A good résumé is an excellent and necessary way of marketing yourself. Before you finish college, you’ll need a résumé, whether it’s for a part-time job, an internship or co-op position, or to show to an instructor who agrees to write you a letter of recommendation. There are two résumé formats: chronological and skill focused. Figure 12.1 shows a chronological résumé. Generally, choose the chronological format to list your jobs and other experiences from the most to least recent). Choose the skills résumé if you can group skills from a number of jobs or projects under several meaningful categories. Your career center can help you choose the format that is right for you based on your experience and future goals.

The average time an employer spends screening résumés for the first time is 7 to 10 seconds. Many employers also use résumé-scanning software to identify key terms and experiences of the applicant that are most important to the employer. If you are a new professional, a one-page résumé is appropriate. Add a second page only if you have truly outstanding skills or work experiences that won’t fit on the first page, but consult with your career center for guidance on this point. If you are in college to get retrained and change your career, make sure to update your information on your résumé.