What to include in your resume

What you put in your resume depends on your individual career goals, and on the needs of companies that generally hire people in your field.

As a general rule, only include information that will show that you meet the employer's needs.

Look at the following for help:

A cover page is not required for your resume; in modern business practice, the less paper used the better. Information that used to go on the cover page, such as your personal information, can be incorporated into your resume.

Summary of experience

Alternative headings include:

• Summary
• Profile
• Career summary.

This is a big-picture or general statement that describes what work you do, and what strengths and abilities you can offer.

It should be a brief description of your experience, skills and personal attributes that shows the employer how they all fit together.

Summarise your experience in one short paragraph or in bullet format. Make one to three points for a one-page resume, two to five points for a longer one.

For example:

• Self-motivated food and beverage attendant with eight years’ experience in fine dining and resort restaurants. Extensive wine and cocktail knowledge, with an energetic and cheerful approach to customer service.
• Experienced vineyard maintenance manager with a focus on providing an effective, safe and proactive maintenance service. More than 12 years experience in project, employee and contractor management, waste water management, repairs and maintenance. Strong leadership qualities and communication skills.

Competencies

Alternative headings include:

• Key skills
• Skills summary
• Capabilities
• Work skills
• Skills.

Many people’s work history does not necessarily show that they can do the job. You can overcome this by having a skills section, describing your overall ability as it relates to the job or industry you’re applying for.

Think about how best to present your skills and strengths. List all the marketable ones you have, not just those you’ve used in a paid work setting; people gain many important skills in other areas of their lives.

Education and qualifications

Alternative headings include:

This section shows an employer that you have the necessary educational requirements and certification to do the job. It can also show that you are committed to ongoing learning and staying up to date in your field.

If you are changing careers, this section is important, as it shows that you have completed the necessary training.

You can include:

• formal degrees
• certificates
• short training courses
• workshops, seminars, conferences
• other professional training
• licences
• forms of accreditation.

Don’t list every training course you’ve ever attended. Include only the most relevant.

Depending on your goals and the employer’s needs, you might include or leave out information. For example, if your degree is self-explanatory, don’t list all the subjects you completed. But list them if you completed a specialised degree that employers might be unfamiliar with, or if your study focus is not obvious from the degree’s name.

To decide what to include, ask yourself, What will this employer know about this degree, coursework or training? What might I need to clarify?

If you have considerable skills in one particular area, you might want to group them in their own section. For example, if you have done training in several relevant computer packages, present them separately as 'Computer competencies' rather than listing them with more general qualifications education.

In what order should you list the training?

The most common order is reverse chronological order, putting the most recent training first. You might also consider putting your most relevant educational experiences first.

How should you list each item of your training?

For each item, list the qualification or program, then the school or institute, then the dates you undertook or completed the course, or the date a degree was conferred. You can vary this order if, for example, one or more of the institutions/training providers has an excellent reputation in the field—highlight the institutions by putting them first.

Whichever you decide to list first, do so consistently for each educational achievement in this section.

Work history

Alternative headings include:

• Employment history
• Employment
• Employment background
• Work background
• Professional experience
• Positions held
• Work experience
• Experience
• Related experience
• Volunteer work.

The heading ‘Employment’ implies paid work. If you want to include unpaid work such as work experience and volunteer work in the same list, use a heading like  ‘Work history’. If you are a school leaver and have not worked before, use the heading ‘Work experience’.

The best predictor of your future performance is your past performance, so you should emphasise the positive in your work history.

Past work achievements will indicate to your prospective employer what you might achieve in your next job. Include any part-time, casual, contract, temporary, volunteer or student jobs, as well as any periods of self-employment.

Where should you put the work history?

• In a chronological resume, work history usually comes first after the objective.
• In a functional resume, work history comes after the ‘Skills’ section and is presented as a list.
• In a combination resume, work history is usually listed after the ‘Skills’ section.

How should you set out your work history?

You may need sub-headings. For example, you might want to separate your ‘Field placements’ or your ‘Voluntary work’ from your work history, or your ‘Technical experience’ from your ‘Supervisory experience’. You might want sub-categories for ‘Sales’, ‘Counselling’ and ‘Management’ experience.

List your work history in reverse chronological order—your most recent position listed first, followed by the previous job, and so on.

Each separate job listing will include the following components.

