Communication Conversation: Readying Your Résumé

You did it! You earned that high school diploma or college degree you worked so hard for! Take a couple of weeks off to enjoy yourself, and then begin preparing that all-important résumé.

The two most important things I have learned by working with clients are as follows. No. 1, each is unique. No. 2, résumés confuse, challenge and even scare people. This juxtaposition with new graduates often results in procrastination because No. 1 and No. 2 don’t naturally jibe well. How do I show my uniqueness in a rigid, one-page list? Remember it should only be one page if you’re in your 20s – unless you’re already composing music while playing Carnegie Hall or being recruited by Major League Baseball (both of which I have encountered with clients, who required different strategies).

Let me set forth effective starter guidelines for new graduates. Let’s start with structure:

• Present your name in a large font on the top of the page. Limit necessary contact information to one line below.
• Leave 1-inch margins on each side of your résumé for potential employer/human resources notes.
• Proceed with categories like education, experience, employment, information-technology proficiencies and community/interests. Please note that experience is different from employment. The former may include unpaid internships, while the latter involves only paid work. If you don’t have much of either, present education first and include any academic awards or experiences studying abroad, possibly preceded by a two-line objective sentence that expresses your interests and motivation.

Now, how do you grab the attention of an employer and keep it? A few tips on that subject follow:

• Use active verbs, as opposed to titles, in bullet points that describe what you have and can do.
• Don’t exaggerate. The potential employer will see through exaggeration.
• Never lose a whole line of your résumé by leaving one word dangling alone. It shows wastefulness with potentially the prospective employer’s resources.

Finally, realize not one résumé fits all potential situations, and standard formats from college career centers are boring. Law firms like old fonts, sports-management firms don’t, and we haven’t even addressed the topic of italics and boldface yet. Onward and upward. Congrats!