What is a Resume?
A Resume is your "personality
on a page," your "personal advertisement" used to
sell you to an employer. It must be flawless (no typos, perfect
formatting). You have 4 seconds to tell the person reviewing your
resume that you are qualified for the position they are offering
and attract them enough for a longer look.
Your
resume works in partnership
with your cover letter to present a meaningful picture to the
employer of who you are, what you can bring to the job, and how
you are qualified to handle it.
If your Resume looks professional
and communicates it can save you time and effort in getting an
interview. If it is sloppy and thrown together without much
thought, it will be ineffective, waste your time and the
employers time, and probably not result in much. Writing a good
resume takes time, planning and lots of rewriting.
Resumes are culturally sensitive.
Presented in the following information are Resumes primarily for
an American Audience. While this style is often accepted outside
of the USA, I encourage you to be culturally aware and educated.
See the section on cultural factors to consider in writing for a different
audience. Also, see the section on Japanese Rirekisho - a completely different document from an
English Language Resume.
How to write a Resume
The following information will
help you write your first resume or adapt and improve on your
existing one. No matter what, be sure to have at least 3 people
review your resume each time you submit it. Gretchen in the
CC&S is happy to review and critique resumes (but she does
not want to proof read them - they should have no typos before
she seems them - THANK You). If you are too shy to show your resume
to a friend or colleague here at IUJ, how can you be confident to
show it to a potential employer?
Resume Basics
Resumes use dates, locations,
titles, and verb phrases to describe your transferable skills AS
THEY RELATE TO YOUR CURRENT job application. It is your chance to
tell a potential employer what they need to hear about you (as
long as it is true) in order for you to get their attention, and
thus an interview.
Resumes should be organized by
topic: Educational Background, Work History (Employment),
Memberships or Affiliations, Skills (such as languages, computer
skills, certifications, etc.), and on occasion your Hobbies and
Interests (though not always advised). Under each topic, your
experiences should be presented in REVERSE chronological order
(most recent activity first).
Information on Resumes should be
easy to find. Highlights should stand out. You have 4 seconds to
make an impression, so ask yourself what it is on your resume
that you want the reader to know. And make sure that is visible. Don't hide the
good information by putting irrelevant information on it - the reader cannot
decipher what you want to emphasize if everything is on it. IUJ
recommends this
format to get started.
Formatting should be consistent.
There are a number of ways to format your Resume; we provide a
recommended example below. Please refer to the books in the
CC&S library for other examples. Whatever way you choose, be
consistent. For example, if you present your school or place of
employment in bold once, ALL listings of the same nature should
be bold. If you bullet the description of your responsibilities
under your employment once, you should bullet them all.
Try to make your Resume come
alive. Everyone at IUJ will state that they are in an MA or MBA
program, but what makes your education here different? What have
you done that is unique and makes your education special? For
example, what special research projects have you conducted? What
is the topic of your thesis or senior paper going to be? On what
area did you focus your education - US-Japan relations,
Marketing, Environmental studies, Finance? This information can
be noted in the "feature" line shown below.
For a recommended format (required for Resume Book): Please use this
format, or see
the Network folder from on-campus -> iuj-home -> cc&s folder for
templates for the Resume Book.
IUJ Career Library
Some of the titles available in
the CC&S library for your reference on Resume Writing are:
- IUJ Resume Books
- Resumes for Dummies
- Trashproof resumes
- Global Resumes
- WOW! Resumes for Finance
Careers
- RESUMES: Real Sample Resumes
and Proven Advice from Successful Job Hunters and Career
Counselors
- High Impact Resumes and
Letters
- Resumes for First-time Job
Hunters
- Resumes for Careers in the
Environment
- Resumes for Careers in
Communications
- Best Resumes for Accounting
and Finance professions
- Resume and Rirekisho advice
from the OSS (See Career Web Page)
For information on Cover Letters,
the companion tool of Resumes, see the Cover
Letter Writing Guidelines
offered by the OSS.
For more information check out
these other links:
The Point of a Resume provided by George Tech University.
Everything you need to know about
a Resume provided on a convenient page for you.
Japanese Resume (Rirekisho)
assistance pages and examples.
Recommended
Template for a Rirekisho from IUJ.
