<< Back to Jengo's home page

Jengo's Job Search Tips

Jengo Says #3: Avoid the Common Pitfalls of Resume Writing

1. Get the employer's attention through a skill summary at the beginning of your resume.
2. Clearly state your skills and support your claims with facts.
3. Provide examples of quantifiable results.
4. Create a good flow and avoid redundancy.
5. Make your resume reader-friendly.

Details from the Director

1. Get the employer's attention through a skill summary at the beginning of your resume. The easiest way to get an employer's attention is through including a summary of your objectives and skills at the beginning of your resume. Using key words drawn from your research about the job type or from the actual job announcements is best, while stating a variety of skills unrelated to the position will detract from your value.
2. Clearly state your skills and support your claims with facts. Write your experience descriptions using "skills" words. Describing a specific incident, event, work experience, or project will show concrete evidence that you have a specific skill. Fancy language may appear engaging, but does not take the place of facts. Using concrete examples in your resume will also help prepare you for your interview.
3. Provide examples of quantifiable results. Avoid generalities or broad statements. Use numbers, percentages, specific outcomes or descriptions of a process whenever possible. Stating that you produced "extremely positive results" or that you "greatly improved performance" is vague. You need to include: by what measurement, in what time frame, and compared to what? etc.
4. Create a good flow and avoid redundancy. The flow of your information should be logical and compel the reader to continue reading. It should also appear in order of relevance to the position. Bouncing from idea to idea without a natural progression will lose the reader's attention. Grouping similar work examples or related outcomes is easier for the reader to follow. When you re-state in the body of your resume the skills that you have listed in your summary, make sure you expand the information by attaching them to a result, outcome, or specific event, rather than simply re-stating them.
5. Make your resume reader-friendly. If you are interested in making information stand out, using white space is always most effective. Start with no less than � inch margin around the border of your resume, allowing the reader to focus on the center. Use white space to make headings and titles stand out. You may also use underlining, boldface, and italics within your text entries to make reading easier, but do so consistently and sparingly.

Examples of all these techniques (and much more!) can be found in the Resume Handbook, available in the Career Center. Bring your rough draft to the Career Center and we can help you polish it so that it provides the best possible picture of you.