Example Resume 1: Veterinary Assistant—Annotations


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Resume overview. This resume summarizes the work experience and education of a veterinarian-to-be who is seeking a veterinarian-assistant position.

Note: This resume has not been designed as an online or web resume. Web resumes take advantage of the web and online delivery medium in ways; this example is simply a rendering of the printed version.

Heading. This writer puts his name, address, and phone number in the heading portion of his resume. You can consider including your e-mail address, professional title, or key certifications.

Objective. In this section, the writer states the kind of employment he is seeking. In some cases, writers also indicate their career goals as well. Of course, if you include a section like this one, you must remember to revise with practically each new job application. A common problem with objective statements is that some writers make them pure fluff: they state that they want a rich and rewarding career with a dynamic company with opportunities for growth and advancement. These kinds of objectives say nothing!

Experience section. Notice that this writer bolds the name of the place where he worked and italicizes the job title. Some writers would reverse this design to emphasize the job title. Notice too that this writer bullets the job responsibilities. This is a good technique on two accounts: it makes scanning this information easier, and it uses up more vertical space in a resume that might have trouble filling a full page.

Education section. Notice that this writer carries over the same design from the education section. In this case, the school name is bold and the degree or major is italics just beneath it.

Locations and dates. Notice how this writer places the dates in a right column. Notice too that that are in reverse chronological order.

Writing style. Notice that this resume, like most others, uses a verb-phrase style of writing, deleting "I" and beginning with the verb of the sentence. Although you should keep your writing compact, you should still use good English throughout a resume.

Details, details, details. Notice the amount of specific that this writer pumps into this resume. Details are important: they cause readers to slow down and consider, they give resumes more substance, they create a more credible picture of the writer, and they cause the writer to stand out and be remembered.

Design. Notice how the body of this resume is essentially a three-column design, with the main headings in the first column, the text in the second, and the dates in the third. This produces a clean, well-organized look. Avoid creating multiple alignments in resume—that produces a ragged, fragmented, disorganized look. Notice too how format and style details are consistent in each section—for example, the headings in the first column are all Arial all-cap bold punctuated with a colon. Simple consistencies like these make resumes more readable and less "noisy" in design. Ordinary readers may not recognize such seemingly minor details or understand how they affect their reading of or overall response to a resume—but such details have an important impact nonetheless.

That completes the comments for this example.


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