Annabel is a university student seeking part-time casual work as a waitress in an upmarket restaurant.

CLICK HERE TO PREVIEW ANNABEL'S RESUME (JPG FORMAT)

PurposeAnnabel has developed this résumé for canvassing the restaurants that she has selected. Those running small businesses such as restaurants like to see the applicant and many of them will not look at an application unless they have first met the job seeker. It is important therefore not just to take the résumé into the restaurant but to give it personally to the manager and to be prepared to talk about yourself. Choose a time when the restaurant is not likely to be busy – in fact, even better, ring and make an appointment.
And when you go, dress appropriately – smart casual. Let the manager see your potential as a waiter / waitress.

StyleThe style is simple. There is plenty of white space which makes the document easy to read. The font is Times New Roman throughout, her name and the section headings being in bold italic. The headings are given greater prominence through indenting the text 1 cm.

Order & contentAnnabel is focusing her résumé on the job. Every line on the first page demonstrates some attribute or skill that makes her the right sort of person to work in a smart restaurant. The résumé shows her to be energetic, reliable, friendly and customer oriented.

Because the work and work-environment is different from her previous employment and from her area of study, she has chosen to write a functional résumé. This type of résumé allows her to use achievement statements show how she meets the selection criteria. Every job has selection criteria whether it’s written down or not.. These achievement statements show that not only does she have the skills to do the job, she has the motivation to do the job well. Notice that she draws these achievement statements from previous paid employment as well as from her time at school and from voluntary work in the community. She has included an achievement statement on her university studies, not because academic ability is needed for the job but because it shows she works hard and likes to get the job done properly.

There are still few employers who prefer to see Personal Information at the top of a résumé. This is because that was the traditional place to put it before marketing practices were brought in to résumé writing. However, motivation is normally more important to the employer, and it’s important to convince the employer of that motivation in the top half of the first page. For this reason, Annabel has chosen the more modern approach of putting Personal Information fairly well down on the second page. Notice that in this section, she has included the fact that she has her own reliable transport. People working in restaurants often finish late. And unless public transport is good at this time of night, an employer wants to know that she can get home safely.

Note the final section, Personal Strengths. By this stage, the résumé is getting a little dry and dull. A reiteration of Annabel’s key strengths will help confirm the employer’s decision to take her on. Notice too that she has put her telephone number in the footer on the second page. A restaurant owner told me that he liked this because too often one page gets lost. If the first page does get lost, the second one has her essential contact details.

An employer’s comments“I would normally prefer just one page but this one is good. I like a résumé that’s short and sweet, one that does stand out and hit us in the face. This résumé is interesting and I can get a good idea of her personality. The Skills and Achievement section is very useful. It tells me that Annabel is a girl with the right attitude. She is certainly the sort of person we would employ.”