Build the Resume Employers Want

[Resumes for the Digital Age]When youre applying for a job, you work hard to make sure your resume will mand the attention of the first person who reads it. But its increasingly likely that...+阅读

Matt Longino has read student resumes on college and university campuses throughout the nation. He has pored over pages of bond, vellum, and plain printer paper in hotel rooms, airports, and airplanes. He has seen faxed resumes, e-mailed resumes, and resumes posted on the Inter. Very little surprises him.Its much the same for Stephanie Calhoun and Seth Feit. Like Longino, theyre familiar with the ways students describe their skills and themselves. They know how to quickly scan paper and electronic documents, to pull out the ones theyd like to examine more closely, and to toss the others aside.Longino, a college recruiter for GTE Corp. in Irving, Texas, says he looks at the education portion of a resume first.I look for the degree, the major, and the graduation date, he says. And, of course, the GPA. Its kind of a lump sum of things that I look for.Calhoun, college relations manager at JC Penney Co. Inc. in Dallas, Texas, says she looks at the experience section first.I look to see if the student has retail experience, she says, adding that she then checks out the graduation date and the GPA.Feit, corporate staffing manager at America Online in Fairfax, Virginia, says he looks first for skills and experience.All three recruiters agree that aside from containing the education, skills, and experience they seek, a resume needs to municate those elements clearly and be free of glaring grammatical and spelling errors.Getting startedIf youre just beginning the process of building your resume, youll need to construct a framework first.A resume is like a final term paper, says Jeff Nardo, career services coordinator at Coastal Carolina munity College in Jacksonville, North Carolina. You he to put in the same energy, attention to detail, and focus.Your resume should begin with a heading that includes your name, address, telephone number, and, in most cases, e-mail address. If youll be leing campus soon, be sure to provide a way for employers to reach you after youve moved from your dorm room or apartment. If youre not sure where youll be living, its best to include both your campus contact information and contact information for your parents or a friend who isnt planning to move and who wont mind taking and forwarding messages.I often tell students to sign up for a free e-mail account that can trel with them, says Marcia Merrill, career adviser at Loyola College in Baltimore, Maryland, pointing out that most campus e-mail accounts end within a certain time after a student graduates.When youre choosing that e-mail address, make sure it appears professional.I dont feel fortable responding to sexylegs, Calhoun says. Keep it simple.If you he your own web site, you may also want to include its URL on your resume. But both recruiters and career counselors stress that you must make sure your site contains only professional information and images.Objectively speakingAfter youve assembled your heading information, youll need to find a focus for your resume. One good way of doing that is to write an objective that clearly tells the employer the sort of work youre hoping to do.Merrill advises students to oid writing grandiose philosophy-of-life objectives.Some students look at the objective as a statement of what you want to do with your life, she says. Employers get a lot of To continue learning and growing in a nurturing environment. You can probably say it in a different way.