Resume Components

The odds are that the resume that you write will have all or most of its components in common with every other resume. Each of these components has a purpose and the overriding directive of getting you an interview.

Heading – The heading is pretty straight forward. It will contain your name, address, phone numbers and email address.

Objective – Your objective statement is a single sentence that describes exactly what type of job you are looking to attain. This component can be considered optional. In my case, I used the objective statement to address the two year gap in my employment. My objective statement:

After spending the last two years completing my B.S. in Computer Information Systems, I am looking for a position in the IT field involving programming and web development.

Summary – Think of your summary statement as a movie trailer that demonstrates your ability to effectively fill the open job position you are applying for. The summary statement needs to showcase your relevant skills to an employer in two or three sentences.

If you have used an objective statement on your resume make sure that your summary and your objective support each other.

Use the keywords that the employer has mentioned in their job posting, in your summary statement. If the job posting is asking for an “object oriented programmer” with “C++” experience, you had better include those two keywords in your summary statement if you want to be considered for the job.

Keywords are the first thing the recruiter or hiring manager is going to be looking for. And if the hiring company is using scanning technology to pre-sort resumes, your resume will not be seen by an actual person if it does not pass the scanners relevancy test.

Experience and accomplishments – The type of resume you decide to create is going to affect the focus of this section. If you are creating a chronological resume, the main focus is going to be on jobs that you’ve had in the past (in reverse chronological order) and your accomplishments in those jobs. If you create a functional resume, this section will focus on the different job functions you’ve performed and your accomplishments related to those functions.

The experience section is where you are going to use the accomplishment statements that you created earlier. Identify the keywords that the employer is looking for and tie them to your specific accomplishment statements. These are the accomplishment statements that you will want to be sure to include in the resume that you give to that employer.

Hopefully you have an abundance of accomplishment statements to choose from. But if you do not, you should include enough of them in your resume that it demonstrates your skill. Including accomplishment statements that don’t directly relate to a keyword that an employer is asking for is fine as long as you have enough accomplishment statements to demonstrate your ability within your field of expertise.

What happens when the employer has a very narrow definition of what they are looking for in an employee? In this case you need to be sure to include not only exactly what the employer is looking for but also include your most impactful accomplishment statements.

Education – List your highest level of education first and proceed down from there. You do not need to list your high school diploma unless that is your highest level of education.

Professional development – In the profession development section you can list any additional training you’ve had. These can be certifications, college classes or other training.

Associations – If you belong to any relevant professional organizations, list them here.