Writing or revising one’s resume can be a daunting task. Get a cup of coffee, set up your computer, and get to work. Follow these simple tricks of the trade to get you off the starting block:
Check out a few sample resume books to get ideas.
Pick a design template from Word or a similar program, or develop one on your own. Begin with your name and pertinent information at the top.
Arrange your categories in a fashion that makes sense to you, and prioritize according to their importance. Collate the important information within each category.
Write to your audience. How will your experience, skills and degrees fulfill the requirements of the new job? Show how your experiences from your last job will be valuable to the one you are applying for. If you are a teacher, try to showcase your leadership experience from the classroom, and align it to experience that would be desirable as an assistant principal.
For example, avoid writing: “Worked with grade level teachers to develop a job fair.” Turn your grade level experience into something more powerful, such as: “Provided leadership at the site level for sixth grade job fair.”
Now go back and edit. Tighten up your writing to keep it concise and action-oriented to focus on your accomplishments and responsibilities. You don’t have to use complete sentences... bulleted lists are best.
Set your first draft down on a table, walk away for a few minutes, and then come back and glance at the front page. Does the formatting grab your attention, or is it just ho-hum? Think about formatting the document, so that it’s graphically appealing. Do your headings jump out? Are fonts in synch? Work on this, until you feel you have a reader friendly document that is visually pleasing. Eliminate small type and long, rambling sentences.
Ask a few people to proofread, and then review it again yourself. Read each sentence in reverse for typos or words out of place.
Save your document in several places, and be prepared to tweak your resume to address the specific skills each school district requests.