What to include in your resume
What should you put in your resume? It depends on what your
career goals are, and on what companies need who employ
people in your field.
One good rule is: don’t make your resume too long. Only
include information that shows clearly that you meet the
employer’s needs.
Look at the following for
help:
What not to include
In a resume, you should never:
- make statements you can’t prove. Be truthful. Don’t say
you’ve achieved something when you haven’t. Don’t claim
experience that you don’t have.
- put in anything about your personal life (besides your
contact details). Don’t mention your age, height, weight,
marital status, children, the state of your health or any
religious, cultural or political affiliation you have
(unless you’re applying for a job where your religion,
cultural background or political affinity is critical to
the organisation).
- include a picture of yourself, unless your occupational
field requires it.
- mention the salary or pay you want. Don’t talk about
money at all until the interview.
- include negative reasons for leaving previous jobs
(e.g. if you were fired or ‘asked to leave’, if you left
because of a ‘personality clash’ with someone, if you were
sick of travelling).
Sections of a resume
Your resume can contain as many sections and sub-sections
as you need, to hold all the information. But don’t break
it up too much, or it’ll confuse your readers. And
prioritise the sections so that the employer can find
information easily.
The most common sections are those in the list above (contact information, objectives
etc.).
Others you might want to use include:
- professional associations you belong to
- articles you’ve had published in journals or books
- any presentations you’ve made to conferences or
seminars
- languages you speak other than English.
What order should you
put the information in?
Put the information that’s most important to the employer
at the beginning of the resume:
- contact details
- your objectives
- a summary of your experience.
Organise the rest in order of the sections’ importance to
the employer and to the job. For example:
- If the job requires special qualifications, list how
and where you obtained these at the beginning.
- If technical skills are the most important
requirements, list yours early.
- If you’re changing career direction, put your
transferable skills first.
If you’ve just left school you may not have much work
experience. Include skills, abilities and personal
qualities you demonstrated in other areas of your life,
such as school activities, hobbies or community
involvement.
Referees go last in the resume.
Use headings that suit the content below them, and that
match the wording of the job advertisement.
For each section described below, you’ll find a list of
alternative section headings; choose the one that best
suits your resume.
Contact information
To start off your resume, say
clearly who you are and how you can be contacted.
You don’t need to use a heading for this section. It’s
best if your name is the first thing on the first page.
Which details should you include? This depends on what
would be most convenient way for the employer to contact
you.
Every resume must include:
Write your first and last name. If you prefer people to
use a certain version of your name, either put it in
brackets after your first name (e.g. ‘Kathleen (Kathy)
Porter’), or simply use it without the full name (‘Kathy
Porter’).
Make your name a larger font size than the other text in
the resume, or put it in bold type—you want the employer
to remember it.
If you’re about to move house, put both your old and your
new addresses in, and the date from which you will be
able to receive mail at the new address.
Most employers want to contact you by phone. Give them a
number where you’re certain they can reach you or leave a
message.
Include your home number and your mobile number. Include
your present work number if it won’t be awkward for you
to be contacted there.
Check that you’ve typed all phone numbers correctly.
Making a mistake can cost you an interview.
Only include your e-mail address or fax number if you
check your inbox and fax regularly.
You might want to add a simple graphic element, such as a
horizontal line, between your contact information and the
rest of the resume. See some examples of how you can
display your contact information
here.
Objective(s)
This section tells an employer what position you are
seeking, and the next step you want to take in your career
path. It’s an optional part of the resume. It can be useful
if your current job goal doesn’t exactly match your past
experience, or if it would otherwise not be clear from your
resume what kind of work you are seeking.
Alternative headings for the ‘Objectives’ section include:
- Professional objectives
- Career goals
- Job objectives
- Professional goals
- Position desired.
If you do include objectives, but you want to be considered
for other openings, don’t use any objective that will lock
you into a specific job role.
Don’t go the other way and be vague. An objective like ‘to
utilise my skills in a challenging role in a company that
offers professional development and advancement’ is too
general. Almost every job seeker wants that. Employers
prefer a carefully worded, specific job objective that
conveys useful information about you. For example:
- To move from Technical Writing into Project Management
roles, with a focus on large-scale data migration projects
in a government context.
- To broaden my business knowledge with a range of
real-world experience, with the ultimate aim of working as
a commercial consultant for non-profit organisations.
- To gain experience of all aspects of salon management,
with a view to operating my own salon within three years.
