Resume Contact Section

The contact section of your resume is the easiest section of your resume to complete, yet it's also extremely important that care is taken in putting it together correctly. It needs to be highly accurate, since this your vital connection link to employers.

There are essentially four components to your contact section, all centered at the top of your resume (the only exception being the split college address listed below):

Name: your first and last name

• If you have a common name (i.e. Jane Jones, David Smith, etc.), you can include a middle initial or middle name to help uniquely identify you
• However, most employers (and their applicant tracking systems) will cue off identify off your e-mail address for name duplications, since your e-mail address is uniquely you

Address:

two lines, street address (and apartment number, if applicable) on one line, city, state/province zip on the second line

• If you are currently in college and have two different addresses (Campus Address and Home Address), you can split them by putting one left justified and one right justified
• If you do split your addresses, you can still typically list your phone number and e-mail address down the center under your name
• If you typically have a three line address (such as placing an apartment number on a second line), combine the street address and apartment number on the same line
• If you are applying globally or outside of your home country, also list your country at the end of the second line in standard local format

Phone number: ideally a mobile number where you can be easily reached

• Caution: if you are currently employed and you get a phone call from an unknown number on your mobile, you may want to find a private place to answer it or let it go into voicemail unless you're truly OK with your coworkers hearing you attempt to cover up for your job search call
• If you have an unprofessional outgoing message on your voicemail, now would be a good time to change it

E-mail address: list your e-mail address without "E-mail:" in front of it (the e-mail address by itself is sufficient)

• Make sure you check your e-mail regularly (at least once a day) during your job search
• No stupid-name-email-addresses (like HotBabe1234@gmail.com or DopeHead5678@gmail.com)
• Do not make it an activated link in Word or iWork (which typically changes the color of the font to blue and underlines); remove any hyperlinks, since having this text colored could cause your resume to print in color rather than black and white, potentially degrading the overall print quality

Keep the font typeface consistently the same throughout your resume. However, you can increase the font size up to 4 points for your name at the top of the resume (and bold it). While photos are acceptable in some parts of the world, they are a solid no in the U.S.