RESUME WRITING: TIPS FOR WRITING A RESUME
By Harrison J. Bahe
On August 6th, 2024, the Fort McDowell Library hosted a Resume Writing class which was led by librarian Jacquelyn McCalvin. 14 people congregated into the computer room in the back of the library while McCalvin took center stage and presented information about Resumes and the do’s and don’ts of writing one.
“The class is about introducing them to the fact of resume writing, what’s important when they are writing [one], and submitting a resume to an employer.” McCalvin shares.
There should be four major parts to a good resume. The first part is the Heading which should include your full name, address, phone number, and email. Included with this should be a short sentence or two introducing who you are, the job skills you have, and a brief overview of information contained in the resume.
EXAMPLE:
JOHN SMITH
123 Washington St. Anywhere, AZ 85264 | (555) 123-1234 | jsmith@email.com
Lead Security Guard of the Fort McDowell Casino for 20+ years. Customer Service experience for 25+ years. Cash register skills for 30+ years. Keen understanding of business procedures, processing, and shipping and crowd management and control.
As McCalvin stated in the class, a resume is an advertisement for who you are as a potential employee. One of the shocking revelations that McCalvin revealed to the group gathered at the library was that an employer will take less than thirty seconds to look over your resume. So, you should use language and lucrative verbiage to draw in the potential employer’s attention. Now that the employer knows your name, the various ways to contact you, and a brief overview of your skillset, let’s discuss the second part of the resume.
The second part of the resume is Work Experience. This is where you should include any and all work experience you have. The purpose of this section is to showcase your work history but also to communicate to your employer the amount of experience you have in the workforce. You should begin with the title of the company you worked for and the city the company is in. Be sure to include the job title you had within that company and the time you were employed with them. You may also include as bullet points the responsibilities you had while working that job. If you have worked multiple jobs, then you’d put each job down in this section. It is important to note that you should put the jobs you’ve previously worked in chronological order from the most recent to the oldest.
EXAMPLE:
WORK EXPERIENCE
FORT MCDOWELL CASINO & RESORT, FORT MCDOWELL, AZ
Security Guard – January 18th, 2010 to May 4th, 2024
- Secured premises of the casino and hotel grounds
- Worked crowd control and management on multiple events
CHASE BANK, FOUNTAIN HILLS, AZ
Security Guard – February 1st, 2001 to September 18th, 2023
- Assisted with armored truck transportation
- Worked as lobby guard from opening to closing
The next section to include in your resume would be Education. Similar to the work experience section, the Education section is where you’d include all of your educational background. It is noted that, unless you have nothing but high school experience, you shouldn’t include your high school history. Things to include would definitely be the colleges you attended, the degrees you earned, and the years you attained them. Other things you can include in the education section of your resume are academic achievements, civic awards, and Dean’s list or honor roll!
EXAMPLE:
EDUCATION
SCOTTSDALE COMMUNITY COLLEGE – SCOTTSDALE, AZ
Associate’s Degree in Business Management, 2015
ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY – TEMPE, AZ Bachelor’s Degree in Finance, 2019
Dean’s List and Honor Roll
The last section to include on your resume is Additional Skills. This is the area where you can include other skills that may not fit into the other sections. This is where you can include such things like communication, problem solving, interpersonal communication, adaptability, critical thinking, collaboration, organizational skills, leadership, customer service, computer literacy, attention to detail, data analysis, familiarity with company software, skills management, marketing, and project management.
EXAMPLE:
ADDITIONAL SKILLS
- Proficient in Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Python
- Can type 80 words per minute
- Works exceedingly well with a team
- Experienced in crowd control and management
Voila! You now have the basics of a resume down. A resume should typically be one page long, professional looking, and uses a legible font; typically Times New Roman set to 12. You can of course personalize things such as the design and layout if that is within your skillset to achieve. Programs like Microsoft Word and even the free Google Documents within your Google account have free customizable resume templates you can download. Here are the final results of the example resume we’ve just created.
FINAL EXAMPLE:
JOHN SMITH
123 Elm St. Anywhere, AZ 12345 | (555) 123-1234 | jsmith@email.com
Lead Security Guard of the Fort McDowell Casino for 20+ years. Customer Service experience for 25+ years. Cash register skills for 30+ years. Keen understanding of business procedures, processing, and shipping and crowd management and control.
WORK EXPERIENCE
FORT MCDOWELL CASINO & RESORT, FORT MCDOWELL, AZ
Security Guard – January 18th, 2010 to May 4th, 2024
- Secured premises of the casino and hotel grounds
- Worked crowd control on multiple events
CHASE BANK, FOUNTAIN HILLS, AZ
Security Guard – February 1st, 2001 to September 18th, 2023
- Assisted with armored truck transportation
- Worked as lobby guard from opening to closing
EDUCATION
SCOTTSDALE COMMUNITY COLLEGE – SCOTTSDALE, AZ
Associate’s Degree in Business Management, 2015
ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY – TEMPE, AZ
Bachelor’s Degree in Finance, 2019
Dean’s List and Honor Roll
ADDITIONAL SKILLS
-
- Proficient in Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Python
- Can type 80 words per minute
- Works exceedingly well with a team
- Experienced in crowd control and disbursement
You are, of course, very welcome to use this as an outline to start the process of building your resume.
The Fort McDowell Library looks forward to seeing you at these upcoming events:
- Computer Basics Class – August 8th at 2pm
- PFD – Friendly Drivers – August 12th at 6pm
- Tweens Creative Writing Class – August 13th at 4:30pm
- Stitch’n Time – August 14th at 1pm
- Family Story Time – August 19th at 5:30pm
- Beginning Piano Keyboard Class – August 22nd at 4pm
- Granny Squares 101 – August 26th at 4:30pm