Summary of experience
This is a big-picture or general statement that describes
what work you do, and what strengths and abilities you can
offer.
Alternative headings for this section include:
- Summary
- Profile
- Career summary.
Write a brief description of your experience, skills and
personal attributes. It should show the employer how these
all fit together.
Make it one short paragraph in length, or put it in
bullet-list format. Create one to three points for a one-page
resume, two to five points for a longer one.
For example:
- Self-motivated and reliable child care assistant with
three years’ part-time experience in a local child care
centre.
- A cheerful and caring manner with infants and children
three months to five years old.
- Able to communicate easily with parents.
Tip!
- You might find it easier to write the summary after
you’ve written the rest of your resume and know
everything that’s in it.
- Keep in mind the employer’s needs and the
selling points you have that will meet them.
- Don’t get too detailed in the summary. The rest of
your resume will show the specifics of your experience.
Competencies
Many people’s work history does not necessarily show that
they can do the job they’re applying for. You can overcome
this by having a competencies section, describing your
overall ability as it relates to the job or industry you’re
applying for.
Alternative headings for this section include:
- Key skills
- Skills summary
- Capabilities
- Work skills
- Skills.
This section convinces an employer that you have the
capabilities necessary to do the job.
List all your marketable skills and strengths, not just the
ones you’ve used in paid work; people gain many important
skills in other areas of their lives.
If a lot of your skills are related to each other, group them
under sub-headings: Computer, Programming, Interpersonal,
Mechanical Skills etc.
Tip!
If you can’t think of how to present your strengths, try
the following:
- Go through the entire action
words list and tick all those that apply to you,
adding notes about where and how you performed them.
- Go through the list again and tick those you think
are most wanted by employers hiring in your field.
- In your resume, highlight the skills you ticked
twice.
List any forms of accreditation and licences that you hold.
See
Different ways to list competencies.
Education and
qualifications
Alternative headings for this section include:
- Education
- Educational achievements
- Educational background
- Educational history
- Educational and vocational skills
- Training
- Short courses
- Qualifications
- Licences/Certificates.
This section shows an employer that you’ve reached the right
level of formal educational to do the job.
You can include:
- university degrees
- certificates
- short training courses
- workshops, seminars, conferences
- other professional training
- licences
- forms of accreditation.
Include or leave out information according to your goals and
the employer’s needs. For example, list the subjects you’ve
studied that are relevant to the position you’re applying
for.
To decide what to include, ask yourself, What will this
employer know about this degree, coursework or training? What
might I need to describe in more detail, so that they can see
how much I know?
If you have several skills in one particular area, group them
in their own section. For example, if you have trained in
several relevant computer packages, create a section headed
‘Computer competencies’ rather than listing them with more
general qualifications.
Tip!
Avoid jargon and abbreviations an employer might not know
the meaning of.
In what order should you list your education?
It’s best to use reverse chronological order, putting the
most recent educational qualification first.
You might also consider starting off with the educational
experiences you have that are most relevant to the job.
How should you list each item of your education?
List the qualification or program, then the institution
(school, university or TAFE college), then the dates you
undertook or completed the course, or the date a degree was
conferred. You can vary this order if, for example, an
institution/training provider has an excellent reputation in
the field—highlight it by putting it first.
Whichever order you use, use it consistently for each
educational achievement in this section.
Should you include high school details?
If you’ve just left school, you should put the details in
your resume. If you’ve completed tertiary studies, or have
some work history behind you, you don’t need to include high
school information.
Should you include grades or marks?
If you think they will help sell you to an employer, include
them. If they’re not an accurate reflection of your
abilities, leave them out.
What if you’re still completing a degree or training
certificate?
Indicate that the course is ongoing. For example:
- currently undertaking Certificate II Warehousing
- Graduate Diploma in Human Movement—in progress
See Different
ways to list education and qualifications .
Work experience
Alternative headings for this section include:
- Employment history
- Employment
- Employment background
- Work background
- Professional experience
- Work history
- Experience
- Related experience
- Volunteer work.
If you are a school leaver and have not worked before, use
the heading ‘Work experience’. If you want to include unpaid
work such as work experience and volunteer work in the same
list, use a heading like ‘Work history’. The heading
‘Employment’ implies paid work.
The best predictor of what you might achieve for your
employer is your past performance. Employers are aware of
this, so you should emphasise your past work achievements.
List your work experience in reverse chronological order
(most recent experience first).
