English 420, Business Writing

I chose to look at resumes three and four. As far as the designs, I feel like resume four was done better than resume three despite the large white space at the top of the sheet. Resume three seemed very cramped because of the long descriptive lines overlapping space with the dates on the right. It may have been better to stop the type a little before the right edge so that everything was a little more open. Along with all this, there seems to be a large white space that draws the eye in the bottom right hand corner of resume three.

I chose resumes two and four to compare and contrast. I think that overall they were fairly good resumes, but they did have some things that could use improvement. The designs of these resumes were quite different. They both had their names and contact information centered at the top of the page, which I think is a good idea because it draws your eyes to it immediately; although it did seem to waste some space and create some white space that could have been used more effectively. Both font sizes were Times New Roman 12 point, which is the most professional (according to APA style).

While looking at resume #2, I thought that the overall design was effective. The only thing that stood out to me to be a bad design practice was that there was far more space at the top of the resume than on the bottom. That amount of white space difference can be distracting. Content wise I thought that the objective statement was very descriptive, showing exactly what type of position was wanted. The descriptions of the duties of past jobs were very clear and descriptive as well. The community service and honors / awards sections could be more descriptive.

Of the four resumes I selected number one and number three. I chose these two because there was a great contrast and I wanted to make that evident. Resume number three came across as much more professional and well put together when resume one seemed like it was just a minimal effort or possibly a last minute attempt to get a resume together. With these two contrasting resumes it will be easier to compare and see what is right and what is done wrong with each of these two examples.

Resume One:

When I looked at all of the resumes I chose to criticize resume number 1 and resume number 3. When an employer is looking at a resume they only get less than a minute to intrigue them. If the employer sees enough to make them interested then they will read further, if not they will pass and move onto the next resume. Because of this potential employees need to have a few things they consider when constructing a resume. One of those things is professional ethos. How do they want to come across on paper in a very short period of time?

Resume 2

1. Use of Space: I thought the use of space is good. There is adequate space between the different sections so they are not bunched together.
2. Contrast: There is a clear distinction between the category headings and job headings.
3. Alignment: The alignment is good. Everything was aligned and neat. There is separation between the content headings and content.
4. Font: The font is suitable and easy to read. It is not flashy and does not distract the readers attention.

The two resume that I will evaluate is Resume #3 and Resume #4.

Resume #3:

When writing a resume, students have to focus on both design and content of their resume. I view the design of the resume is the first step and the content as the second step that I need to develop in order to acquire an internship or job position that I want. If I have a poor design of a resume, employers will throw my resume away after a first glance. Even if the design catches the employer’s eyes, with poor content, students will not be able to describe themselves fully.

I choose resume one and four to review and evaluate. The first resume has a good amount of information. I like the university name in bold along with the intern/job titles. Also, with the name and contact information in the middle makes the resume look well balanced. However, I think there should be a line after the contact information. The line will make it look more professional and the address would not look like its falling into the objective section. Next, the phone number is written as XXX-XXX-XXXX.

The two resumes in which I chose to review and evaluate are the first resume and the second resume. I selected these two resumes because I felt that the two applicants were both looking for roughly the same position. I refrained from analyzing the third resume because that particular applicant did not have a job objective and I had a hard time figuring out what he was looking for, and the fourth resume seemed to be more geared toward a technical field.