I was asked to bring a dessert to a baby shower and of course, waited until the last minute to prepare anything. When in doubt, make chocolate chip cookies. Baking done, I sampled my treats and something was off. The cookies weren’t right. Blast! I forgot the vanilla!

That’s the thing with chocolate chip cookies — you can get crazy with the add-ins from walnuts and raisins to nutmeg and white chocolate — but you cannot forget the vanilla or the cookies are all wrong. Same goes for resumes. There are a couple ingredients that are vital for the overall “taste” of your resume: common resume sections.

Resume content is broken into different categories, or sections, in order to place like-information together in an organized, easy to read format. Understanding the elements of sections will help you write a better resume and draw the attention of a hiring manager.

The most common sections of a resume are contact information, work experience, and education. Don’t let the word “common” bore you. These sections are common because they are typically required, so let’s explore them a little further.

Contact Information: Be brief. The first page of your resume is the most valuable page because it has the best opportunity of convincing an employer that you are worth a call. Don’t waste this space on excessive contact information.

Include name, phone number, and email address (reminder: always use a professional email address, not slacker4less@email.com). Add mailing address if you anticipate snail mail communication or simply city/state if local availability is an asset for the position. Alternate phone numbers are useful if you are difficult to reach on your primary number, but with cell phones, most shouldn’t need alternative numbers.

TIP Remove ring back tones (those fun little songs that play for callers in place of the standard ring) when looking for work. There’s a time and a place to let your personality shine. It’s not when your future boss is calling for the first time. Also, listen to the message incoming callers hear on your phone. Make sure it is professional and includes your name so they know they’ve got the right person.

LinkedIn hyperlinks are fantastic if your LinkedIn profile is strong and you have been recommended or endorsed. Otherwise, leave it off your resume. Additionally, a personal website URL can support a resume if the website demonstrates your talents. Online portfolios are an example of useful personal websites.

Locate full contact information at the top of the first page. If your resume is more than one page make sure to include a header or footer with your name, phone number, email address, and page reference for all remaining pages. Generally, it is not necessary to title the contact information section of your resume. Exceptions to this rule of thumb include submitting resumes through applicant tracking systems (ATS) — electronic resume scanners that companies sometimes use to prescreen resumes. We will discuss ATS resumes in more details in a future article.

Snapshot of a Strong LinkedIn Profile
1.           It’s complete. Be thorough. Include dates, descriptions, summaries and websites.
2.           Use a professional photo, preferably a headshot.
3.           Experience. Just like your resume, your LinkedIn profile is a dud without it.
4.           Education is important. You can also add coursework taken outside of college, like professional development classes through work.
5.           Connections, the more you have, the greater chance of a recruiter finding you.
6.           Recommendations. Yes, you need to ask for recommendations. I know it’s uncomfortable but it’s worth it.
Check out my LinkedIn for an example: www.linkedin.com/in/lizwilliamswriter/

Work Experience: Work experience may go by other titles like “Professional Experience,” “Work History,” “Relevant Experience,” or simply “Experience.” As we saw last month, work experience is usually listed in reverse chronological order (most recent first, working backward).

A rule of thumb is to list the last ten years of work experience. Include less if you are early in your professional career or if the earlier work experience detracts from your application (say you earned a little money “dancing” during college…that might lessen your new, more conventional, career-minded persona). Include more years if the earlier experience is relevant to the job you are applying and supports your application by demonstrating relevant skills and accomplishments you cannot demonstrate in later experience.

Include the name of the company or organization, your title, and length of employment including month and year for hire date and end date, with the word “Present” replacing the end date of your current job. On that note, it’s safe to include current employment. Most hiring managers will not contact your current employer without explicit approval so there is no need to worry that your current boss will find out you are shopping for his replacement.

Often, city and state of work are included, especially if applying for a job in the same area. And of course, you need to detail (in a concise and convincing way) your job responsibilities and contributions. Remember the Powerful Selling Statements we built two months ago? If not, check out the article on Bozeman Magazine’s website: http://bozemanmagazine.com/localliving/simple-equation-bolsters-your-resume. Your Powerful Selling Statements go with your experience. Here is an example of an experience description with variations on Powerful Selling Statements:

Education: In some respects, the education section of your resume is most challenging to develop due to the range of content options available depending on your experience. Let’s begin with a mid-career job seeker who has higher education.

List the highest degree earned first followed by other degrees. A concise formula for education is to include degree (Master of Arts) followed by major (in Communication), the institution name and year awarded. Personally, I stumble on the year awarded at times. If I’m concerned about age discrimination and my client’s graduation year clearly indicates they are of retirement age, I sometimes leave it off.

Highlight different aspects of your degrees depending on the job you are applying.

Example 1: Retail management job requires a bachelor’s, without mentioning a preferred major and your major is unrelated; highlight the BA.
Bachelor of Arts in Geology, Montana State University — 1992

Example 2: Senior sales position requires a bachelor’s and your degree isn’t directly related but you graduated from a prestigious school.
Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration, Harvard University – 1994

Example 3: Vice President of Marketing position requires related degree, which you have and you want to make it clear that you meet that requirement.
Bachelor of Arts in Marketing and Mass Communication, Michigan State University – 2001

A job seeker with less than two years of post-grad professional experience will benefit from including more education-related details. Begin with the education formula mentioned above. Add highlights that relate to the job in question. This could include relevant coursework, special honors and awards, leadership experience within organizations, clubs, and sports, GPA (impressive GPAs only), study abroad, and any other educational experience that adds value to your application. New graduates with no work experience can expand these supportive sub-sections into individual resume sections of their own.

High school should only be included if you have not yet earned a higher education degree. Never include middle school or elementary school (I mention because I’ve seen this on a resume). For in-progress degrees, add “expected graduation” in front of the year awarded.

Now that the “vanilla” is safely mixed into your resume, next month we’ll explore your options for other sections of your resume. We’ll look at the difference between Objectives and Summaries, when to use Professional Profiles, Certifications, Licenses, Skills, Publications, and more.

She may no longer work in a barn, but Liz Williams is still taking the struggle out of job search and the pain out of promotion with professionally-written resumes. If you have questions about resumes, cover letters, and landing a job, learn more at writerla.com and follow Liz at facebook.com/writerla to get more tips on resume writing.