Resume 101 - Organizing Information

After you have all of your content typed up on the page, you will want to consider which points should go where. Often, students simply follow a template when they organize the information. While this often works just fine, some students may find that they wish to emphasize different parts of their resume to cater to a specific employer.

There are a few easy ways to emphasize information to an employer:

• Separating Information
• Changing the Location
• Using Headings
• Quantifying Information

Separating information helps to organize information by letting the employer know where each point begins. A great way to do this is with bullet points. By separating out each task into a bullet, you make it much easier to skim through and find information. Bulleting works especially well when you start off with action verbs, because this puts the most important part of your sentence at the far left. Also, bulleting helps the employer get an idea of which skill area you may have a lot of experience in- their eyes will be drawn to the sections with more bullet points, because those would seem more important.

The location of information also has an impact on how the employer will read your resume. On a resume, the most important information should go to the top of the section, likewise the most important sections should go to the top of the page. This means that your name, which is the focal point of your resume, should be right at the top of the page, followed by the objective. The other sections are more flexible, but typically for recent graduates, the education section becomes the next most important.

Headings also help the employer to be able to skim your document. Make sure that they are easily visible to the naked eye. In my opinion, headings should be either one or two font points bigger, or perhaps bolded, and they look better when they are aligned to the left (they tend to get lost in the center unless they are accompanied by decorative lines). Another note- make sure the headings are accurate and straightforward.

If you still can’t figure out which information to put first, think about the quantities attached to them. If you spent more of your time on customer service tasks than on clerical tasks, that may help you decide where to put things. Employers will typically assume that the points near the top are the most recent and/or most important.

Need some advice on which skills or qualifications you should emphasize? Call 206-6508 to schedule a 20-minute quick stop appointment at the CDC, or drop by our walk in hours, Tuesday – Friday from 11 – 1 in SAB 50.