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A resume is a brief profile of you, typically one page, highlighting your skills, experience, career goals, and knowledge. There are three basic types of resumes. A chronological resume, a functional resume and a hybrid resume, which is a combination of the functional and chronological resume.

The chronological resume style emphasizes employment, extracurricular activities, and academic-related experience. In this style, you list the most recently held position first, followed by your next most recent position, and so forth. The functional resume emphasizes experience acquired through various job responsibilities, and de-emphasizes where experience was gained and/or dates of employment. The combination resume, utilizes parts of the functional and chronological styles to create a resume. Unlike the chronological resume, the functional resume is a good resume style for those who have a wide range of experience or are changing career direction.

When possible, your resume should be one page. For those with more extensive experience, this might not be possible; however, your goal should be to make your resume very concise. The key is to create a positive impression in the employers mind within 20 seconds or less. Considering the number of resumes that are typically reviewed by employers, your resume should be written in a way that conveys your strongest points using the least amount of words.

The header of your resume should contain your contact information. Include your full name, permanent and local addresses, phone number and email address.

You should start your resume with your objective. Your objective should be a brief statement summarizing the type of work you want to do and a career field in which you are interested. Let the reader know your specific interests; provide a focus for the rest of the resume. Focus on skills; begin with active verbs such as "Seeking," "Desire" or "To obtain."

List your educational achievements. Start with most recent degree awarded and work backward in time. Do not list high school or earlier education unless it is exceptional or relevant in some way. Include any additional training that is relevant to the position you are applying for, this should include seminars, certifications etc.

List any experience relevant to your stated job objective, whether paid or unpaid.
Include full-time or part-time work experience, volunteer jobs, internships or cooperative education placements. Begin with your most recent experience and work backward.

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