Breaking Down the Resume

by Katy Claucherty

Resumes are one of the most important aspects of getting a job today, but they’re tricky. Employers spend about 5-7 seconds looking at your resume and either decide to keep reading or move onto the next one. The possibilities of how to create a resume are endless. There are traditional, more conservative resumes, creative resumes, graphic resumes, even infograph resumes. For this blog, I want to show you my resume and explain how I created it and why I included the information that I did.

First, let's take a peek at my resume:

 

Now let’s start with the overall design. I went with a creative resume, because that’s my personal brand. I’m not going to be happy working in a law office behind a desk every day, so my resume reflects that I want to work for a creative company, or at least in a creative environment. I created this resume using…wait for it…Power Point. That’s right, you don’t have to use Adobe In Design to draft creative resumes, you can use our trusty friend Power Point.

Personal Brand

My personal brand is using that specific font for my name (Jenna Sue, downloaded off of www.dafont.com), as well as using the color purple. My contact information continues my personal brand through the unique font, as well as including the social media icons. I found the icons on www.google.com after searching for “purple Twitter icons,” “purple Gmail icons,” etc. I separated my name and contact information away from my experience with a simple purple line.

My whole resume revolves around my personal brand, by using purple headings with a similar font (Throw My Hands Up in the Air, also found on www.dafont.com). 

Education

It’s very important for college students to include education on their resumes. Here’s the format I used:

Purdue University

West Lafayette, IN
Graduation Date: May 2013
Bachelor of Arts,
Brian Lamb School of Communication

Make sure to include that you’re on the main campus of Purdue and your expected graduation date. Also include what type of degree you’ll be receiving and your college/school. Communication students, remember that we’re part of the Brian Lamb School of Communication now, so don’t put College of Liberal Arts.

Work Experience

This is an incredibly important part of your resume! You want to make sure you highlight the work experiences that are relevant to the job you’re applying for and that show off your best work and skills.

Let’s specifically take a look at the section where I detail my internship with LACD:

 

Formatting

I underlined “Liberal Arts Career Development” (size 13 font) so that it would be easy to identify as the company I work for. Next, I specified my job title, “Intern” and the dates where I worked there (size 12 font). The bullet point text (size 11 font) is aligned together, which I had to do manually for a clean look. Click “View,” “Rulers,” and then select the text you want to change and drag over half a mark.

Content

Make sure you are informing the reader of the skills you have because of this job, as well as the tasks you performed. For example, “Working with my co-interns to plan, market, & execute a week-long career event for students involving speakers, activities, & a career fair” says that I can work with a team and organize, market, and host an event.

Always try to include numbers! If there are any kind of numbers involved with your job, include them. For example, as the social media intern, I've complied all the data on followers, likes, and views from our profiles.

Volunteer Experience

It’s important to include volunteer experience in your resume. It shows that you care about your community and that you take the time out of your busy schedules to help others. I always include the servant event I’m most involved with, Mission Possible, because I’m passionate about the work my church does in our community and I can easily elaborate on it in an interview. 

Professional Portfolio

 

The strip at the bottom of my resume is a simple shape, filled in with the same shade of purple as my name and headings. I added a text box on top of that shape with the website address of my professional portfolio. So the question you’re probably asking is – “What goes into a portfolio?”

• About Me
• Volunteer Work
• Design Samples
• Resume
• Reference Names
• Sample Writings
• Sample Presentations
• Contact Information

Now that I have a portfolio online, I ALWAYS make sure to include that on my resume, cover letter, social media profiles, business cards – everything. That way, when I’m networking, I can whip out a business card or resume and let them know they can check it out online. The beauty of a portfolio is that all of your designs, references, work experiences – everything is on there.

So now you have the basics of how I created my newest resume and how I decided what experience to include. Just remember, the most important part of your resume is your personal brand! Let that guide what design you use and what experience you choose to highlight. Have any more resume tips? Let me know in the comments below!

Wait! Don’t send in that resume yet – not without a stellar cover letter! My next blog (April 3^rd) will focus on what exactly goes into a cover letter. See you then!