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Member Login Home » Resources » Resumes » Resume Basics » Complete List Faqs
Frequently Asked Questions About Resumes: The Complete Resume FAQ
by Katharine Hansen, Ph.D., and Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.
This article seeks to be the complete compendium on the questions that job-seekers most often asked about resumes. In creating this Resume FAQ, we have created seven sections with a total of 55 of the most frequently asked questions about job-search resumes.
Here's how this Resume FAQ is divided for navigation ease:
I. Job-Seeker Resume Basics
- What is the purpose of a resume?
- What are the absolute, unbreakable rules of resume writing?
- What about "breakable rules" of resume writing?
- Do I need more than one version of my resume?
- If I've never created a resume before, how do I get started?
- What are the most important aspects of a resume, and how can I remember them?
II. Resume Components
- What should be included on a resume?
- There's nothing tricky about listing my name, is there?
- What if my name is hard to pronounce or it fails to clarify my gender?
- How should I list my address?
- What other contact information do I need?
III. Elements to Sharpen a Resume's Focus
- Why does a resume need to be sharply focused?
- How can you sharpen the focus of your resume?
- Should I include my career objective on my resume?
- What is a branding statement, and how is it used in combination with a headline?
- What about a Profile, Skills Profile, Qualifications, or Strengths section?
- What are keywords and how should I use them in my resume?
- What is the Resume Ingredients Rule?
- What kinds of Licenses or Certifications should I list?
IV. Handling Education and Experience on Resumes
- What goes first — education or experience?
- What should I always list under the Education section?
- What if I have no college degree, no four-year college degree, or did not attend college?
- Should my other major heading be "Employment" or "Experience?"
- Should the Experience section be further broken down into subsections?
- How should my jobs be listed under the Experience section?
- Should I list company names first or job titles first?
- How should I list what I did in each job?
- How do I handle multiple jobs with the same employer?
- How far back should I go in my job history to avoid age discrimination?
- What if a former employer no longer exists or has changed its name?
- What are transferable skills, and what is their significance on a resume?
- How do I handle employment gaps?
- How can I avoid appearing to be a job-hopper?
- What if I have no paid experience?
- Which transferable skills are most in demand by employers?
- Why and how should accomplishments and achievements be incorporated in the Experience section?
- What are Situation -> Action -> Results statements?
- What is the significance of quantifying on a resume?
- What is parallelism, and what is its significance on a resume?
V. Other Resume Sections and Fine-Tuning Resume
- What other sections could my resume include?
- Should I list Hobbies and Interests?
- Should I list References on my resume?
- How should I handle references?
- Should I use the line: "References available upon Request?"
VI. Handling Special Resume Situations
- How can I position myself for a career or industry change?
- How do I handle relocation?
- As an entrepreneur transitioning back to the workplace, how can I make the most of my resume?
- How can I ensure my resume will be kept confidential?
VII. Resume Design and Mechanics
- How many pages should my resume be?
- What are the most important design elements for a resume?
- What kind of paper should I use?
- How should I duplicate my resume?
- How should I mail my resume?
- How can I make sure I've covered all the bases with my resume?
- Should I hire a professional resume writer?
See also our special supplemental Frequently Asked Resume Questions for College Students and New Graduates.
I. Job-Seeker Resume Basics
What is the purpose of a resume?
- To get a job interview.
- To structure the interview process.
- To remind the interviewer of you after you're gone.
- To serve as the basis for justifying the hiring decision to others.
What are the absolute, unbreakable rules of resume writing?
We believe there are only two absolute rules in resume writing:
These rules, however, are absolutes:
- No typos or misspellings.
- Do not lie.
Almost every rule you have ever heard can be broken if you have a compelling reason.
What about "breakable rules" of resume writing?
Many of the breakable rules of resume relate to the length a resume should be; all breakable rules are covered in other parts of this FAQ.
Do I need more than one version of my resume?
Most likely, yes.
