Page 190 - Complete Idiot's Guide to The Perfect Resume

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Part 2 ➤ Six Steps to a Perfect Resume

Sharp-Shooting Bullets

Bullet points are little dots placed at the beginning of a statement,
which help the reader move swiftly through your resume. They let you
present your information in bite-sized pieces and avoid unwanted para-
graphs (as mentioned in Chapter 3, “Winning Resume Wisdom”).
Here’s how to create the bullet point in MS Word:
Terms of Employment
➤ On the Macintosh, press the Option and 8 keys at the same time.
Point size is a measurement
➤ In MS Word for Windows, select the bullet icon on your toolbar
used by typographers to gauge
the size of type. The larger the or go to the Format menu and select Bullets and Numbering.
number of the point, the larger
the letter, number, or symbol is. There are symbols other than bullet points that can be used to separate
statements on your resume. Here are some that I like:
→

You can elaborate on a bullet-point statement by adding sub-bullet
statements. Sub-bullet statements should be indented and should start
with a symbol other than the bullet point, perhaps a dash, plus sign, or
one of the untraditional symbols mentioned above.
Career Casualty
The following resume by Joanne Rainey demonstrates the use of dashes
Watch out for the family of fonts to create indented sub–bullet-point statements under her achievements.
called Times (Times New Roman,
New York Times, or any font
with Times in its name). These Shady Bars
fonts look great, but they tend
You may like the look of lines, double lines, bars, or shaded bars run-
to print small. If you are using a
ning across or up and down your resume. Here’s how to do those nifty
Times font, go no smaller than extras if you’re working in MS Word:
12 point in the text of your
resume. 1. Put your cursor where you want to insert a line or bar into your
resume.
2. In your toolbar, access the Format pull-down menu.
3. Select Borders and Shading.
4. Under Setting, choose Box.
5. Under Style, choose the width.
6. Under Preview, click on the icon representing the bottom of the
box.
Job-Hunt Hint
It’s that simple, and the results will make you look like a desktop-
If you export your text into a publishing pro.
graphics program such as
Horizontal lines and shaded bars can help an employer immediately
PageMaker or QuarkXpress, you
identify the different sections of the resume allowing him to move
can really have fun with the
through your document quickly. Too many lines, however, can make a
layout options.
resume look cluttered. So use your judgment or consult a friend who
has an artistic eye to create the right balance.

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