Where should you put the work experience?
This depends on which of the
three types of resume you use:
- In a chronological resume, work experience usually comes
first after the contact details or the objectives.
- In a functional resume, work experience comes after the
‘Competencies/Skills’ section and is presented as a list.
- In a combination resume, work experience is usually
listed after the ‘Competencies/Skills’ section.
How should you set out each item of your work experience?
Headings and sub-headings will help you to organise your work
experience information. For example:
|
(Heading)
|
Voluntary work
|
|
(Sub-heading)
|
Counselling experience
|
|
(Heading)
|
Field placements
|
|
(Sub-heading)
|
Management experience
|
Each separate job listing should include the following
components.
Use a more common title if the company title of your job is
unusual or might be unfamiliar to your prospective employer.
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 a ‘bar attendant’ or
a ‘beverage attendant’.
- Company name and location
Refer to previous employers by their complete business name.
- Dates of employment or involvement
Use years and months (days are not necessary).
Dates are usually listed down the left side of the resume. 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 exactly how much responsibility you held
at work. For example, if you supervised others, say how many
people you were responsible for.
Describe any achievements, accomplishments, results and
awards that demonstrate how well you did your job.
Also, think about which achievements relate best to the job
you are applying for.
Think about the measurable results you achieved, such as:
- dollars saved or earned
- time saved
- customer satisfaction increased
- production increased.
Ask yourself ‘Who? What? Why? Where? When? How?’ to expand
your descriptions to include enough detail.
For example, you might have been a ‘child care assistant’ in
a previous job. You might ask yourself:
- How many children did I look after?
- How old were they?
- What activities were involved in caring for them?
Your description might end up something like: ‘Cared
for ten children aged from two to four years, offering a
range of activities for their enjoyment and development.’
Use the same tense and sentence structure in all your
descriptions, so that readers can pick up information
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’s name first if you think highlighting it will help
sell you. Keep the format consistent throughout the resume.
How far back should you go?
List the jobs you have held all the way back to the time you
left school, but be most detailed about the recent jobs.
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.
Should you include unpaid employment?
Most employers are more concerned about how much
responsibility you had and what you did than about whether
or not you were paid. Include all substantial, relevant
unpaid work experience.
Activities and
interests
Alternative headings include:
- Community activities
- Community involvement
- Voluntary work
- Interests and hobbies
- Special interests
- Recreational activities
- Leisure activities
- Other information
This section is optional, but it helps an employer form a
picture of you. For example, an interest in sport suggests
that you’re physically fit. Sometimes employers can use
your interests to start a conversation at interviews.
Hobbies or community activities can show that you’ve got
initiative, creativity, communication skills or
organisational ability. These are especially important if
they’re relevant to the jobs for you’re applying for.
- Activities are structured pursuits, such as those
organised by clubs or voluntary organisations (e.g.
Amnesty International member, Meals on Wheels volunteer,
Army reservist).
When listing activities, list the organisation, your role
(member, volunteer etc.) and how long you’ve been
involved—for example, ‘Volunteer counsellor, Lifeline,
2003–2006’.
- Interests are unstructured, individual pursuits, such
as football, netball, sewing, playing guitar, restoring
cars.
When listing interests, clarify what you do (putting
‘model cars’ isn’t enough—do you collect them, or make
them, or just enjoy reading about them?). You don’t have
to say how long you’ve had an interest, and you don’t
have to include interests that don’t project the image
you want to create in the employer’s mind.
As you write this section, keep asking yourself:
- What am I trying to tell this employer?
- What does this activity/hobby reveal about me and my
values?
Be aware which interests or activities employers might
react strongly to, either for or against them. A religious
or political affiliation might be one of these. If you want
to list such aspects of yourself, write about them in a
neutral way, to counteract any employer bias.
Referees
A referee is someone you know who is happy for your potential
employer to contact them, to talk about you and your work
experience. Referees should know your work habits from having
worked with you or supervised you.
For each referee, include:
- their 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.
You don’t have to put referees on your resume, but you should
have arranged some. You might put ‘Contact details for
referees are available on request’ in this section, and
provide a list at the interview if it is requested.
Tip!
It helps if you give your referee a copy of the job
description or the ad you’re answering, so that they know
what to emphasise when the employer contacts them. Give
them a copy of your resume, too, so that they remember your
achievements—this is particularly useful if it’s been a few
months or more since you worked for them.
For more hints about referees, see
Different ways to list referees.