Cheat Sheet for a Communications Resume

If you’re a job-seeker looking for a simple and easy source, here is the cheat sheet to a quick and effective resume:

• Choose one font that is an easy to read font and NOT Comic Sans
• Type doesn't have to be black; you can use a dark color like Navy blue, dark chocolate or deep forest green (FYI - Dark red looks like blood)
• Don’t go overboard on decorations
• Correctly spell your name and list your current address and working phone number
• Include your email but if it has any reference to sex, drugs, politics or religion, set up a new one with just your name
• Eliminate the “Objective” section and list “Skills” first, be detailed
• Use headers and bullet points to break up the sections
• No periods at the end of bullets
• List related jobs chronologically
• Skip short stints and out of field experience if you have to condense the content
• Don’t write a reason for leaving; you can tell them in the interview
• Add the city and state as to where the jobs were/are located
• Under the first job title use at least 5 bullets and a minimum of 3 for any additional experience
• Break down the bullets and say what they mean
• Google the job title if you’re stuck; then copy, paste and paraphrase what you find that pertains to your experience
• List continuing education as it relates to the position but incorporate dates only if the education is within the last 10 yrs
• Don't include a list of studies you stopped before completion
• Notate any special in-field training and certifications you may have
• A “Volunteer” section should be used instead of “Interests”
• If you don’t have any volunteer experience, get some
• Only include interests that relate to the job
• Offer references or phone numbers in the interview not on your resume
• Double, triple, quadruple check for typos, grammatical errors and tense shifts
• Print on a medium stock paper, not to light not to heavy
• Save to a .pdf file

By Heather Fairchild - Heather is a multimedia developer with experience in web, film, photography and animation as well as traditional fine arts like painting and sculpting. In addition to writing for CommunicationsJobsBlog.net, she is co-founder of design and promotion company. Heather’s spare time consists of making puppets, teaching Sunday School, building Legos and doing science experiments with her children.