For Candidates

Resume Writing Hints

Your Overall Career Plan

  • What are you presently doing and what do you want to do in the future?
  • What are your current qualifications and experience?
  • What are your main strengths and weaknesses?
  • How will a career change help you achieve your goals?

Identifying What You Want to Do

  • Would you rather work long hours for significant financial rewards or would you prefer to have more of a private life and less financial rewards?

Ideal Resume

  • The ideal resume should catch the reader's attention and stimulate his or her interest in you. It should make the reader want to meet you.

Important Things to Remember

  1. Don't Be Too Wordy
    • Ideally, keep your resume to two or three pages
    • Use bullet points where possible rather than large blocks of text
  2. Be Sure To Provide All Key Details
    • Related working experience
    • Transferable skills
    • Contributions
    • Achievements
    • Successes
  3. Stick To The Facts
    And keep it honest. If you exaggerate on your resume, it will be difficult for a client to judge if you are the right person for the role. Moreover, if you were ever found to have misrepresented yourself, you would lose all credibility and possibly even lose your job. What you should include is factual information about your background and past jobs and experiences. There is no need at this point to go into detail regarding your character (e.g., your ability to work well within a group and under pressure, etc.). Rather, leave this assessment of your character for the interview.
  4. Keep It Simple
    • Keep things clear and simple
    • Don't use colored paper or fancy stationery
    • Keep it clean (e.g. no coffee stains or spilt hot cocoa!)
  5. Other Information Companies Expect
    • Personal details (e.g., name, date of birth, contact details)
    • Nationality
    • Work permit status (if you are foreigner)
    • Language abilities
    • Work experience (most recent job listed first)
    • Job description and achievements per job
    • Academic background and qualifications
    • Interests/hobbies (ideally something that promotes a positive image and demonstrates a healthy lifestyle). Remember, irrelevant or bizarre hobbies are best left out of your resume.