Everyone has materials for a resume, but not everyone knows how to competitively craft them.

On Thursday night, Dr. Charles Bradshaw of the UTM English department presented a seminar on making one’s resume attractive.

Bradshaw began his seminar by introducing the acronym: “CRAP.” Crap stands for Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity.

“It has been proven that your resume will only be looked at for about 10 to 15 seconds,” Bradshaw says. Bradshaw explained that by paying close attention to the areas of contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity you can achieve a professional and attractive look to your design.

For contrast, Bradshaw says that people should take use of color, fonts, lines and even shapes. He recommends using muted colors, shades of grays and even using the white space on your page to attract a reader’s eye. According to Bradshaw, the more contrast that you have, the more likely a reader is going to be able to pick up on the highlights of your resume, rather than reading it as if it were a textbook that had many words with none being more important than the next.

Bradshaw also talked about resume organization. He says that you should always put your strengths at the top of your resume regardless of what they may be. If academics are your greatest strength, then you should list your education first.

Many people wonder how many jobs they should list on their resume. Bradshaw says that usually you should list no more than three to four.

When you are writing your resume, Bradshaw says that you should always begin with action verbs. For example, rather than saying you were vice president of a student organization you could say: “Served as vice president of SGA.”

Your resume should rarely exceed more than one page.

Everything needs to be well organized and concise. Bradshaw also recommends printing your resume on 24 lb. . or more bond paper. He also says that you should print your resume on a laser printer, as opposed to an inkjet.

The resume workshop was hosted by the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity as part of their Balanced Man program. Over 40 people were in attendance at the event.