Résumé
Tips
The following tips can help you create a résumé
for the University of Washington.
What to Include
Keep it simple. The system will convert your résumé
to text only, so there is no need to use italics, underlines, shading,
bullets, or other graphics.
Be easy to contact. Place your
contact information in full view at the top of the page.
Make it comprehensive. This
résumé maybe viewed for multiple openings, so exclude
references to specific jobs.
Be accurate and complete. For
each job, detail your duties and include work dates (starting
and ending month/year).
The Key to Keywords. A long list
of skill words won't highlight your experience. Instead, use keywords
in a meaningful way within your résumé.
Be Clear. Use concrete, descriptive
words and phrases.
Make it Relevant. Include
all education, experience, and skills relevant to the type of
job you are seeking.
A Sample Résumé
Formatting Tips for Electronic Documents
Keep your résumé formatting simple for best results.
This goes for cover letters as well. Save your formatted résumés
and cover letters for your in-person interviews or when requested.
- Avoid tables, paragraph borders, columns, and fancy fonts.
- Avoid trying to indent or center text using the spacebar. Keep
all lines left justified against the page, and use line breaks
to separate headings and sections.
- To emphasize a word or words, use ALL CAPS.
How to Convert your Résumé
Your formatted résumé may look great on paper
or viewed with your word processing program, but it may not look the
same once copy and pasted into the résumé
box. You can convert your word-processed résumé into
an online résumé by following the steps below.
These directions will work for MS Word 6.0 and up and Apple Works.
Ignore any "lost formatting" warnings that may occur during
this process. (Be sure to save a backup copy of your résumé
before converting it!).
- Open your document in your word processor.
- Go to the File
Menu and select Save
As. Choose Text
or Plain Text in the Save
as type: or File
format: drop down menu at the bottom of the dialog
box. Click Save
or press Enter
to save the document.
-
Close your document (not the word processor program!).
Reopen your text only file that you just saved. Be sure to select
Plain Text Files
under File Types
when opening the document, or you may not see the new file. Your
new document should have a .TXT
extension.
-
Set all of the document's margins to 1 inch.
-
Select the entire document and set the Font
to Courier or Courier
New. These are fixed-width printer fonts which use
the same width for all characters.
-
Edit your document so that it looks good to you.
Remove all tabs and replace them with spaces or line breaks. Make
sure that all the lines end where you want them to. Be aware that
in some programs the unbroken lines may wrap differently than they
do in your word processing program. Use ALL CAPS to emphasize text,
rather than bold, italic or custom fonts.
-
Re-Save the document as Plain
Text File.
-
To see the results, close your document and re-open
it in a plain text editor such as Notepad or Wordpad.
-
Select all of the text in your document, Copy
and Paste
it into the résumé text box.
