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Resumes: Your professional calling card

March 11, 2011
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If you are seeking employment, a polished, up-to-date resume or curriculum vitae (“CV”) is essential for getting employers to take notice of you and perhaps invite you for an interview. The terms ‘resume’ and ‘curriculum vitae’ are sometimes used interchangeably, but in fact they are quite different documents. Use a resume to apply for employment in non-academic settings, and use a CV to apply for employment in academic and research settings. The contents and length of these documents differ significantly. A resume should generally not exceed two pages in length and should contain only relevant qualifications and experience, whereas a CV may be dozens of pages long, containing additional details such as awards, published articles, and research grants received. In this article, we focus on resumes. In an upcoming article, we will discuss CVs in detail.

In your resume, provide concise yet detailed info about your qualifications and experience. Emphasize your work experience that most suits the job you are applying for. As your ‘professional calling card’, it should be professional looking, so ensure it is word-processed, organized, and is free of spelling, grammatical, and typographical errors. Use your resume to apply for posted jobs, and to apply to companies that you’d like to work for (but who don’t have any jobs posted at the time). Of course, keep a digital copy of your resume so that you can easily update it in the future. You will also need a digital resume to apply for employment via the Internet. Keep printed copies to bring with you to interviews.

Save your digital resume using a file format that is in current use or else the employer may not be able to open it. Common file formats include .pdf (Adobe Acrobat) and Word formats such as .doc or more recently, .docx. If an online ad requests a specific file format, send your resume in the requested format. Some employers may request that you send your resume in the body of your email message (rather than as an attachment), so you need to check that the fonts and formatting will remain correct whether you send it as an attachment or as text within the body of an email message. So, before sending your resume to an employer, email it to yourself as an attachment and also copy and paste it into the body of an email message (sent to yourself) first. Open each of these emails to ensure that the formatting and content are still intact.

Remember that you may need to create several resumes, with different strengths and experiences being emphasized in each of them. For example, an experienced clinician who has worked in various settings may have a resume that emphasizes skills that are important for positions in medical settings and another resume designed for employment with a school board. Your resume should keep growing, just as your career should. Keep your resume up to date so that when the job of your dreams is available, you’re ready to seize the opportunity.


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