Writing A Resume

Here are some things to consider when drafting your resume.


1. Begin with brainstorming. Gather all the information you can on past employment, volunteer activities, memberships, leadership, honors, class projects, summer work, etc..

2. Analyze your audience. What is the company/organization like? Who will likely look at the resume? What are their needs? What skills and qualifications are they looking for?

3. Organize your material. Remember to keep your audience in mind. For example, if the most important thing your audience is looking for is education, place education first. You can control the emphasis according to your analysis of your audience.

4. Use white space wisely. An "empty" looking resume suggests you haven't done much. Use indentations, bolding, and bullets to highlight important information. Draw your reader's eye to the information you want to emphasize.

5. Be sure to list accomplishments along with duties and responsibilities. Quantify your accomplishments whenever possible, and be concrete; give your reader something solid.

6. Finally, proofread your resume. A resume should be error-free and clean. Use good quality paper.

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The following is a brainstorming activity to help you remember some of the things you've done. The exercise comes from Business and Administrative Communication by Kitty O. Locker, Second Edition, 1992 Irwin.


For each of the following, give three or four details as well as a general statement.



Describe a time when you:

1. Set a goal and achieved it even though doing so was not easy.
2. Used facts and figures to gain agreement on an important point.
3. Identified a problem which a group or organization faced and developed a plan for solving the problem.
4. Made a presentation or a speech to a group.
5. Won the goodwill of people whose continued support was necessary for the success of some long-term project or activity.
6. Interested other people in something that was important to you and persuaded them to take the actions you wanted.
7. Helped deal constructively with conflict in a group.
8. Demonstrated creativity.
9. Evaluated a situation to decide where to put your best efforts to achieve the greatest reward.
10. Determined what you needed to know to solve a problem, gathered the necessary information, and applied it successfully.