include:

o Your full name

o Your residential and postal address

o Your contact phone

o Your email address

Make sure you tell employers who have filed your resume whenever your contact
details change.

You could also include details of your personal interests. When deciding what to
include, try to ensure that information is relevant in some way to the position
you are applying for. Do your interests exhibit an ongoing active interest in a
relevant field, or demonstrate skills such as leadership, organisational ability
or teamwork? Remember that an employer may be considering how you will fit into
their team when reading your resume. It is inadvisable to mention your political
or religious activities, and remember that a reader does not want to be
overloaded with superfluous information- be selective about what you include.

Referees
Most employers will want to contact referees when they are seriously considering
you for a position. If you supply the contact details of your referees in your
resume, it is important to contact them to advise them that they may be
contacted for references. It is also important that your referees are people who
have worked with you and know your responsibilities and skill levels - a referee
who can give a detailed response on your work and your abilities is better than
someone very senior in the organisation who may not know you at all, or a
personal referee who will be unable to make a comment on your job performance.

When listing referees, you should include the following information about them:

a.. Name
b.. Job title and name of organisation
c.. Telephone number
d.. Address
e.. Email
If you want this information to remain confidential, include in your resume the
statement "referees will be supplied upon request".

Don't worry if you don't have information that fits all these categories - the
resumes of a student, a person thinking about leaving their first job and
someone who has been in the workforce for 20 years will all be very different.
Your resume is a document you tailor to present yourself in the most positive
light - the key is to select the relevant information and choose a layout that
suits you.

Different types of resumes for different situations
The layout you choose for your resume will be determined by your situation:

a.. New jobseekers and graduates: If you are a recent school leaver or about
to graduate from tertiary education you may not have a job history to include.
Highlight your personal skills and attributes.
If education is your strongest asset list it first, paying particular attention
to courses that are relevant to the position.

If you have done any part time or temporary work or work experience list it.
Stress the skills you learnt and attributes used. If your part-time job was not
related to the position you are aiming for, describe the skills and attributes
you gained in doing it rather than just your duties. For example, rather than
"worked as a waiter", include details of how this involved developing your
customer service and time management skills, working as part of a team and under
pressure.



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