Tillyard RésuméThe swap
What a swap partner is asked to look for
Six questions, each answered "Not yet", "Partly" or "Yes", then one thing to keep and one thing to change first. The answers are words and nothing adds them up. No one grades a résumé or a member.
The six questions
version 1.0The top third says who this is
Cover everything below the first third of the page. Can you tell what the person studies, roughly when they finish and what kind of role they are after?
Bullets open with what the person did
Each line should start with the action: built, led, wrote, analysed. Lines that open with "Responsible for" or "Helped with" hide who did the thing.
Evidence where it exists
Numbers, scale and results where the person plainly has them: how many, how often, out of how many, what changed. A line with no number is fine when nothing was counted.
Strongest material first
Within each section, and across the page, the things a reader should remember come before the things that fill space.
Consistent dates, tense and punctuation
Dates in one form, finished things in the past tense, and lines that all end the same way.
A simple layout at a sensible length
One column, ordinary headings, no crowding, and no longer than the material deserves. For most students that is one page.
Who your partner is
A partner is another student. They are not told whose résumé it is and they are not asked whether it is good enough for anything. Their notes give a reader's first impression and the usual conventions, so take what helps and leave the rest.