The Job Search
Best font types are
Times New Roman and
Arial Avoid designer and
cursive fonts
• readable and professional
looking
Effective
Headings can be
Resume Use a 10- to 12-point
font for your text
boldface and 14- to
16-point font size.
Style
Limit your resume to no
more than two font
types: one for headings
and one for text.
• Avoid Sentences
• repetitious and egocentric
• risk of committing grammatical errors
• take up room in your resume
• Format Your Resume for Reader-Friendly Ease
of Access
Effective • Highlight your resume with easily accessible lists
• Set apart your achievements by bulletizing your
Resume Style accomplishments, awards, unique skills, and so
on
• Highlight by boldfacing headings and indenting
subheadings to create white space
• Avoid underlining headings or italicizing text
(hard to read)
• Begin Your Lists with Verbs
Effective Resume Style • To convey a positive,
assertive tone, use verbs
when describing your
achievements
• Use present tense verbs
for current jobs and
education
• Use past tense verbs for
past jobs and education
• Quantify Your Achievements
• Make It Perfect
• It is your first impression
Types of Resumes
Reverse Chronological Resume Functional Resume
• Are a traditional job applicant (a • Are a nontraditional job applicant
recent high-school or college (returning to the workforce after a
graduate, aged 18 to 25) lengthy absence, older, or not a
• Hope to enter the profession in recent high-school or college
which you have received college graduate)
training or certification • Plan to enter a profession in which
• Have made steady progress in one you have not received formal
profession (promotions or salary college training or certification
increases) • Have changed jobs frequently
• Plan to stay in your present • Plan to enter a new profession
profession
Criteria for Effective E-mail Cover Messages
or Letters of Application
• Mandatory components: your address, the date, your reader’s address, a
salutation, the letter’s body, a complimentary close, your signed name, your
typed name, and an enclosure notation if applicable.
• Introduction
• Tell where you discovered the job opening. You might write, “In response to your
advertisement in CareerBuilder . . .” or “Bob Ward, manager of human resources,
informed me that . . . .”
• State which specific job you are applying for. Often, a company will advertise
several jobs. You must clarify which of those jobs you’re interested in. For
example, you could write, “Your advertisement for a computer maintenance
technician is just what I have been looking for.”
• Sum up your best credentials. “My BS in chemistry and five years of experience
working in a hazardous materials lab qualify me for the position.”
• Discussion. In the discussion paragraph(s), sell your skills.
• State that you’ve attached a resume for the e-mail message or
enclosed a hardcopy resume with the letter.
• Focus on your assets uniquely applicable to the advertised
position. Select only those skills from your resume that relate to
the advertisement and will benefit the prospective employer.
• Don’t explain how the job will make you happy: “I will benefit
from this job because it will teach me valuable skills.” Instead,
Criteria for using the pronouns you and your, show reader benefit: “My
work with governmental agencies has provided me a wide
Effective E-mail variety of skills from which your company will benefit.”
Cover • Quantify your abilities. Don’t just say you’re great (“I have
outstanding customer service skills and communication
Messages abilities”). Instead, prove your assertions with quantifiable facts:
or Letters of “I won the 2012 Employee of the Year for providing solutions to
customer concerns and working well with teammates.”
Application
Criteria for
Effective • Conclusion-a call to action
E-mail Cover • “I am looking forward to discussing my
application with you in greater detail.
Messages Then I can explain ways I could benefit
your company.”
or Letters of
Application
DO NOT USE AVOID SEND ONE INCLUDE A
Online YOUR
CURRENT
EMPLOYER’S
UNPROFESSIO
NAL E-MAIL
ADDRESSES.
E-MAIL AT A
TIME TO ONE
PROSPECTIVE
CLEAR
SUBJECT LINE.
Application E-MAIL
SYSTEM.
EMPLOYER.
Etiquette
TELL THE READER HOW
YOU HAVE SAVED THE
ATTACHED RESUME.
