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Resume@resume-place.com

Last week, I showed you how to get ready to write a winning resume. If you followed my suggestions already, great job! If you're printing my columns and holding on to them for when you are ready to make a career switch, that's good, too. But remember, it's better to have a winning resume on-hand at all times. You don't want to have to scramble to pull together everything you need when a once-in-a-career opportunity suddenly appears.

Are you ready to start writing your resume? After you have gathered your documents (see last week's column), you need to create the resume outline - the basic facts. It would be very helpful if you had a federal resume sample in front of you so you know the right format. You can go to my Web site and see a sample.

Here's what you should include in your resume outline:

1. Your personal information (name, address, Social Security number, phone number, etc.)
2. Your education, including colleges or universities, degrees, majors, dates. If the degrees are recent, list titles of significant courses, major papers and thesis titles.
3. A list of recent job-related training (course titles, organization, dates).
4. A list of employers and positions. Include the title of the agency, office, street address, including zip code, your title, series, grade, your supervisor's name and telephone, your beginning and ending salary, and number of hours worked per week. (You can write "full-time.")
5. Don't try to write the descriptions of positions yet. This is just a basic outline, remember. If you can't resist, start writing the descriptions of early positions - 10 to 15 years ago. They should be very short (one to two paragraphs).

This amount of information will take up about two pages, maybe more, if you have 15 to 20 years experience. It will probably take you two to three hours to write your outline.

Next week, we'll go on to the next step. If you have questions, you can write me at resume@ari.net.

Kathryn Kraemer Troutman has been the president of The Resume Place, Inc. for 27 years. Kathryn helps people get promoted and change jobs. She is the pioneer designer of the new "federal resume." She wrote and published the first book on federal resume writing and is a popular resume writing workshop leader in government.

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