Résumés require a good deal of preparation and forethought. Your résumé is a vital document when you are applying for a job. It is a brief history of your education and working life up to the point at which you make your application. There is no standard form for a résumé, but the following points should be noted:- A résumé should be brief. Its size will, of course, depend on the particular stage you have reached in your career, but it should not extend more than two pages.
- The information you give should be arranged in categories, for example, work experience, education, and activities and interests.
- The information you give in the main categories should be arranged in reverse chronological order. Start with your most recent job and work backward.
- In the interests of brevity only provide information that is relevant to the position you are applying for. You do not need to write in complete sentences. Information in note form is acceptable: for example, Responsible for maintenance of customer database or Taught English to foreign students.
- Make sure your résumé is up to date, and avoid leaving gaps in the chronological order. If you spent a period of time outside ordinary employment, for example, traveling abroad or raising children, mention this fact.
- Adapt your résumé to the particular position you are applying for by highlighting those aspects of previous jobs, or perhaps of your personal interests, that are most relevant to the available position. Do not think of your résumé as being forever the same, even though parts of it will not change from one use to the next. Check it and renew it—and, of course, update it—each time you have to produce it.
- You do not have to provide personal details apart from your name, address, telephone number, and fax number or e-mail address.
You may also include in the document a brief statement of your long-term career objectives, especially if you are at the beginning of your career.A typical résumé might look like this:Rebecca U. Maynard
1098 Long Street
Columbus, Ohio 43201-6623
(614) 299-7486
rmayn563@aol.com | Education | | 1996–1998 | Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio | | MLIS, Library and Information Science | | 1994–1996 | Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan | | B.A. English | | Major: English | | Minor: Fine Arts | | 1990–1994 | Carl Sandburg High School, Detroit, Michigan | | Graduated with honors | | Employment history | | 2001–present | Publicity and Education Manager | | City Museum, 96 West Lane Avenue, Columbus, Ohio | | 43201-7986 | | Preparing and publishing advertising material for exhibitions and special events. Liaising with local and national media. Writing leaflets and guides to museum collections. Organizing visits and vacation courses for schools. | | 1998–2001 | Publications and Acquisitions Officer | | G.H. Coutts Memorial Library, 345 Main Street, Couttsville, Illinois 56703-1124 | | Preparing a guide to the collection for distribution to universities and other research facilities. Cataloging acquisitions to the library. | | 1996–1998 | Visual Resources Assistant | | University Library, Ohio State University, 1858 Neil Avenue Mall, Columbus, Ohio 43210-1286 | | Cataloging visual resources, entering cataloging data, assisting research projects. | | Publications and presentations | | "How to market museums," presented to the Annual Conference of Ohio Museums Association at the Seagrave Center, Toledo, Ohio, on October 19, 2003. | | "Changes in the roles of catalogers in special collections," The Reference Librarian vol. 61, 2002, pp. 204–217. | | Activities and interests | | Member of the Ohio State Museums Association | | Honorary Secretary of the Columbus Orpheus Choir | | Active tennis and squash player |
To illustrate what is meant by "adjusting" your résumé to suit the post you are applying for, let us assume that Rebecca Maynard is applying for a post in a new museum in which the emphasis is on the educational rather than the publicity side. In that case, instead of writing:Preparing and publishing advertising material for exhibitions and special events. Liaising with local and national media. Writing leaflets and guides to museum collections. Organizing visits and vacation courses for schools. she might write:Organizing an annual program of educational visits by schools, as well as lectures and vacation courses. Responsible for liaison with local educational institutions. Preparing publicity material for exhibitions and publishing guides to museum collections. Your résumé should always, of course, be accompanied by a cover letter.
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