Resume Guide

The main purpose of a resume is to help you get an interview. It should present your accomplishments and qualifications in an interesting and efficient manner. Your first step in preparing a resume is to identify the type of position you want and the skills necessary for that position. You will then include your experiences and accomplishments that demonstrate you have those competencies.

An effective resume markets your skills rather than merely listing job responsibilities. While a job application details virtually your entire work history, a resume allows you to select materials from your background to highlight. Focus on accomplishments and achievements, using high impact statements, and avoid merely listing a summary of your duties and responsibilities.

If you remember nothing else, remember this—your resume is a marketing tool! You need to know your product (you!) and your customer (the employer) so that you can effectively sell the former to the latter.

Resume Brainstorming

When starting a resume from scratch, it can be daunting to try to figure out what to list and how to list it. Instead, start off with some simple brainstorming. On a piece of paper, write down everything you might want to include about yourself on a resume—education, coursework, jobs, internships, activities, skills, honors, publications, language skills, study abroad experiences and community service projects. At this point in the process, if you are a freshman or sophomore, include information from high school as well. When you put it in resume format, you can decide what to exclude.

Next, you can start to expand on these experiences. Write down the dates, locations, and title/position for each job or activity. Finally, for each work experience or major extracurricular activity, brainstorm and record major responsibilities, projects worked on, new skills learned, and goals achieved. Think about how you:

• improved the work process.
• helped increase the quality or reduced the cost of a product or service that the organization delivers.
• may have thoroughly satisfied a customer.
• helped increase the sales or profits of the organization or a particular event.
• did something that was of value to others.
  learned valuable skills that are transferable to any work environment.
• contributed to the organization's goals.
• demonstrated that you were recognized for your achievements or contributions.

Describe these accomplishments using RAP statements: Include Results that you achieved based on the Action that you took in response to the Project or the Problem you faced (Result + Action + Problem/Project). The order of these elements is not as critical as the combined effect. If you can, try to quantify the accomplishment in some way.

Action Orientation
Use action verbs and phrases to present yourself as a "doer". Skills and achievements are best highlighted when active. Using phrases like "Duties included:" and "Responsibilities included:" is passive and should be minimized. If you find it awkward to use action verbs for certain descriptions, then use words with as much impact as possible, "As the leader of a five-person project team..."

Skills Orientation
In general, an employer is looking for someone not only with the technical or "hard" skills to do the job advertised but also with certain "soft" skills as well. These "soft" skills are transferable from one work environment to another and are often what make an employee an asset to an organization. Oftentimes, summer jobs that you might consider less "professional" such as retail or camp counseling can look quite impressive when described using skill language. "Soft" or transferable skills include:

Sections of the Resume – What to Include

• Heading (Identification)
• Objective
• Education
• Experience
• Skills
• Activities and Interests
• Other Sections

Heading (Identification)

This section should include your name, current and home address, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses. Note: Current and home addresses are useful for employers who wish to contact you over vacation periods or invite you to receptions in your hometown. Students whose home address is not in the US may prefer not to provide that information.

Make sure your answering machine offers a cordial greeting that clearly indicates by first name (and last if your roommates share a first name) all the residents who may be receiving messages. Loud music, "cute" openers, "words for the day", etc. may be distracting to your callers. Also, if you choose to list your cellular phone number on your resume, be prepared to answer it in a professional manner at all times.

Objectives

A clear objective statement at the top of your resume, which indicates your area of interest and skills you possess, can be very useful to many employers. An objective is optional, however, particularly when your cover letter fully describes your goals. Avoid vague statements like, "Seeking a challenging and rewarding position that will utilize my skills." You might include some combination of the following three pieces of information—the position title, the field or organization you wish to be in, and the knowledge or skills you wish to incorporate into your work. For example: “Seeking a position with a daily newspaper, utilizing my strong writing, research and interviewing skills.”

