ResuMaestro Résumé Service

It turns out the punctuation of the term résumé is by no means settled law.  All three popular options: resume, resumé and résumé are in the dictionary, so it doesn’t really matter much. Coming mostly from a PR/journalism background, however, I defer to the Associated Press styles guide on matters such as these and go for résumé.  If you read the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, or most newspapers in America, you will find it with all of the original French accent marks.

Also, on this Web site (AP punctuation of Web site btw) , I couldn’t very well ignore accent marks with the sub-title “setting your career rhythm” and a guy waving a baton on the first page.

As for whether you use the French accents on your own résumé, don’t even use the word at all. Just put your name at the top of the document.

For the cover letter you have three options, write around it, use the accents, which I would recommend, or if you can find out what that particular employer does, just do that.

Whether you list your education or employment first is a strategic more than a stylistic decision. If you have a standard, finish-school- or-training-and-then-get-a-job type career, then your default might be to put the education first, because it makes sense chronologically. But people go in and out of school and jobs so much these days, that model seldom applies.

One client was seeking to enter a search marketing profession with limited experience but a relatively recent business degree from a well-respected university.  For her, putting the education first was a no-brainer.  If, on the other hand,  she had had fresh, relevant  job experience but had received a college degree in an unrelated discipline ten years ago, we might have done otherwise, but it is really a very personal, very strategic decision, influenced heavily by the strength of the credential and the job you are seeking.

Many resumé templates begin with having you state your objective right upfront, but that may not always the best thing to do. If you have a very specific objective and won’t consider anything else, then sure, go for it.  Or if you have a very unique combination of skills that you want to leverage, that works too.   A resume I did for an electrician who wanted to was seeking managerial postion, for example, stated the the objective:

A responsible position that draws on the operations management, supervision, problem solving, and technical expertise developed from 31 years of experience as a master electrician. Special skills include working with the public, managing workgroups, meeting deadlines, and high attention to detail.

She is now a finalist for a job that meets that objective almost to the letter.  As a rule though, I would say save the objective statement for your cover letter. That way you can customize for each job you seek and may not have to revise your resume for every job application.

Conventional wisdom has it that a resume should be one page and although brief is good, I think it is dangerous to try it force anything.  The resume should be as long as it needs to be to convey your value.  There was a story of a ancient innkeeper named Procrustes whose beds were only one size.  If a guest was too tall for the bed, he would chop their legs; if they were too short he would stretch them. Don’t do the same to your resume, it seldom works out.

Of course if you are an academic, where resumes are more likely called Curriculum Vitae  (someday someone will come up with an English word for resume) then longer is better — which, if you have ever had to buy sheets for a college student, explains is why beds in college dorms tend to be longer.