Skills and Qualifications

While not all resumes contain a skills section, this may be helpful when you want to emphasize the skills you have acquired from your various jobs or activities, rather than the duties, or the job title.

If you do not have enough previous experience for a specific job you are seeking for, it is important to emphasize your skills pertaining to that job.

Skills can be just as important as work experience to employers. To prepare this section you should:

• List jobs, activities, projects and special offices.
• Think of skills you have gained through those experiences.
• Group these skills into 3 – 5 job related skills categories and use these as headings.
• List your skills with significant details under the headings.
• Arrange headings in order of importance as they relate to your career objective.
• Arrange skills under headings in order of importance according to your goal.

In this section, you will also want to include any office machines you have experience operating, software programs you have become proficient in, and anything else that you feel might put you over the top with the job.

Example:
Leadership

• Conducted monthly club and board meetings for Lafayette Junior Woman’s Club.
• Headed club’s $8,000 philanthropic project sponsored by Tippecanoe County Historical Association.
• Coordinated responsibilities of committees to sell and serve food to 1500 people at fund raiser.

Business Communication

• Completed a formal report for Business Writing course.
• Wrote annual state and district reports of all club’s community service projects, volunteered hours and monetary donations.
• Compiled, type, mimeographed and distributed club books to each member.

Financial Management

• Supervised the collection and dispersion of $4,000 in funds to various agencies and projects.
• Wrote and analyzed periodic business statements regarding funds to specific projects/agencies.

The next section can be worded in a couple of different ways. Here is where you want to let the potential employer know you have participated in activities and events as well as that you are a member of professional organizations along with any special awards that you have received.

A lot of this depends on whether or not you are fresh out of school looking for your first job or if you have been in the business world and are applying for another job.

Awards and Achievements

You can choose a few different ways to word this section. If you like, it can be titled “Activities and Honors” or “Awards and Organizations”. It really is up to you. You have to tailor your resume to your specific needs as well as towards what type of job you are applying for.

This optional section points out your leadership, sociability and energy level as shown by your involvement in different activities. This should be your shortest section and should support your career objective. Additional information about activities can be included in your application letter or discussed at your interview.

You should:

• Select only activities and honors that support your career objective.
• List your college or professional organizations and arrange them in order of importance as they relate to your career objective.
• Include any office or official position you held.
• Spell out any acronyms your employer may not recognize.
• Include dates.

Example:
Accounting Club, President
Alpha Zeta Professional Fraternity
Purdue Grand Prix Foundation, President
Purdue Association for the Education of Young Children (PAEYC)

For any awards, you should include the year you received the award. You also may want to include a brief explanation of the criteria that you had to meet in order to get that honor.

Finally, you will wrap up your resume with a references section.

References

This is the shortest section of your resume because it should only consist of one sentence – “References are available upon request.” You should generally not include references on your resume. You will put your references on a separate reference sheet which we will address in the next section.

If the job you are applying for asks in the advertisement to include references when you send in your resume, you should change the “References” section to read “References are attached.”

Which will makes a good transition into the next part of this series – your reference sheet.

References

You will want to have several different people on hand who will vouch for you as far as your character, your work habits, your work ethics, and your general value and worth as an employee and person.

You will want to have a minimum of three references and no more than five. At least one of these references should be a personal reference who is not a relative. It can be a friend, a co-worker, or an acquaintance. The others should be work or school references.

The first rule of thumb for references is to ask the person first if you can use them as a reference when applying for jobs. As long as you have a good relationship with them, most people are happy to oblige for you and give you a glowing recommendation.

The purpose of a reference sheet is to have a list of people who can verify and elaborate on your professional experience for a potential employer. Past employers, professors, and advisors are the best professional references to have.

It is important to have a reference sheet because potential employers will often ask for a list of references they can contact. If you included a statement such as “References Available upon Request” on your resume, you should be able to produce a reference sheet as soon as one is requested. In any case, having a reference sheet will save you time later on during the interview process.

Make sure to include people who know what type of person you are and who are familiar with your work. It is important to select individuals who know your distinctiveness so that they can provide a positive and accurate description of you to the employer or company in which you are seeking employment.

You should ALWAYS contact your references before including them on a reference sheet. It is also a good idea to give them a copy of your resume and talk to them about the job you are seeking so they will know how to best represent you.

When you are listing your references, you should include the following information:

• Your name
• Your present and permanent address(es)
• Your reference person or persons’ information, which includes that person’s:

o Name
o Department/Company
o Title/Position
o Address
o Telephone number
o Brief statement as to how you know this person.

It is not required to include the last part – the statement as to how you know this person, but it can help. That way if a potential employer does check your references, they know why you wanted to list them on your reference sheet.

Another very important part of the job application process is the cover letter that you will include with your resume.

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