Breaking Free of Bad Resumes: Tips on How to Compose a Winning Resume

Many people, especially those who have just graduated college, struggle to come up with a good, worth while resume that will win them the job or career of their dreams. Some think that a resume has to be something that is at least ten pages in length with footnotes, endnotes, source citations, blah blah blah. Honestly, a good resume can be one page and very simple. If you think about it, why would a company want to read through possibly thousands of resumes that makes their everyday paperwork look like leisure reading? Keeping a resume simple is key to getting the person's attention. Now I'm not saying that it should one or two lines, but it should cover the necessary bits of information without going overboard. You have to remember, you're trying to write this thing so you can get an interview, so leave some information for the actual interview! By the time you're finished reading this article, you should have enough know-how to write your very own simplistic, yet effective, resume.

Now, some of you may have had a course, possibly in high school, that taught you how to write a resume. Why weren't you paying attention??? Those types of courses offer a lot of good information on how to write an effective resume without diving off the deep end with one. But since you've already come to me for help on this matter, I may as well help you out. First I will give you the most essential pieces to a great resume:

Objective: This is normally only one or two sentences in length and informs your possible future employer what you plan on achieving with this resume. Think of something very simplistic, yet to the point when writing this section.

Education: This section tells your employer that dished out enough money to go to school and get enough knowledge to prepare yourself for the career ahead of you. People typically add in the high school they went to along with any colleges you took courses at, and I mean any courses that pertain to this job! If you took English 101 over the summer at some other college just to get the credit, you don't need to add that on there!