- You may need more than one organizational format for your resume. See table below for the most common organizational formats.
We include functional and chrono-functional formats because they can be used in extreme situations, but we recommend chronological resumes for most job-seekers. Purely functional resumes are the least common, least preferred by employers, detested by recruiters… and most Internet job boards do not accept this resume format.
While the chrono-functional/hybrid/combination resume is slightly more acceptable to employers than the purely functional format, most employers are unaccustomed to functional formats of any kind, finding them confusing, annoying, and a red flag that something is wrong in your background. At the very least, they will probably scrutinize a chrono-functional resume more closely to check for details and find the flaws that inspired the candidate to use this format. Some employers insist on knowing exactly what you did in each job.
Recruiters/headhunters particularly disdain functional formats, so this approach should never be used if you are primarily targeting recruiters with your job search. Employers in conservative fields are not fans of functional formats, nor are international employers. Functional formats, even chrono-functional, also are not acceptable on many online job boards. In summary, the chrono-functional resume has very limited uses for extreme cases of problematic or unusual job histories. If you feel you have no other choice than a chrono-functional resume, we recommend you enlist a professional resume writer to craft the resume into a viable marketing tool.
- You may need more than one delivery format for your resume. See table below for the most common delivery formats.
One additional delivery format to consider is a Portable Document Format (PDF) resume, which offers the advantages of being completely invulnerable to viruses and totally compatible across computer systems (requires software such as Adobe Acrobat Reader, a free download, to be opened and read). A resume converted to PDF, which carries a .pdf file extension, looks virtually identical to the original document from which it was created, thus preserving the resume's visual appeal, and it also appears consistently from computer to computer. A few employers specifically request PDF resume files. However, for resumes placed in employers' Applicant Tracking Systems (which comprises most resumes submitted electronically) PDFs are problematic because "applicant tracking systems lack a standard way to structure PDF documents," cautions Jon Ciampi, CEO of Preptel, a company that aims to help job-seekers penetrate these systems (as quoted in an article on CIO.com by Meridith Levinson). Read our article, Pros and Cons of PDF Resumes in Job-Search.
For more about delivery methods, see our articles:
- Your E-resume's File Format Aligns With its Delivery Method
- The Top 10 Things You Need to Know about E-Resumes and Posting Your Resume Online
- In additional to a possible range of organizational and delivery formats, you will probably want to customize each resume you send — at least to some extent — to the job you're applying for. Use our Cover Letter and Resume Customization Worksheet to help you customize.
If I've never created a resume before, how do I get started?
Here are some suggestions for resources to get you started:
- Try the Inexpensive Resume Workbooks from the late Yana Parker.
- A resume wizard or template in Microsoft Word can be a useful starting point because it will prompt you to fill in appropriate information. Once you've used a Word template to start your resume, it's best to customize the layout and design. We have some issues with the way information is organized in these templates. Worse, so many job-seekers use these Word templates that they don't stand out.
- Use our Fundamentals of a Good Chronological Resume as a basic template.
- Get inspiration from our collection of more than 100 Free Sample Professional Resumes.
- If you're really stuck, consider hiring a professional resume writer.
What are the most important aspects of a resume, and how can I remember them?
The most important things to remember about writing an effective resume can be encapsulated in a six-letter acronym, FAKTSA, in which the letters stand for:
- Focus
- Appearance
- Keywords
- Transferrable Skills
- Accomplishments
Get more details about these elements in our article, FAKTSA: An Easy Acronym for Remembering Key Resume Enhancers.
II. Resume Components
What should be included on a resume?
We offer lists of the items that you absolutely must include in your resume and a list of optional items to consider including:
Resume Musts
- Name
- Address(es)*
- Phone numbers*
- Email address
- Education
- Experience
Resume Optionals
- Objective Statement (currently out of fashion; please click the preceding link to see what replaces the objectives statement)
- Headline and/or Branding Statement (often used instead of an Objective Statement); see more about career branding in our Career Branding Tutorial
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