Resume Writing

Tarek Lahdhiri gave a riveting presentation about resumes -- he even shared his own resume with the audience as an example!

Tarek keeps a “catalog” of his work experiences (many pages long) and pulls from all of his past work experiences and projects he has worked on to create the best, most appropriate, resume each time he needs one. He suggests updating this “catalog” every six months so that you don’t have time to forget what you’ve done.

He described the two major types of resumes -- chronological and functional.

Chronological resume:

• Objective 
• Qualifications 
• Work experience (main part) 
• Different jobs at the same company count as separate items 
• List each item in reverse chronological order 
• Education 

Functional resume (useful when changing career):

• Objective 
• Qualifications (main part) 
• Work Experience 
• Education 

He said cover letters should be no more than one page in length and the first paragraph should tell why you are the best candidate.

Job references can be collected on the job or collected from your network. But if you’re going to include them, always notify your reference before you use them.