- Your name, address, and telephone number
- Description of your work history
- State licenses
- Publications, if any
- Membership in professional organizations
- Description of your educational background
- Academic honors, if any
You may or may not include the items below:
- Job objective or career goal
- Brief personal history
- Capsule description of work history
- Hobby information
- Willingness to travel or relocate
- Military service
- Statement of health
You must never insert the following details:
- Reasons for leaving past jobs
- Past salaries or present salary requirements
- A photograph of yourself
- Names of spouse or children
- Names and addresses of references
You have several styles to choose from in writing a resume. Although every resume should contain a brief, concise summary of your work history and educational background, the style or approach differs in the arrangement of this data. Despite the variations that exist within each of them, basically there are five different resume styles or approaches:
- Historical or Chronological
- Functional
- Analytical
- Synoptic/Amplified
- Imaginative, Creative, or Informal
We will discuss and evaluate each of these styles and approaches.
Resume, pronounced as REHZ-uh-may, is from a French word meaning "summary." A resume is not only a summary of your experience and education; it is also an advertisement selling you. Like any advertisement, it should be attractive, well organized, and capable of creating interest in its product-you!
Let us learn how to write a better resume, a resume that will get results, that will get the interviews, and that ultimately will get you a better job. "...precise and to the point..." is the opinion of the vice-president of a large music and record company. "Not only is the expertise indicated, but we can easily see how long the person's been employed," says the chairman of a national foundation.
Functional Approach
The functional resume, as you can assume from its name, emphasizes your qualifications and abilities in terms of your job titles and responsibilities. This style of resume highlights different areas of experience and is arranged with its most significant functions and responsibilities first. Each job title is followed by a brief description of duties and expertise. Dates are not given or, if included, are inconspicuous.
Education is treated in a separate area and, as with the work history, dates are omitted.
In order to make a functional resume more effective, a concise chronological history, including dates, should be added. Even though the functional resume is a perfect vehicle for describing actual talents and areas of achievement, the omission of dates lessens its effectiveness. A resume without dates is a much weaker resume and could even become a liability. Listing all dates will subtly reassure the reader that nothing has been deleted and that no periods of time have been unaccounted for deliberately or, at best, overlooked.
The body of information in this resume is followed and concluded with optional personal data.
The functional resume is an excellent presentation for those people who have had few jobs-either attorneys or paralegals who have been employed in one or two firms for a considerable length of time, or younger persons who, so far, have had only one job. In such cases a chronological sequence is of less interest than a thorough description of each function or responsibility.
Analytical Approach
The analytical resume, like the functional, rejects a historical or chronological sequence of employment and educational history, and instead lists in a chronological sequence an analysis of each particular skill. The particular ability is the important facet in this type of resume.
Your work history and education are fragmented into significant talents and each skill is listed separately. As these skills have been exercised, probably in more than one position, names of employers and dates are not attached to each item.
Historical or Chronological Approach
As the name implies, this style presents information in chronological succession. It is necessary, however, that the presentation be in inverse chronological order, starting with the present or most recent experience and moving backwards in time.
Education is treated in the same manner as your employment history. Your most advanced degree is given first, followed, in inverse order, by all other degrees and certificates. Academic honors would be included in this grouping.
If you care to include a job objective, it would be placed at the very beginning, after your name and address, but before your history. All other required or optional information should be placed at the very end.
As a rule, the chronological approach begins with your most recent experience, whether it be work or education. There are special circumstances where this rule should be broken. For instance, if you secured a college degree by working in one field and going to school nights, and are looking for work in the new field that the degree has qualified you for, you would start with your educational history (after your name and address, of course). However, had you gotten the degree for reasons of pride, but want to continue in the same field you were in prior to completing your studies, you would start the chronology with your work history. In short, give prominence to whatever is most descriptive of your talents and abilities. You want to emphasize, from the start, your most salable assets.
The chronological resume-like any other-should be brief and consist of only one page, if possible. In no event should it exceed two pages. If you feel that your history demands three pages, the information you find so fascinating will probably be a complete bore to a reader of your resume.
The analytical resume is especially useful when attempting to change career goals. If your qualifications and responsibilities are valuable in more than one field, it is more sensible to emphasize the skill by setting it apart than to bury it with less significant skills.
Like the functional resume, the usual format for the analytical resume omits dates. However, most resume readers feel that a resume loses effectiveness if dates are not shown. Dateless resumes might imply a spotty work history, involving too many job changes or time gaps that the applicant feels would be awkward to explain. Consequently, we recommend that a very concise chronological history listing all employers, job titles, schools, and dates also be included. This history should be placed right after the job objective, if it is used, or toward the end, immediately before your personal data.
Synoptic/Amplified Approach
The synoptic/amplified resume is the only style whose organization requires two pages. The first page would consist of your name and address, job objective, chronological history of employment and education, and personal data. The chronological history of employment would list job title and employer, clearly setting off the dates.
At the bottom of the page, in parentheses, would be the statement "Please see following for amplification." The amplification should be limited to one page, but it may be necessary to continue to a second for a total of three pages. The amplification would again list dates of employment and name of employer, as well as your duties and responsibilities in that office.
While this is an effective presentation, especially for a person whose duties and responsibilities went far beyond those normally seen as the functions of a given job title, it has the disadvantage of being one page longer, through its design, than other resume styles giving the same information. In addition, in preparing the amplification, more space being available, there is a tendency for one to become long-winded and give extraneous information that is not pertinent to the resume.
The Creative Approach
A resume can be as creative as its writer desires. There are, however, three provisos: first, it should contain all the necessary information; second, the information should be easily extracted; and third, it should not be capable of offending anyone.
If you decide to use the creative approach, keep in mind that, while it can serve as a vehicle for displaying your literary or artistic talents, it is primarily a means of communicating certain information which the resume reader must have. You very well may be a second James Joyce, but the resume reader cannot devote his lifetime to your resume. Similarly, two cartoon characters giving questions and answers might convey all the information and also show your drawing ability, but, while you might make an impression for originality, your resume might not be read to the end. Keep in mind that if you have published writings you can always indicate on your resume that you have a list available. It is dangerous to be too gimmicky or too cute. Overly creative resumes might catch the eye. Nevertheless, they often fail to sustain interest, and become completely ineffectual. Most resume readers feel that a resume is a business matter and should be presented in a businesslike manner.
If you want to be imaginative, it is best to use some simple device that will distinguish your resume from the dozens of others that arrive in a law office every day. For instance, you could use colored paper, preferably of a pale or pastel hue soft enough to allow contrast with the printed text. Purple ink on hot pink paper may catch the eye but it also will tire the sight.
Another simple device that makes a resume stand out is to use different type faces and type sizes for the various parts of the resume. But the same caveat applies as the use of color: avoid any type that is difficult to read. Also, don't overdo it.
As a general rule, creative resumes may be appropriate to the arts, graphics, and advertising fields; but for the professions, it is best to employ one of the standard resume" styles.
- See 6 Things Attorneys and Law Students Need to Remove from Their Resumes ASAP If They Want to Get Jobs with the Most Prestigious Law Firms for more information.
