Were you promoted? A resume is a clear and concise outline of your abilities, experiences, and responsibilities in work and academic settings. It is a powerful marketing tool for your job searching process. There is no right or wrong way to write your resume since it is a personal statement that should reflect your unique experience, personality, and style. Your objective is to communicate what makes you stand out as a stellar job candidate.
Basics of an Effective Resume
Before you start writing You can write an effective resume only if you know the qualifications of the job you are seeking or you have detailed information about the specific company to which you are applying. Therefore, familiarize yourself first with the industry, organization, and position in which you are interested. Take the time to do the research so that you know exactly what set of skills the employer looking for.
Key section headings
Since a resume is your personal marketing tool, keep in mind that the following section tides are intended to act as general guidelines that you should modify to your individual needs.
I. Identifying information
Name, Address, Phone, E-mail, Website (include only if your personal web site is professional). Identifying information may, but does not need to, include your date of birth and nationality.
II. Education
Begin with the most recent degree you are pursuing or have earned. List additional degrees in reverse chronological order. This section should include university education only. Unless the secondary school is your highest attained level of education, secondary school should not be listed on a resume.
Educational information on your resume must contain the following information:
a) the name of school; the dates of attendance; the location of the school;
b) the field of study; the tide received or pursued.
This section can also include subsections:
› "Relevant courses." - Listing courses that are relevant for a given position can be useful if you recently finished school and do not have much work experience.
› "Awards, Fellowships and Scholarships."
III. Professional Experience / Work Experience / Employment History
Employers consider experience, paid or unpaid, an integral part of your resume. Your experience section should highlight your accomplishments on the job and the skills you used.
Work information in your resume must contain the following information:
a) the name of the company;
b) the dates of employment;
c) the location of the company (city, country);
d) your position and department;
e) a description of your job (responsibilities & accomplishments).
Tips for describing your professional experience:
› List your work experiences in reverse chronological order, with your most recent experience first.
› Avoid detailed descriptions of all the duties and responsibilities that you had at your past jobs. Be selective and try to highlight your skills and knowledge that the potential employer may be looking for.
› Don't describe your experiences in the 1st or 3rd person ("I performed experiments for ..."). Describe your experiences using incomplete phrases ("Performed experiments for ...")
› Avoid using passive voice, use dynamic language to describe your position.
› Use the past tense when describing past work experiences and present tense describing your current position.
› Avoid using long sentences.
› Do not stress the aspects of your prior employment that you don't want to do in your next job.
› It is important to detail your accomplishments. Always be specific and use numbers where possible. (Managed a $10,000 budget; recruited, trained, and supervised 25 volunteer tutors; practiced 4 hours a day with the soccer team.)
› Do not exaggerate.
IV. Additional Informations:
Language skills - List languages that you speak and the level of the command of each language. (Beginner, Intermediate, Proficient, Fluent, Working Knowledge, Native).
Computer skills - List computer applications and programs that you know how to work with and that are relevant to the job you are applying for.
Interests/ Personal Background (Optional)
V. Publications (Optional)
VI. References (Optional)
References consist of names, addresses and contact information for people that know you well and are willing to recommend you to a potential employer. You can either state that "References are available upon request" at the very end of your resume or you can simply not mention references in your resume at all and supply it only when the potential employer requests it. If the potential employer explicitly asks for references, you should list them on a separate sheet of paper and send or give it to the potential employer together with your resume.
Aesthetics of a resume Length: Ideally, you should try to create a clear and concise one-page resume. A two-page resume is appropriate for people that have more years of experience. It can be done! Just learn to consolidate and select those activities and experiences that are most important and most relevant to the reader (the potential employer) and the job you are seeking. Font: Use only one type of font throughout the resume. Use a simple and common type of font, such as Times New Roman, Arial or Garamond. The size of the font should not be larger than 12 and not smaller than 10.
Zdroj: D. Tošovská - Atraktivní životopis v angličtině, Grada Publishing, 2005
V prílohe sa nachádza celé znenie článku, ako aj ukážka hotového resume.