The resume is a short written document that is an effective means of organizing and presenting yourself to an employer in written form. A resume is a well-structured, easy-to-read presentation of your capabilities and accomplishments, designed to convince a potential employer to invite you for an interview. The resume will not get you the job! Sorry, but that's a fact of job life. The best that your resume will do for you is to get you interviews and add some points on the scale for the consideration. Employers do not hire on the basis of a resume alone.

The resume should clearly demonstrate your ability to produce results in an area of concern to potential employers, in a way that motivates them to meet you. The resume does more than describe. By the way it is put together, the resume actually shows the reader how you do things. At one level, the resume demonstrates how well you have mastered written communication -- a key part of almost every job these days.

At another level, the resume is a personal presentation of how well you think of yourself. It is clear that what an employer thinks of you ends up being very close to what you think of you. The resume demonstrates your self-appraisal.

At a final level, the resume, like your job campaign itself, demonstrates how you will get the job done. Your resume can be seen as a work project that you take on with yourself as the employer. How well you got the job done is available for all to see.

The resume is not the whole story. It is a directed communication to a particular audience: employers whom you have selected as meeting your qualifications. The resume is designed to communicate specifically to that audience and to no other. If you have three job targets, you will have three different resumes.

When constructing the resume, you must remember that results are all that employers want. Not reasons, not explanations, not hopes, and not excuses. Not even, for that matter, experience or education, although employers use these as predictors. RESULTS. What happened when you arrived at your last job? What was produced at your last job or what could we produce with you on our team? In a fast-moving, technologically oriented work world, yesterday's education and job may be irrelevant to the new problems that need to be faced. The resume is not your biography. It is a prospectus for the future.

The first item on a resume is your name. This is followed by your address, telephone number with area code, and email address. There is no need to put the word "Resume" at the top of the page. If necessary, include a temporary address or campus address as well as your permanent address to maximize your chances of being reached by the employer. Avoid post office box addresses as they make some employers suspicious. It is advisable to omit information related to your age, gender, salary requirements, race, religion, national origin, and marital status.

It is especially important to include an objective in your resume if you are entering the job market for the first time or changing fields. The objective statement is a short phrase or sentence describing the position you are seeking. It should be clear, concise, and specific. A prospective employer needs to understand what you want to do for the organization. If you have sufficient information about the position, tailor your objective to meet the job requirements. It is not unusual to develop a number of resumes with different objectives. If more than one objective is under consideration, you will need a resume for each objective.

This can be near the top of your resume or at the end, depending on the power of your particular educational credentials. Most often, the education section is placed in the top portion of the resume for those who are currently enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate school program. Position your most recent educational accomplishments first and then go back in time. Omit high school. This the place to mention special achievements, scholarships, an outstanding GPA (3.0 or better), and relevant projects or internships. If you worked during college to finance expenses, you can indicate this fact by means of a percentage which you earned, and/or hours worked.

This section can be labeled in many ways depending on the length and nature of your work experience. Most often, the terms "Experience" or "Employment" are used. Identify your job titles and the organizations where you have been employed, the city and state. Next, describe your responsibilities by providing a functional description of what you did and your achievements. Use action words to highlight the most significant and relevant functions.

When writing a chronological resume, list the most current positions first. When writing a functional resume, you will also focus attention on the most relevant accomplishments. The order of these accomplishments will be determined by the order in which you present you skill categories. A list of employing organizations and job titles will follow in a separate category. Experience includes paid and non-paid. Use the action-oriented words to develop and write your inventory of accomplishments.

These optional sections should not be included if more relevant information has to be omitted from other sections to provide space. If included, they offer the opportunity to highlight skills, leadership experiences, and other abilities demonstrated through activities. This is not the place to list all activities. Be selective and include only those that demonstrate an active role and commitment. It is also a section in which you might add data not included elsewhere on the resume, but which may influence the employer in a positive way. If you are applying for a position in which fluency in a foreign language or computer literacy might be a distinguishing factor, this is where one or two brief statements would be advisable. Professional activities include memberships and activities in professional organizations as member, officer, committee members, etc. Community activities can be included if the activity is related or appropriate to your career objectives. Honors and awards include scholarships, awards received, dean's list, Who's Who, etc.

There are a variety of basic resume formats. For best results, you should start with a form or format that reflects the particular demands or requirements of your job targets and work history.

Work experience and abilities catalogued by major areas of involvement -- sometimes with dates, sometimes without. This format highlights major areas of accomplishment and strength and allows you to organize them in an order that most supports your work objectives and job targets. Basically, the functional format is chosen to highlight your basic area of ability and potential rather than your work history. In doing this, you will be able to organize and highlight information in a particular career target direction and play down possible gaps or inconsistencies in past work. If you are changing careers, entering, or re-entering the job market, this format will also allow you to easily talk about non-paying work experience and school or community activities.

