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SECTIONS AND CONTENT OF A GOOD RESUME
BY CAROL A. MILLER
FOR PBJ PARTICIPANTS
Note to you: These are the sections of a good resume; one that captures the attention
of your reader and allows you to SELL your competencies up front. An employer wants
to know if your skills and tangible achievements are a good fit with his/her company and
the position they have open. They don’t want to have to plow through your prior jobs to
figure this out. Also, NEVER provide any “personal” information (e.g. left job because of
family problems) in a resume; that type of information sets up “red flags” to a prospective
employer. If asked and if appropriate, this can be divulged in an interview; however,
most employers know the legal issues of asking such questions.
SECTION 1—PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION—Your name placed prominently
at the top with address and other items less prominent because you want
the reader to really only remember YOU. You can format with underlines or in a
box for further enhancement. An example follows:
JOHN/JANE DOE
Address Telephone #’s
Finish address email address
OPTIONAL SECTION 2—A statement of the position you are seeking. This
section is “optional” because it limits your horizons unless your resume has been
tailored to an exact position an employer has open. In order to make your
resume as generic as possible (and thereby not place yourself out of potential
positions that might utilize your skills/competencies), don’t include this section.
Rather, save it for the cover letter and only if you are aiming the statement at an
exact position opening. After all, you’d expect a reader to know you are an
engineer, for example, if your skills and accomplishments tell them that. Don’t
waste space on redundancies.
OPTIONAL SECTION 2A—Because you want to start your resume with an
“attention-grabbing” section, you may set up this section by including the
names of positions you’ve held previously. This needs to be done judiciously
because you need to use terms that show a focus on use of your core
competencies/skills (to be listed in the next section). Also, it immediately clues
the reader into the career level you have achieved as in “assistant to” or
“manager,” or “director.” A partial example is given in the following for a
Sales/Marketing-type person:

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NOTE TO YOU: this section doesn’t need a title; it is self-explanatory if positioned
immediately under the identification section.
-SALES CAMPAIGN DIRECTOR -MARKETING COMMUNICATION ADMINISTRATOR
-MULTI-STATE AND REGIONAL SALES DIRECTOR
SECTION 3---PROFESSIONAL PROFILE (can also term it just PROFILE)—I’ve noticed over
the course of reviewing over 25 resumes that this is truly the most difficult section for people to
do because it forces you to come to grips with what you’re capable of and what you’ve done
that has worth. However, this is really the MOST IMPORTANT section in the resume because
it includes the “very best you have to offer” to an employer. This section should include your
SKILLS/CORE COMPETENCIES, really key tangible ACCOMPLISHMENTS and TRAITS
you’d like the employer to know you have. Remember, this is the first page of the resume and
it may be the only one page the prospective employer reads, so it MUST GRAB THEM. YOU
HAVE TO SELL YOURSELF; NO ONE ELSE IS GOING TO DO THAT FOR YOU AS GOOD
AS YOU CAN! You may have buried these items in the “JOBS” section or on the last page of
your resume, so dig them out of that page (or out of your work memory) and get them into a
format that gets the attention of the reader. An example for a Mechanical Engineer follows :
PROFESSIONAL PROFILE
SKILLS:
Skilled in use of AFGROW --Fracture Mechanics and Fatigue Crack Growth Analysis
Software
Proficient in use of Pro/ENGINEER with full CAD/CAM/CAE capabilities; this software is
the world's most commercially adopted 3D product design solution for engineering
SAP Lean Planning and Operations –skilled in the corporate SAP software solutions to
accelerate lean transformation, and sustain lean operations
Skilled and Certified in use of Microsoft Tools including Word, Excel, Access (to share
and access multiple data sets across a variety of departments) and PowerPoint
Project Team Leader—manage multi-disciplinary projects with collaborative inter-
personal skills and facilitated with functionally simple BaseCamp software
NOTE TO YOU ON SKILLS: You may wish to place your skills in a tabular format but be
careful not to use acronyms (abbreviations) unless you explain them. Also give some
qualifier to your user level, as in “skilled in,” or “proficient in” because you want to give the
reader a good idea of your capability. Select SKILLS that definitely reinforce your field of
expertise.
KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
Developed multidisciplinary product development team that utilized BaseCamp
software to design, construct, field stress test and provide prototype for a $3.5 million

