02/01/2016
What Your Resume Should Include
There are a number of things that every resume should have on it. Check out the resume templates on our Sample Resumes and Cover Letters page to get an idea of what each of these sections should look like.
Contact Details
Make sure you include your name, email address and a contact phone number on your resume. You don't have to include your home address, although there might be some situations when doing so would be a good idea.
Don't include your contact details in the header of your resume. Recruitment software sometimes has difficulty reading information in headers or footers, so it's a good idea to avoid headers altogether.
You can put your contact details in the footer of your resume, but if you do, you must make sure they're also in the main body of the document.
Opening Statement
An opening statement is a summary of who you are, where you've studied and/or worked, and what you bring to the job. It should be about six lines long and written in first person without the personal reference (i.e., don't say "I did this" - say “Did this" instead).
Your opening statement should start with one sentence about who you are and what you bring to the job, then describe the skills and attributes you have that suit you to the job.
For some examples of opening statements, check out our Sample Resumes and Cover Letters page.
Key Skills & Strengths
Your resume should include a list of between 10 and 15 skills that link your experience to the job you're applying for.
If the job you're applying for was advertised, either the ad or the position description may provide a list of skills and experiences that are essential for doing the job. It may also provide a list of "desirable" skills and experience. Your list of key skills & strengths needs to respond to all of the items on the "essential" list and as many items as possible on the "desirable" list.
When putting together this list, think of things you've done or learned to do as part of:
Jobs you've had
Your studies
Any work placements you've done
Any volunteering you've done
For examples of the kinds of skills you might list, check out our Sample resumes and Cover Letters page.
Technical/Software Skills
This is a short list of the names of software or technology you know how to use. Examples might include:
Word processing or spreadsheet software
Programming languages
Tools (e.g., cash registers, EFTPOS)
Personal Attributes
If you haven't got much work experience, a list of personal attributes can be another way to demonstrate that you're the right person for the job.
Things you could include in this section might include ways you can demonstrate that you are reliable, honest, trustworthy or quick to learn new things. Check out our Employ ability Skills page to see a few of the things that employers are commonly looking for.
You can include between three to five personal attributes, but make sure you don't include them instead of your key skills.
Educational History
Your Educational History only needs to show your highest level of education. You don't need to include your results, unless showing them proves how well you're suited to the job.
If you can, you should also include a few bullet points listing your academic achievements (e.g., school or class captaincies, awards you've won, or groups you've been part of).
Employment History
When providing your employment history, start with the your most recent job and go backwards from there. Give the position title and the dates you worked there.
If you haven't had a job before, you can use other things to demonstrate your experience, including:
Work experience you've done through school
Work placements or internships that you've done through university or TAFE
Volunteer work you've done
For each job provide a list of the things that you achieved while in that job, and the significant contributions you made to the organisation. Make sure that these achievements and contributions match the key skills and strengths listed earlier on your resume.
For examples of how you can do this, check out our Sample Resumes and Cover Letters page.
References/Referees
Your resume should list two people who can positively recommend you as an employee. Ideally your references will be people that you have worked with before. Provide their name, their position title, and a way that they can be contacted.
For more about references, check out our Who Can Be My Referee? page.
Testimonials
A testimonial is another good way to prove that your skill and experience is what the employer is looking for.
Getting a testimonial can be as easy as asking a colleague, teacher or previous employer to write a couple of sentences about you. Ideally the people you get testimonials from should also be included in your references.
You can include any testimonials you get as part of your educational history or your employment/volunteering/work placement history.
Usually it's enough to include one or two testimonials in your resume. Any more than two is probably too many.
For examples of testimonials, check out our Sample Resumes and Cover Letters page.
Keywords
A lot of recruitment agencies use software that scans applications for key words and phrases. Applications that don't use the right keywords tend to be automatically rejected.
Key words and phrases that this software looks for can include the names of:
Skills
Jobs
Activities
Qualifications
Software
Tools
To make sure your resume has the right key words and phrases, check out the job ad and make a list of the words and phrases it uses. If you don't have a written job ad to refer to, you can use a job search engine to find other ads for similar jobs and see what kind of keywords those ads use.
Once you have a list to work from, start adding those words and phrases to your resume. Good places to add keywords include:
Your opening statement
Your list of key skills
Your educational history
Your employment history
For examples of how to use keywords on your resume, check out our Sample Resumes and Cover Letters page.
