The individuals career goal or job objective serves as a strong starting point for a resume. These are challenging to write because you must identify what you want to do for the firm but not exclude yourself from other possibilities.
Arrange the format of the career objective to meet your unique background or wishes.
At the simplest level, state the career objective as a professional designation, and follow it with a specialty area in that field. For example, electrical engineer - research and design, or public accountant auditing and taxes, or sales representative industrial hard-goods and equipment.
The next level of sophistication in a career objective statement may simply state the applicants desire for an entry-level position. A comment on the functional area of work would follow. For example, entry-level bank management trainee loans, or entry-level store management trainee merchandizing, or social service trainee child welfare.
Education
For job applicants who are just finishing college, education is probably their strongest qualification. If it is your strongest qualification, highlight it.
If you are applying before you complete your degree, include the date you expect to finish. If you have not finished a degree, do not deliberately deceive your reader, but you can explain positively what you have completed. Include the number of years and the subject areas you studied. Dont go too far. Elementary schools are not of interest to most employers. Even high school work is irrelevant once you have progressed to the later stages of your bachelors degree. However, an exception could be if you return to your hometown for work after being away for a while. Showing facts about your high school work would indicate that your knowledge of the city is stronger than that of a non-local applicant.
However, while going to college you may not have other experiences to include on your resume. Therefore, using some of your significant activities during high school might be better than including nothing.
Include training that is not college related. Include company training programs, special seminars, and courses completed for certificates. These experience have contributed to your education as well. Also include that you have paid for all or most of your college expenses if you have done so.
Work experience
If you choose to use a chronological resume. You will want to list your recent work experience first. Then work back in time. If you choose to use a functional approach, you may want to group your work experience by skill or by type. In other situations, you would mix the chronological order and functional approach (combination approach); therefore, you may want to list only the numbers of years or months of experience in each of these categories.
Be sure to include any volunteer or unpaid work activities.
Personal information
What personal details, if any, would be helpful in obtaining your desired job? The law does not require, nor are you expected to provide, any personal information except your name and citizenship. The law makes it illegal for employers to ask for personal information such as gender, age, marital status, health (unless it would affect performance on the job for which you are applying), ethnic background, religious orientation, number of dependents, and any physical challenges. By law, companies cannot make employment decisions based on this information. Certain bona fide (, ; , ) exceptions exist, as when a job specifically requires a characteristics, on which job performance depends. Include other personal information that you think will be helpful or that relates to the job.
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References
Many firms contact references to obtain more information about you. Therefore, carefully select three to five people as references who know how well you work. They should be people you have worked for or with in current or past, or they could also be former professors youve studied with in school. You want to choose people who can speak objectively about you.
Before listing people as references, ask them if they are willing to serve as references for you and where they want prospective employers to contact them.
Who best knows your abilities?
ü List names, titles, addresses, and phone numbers.
ü Identify whether each person relates to your educational preparation or your work experience.
Once youve answered all the questions, identify those factors that are the most convincing elements you can include on your resume. Examine the resume formats and begin to develop a rough draft of your resume.
JOB INTERVIEW
1. Read and discuss the text:
