There is a lot of conflicting information out there about what should go into a “good” resume. Much of it is very sound information, and suited to people who have been in the workforce for some time. However, most of the people applying to Apprenticeships Queensland are under 25 and at the start of their career, so we offer the following suggestions to this group of people:
Format
Your contact details should come first i.e. name, address, contact phone numbers, and an email address if you have one. If you chose your email name to amuse your friends, get another one for job searching. Employers are not impressed by “iamdeath@” or “hottoddy@” or other unsuitable examples. Just your name, or some variation of it, will be fine.
Quick Tip – put your name and phone number on each page, in case the pages get separated after being printed out.
Date of Birth and marital status are generally NOT required. However, when applying for an apprenticeship or traineeship, the date of birth is required for someone under 21, as it is relevant to the pay scale you will start on. It is also useful to determine if an applicant qualifies for any of the government assistance available for “mature age” applicants for apprenticeships.
Education and Training – school leavers should include their school results as well as the final qualification level they attained. If you are not fresh out of school, do not include your secondary school history. Start with your highest level qualification first, and remember that Education and Training includes, not only formal course results, but industry and in-house courses and any other training.
Employment History – this is your next heading and the details should be in reverse chronological order i.e. your most recent job should come first, then the one before that, and the one before that etc. – working backwards all the time. You will need to include the name of your job title, your employer, dates, and what work you did.
Hobbies and Interests – there is divided opinion on this issue. Some employers like to know about them because they get a more “well-rounded” picture of who you are. Other employers don’t like them at all. It’s up to you, but if you want to include them, put it in above the “Referees” heading.
Volunteer Activities – this is also a section that you can include or exclude, depending on your comfort zone. Listing some volunteer activities can be useful if you don’t have much of an employment history, especially if the skills you gain in volunteer work transfer across to other jobs e.g. working in the footy club canteen is a “customer service” activity. If you decide to use it, remember to put it in just above “Referees”.
Referees – these are important. You should have at least two, work related, i.e. not your swimming coach or your guitar teacher. You should list the person’s name, their job title, the company they work for, and a day time contact phone number. Only give out their mobile number if you have their permission to do so. You should also ask them if they will be your referee, and tell them what job you are applying for, so they can be prepared for the call.
Quick Tip – if you have never worked, either in paid employment or work experience and you only have personal referees, then you should make that clear.
2nd Quick Tip – This heading i.e. “Referees” should always be the last one on your resume.
Style
Keep it simple. The font should be an easy-to-read one like Arial or Times New Roman. Employers are not interested in fancy, swirling prose, nor do they want to see multi-coloured highlighting, coloured paper (if it’s in hard copy) clip art, thick, busy borders etc.
Bold your headings to make them stand out, but don’t bold, then underline. This is too much. Use lots of “white space”. Dot points are also very effective to separate and highlight important information.
Quick tip – when using dot points, keep the same type throughout the document – don’t use two or three different styles.
The message here is that your resume is a document that is presenting you, “the product”, to the marketplace. It is your major selling tool to get you to that next, magical place – the interview.
Therefore your resume should be easy to read, so that someone quickly scanning it can pick out the information relevant to the job they are advertising. A busy-looking document with lots of distracting formatting will not attract attention - it will make it too difficult for a very busy person to read (and recruiters are very busy people). They will become frustrated with it and move on to the next one.
Final hints
Use active language – i.e. start your sentences with “action” words such as “delivered’, “drove”, “operated”, “prepared” etc.
Check your spelling and grammar. If you’re not good at that, get someone else to check it for you. To people who read documents all day, a spelling or grammar error just leaps off the page.
Keep your resume short – anything longer than 4 pages is too long.
Do not include a photograph.
Keep your resume, and your referees, up to date. Never send out an old, outdated resume.
