Outline of a Resume

Contact Information

• Include your name, address, phone number and email address.
  
• Double and triple check to ensure there are no errors in your contact information.
  
• Use a simple email address; preferably one that consists of your name only. Avoid funny or unusual email addresses. These may be fine to use with your friends, but they do not create a professional first impression for employers.

Job Objective or Profile

• Use a job objective when you simply want to state the position you are seeking. For example: "To obtain a position as a personal support worker."
  
• Use a profile when you want to highlight some of your most notable skills and accomplishments. Use two to three sentences to note your job title and most relevant accomplishments or skills as they are related to the work you are currently seeking. For example: "Customer service representative with five years of progressive professional experience and a proven ability to manage conflicting demands while maintaining quality and efficiency targets. Fluent in Spanish and English, and experienced with Word and Excel."

Skills Summary

• Include five to eight of your most marketable skills as related to the job you are seeking.
  
• If you'd like to include a lot more than eight skills in this list, that's fine, but break the list into smaller sections. So, in this outline of a resume, you might have a list called "Customer Service Skills" and a list of "Technical Skills" or maybe a list of "Administrative Skills." Just don't let one list get too long or it will be difficult for the employer to read at a glance.
  
• This section may also be written as a list of accomplishments and given a title such as "Professional Accomplishments".
  
• This section is not included on a chronological resume. On a functional resume, this section will be the main focus of the resume. In a functional resume, the skills summary will be broken into sub-sections as it will be quite long with more than eight skills highlighted.

Professional Experience

• List your work history in reverse chronological order.
  
• Include your job title, company name, city and dates of employment.
  
• Use verbs (action words) to describe job duties and accomplishments that are most relevant to the work you are currently seeking.
  
• Use bulleted point form to make it easy to read at a glance.
  
• This section is not included in a functional resume.

• Include the name of the degree, diploma, certificate or course; the name of the school; and sometimes include the year you graduated.
  
• This section can come before professional experience if you prefer to highlight your education first. If you are a recent graduate and your education is your most impressive selling feature or if you are applying for a job that requires specific education you may include education before professional experience.

Community Involvement

• This section can also be called volunteer work or hobbies.
  
• Including this section on your resume is completely optional in your outline of a resume. Only include it if it adds information that shows you are well qualified for the job.
  
• List any volunteer work or hobbies that are relevant to the job you are seeking.

References available upon request

• Including this phrase on your resume is optional.
  
• If it finishes off the look of the page nicely, go ahead and add it. It tells the employer it's the end of the resume, there are no additional pages.
  
• If you are struggling to find space on your resume, this phrase is the first thing to omit. Employers know they can ask for references, so you don't have to tell them.