• Job title

Use a more common title if the company title of your job is unusual or is likely to be unfamiliar to your prospective employer. Add explanatory notes in brackets if you need to.

If your job title doesn’t reflect the level and extent of responsibility you actually held (or hold), emphasise this in your description of your work in the role.

In some industries, job titles change over time. Use the current job title when listing previous jobs. For example the ‘bartender’ of ten years ago, is now referred to as a ‘bar attendant’, or a ‘beverage attendant in the hospitality industry’.

• Company name and location

Refer to previous employers by their complete business name. If you have worked interstate, overseas or in a different region, include the city and state in which the business was located.

• Dates of employment or involvement

Use years and months (days are not necessary). If you have consistently worked for periods of years for each employer, you don’t even need to include months.

Dates are usually listed on the left side of the resume, where an employer can glance down the list and note any gaps in employment. If you want to de-emphasise dates, put them on the right. For example:

Journalist, The Magazine, May 2000–Jan 2001

Editor, Counter Calendar, Jan 1999–Mar 2000

• Responsibilities and duties

Use one or two sentences to describe generally what you did in each job. Include any information that will help an employer understand the extent of your responsibilities at work. Be specific. For example:

• if you supervised others, indicate how many people you were responsible for.
• if you looked after a budget, include the approximate size.
• if you were responsible for certain projects, indicate which ones, and give some sense of their scope and importance.

• Achievements

Describe any achievements, accomplishments, results and awards that demonstrate how well you did your job.

Think about the measurable results you achieved, such as:

• dollars saved or earned
• time saved
• customer satisfaction increased
• production increased.

Also, think about which achievements relate best to the job you are applying for.

List the various key achievements in bullet points. Don’t be concerned about writing complete sentences; use brief phrases that begin with verbs (action words) to indicate that you were active in the achievement.

Ask yourself ‘Who? What? Why? Where? When? How?’ to expand your descriptions to include enough detail.

For example, you might have ‘operated a switchboard’ in a previous job. You might ask yourself:

• What kind of switchboard was it?
• How many lines was I responsible for?
• For whom did I operate it—which department, which level of executives?

Your expanded description might look more like this: ‘Operated 4-line Commander Telephone System for 80 employees.’

Use the same tense and sentence structure in all your descriptions, so that readers can pick up information more quickly.

Should you put the job title or the employer’s name first?

The job title usually comes first, but you can put the employer name first if you think highlighting the employer’s name will help sell you.

How far back should you go?

List the jobs you have held over the last ten years. Employers are most interested in current and recent experience because of its relevance to today’s workplace.

For jobs you held more than ten years ago, mention them only briefly, emphasising what you learned, or listing them without further description.

What if there are gaps in your work history?

Many people have gaps in their work history. If you have a reason for a noticeable gap, such as:

• travel
• study
• retraining
• having a child
• caring for a sick parent
• voluntary or community work,

include this in the work history list, with dates, in place of a job title and description.

You don’t have to explain everything. Brief gaps, such as being out of work for several months, can be covered by excluding any mention of months and referring only to the years you were employed: '1998-2001.

What if you worked long-term for only one employer?

List each different position you held there, to clearly show how you progressed through the company and gained a variety of work experience.

What if you worked a lot of short-term jobs?

Avoid giving the impression of a job-hopper by putting several similar jobs into one group. For example:

• 1998–2000, Kitchen hand—Vista Hotel, Maylands Nursing Home, Clayton Caf
• 1997–1998, Cleaner—Finlay Cleaning, Westwood Inn, Somewhere TAFE
• 1995–1996, Trainer—Worktrain, Institute of Management Studies, Overthere TAFE

You can leave out some of the less important, shorter-term jobs.

Should you include unpaid employment?

Most employers are more concerned about how much responsibility you had and what you did than about what you were paid. Include all substantial unpaid work experience.

Referees

A referee is a former supervisor or colleague who is willing to be contacted by potential employers to talk about your work experience and to comment on your personal qualities.

In Australia you are commonly expected to include at least two referees in your resume—three if the job involves a lot of responsibility. One of your referees should be your last employer, if this is possible.

For each referee, include:

• the referee’s name
• their title
• the company they work for
• their work phone number and/or mobile
• their e-mail address
• a brief statement explaining how the referee knows you.

If you want to leave the names off your resume, you might include the words ‘Contact details for referees are available on request’ in this section, and provide a list at the interview if it is requested.