1. Use four or five separate paragraphs, each one headlining a particular area of expertise or involvement.

2. List the functional paragraphs in order of importance with the area most related to your present job target at the top and containing slightly more information.

3. Within each functional area, stress the most directly related accomplishments or results you have produced or the most powerful abilities.

4. Know that you can include any relevant accomplishment without necessarily identifying which employer or non-employment situation it was connected to.

5. Include education toward the bottom, unless it was within the past three years. If it was in an unrelated field, include it at the end regardless of how recent.

6. List a brief synopsis of your actual work experience at the bottom, giving dates, employer, and title. If you have had no work experience or a very spotty record, leave out the employment synopsis entirely (but be prepared to talk about the subject at the interview).

7. Keep the length to one page.

IS advantageous: (1) when you want to emphasize capabilities not used in recent work experience, (2) when changing careers, (3) when entering job market for first time, (4) when re-entering job market after an absence, (5) if career growth in past has not been good, (6) when you have had a variety of different, relatively unconnected work experiences, and (7) where much of your work has been free-lance, consulting, or temporary.

IS NOT advantageous (1) when you want to emphasize a management growth pattern, (2) for highly traditional fields such as teaching, ministerial, political, where the specific employers are of paramount interest, (3) where you have performed a limited number of functions in your work, and (4) when your most recent employers have been highly prestigious.

Work experience and personal history arranged in reverse time sequence. In this format, the job history is spelled out from the most recent job backward -- with the most recent job having the most space. Titles and organizations are emphasized and duties and accomplishments within those titles described. Basically, the chronological resume is chosen to highlight a good work history related directly to your next job target, without major gaps or numerous job changes.

1. Start with present or most recent position and work backward, with most space devoted to recent employment.

2. Detail only the last four of five positions or employment covering the last ten or so years. Summarize early positions unless exceptionally relevant to the present.

3. Use year designations, not month and day. Greater detail can be given in the interview or application.

4. You do not need to show every major position change with a given employer. List the most recent or present and two or three others at the most.

5. Do not repeat details that are common to several positions.

6. Within each position listed, stress the major accomplishments and responsibilities that demonstrate your full competency to do the job. Once the most significant aspects of your work are clear, it is generally not necessary to include lesser achievements, as they will be assumed by employers.

7. Keep your next job target in mind and as you describe prior positions and accomplishments, emphasize those which are most related to your next move up.

8. Education is not included in the chronological order. It if is within the past five years, it should go at the top of the resume. If earlier than that, at the bottom. (This is not a hard and fast rule, however, and you can follow your own instincts whether to emphasize work or education.)

9. And, of course, keep it to one page.

IS advantageous:when name of last employer is an important consideration, (2) when staying in same field as prior jobs, (3) when job history shows real growth and development, (4) when prior titles are impressive, and (5) in highly traditional fields.

IS NOT advantageous: (1) when work history is spotty, (2) when changing career goals, (3) when you have changed employers too frequently, (4) when you wish to de-emphasize age, (5) when you have been doing the same thing too long, (6) when you have been absent from the job market for a while, and (7) when you are looking for your first job.

This format combines the features of the chronological and the functional. While it is oriented by function, it includes employer name, job title, and dates as well. It is longer and harder to compose than its alternatives, but it presents a fuller picture. This format includes most of the advantages and disadvantages of the functional resume. Basically, this format is designed to focus your capabilities and accomplishments sharply toward a well-developed job target. Unlike the chronological and functional resumes, which are geared toward an affirmative picture of past history, the targeted resume features a series of statements concerning what you can do--your capabilities, whether or not you have actually had directly relevant experience. You are using the targeted resume because you are clear about a particular job target or targets (use a different resume for each) and your willingness to focus on these alone. The resume is actually quite simple to prepare, so it would not be difficult to put together tow or three different ones.

1. You must be clear about a specific job target (or targets if you plan several versions). A job target is a clear description of a particular title or occupational field that you want to pursue.

2. The statements of capability and accomplishment must all be directly related to the job target. This may require some reading or research in the field.

3. Both capabilities and accomplishments will be short statements of one or two lines, generally written in an active style.

4. Listed capabilities will answer the underlying question "What can you do?" Listed accomplishments will answer the underlying questions "What have you done?"

5. Experience and education are listed but not openly stressed--they support rather than control.

6. The resume should easily fit on one page with plenty of "white space."

IS advantageous: (1) when you are very clear about your job target, (2) when you have several directions to go and want a different resume for each, and (3) when you want to emphasize capabilities you possess, but in which you may not have paid experience.

IS NOT advantageous: (1) when you want to use one resume for several applications, (2) when you are not clear about your capabilities and accomplishments, and (3) when you are just starting your career and have little experience.