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government contract wind-driven generator and finished project $24K under budget
and 6 months ahead of government goals; awarded a $10K bonus.
SuperEngineer of Indiana Award 2006---This is a yearly, state-wide competition
award given to a Mechanical Engineer with peer judged achievements indicative of
excellence; the award was accompanied with a $5K check.
NOTE TO YOU ON ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Select those key, tangible achievements
(over your professional career) that “knock the socks off” a reader and give them reason to
get you in for an interview. Don’t fill this section with a “work list” or a “responsibility” list.
Give as many of these accomplishments ($-saving values or time-saving values) as
possible. For Mangagement-types, you can include the size of the budgets you’ve had
under your supervision to give an employer an understanding of the responsibility of
budgets you’ve had. Don’t forget to include awards, either internal to your Company or
from outside. Note the one I included above is a “figment of my imagination,” but
please don’t use figments of yours; always keep your information honest.
TRAITS:
Always meet or bring projects to completion before deadlines with appropriate
documentation and quality
Strive to achieve harmony within Project Teams and with my peers and management
Highly organized and have ability to juggle many projects with ease
Search out software systems that are effective in streamlining projects and
development of mechanical systems
NOTE TO YOU ON TRAITS: This section doesn’t have to be long. It’s main purpose is to
give some idea of what kind of a person you are and the traits you bring to the workplace.
SECTION 4—CAREER PROFILE—OK, you’ve now arrived at the section with which you
are most comfortable, right? You can now list everything you’ve ever done, everything
you’ve been “responsible” for in your entire professional career--well, no, not necessarily.
This area is an expansion on your accomplishments, so don’t turn it in to a laundry list of
mundane tasks with no tangible achievements and NEVER use the terms “experience” or
“responsible for” or “my assignment was”—you get the picture. These terms make you
sound passive as in I’ve had experience in that area, but I have no tangible
accomplishments; OR Yes, I was responsible for X but I can’t list any tangible
achievements; OR Yes, I was assigned that job, but that makes me sound like they had
nothing else for me to do. Get your verbs in these lists like: developed, managed,
created, supervised, etc. These words make you sound like a person of action, not
someone standing around waiting to be “assigned” or “given responsibility.” REMEMBER,
YOU’RE STILL SELLING YOURSELF!
I suggest listing your JOB TITLE FIRST because YOU ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT
ITEM here, not the Company. This may be hard for you to do, since you’ve identified
CAREER PROFILE
yourself so long with that company; but remember, it’s your skills your selling now, not the
company who put you out of a job. You’re not selling that company. An example follows:

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MULTISTATE REGIONAL SALES DIRECTOR 2001---2009
XYZ Widget Company, Elkhart, IN
Designed Microsoft Access data base for all salespersons in 15 state-wide sales territory to
expedite sales leads, the order process, and collaborated with Order Entry, Manufacturing, and
Payables Departments to streamline the order to shipment time for a time savings of 10
days/order and increased sales profitability of $4.3K for Q1 to Q2, 2003; the system and
enhanced profitability are ongoing.
NOTE TO YOU: The above action could have been placed in the KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS
SECTION because it is a tangible achievement. You have to judge which tangible
achievements/accomplishments you want to put up front as attention-grabbing items and, those
that, as well are KEY to the job you’re seeking. The following item shows an accomplishment
not easily related to a profit goal; however it does get some #’s into it (# of people and # of
days). Always try to add tangible items. Terms like “entered work orders” or “worked closely
with” or “adjusted work schedules” may be things you did, but are “mind numbing” to read
unless you can provide some quantitative rationale for that laundry list. Finally, adding
“months” in the time period is not necessary.
Spearheaded regional sales training meeting to retrain all salespersons for new product
introductions; 150 salespersons and support personnel trained over a 5-day period.
SECTION 4—or ACADEMIC ACCOMPLISHMENTS or ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS
You’re now nearly done with this resume. The title should, again, SELL YOU! Don’t be so
mundane as to entitle it—EDUCATION or EXPERIENCE. YOU’VE accomplished these
academic fetes, so be proud of them. Also, include any post-degree training, but only if it
is key to your PROFESSIONAL PROFILE; don’t include “basket weaving” if you’re a
trained Electrical Engineer, unless, of course, if you are designing a new “woven” circuit 
SECTION 5-- COMMUNITY OR VOLUNTEER WORK
This is pretty much the end of the resume and should include things like volunteer work
with: Scouts, Road beautification, Food Pantries, Facilitator for PBJ,etc. This type of
information shows the prospective employer you are involved in your community and have
compassion for the less advantaged around you.
NOTE TO YOU—WILLINGNESS TO RELOCATE
If you are willing to relocate to another geographic area, you should state that either at
the end of your resume or more appropriately in your cover letter. Right now, you have
to go where the jobs are and this may mean relocation. A prospective employer should
know that willingness on your part; some may assume you are not because of your
length of stay in one area.