How to Write a Resume - Objective vs. Summary Statements

by Leslie Kearney

It's hard to write a resume. Most of us are not "born salespeople." Just mentioning the word "sales" usually sends a shiver of fear up our spines. Add to this the fact that we are taught from childhood that it's not polite to brag about ourselves it's no wonder that when you're asked to "sell yourself" on a resume you freeze up like a deer in the headlights.

So instead of panicking let's take a resume apart piece by piece and explain how to write an effective resume. Hopefully this will eliminate some of the fear involved in "selling yourself" on paper.

Resume Basics (what every resume MUST have)

Your name, address and phone number (obviously). But also your email address.

Email addresses are where most people tend to go wrong. I have a friend with an email address called "1hottiger" (one hot tiger). While this might be cute among friends, to a prospective employer it shows poor taste, and a lack of maturity (since she's in her late 40's). If you don't have a professional sounding email, create a new one just for your job search. You can get free email addresses on Google, Yahoo or Hotmail.

Example of a BAD email address:

ImAPartyGirl@email.com JennysMom@email.com 2Hot2Handle@email.com

Example of a GOOD email address:

MaryMartin@email.com M.Martin@email.com Mary.A.Martin@email.com

Style

When you write a resume avoid using fancy fonts or colored ink. This just makes you look immature. Plus, statistics show that if someone has to struggle to read something they won't. Which means you're resume is guaranteed to hit the trash faster than most if you use a script font.

Try to make your resume look like a nice letterhead. One thing I do when I write a resume is condense lines. In the header I put my name to the left and my phone number all the way to the right. Then below that I put my full address (on one line) on the left and my email all the way to the right on the same line. Then I separate it all with a nice line to look like professional stationery.

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