Before your resume is seriously read by anyone, it has to pass the flash test -- that first 3-to-4 second look in which the reader decides whether or not it is worth reading any further.

One page most often emphasizes the important information, even though you have had six jobs and have three degrees. To condense your information and strengthen the one-page presentation, you can do the following:

* Shorten sentences -- Eliminate long windups and connections. For example, the sentence "I was the person chosen to coordinate the college fund-raising team for the homecoming week" can be restated as "coordinated college fund-raising team."

* Eliminate repetitions -- If you did similar tasks in two or three different jobs, explain in detail only in the most recent position.

* Do not spell out information that is already implied or included -- If you are a college graduate, there is little reason to describe your high school education.

* Leave off company addresses, names, or references -- You can provide these at the interview if requested. You do not even have to state "references provided on request." This is assumed.

* List only most recent positions -- If you have a large number of jobs, summarize the earliest with a statement like "1985-95, a variety of sales positions."

* Eliminate extraneous information -- Employers do not need to know your weight, height, gender, marital status, health, children's names, or church affiliations. If and when they need that information (that which is legal), they will get it in the interview or application, or later.

* Condense -- Do not give three examples when one will suffice.

Most resumes make dull reading. The problem is a limp narrative style that focuses on routine duties and responsibilities and ends up sounding like descriptions from a civil service job announcement. What keeps employers awake are words and phrases that create pictures they can see in their mind's eye. To create vivid word pictures that will keep potential employers awake, start sentences with action verbs to stimulate the reader to learn more about you and the results you have produced in the work you have done.

Use action verbs to describe activities and accomplishments. Examples of action verbs are analyzed, completed, coordinated, created, designed, established, executed, expanded, instituted, managed, prepared, processed, purchased, strengthened, and supervised.

The purpose of the layout, or organization of your resume, is to attract the reader's eye to the most logical and powerful parts and to make it effortless for the reader to get the picture you wish to describe. A good layout is unobtrusive yet directs the eye unconsciously to the important parts. Do not expect to achieve the best layout styling and impact in your resume on the first draft. Plan to do two or three drafts cutting back sentences that are too long, eliminating redundancies and confusing style. Plan to spend at least six hours preparing an effective, accomplishment-oriented resume and to have the resume criticized by at least two other people. Two of the most important thoughts to remember about layout is to be consistent in your use of the elements, and not use too many elements in one document. Some of the elements of your layout that you can work with are as follows:

* Use UPPER CASE LETTERS for headings or titles that are important. Use sparingly as overuse tends to cancel out.

* Underlining-- can be used in the body of the resume to emphasize a dramatic result, accomplishment, or other highlight that you want the employer to see. Be careful that what you underline is, in fact, special, because if the reader does not agree, then the whole idea backfires.

* Italics-- are not generally used, but if available, can be used in the same manner as underlining in the body of the resume.

* Indenting-- separates different types of information and makes the reader's job easier. Use two or three different levels.

* Bullets-- are points of punctuation set in front of each item in a list of accomplishments or other results that are short separate points to be made.

The appearance of your resume is very important. You should use white bond paper, rag content is recommended. If you prefer color, stay with beige, grey, or ivory. Always use 8 1/2" x 11" paper. It is of paramount importance that your resume be free of errors. Therefore, proofread the resume at least twice after the final draft. Have two other people proofread the last draft. Use a computer with a laser printer for a clear, clean copy. If you can't type well, get a professional typist. The offset printing process presents a clean, clear copy for a small amount of money. Photocopying can be used if a self service machine is not used--you get what you pay for. Spell out every word, including titles, etc. College degrees are the only words that may be abbreviated. For clarity, leave ample spacing at the top, the bottom, the side, and in between. One inch margins (top, sides, and bottom) are recommended. The resume should be designed to be read quickly and easily. Do not use a resume copy that has your most recent experience typed onto an old, photocopied resume.

You should write your own resume. Resume services are an unnecessary expense and when you buy a resume service, your personal accomplishments are often written into a canned format. In addition, do not use the canned format found in most word processing software packages. This type of resume writing can never portray you the best. Therefore, your resume should be written by you. Remember that the reason employers get interested in you is the value you can produce for them. This value is demonstrated by what you have done as much as by what you can do. Eliminate things that do not focus on your potential value. Above all, remember that your resume is a demonstration of your ability to handle written communication. Put as much care and attention into it as you would for a one-page advertisement for a fine product.

For those working in creative fields such as art, design, photography, advertising and other areas where it is possible to present examples of what you have done, the portfolio is an appropriate addition to the resume and should be taken along to the interview. Photographs and sketches of your work illustrate what you have done. Be sure to have some printed information, in case it is requested, which emphasizes where and with whom you studied or worked, the dates and locations when your work has been displayed or shown, references to any current displays or usage of your creations and so on. The portfolio literally may be a large leather-bound container full of photos and illustrations.