DO's and DON'Ts

limit your resume to two pages.

break your resume down into the following areas:

Personal Information (including date of birth, marital status, and whether or not you are willing to relocate);

Education (name of university or technical school you attended, your degree, honors received, your grade point average - but only if it's a good one - date of graduation, or, if you haven't graduated, the hours and/or credits you accumulated in relevant courses);

Objective; Professional Experience; and, at the end of your resume,

Pluses (such as published material, honors, awards and/or organizations to which you've belonged. But keep this section brief.)

list the positions you've held, starting with your present job and backtracking from there. Go into more detail describing the present or most recent job you've held. More than likely, it's this position which is the most important in obtaining your ultimate career objective.

describe each job you've held using this breakdown:

Title; Duties; and Accomplishments. Include all hardware and software you used on each job. You may also want to include the length of time you spent using each; for example: COBOL, 6 years, CICS, 4 years.

use obscure language that prevents the person reading your resume from recognizing and understanding your background.

use abbreviations, unless they are a standard in the industry.

include misleading information in your resume. For example, if you don't have a degree, don't imply you do! You may wish to leave education to the last.

devote a lot of space to describing positions or jobs from your distant past.

list references, hobbies, political and/or religious affiliations.

include endless lists of classes and/or seminars you've attended.