Don't attempt to make your resume look good on the first try. It's virtually impossible. Reconcile yourself to the fact that you will have to write two or three drafts before you develop a resume that is complete and easy to read, has an attractive layout, communicates your abilities, and makes the recipient want to interview you.
How to Prepare the First Draft
To begin, in your notebook divide several sheets of paper in half with a horizontal line. You will use these divided pages to draft sections of your resume. Plan to use one for each important position paying or nonpaying and one for every skill area and for every major segment of education or experience that is relevant to your job objectives.
Review your Personal Biography and Achievements Analysis. Sort out the major items that you think are most appropriate for use on your resume. Transfer each of these items to the top of one sheet of paper and write down and fill in as many details as are relevant on the top half of the page. Then add to this information any additional facts required to complete the picture of that item. Next, review the words and phrases that you have written. Use the bottom half of the page to edit the information into concise, hard-hitting paragraphs.
Remember to stress your accomplishments and the benefits they convey. Finally, write these paragraphs with an actual recipient in mind. Below you can see how one applicant described a specific job experience.
Step One: Assemble Information
(The instructions are to assemble as much information as possible, and include it in the space provided.)
Category covered: Reader's Digest 1970-1974
Step Two: Condense That Information
(The instructions are to condense the above information into an interesting resume paragraph.)
Here's another example of how to transform notes into resume paragraphs. Look at the following notes taken from the step one section of the resume drafting exercise for Roberta Simon's resume. Compare these notes with her finished resume paragraph for the same job.
Category covered: Dept. of Sociology, Univ. of Oregon 1971-present
Now it's time to make similar notes for each area of information you plan to use in your actual resume. Use as many sheets of paper in your notebook as you need. Follow step one and step two for each category.
Completing Your First Draft
Review your own resume paragraphs. Continue editing and rewriting until you are satisfied that you have written a good advertisement for yourself.
You are now ready to combine the individual final paragraphs of your resume drafting exercise into a full resume. As you prepare this draft, it's time to start thinking about how to lay it out in the most readable fashion.
The minute a professional advertisement is written, it goes to the art department for design and layout. Before it is released to the public, it must be attractive to look at, and the key points must stand out crisply and succinctly. The same is true for your resume. Interviewers are inundated with forms, letters, reports, and other resumes. If your resume is poorly typed or crowded, or if it is too long or its salient points are difficult to pick out, you run the risk of having it overlooked. People skip unappealing ads. So it is your goal to be sure that your resume stands out from the rest and gets read.
Here are some important tips about resume layout:
- Single-space your resume and keep the total length to a page or two. One page is preferable! Employers tell us that resumes over one page have a reduced chance of being carefully read.
- Retain an attractive amount of "white space": Leave at least one-inch margins, double-space between paragraphs, and allow at least one inch at the top and bottom of the page.
- Keep paragraphs short, no more than eight or ten lines.
- Break up long ideas into short sentences or phrases.
- Emphasize each new category of information (Education, Work Experience, etc.) in such a way that readers can quickly find the specific information they seek.
- Avoid unnecessary and obvious captions, such as "Name" and "Address."
