Resume Writing Guide

This guide is a "do it yourself" resume guide for writing or modifying your own resume. If you are looking for a professional to do it for you see our resume writer and services page

Contents

STEP 1: Preliminary STEP 2: Getting Started STEP 3: Writing the Resume STEP 4: Presentation and Cover letter

STEP 1: Preliminary

Career/Job Target

Resumes are career documents. Your resume is going to be most successful if it ties in with a long term career focus and addresses the skill requirements of the specific jobs you are applying for. That means tying in with career oriented education such as degrees or industry diplomas etc, documenting relevant experience and skills as well as highlighting examples of your successes to drive home your ability.

If you don't have an ongoing career and training plan then when you apply for a good job and are competing with people that have been following a plan, gaining industry qualifications and building up specific skill sets, then it will likely be them that gets the job instead of you. You will be left with the less desirable jobs with less competition.

Deciding on career direction and developing a plan is easy for some people as they know what they want to do and how to get there. For the rest of us it is one of the most difficult life decisions and will impact your entire working life. See our career advice page for help deciding.

Master VS Working VS Send Copy

Each resume you send directly to an employer should be customised for them, rather than just being a generic list of your previous employment in the hope an employer will give you "something" based upon what you have done. If you are going via a recruitment agency or are canvasing for unadvertised jobs your resume should still be career (and employer) oriented, but you won't have the same opportunity to customise as you do with a job specific application. This all results in the need to have more than one version of your resume at any one time because if you keep changing you main copy you will forget to put things back in, break things etc. Here is what you will need to keep:

  • Master Copy
    • This contains all your resume info, complete and uncustomised.
  • Working Copies
    • Potentially as many as one per job application. Starts by making a copy of your master resume, then customising it to a specific job.
  • Send Copy: Optional
    • Simply a copy in the format you will be sending to the employer. This may simply be the working copy for a job application. For example if a job advert requests your resume in MS Word Doc format and you are using MS Word already you wouldn't need another sending copy. Also, if you are only sending a hard copy you dont need this. See file formats below.

Resume Formats

Presentation of your resume is very important to making a good impression and gaining an interview. If you send a your beautiful resume to a potential employer but what they see has messed up formatting due to incompatible software you immediately make a bad impression. They may also think you are not computer literate and probably not very bright. Choosing the right way to send your resume is crucial to your job applications success.

Available formats: Choosing the right one.

  • Hard Copy - Recommended
    • The best way to ensure they get exactly what you expect. You can also put it in a nice presentation folder. This is the way to go if possible. Many employers and recruitment agencies will however ask for an electronic copy.
  • PDF (Portable Document Format) - Best electronic format for sending
    • Read by PDF viewers such as Adobe Reader (free), which nearly everybody has on their computer. Compatability is very good. This format is not editable unless you have special software, but it isn't intended to be. It is not your working file format. You export to this format, look at it on Adobe Reader to ensure it worked, then send. This pretty much ensures what you see is the same as what the recipient gets when they open your resume in their copy of Adobe Reader. See below for how to export to PDF.

  • MS word .doc - Easiest all round format
    • MS word .doc can be the safest editable format to send your resume in (as long as you are editing it in MS word) due to Microsofts dominance of the word processing market. It is the defacto standard. Not everybody can afford the MS office package though and some people prefer to do their resume in other software.
  • MS .docx CAUTION
    • This is not the same as .doc and only supported by default in recent versions of MS Word unless a compatiability pack is installed, which it often isn't. While it is suitable for your working copies make sure you export to PDF or .doc for sending.
  • HTML
    • The web format. Every web browser can read it so it is very easy to ensure your resume can be read. It does not however allow the same formatting abilities as a word processor format, nor does it ensure the layout will be exactly the same when read on different browsers, which makes it less useful.
  • ODF - OpenDocument format
    • An "open standard" format used by default in OpenOffice and some other programs. Suitable for your working copy but not yet in mainstream use so you will need to export to PDF for your sending copy.
  • RTF - Rich text format
    • An old format fairly well supported by most word processors, but it is limited in what features it can save.

Exporting to PDF.

OpenOffice: Has a built in PDF export option.

  1. Select "File -> Export as PDF"
  2. Press "Export" (the default options are usually OK)
  3. Give the file a name and select the folder for it to be saved in
  4. Press save

PDF exporter software
See our software page for programs that allow you to create PDF files from your documents if you cant do it from your word processor.

Software

  • MS Word: Commercial
    • The worlds defacto standard word processor, which is its greatest strength: compatibility. If the cost doesn't bother you get a copy because it will often save you having to use work arounds just to make sure your resume is readable by an employer.
  • OpenOffice Writer: Free
    • Probably the best free word processor out there. It can handle MS word ".doc" formatted documents fairly well, but not always perfectly so you should use its PDF exporting ability if sending an electronic copy of your resume to ensure employers get to see your resume with perfect formatting. If you plan to mainly send paper/hard copies of your resume then it will be fine.

See our software page for more information and download links.

Templates

Using a resume template can make sure your resume will have a good layout resulting in a better chance to impress an employer. It can also push you in the right direction by showing you what sections and information should be on your resume. They are often freely available to download and links are available on our templates page.

See our templates page for more information and download links.

Resume Tips

While resume writing can have a lot of tricks and subtle methods there are a few major points to keep in mind:

  1. In your summary section make sure you list your most important skills and accomplishments directly applicable to the field or specific job application you are going for.
  2. Back up the claims you make in your summary inside your job history by listing examples of achievments, responsibilities and experience.
  3. Support your skills and summary section within your education section by listing relevant training and education.

See our tips page for basic resume tips and links.

Resume Writing Books

Books from professional resume writers are a very cheap way to learn how to improve your resume, and if you are broke you can borrow one from a library for free! They will generally give you more detail, examples and insight into building your resume than you will find elsewhere. With the edge they can give you for little or no cost you really should read some.

See our books page for recommended books and links.

Presentation

This applies mainly to Printed/Hard Copy resumes. To make your resume stand out you should print on presentation quality paper and make use of a slim presentaion folder. This will help your resume be more noticeable in a stack of resumes, give it more "wow" factor and make it more memorable. That can be the difference between getting an interview vs silence.

See our presentation page for more information and links.