The structure of your resumé
Before we tackle its contents,
let’s examine what the purpose of a resumé is
and what is it for.
What is a resumé?
A resumé is a summary of your education and work experience. It is a marketing tool first and foremost – a way to present yourself and sell your skills to the recruiter. In the ideal case, your resumé should be your ticket to a job interview.
The first person to read your resumé will most likely be a recruiter or hiring manager. They are the ones who will use this brief selection of information about your person deciding if someone should meet with you. Even the smallest detail can make a big difference – be it an insufficiently described professional experience, confusing structure, grammatical mistakes, or missing information.
The goal of your resumé is clear: To convince the recruiter that they should give you a chance to prove yourself in an interview. A well written resumé, containing all relevant information, should help you greatly. And this course will teach how you to do it.
Career podcast about resumés (in czech only)
Even if you are not currently looking for a job, it is good to have your resumé written, as you can keep updating it and adding necessary information. When the time comes, you will only need to edit a few details and you will be ready to apply for a job.
It is up to you whether you list the professional experience or education first. Studies have shown that many personalists prefer to list education first, followed by professional experience. You can also guide yourself by what is more important now for the position you are applying for. For students and recent graduates, education is usually more important. People with more work experience or people who have studied outside of their field may consider listing their work experience first.
Don’t forget to include the date of the last update of your resumé – that can be done in the footer. This will make it clear to the recruiter that all the included information is up to date, and you will know when the last time was you have updated your resumé.
Resumé should be concise – brief, but content-rich
All the information you include must be relevant. Before you add something, always consider its importance for the recruiter. The resumé must be relevant to the job you are applying for – pick the information that you deem important for the task at hand.
The ideal length of a resumé is one or two pages. If you feel like you are adding relevant information only and yet cannot fit it into one page, don’t fret – it is better to write a longer resumé rather than a resumé that that is missing important information.
What should a resumé look like? Here are some examples.
