Writing your resume.

Every adult, whether a student or ajarn, should have an up-to-date resume.

Even if you are happy in your job and have no plans to leave, some other faculty may need information about you and will request your resume. For international conferences, if you represent TU or make a presentation, the organizers will probably ask for your resume. Any time you appear in public or in the media, you will likewise be asked for your resume. So if you intend to be part of the scholarly community and not just hide in an office all the time, you will need a resume that is already prepared. You can update this resume for all kinds of purposes. One of the traditional reasons to have a resume is to apply for jobs. Yet unless you are known internationally or have a Wikipedia biography dedicated to yourself, a resume can also allow people to learn of your achievements when you are not looking for a job.

How to design a resume.

The TU Libraries contain many books of advice about resumes:

http://koha.library.tu.ac.th/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=606815v

http://koha.library.tu.ac.th/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=580616

http://koha.library.tu.ac.th/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=271697

http://koha.library.tu.ac.th/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=190526

http://koha.library.tu.ac.th/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=153243

http://koha.library.tu.ac.th/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=153238

http://koha.library.tu.ac.th/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=109696

http://koha.library.tu.ac.th/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=106887

http://koha.library.tu.ac.th/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=101606

http://koha.library.tu.ac.th/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=30267

http://koha.library.tu.ac.th/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=29921

http://koha.library.tu.ac.th/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=26045

http://koha.library.tu.ac.th/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=10154

If you are short of time, you can always Google “best resume” and look at the images that result. Just looking at some good resumes can give you an idea of what yours should look like, even if all of your questions may not be answered.

What’s the difference between a resume and a CV?

The term resume is from the French word résumé, or summary. So your resume is a summary of your life, especially your working life. CV is short for the Latin term curriculum vitae which translates as “the course of [my] life.” To add to the complexity, sometimes instead of saying “curriculum vitae,” some people just say “vita.” In most countries, if people ask for your resume or CV or vita, they mean the same thing, a one or two-page brief summary of your professional experience with your contact info, education, and if there is room, your hobbies or personal interests. If you have a long list of distinguished publications and jobs, then you may wish to keep long and shorter versions of your CV in case potential employers or others are interested. For most people, a short form resume or CV is enough.

How to start planning a resume.

Start with your name and mailing address, including city, country, and zip code. List an email address which is a private email address. List a cell phone number where you can always be reached or where someone can leave a message. In the hectic worlds of business and academia, if people cannot reach you, they may not keep trying. They will just call someone else instead. In the Kingdom, resumes typically include your photo but this is not a universal custom, so it can be left out for international use unless you are specifically asked to include a photo. Likewise, outside the Kingdom students and workers are called by their names, not “Mr.” or “Miss” so you may leave out these terms from your resume. In an earlier blog entry we discussed how outside the Kingdom, the term “Ms.” has replaced “Miss” and “Mrs.” in office and government use many years ago.

Since the main focus in any resume is on work past, present, and future, start the resume with Work Experience, always listing your most recent job first, then your next-most recent, and so on. The same should be true of any list in a resume. List your most advanced and most recent academic degree first, then your next-most-recent, and so on. You may add details about your jobs, including what you achieved, what you were responsible for, and anything else that shows you are a responsible person with leadership qualities and other workplace virtues. If you are applying for a specific job with the resume, it is fine to list under your name and address and above Work Experience:

Goal: to find a challenging, inspiring job in a fast-moving field of etc.

You will write the goal according to the job you are applying for. It is never a good idea to say that your one and only goal is to make money, even if some employers may appreciate your frankness. Say instead that you are seeking a general and somewhat vague challenge that seems to correspond to the job description. After your job history, list your educational experience with the most recent degree mentioned first and then earlier diplomas listed in descending chronological order.

What to leave out.

If you had a job in the past that you do not wish to repeat for whatever reason, give it less attention on your resume with less detail and less description than the kind of job that you do wish to follow up on. It is always good to include some personal information about yourself on a resume, since anyone who is planning to ask you to share an office or serve in a professional capacity will want to know what kind of person you are. For this reason, under the heading “Hobbies” or “Leisure Activities,” it can be useful to mention some things you enjoy doing. Be as specific, detailed, and original as possible. Instead of just listing “food” as your interest, say you like to collect rare and valuable durian, or whatever you do that sounds unique. This will make you appear interesting and this sort of detail is often what any job interviewer will look at first and discuss with you, since most job candidates have similar educational and work experience. It is enough to say “References available upon request” rather than take up valuable space on your resume with names, addresses, and phone numbers of your references. Keep these on a separate page, readily available for anyone who wants them. Finally, for any resume to be used overseas you may leave out your date of birth, since most countries now consider it age discrimination to take too much interest in workers’ ages.

Be honest.

Make sure that whatever you say in a resume is true, because most job contracts, especially at universities, state that lying on a resume is fraud and cause for immediate dismissal. In other countries, even government ministers have been required to resign after it was discovered that they invented parts of their resumes. So take the time to be certain that everything in your resume did really happen to you.

(all images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons).