Resume` Basics

So what is a resume? By definition a resume is "a written summary or brief account of one's professional or work experience and qualifications, often submitted with an employment application" (1).

Within the past decade, largely in part to the growth of the internet, the standard resume has undergone a major shift in its format. Gone are the days of the high quality paper copies, the attractive font, bulletined statements, and the cover letter. In today's highly competitive employment market, key words and relevant content, and one's ability to summarize their skill sets in a single glance, can and often does mean the difference between getting the interview or not.

To examine these changes and how employer's use resumes as a screening process, one must understand:

• The role of the resume: simply discusses why resumes are used and their intended purpose.



• Resumes of old and new : reviews the former resume creation process and compares this to today’s resumes.



• The employer’s resume evaluation process: looks at the methods used by companies to sift through the stack of potential employees.






(1) The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Forth Edition.
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