By completing the exercise in the previous section of this chapter, you've laid the groundwork for writing your resume. Skills and experience are the foundation for any resume, but as a new graduate you may feel like you are sorely deficient in both. In spite of the fact that you are just now making your grand entrance into the work force, you have seen that you do have some experience and you are not as devoid of skills as you may have thought. Now you must transform all this information into a resume.

The first rule of thumb is “keep it real.” Dishonesty is not allowed when writing your resume. Lying on your resume can do far more harm than good, even if it means that you might get a job faster than your fellow grads. You also may lose your job faster if your boss finds out you lied. You will be much better off if you focus on the skills and experience you do have rather than fretting about how much better your chances of getting hired would be if you had more experience or better skills.

The type of resume with which you may be most familiar is a chronological resume. A chronological resume lists all the jobs you've had, starting with the most recent and going backwards. It puts the spotlight on one's work history. Since you don't have much of a work history yet, that is probably something you don't want to do. You should write a resume that highlights your skills rather than your employment history. Using a skill-based resume allows you to put the spotlight on your skills and accomplishments. You can choose between a functional resume or a combination resume. If you use a functional resume, you will list your skills and accomplishments but not provide any information about past jobs. Alternatively, if you use a combination resume, you will briefly include information about your work history. This is the preferred option since it allows you to show that you have some experience, even if it appears to be unrelated to your current occupational pursuits. For more-detailed information about resume writing, see Chapter 4.