Hiring managers tend to spend between 10 and 20 seconds looking at the average resume! It is crucial that your resume is effective, focused, well formatted so that it creates a strong first impression and stands out from the pile. While a resume itself may not secure you a job, it is the key to getting that first interview.

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Writing a Winning Resume
www.greenleafinstitute.com

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What is a Resume?
 A resume is a documentation that, in support of your
career objective, communicates, markets and
showcases your unique
talents, achievements, career
highlights, experiences, and educational
qualifications.

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Resume Goals
What do you want to achieve from your resume?
 Create a positive first impression
 Secure an interview
 Showcase your career and education highlights

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Ask yourself……?
 Is your resume visually appealing?
 Is your resume complete with all the relevant information, but
not too long?
 Is your resume focused on your objective?
 Does it highlight your accomplishments and achievements?
 Does it show the reader how you stand out from the crowd?
 Does it communicate who you are and how you can bring value
to a prospective employer?

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Focus
 Focus your job search: be clear of what you are looking for and
know how it supports your short term goals. Be sure that your
short term goals are aligned with your long term goals.
 Your current objectives must guide your resume writing.
 The resume is not just a summary of your past, but it strategically
positions you in a way that convinces readers that you are a good
fit for the type of position you are seeking for the future.
 Sort through all the information, if it is relevant and supports your
current objectives, include it! If it is irrelevant or detrimental to
your goals, exclude it! Keep things relevant and focused.

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Building the Foundation

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Building a Solid Foundation
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 Your resume is only as good as the information you put into it.
 Review and collect detailed information on your
education, career history and accomplishments. Gather
together old resumes, cover letters, university degrees, training
certificates, job descriptions, performance appraisals, letters of
recommendations etc. to remind you.
 Once you have this detailed information in front of you, sift
through it for information that is most relevant to your current
career goals. Think about what details matter most to your
ideal job. This can include details from your
education, professional and personal life (such as volunteer
activities).

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Building a Solid Foundation
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To help you bring together relevant information, fill out the following fields:
Contact Information
Name:
Address:
Home/ Cell Phone:
Personal Email Address:
Career Summary/ Core Competencies
My Career Objective:
My Strongest Qualifications Relevant to this Objective:
Keywords Specific to my Career/ Objectives/ Industry/ Expertise:

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Building a Solid Foundation
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Job Information (repeat for each job)
Organization Name:
Location:
Brief Description of Organization:
Job Title:
Start and End Date:
Brief Job Description
My Unique Accomplishments

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Building a Solid Foundation
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Education
Degree:
School:
Location:
GPA:

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Building a Solid Foundation
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Current Certification:
Licenses:
Training & Professional Development:
Professional Affiliation:
Community Activities:
Public Speaking Experience:
Foreign Language Fluency:
Other:

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Employers are interested in
knowing what value YOU can
bring to THEIR organization.
Think about what the company
needs and how you can meet
those needs.

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Resume Content

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Components of a Resume
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 There is no rule to exactly what your resume should
contain. Content will vary from person to person.
 Generally, the following sections are recommended:
 Professional Summary
 Core Competencies (either standalone or as part of the
professional summary)
 Professional Experience
 Education

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Components of a Resume
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 The following are some possible additional sections:
 Professional Affiliations
 Publications
 Public Speaking Experience
 Professional Training & Development
 Internships & Fellowships
 Foreign Language Skills
 Community Service and Volunteer Experience
 Teaching Experience
 Honors and Awards

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Contact Information
 Prominently display your contact information: email, phone
number, address.
 Make sure your email is professional. One that reflects your
first and last name is a good option.

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Career Summary
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 This is your opportunity to highlight and showcase your most noteworthy
achievements, skills, qualifications, credentials etc.
 It tells the reader who you are and what value you can bring to the
prospective organization.
 This section is preferable to an ‘objectives statement’ because an
objective statement focuses on what your desires are, whereas a resume
reader is more interested in what you can offer the organization.
 Start with a headline that instantly displays who you are (e.g. software
engineering director) or one such as:
 Career Profile
 Management Profile
 Executive Profile
 Professional Profile
 Career Highlights

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Career Summary
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 The headline should be followed by a paragraph that gives the
reader an overview of your expertise. Captivate the reader by
mentioning your most noteworthy
qualifications, skills, performance highlights etc.
 After the short paragraph, it is a good idea to include a core
competencies section that helps the reader to easily identify
what your key skills are. This is also a great way to include key
words so that your resume comes up in more search results of
online resume scanning and applicant tracking systems.
 This can be followed by a career highlights section that
showcases your top 2-4 accomplishments.

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Education
 The only time you would not include an education section is if
you are applying to a job that would require a higher
degree, but you have no qualification past high school.
 University students, recent graduates and young professionals
should include the education section before the professional
experience section unless:
 You have excellent internship and entry level work experience that
immediately distinguishes you from other entry level candidates.
 A majority of other candidates have a higher degree than you and
you don’t want to draw too much attention to the fact.

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Professional Experience
 Experienced professionals should include this section before the
Education section.
 For each position, start with a short paragraph that explains the
position’s responsibilities, and follow this up with a bullet point
format list of your achievements on the job. The short paragraph
tells the reader exactly what your responsibilities for the position
were, and the bullet points tell the reader how well you carried out
those responsibilities.
 Use power verbs that inspire energy.
 Emphasize experience that is relevant. Deemphasize experience
that is irrelevant, even if you spent a lot of time doing it.
 Showcase numbers. (However, remember that not everything is
quantifiable).
 Integrate keywords relevant to your industry

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The best way to convince
prospective employers that you
can bring added value to their
organization is to show them how
you’ve added value in the past by
highlighting accomplishments and
results.

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Resume Design

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Design
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 Create a positive first impression by designing your resume
well.
 Don’t chose a font that is too decorative.
 Chose the right font size. Use 10, 10.5, 11 for resume text, and
13, 14, 15, for major headings.
 Keep margins between 0.75 – 1 inch on all sides. Text that is
too dense is hard to read.

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Design
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 Make your resume easy to read by:
 Keeping a good amount of white space that allows for breathing
room between sections.
 Using font enhancements (bold, underline, italics) to draw special
attention to certain areas, and to help distinguish one type of
information from another or denote hierarchy.
 Keep paragraphs short (no more than six lines long).
 Organize information in bullet points to bring attention to important
information. Don’t overuse bullet points, otherwise nothing will
stand out.

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REMEMBER: There are
no hard and fast rules, your
resume is tailored to your
personal circumstances.

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THANK YOU.
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www.greenleafinstitute.com