Professional Resume Advice and Sample ... - Career Services

You could say that an education section is an absolute, but that’s trueonly about 90% of the time. Consider the CEO of a publicly tradedcompany who never had any formal education after high school. He’d bewise not to include an education section on his resume. Better to leave itoff and have that discussion in person.So, bottom line, the only real rule is to include your name and contactinformation. Other than that, your resume is a blank page waiting forwords and design that sell your value.The fact is that if a rulebook did exist, the process would be much easier.All you’d have to do is follow the steps, fill in the blanks, and end up witha resume that looks and sounds like everyone else’s. However, resumewriting is much more customized and much more creative than that.Your resume needs to be created for your unique circumstances – yourpast career and your future ambitions.Consider job seekers Judy and Mark, who have precisely the same careerpath in corporate training and development. Now, Judy wants to leavethat role and move into a more general HR leadership position. Mark, onthe other hand, wants to continue in T&D, but with a larger company.The approach to writing these two resumes will be remarkably different.The writer is free to choose the content, format, and design of eachresume to position Judy and Mark for their unique opportunities.The same is true for you. As you prepare your $100K resume, the factthat there is no rulebook gives you the flexibility to be creative, strategic,and innovative.CHAPTER 4 : Writing the Professional’s Resume75