Resume formatting

Last Updated (Sunday, 16 November 2008 10:32) Written by Administrator Wednesday, 05 November 2008 09:57

Your resume should be a clearly formatted and a straight to the point document. The purpose of your resume is to provide the reader with information about your working life experience.

Your resume is a highly important document that gets you noticed when you apply for positions, leading to an interview and the job of your choice. Given the importance of that, it's worth giving this process some time.

If you follow our simple tips on resume preparation you might possibly beat everyone hands down. Remember to be specific with your information to maximize opportunity.

1. Start with your contact details in the following order at the top of the first page:
   
   • Full name
   • Home address
   • Contact numbers
   • Email address
   
   By law you are not required to include the following details, however if you are fine about providing this information, please do so:
   
   • Date of birth
   • Marital status
     
     
   (Make sure you include your name and contact details on all other pages of your CV in case they get separated from one another. Adding a footer with these details is a good idea.)
   
   
2. List your key strengths at the beginning of the document; this gives the reader an idea of the experience you have gained and what you have to offer that company from the start without them having to read through pages of information.
   
   (Using bullet points is a good idea, keeping the information you are providing simple yet to the point.)
   
   
3. Career Profile or Career Overview should be put just before your Professional or Career History. This should be a short paragraph with factual and informative information. It should provide a quick summary of your working experience. Things to include would be: industry experience, product experience e.g. Allan Bradley, Modicon etc and how you have reached professional targets within your industry.
   
   For Example:
   

   A Design Engineer with 12 years industry within the pulp and paper and oil and gas sectors. I have worked on the commissioning and start up of large scale projects and have experience using Allan Bradley PLC Software specifically in design and configuration… I have always met deadlines and exceeded targets set upon me.
   

   So include in this example your expertise in which particular PLC and doing specifically what in the software development lifecycle.
   
   
4. Your Career History
   
   The best way to format this section is to firstly describe the role:
   
   • Job title
   • Employer
   • Dates (from-to)
   • Who you reported to/what you did
   
   Then have a short description of that company, what they do within the industry (2-3 sentences is ample)
   
   Your Responsibilities: List all the key things you were responsible for within that role.
   
   Achievements: Bullet point your list of achievements, this section shows the reader how dedicated you were to that role and how you might be able improve their standards.
   
   (Remember to never leave gaps in your resume, if you have been training or travelling abroad for a significant amount of time also state this.)
   
   
5. Education and training
   
   List all of your qualifications starting with the highest one first. After that list all the training programs you have attended.
   
   
6. Include all your professional memberships that are relevant to your career and experience.
   
   
7. Referees
   
   Give a short description:
   
   • Name
   • Company worked for
   • Position within that company
   • Contact numbers (landline numbers are mostly preferred over mobiles)