Education

The name of your school, location, graduation date (month/year), degree (either written out or the use of abbreviations, e.g., A.B., B.S.E., Ph.D.) are stated here. Your overall GPA or the GPA in your major may be included, if one or both are at least a 3.0. Any subset of an overall GPA indicates information that is open to interpretation by an employer. (Example: the use of GPA in major without the overall GPA might be interpreted to mean that a) you were very strong in your major courses; b) you were better in the major courses than you were overall c) you were drastically better in your major courses than you were overall.)

If you studied abroad for a semester or longer, include the name of the school, its location, the period of time you were there and the courses studied.

Honors and awards may have a subsection in this area. Thesis topics and/or Major Projects are acceptable with a brief description. Indicate courses that you may have taken that demonstrate some knowledge in an area, especially if the courses were not required for your major, but might be useful for the position to which you are applying.

You may list your high school and a few of your honors and activities. However, this area should be brief unless you are preparing a resume for summer employment prior to graduation. Freshmen and sophomoresmay have had limited internship experiences. High school activities, etc. are still important for these students. However, this entire subsection it is an optional area for juniors and seniors.

Experience

This section may include a variety of activities: unpaid internships, paid summer employment that was either part-time or full time, extensive volunteer opportunities or work-study positions. Use this section to outline the opportunities in which you have been able to demonstrate initiative, leadership or competence in an area. Be factual in your description but include information that adds to the description. Be sure to analyze each experience in terms of your responsibilities and outcomes. Did you develop a new program? Train workers? Conduct research and develop reports?

Example - "Supervised campers and planned activities" could be described as:

Supervise the daily activities of 30 campers between the ages of 8 and 12.

Example - "Sales assistant in a brokerage firm involved in research" might be written as:

Research client accounts valued in excess of $250,000. Examined historical trades and reconciled monthly statements.

By providing some numbers and quantifying your accomplishments, as well as offering more detailed activities and tasks, your descriptions become more informative. Don't shy away from discussing your achievements! Almost every job has value whether it was from the task itself or what you learned by attempting to complete the task.

If you’d like to highlight a certain kind of experience of relevance, make it a separate section. For example, JOURNALISM EXPERIENCE and ADDITIONAL EXPERIENCE.

Special Qualifications & Skills

You may want to include a section for skills or qualifications that enhance your prospects of employment and have not already been reflected elsewhere. Computer skills (Languages, Hardware, Software), foreign languages you can read or speak, certifications (such as specific examinations passed, i.e., Actuarial Exams), and sophisticated or technical equipment that you can operate may be mentioned in this section. This category is optional, and allows an employer to easily pinpoint your accumulated, special and/or technical areas of expertise.

Activities & Interests

Extracurricular activities, such as involvement in student clubs, campus government, athletics, and the like, can be excellent experiences to include on your resume. Through your involvement in activities, you are developing communication, leadership, teamwork, event planning, budgeting, and other skills that are highly values by potential employers.

Activities can be presented on the resume much in the same way that a work experience is formatted with bullet points describing your responsibilities and accomplishments. Or they can be listed without detailed descriptions.

A word of caution should be offered, however. There are organizations and hobbies that may provide information about your political, religious or personal interests that you would prefer not to discuss or have known. Be selective in what you choose to list; if you do list these activities, be sure to emphasize relevant skills developed. If you are unsure about what information to include, discuss this with a counselor.

In the Interests section, which might also be entitled "Personal Background," "Personal Profile," or "Additional Information," you have the chance to provide information about your personal interests. Be specific in presenting athletic activities, cultural or intellectual interests, artistic and musical abilities, and travel experiences.

If you have financed a portion of your college expenses through employment, loans, grants, or scholarships, you should include it in this section if you have not mentioned it earlier (sometimes this is included in the Education section of the resume).

You may also want to include professional organizations, clubs, or associations to which you belong; community and/or church activities. This section is optional but should be included if it adds to your qualifications.

Other Sections

The categories included above are the most "typical," but do not be confined by these headings. If you have significant leadership experience, describe it in a section titled LEADERSHIP. If you have performed a great deal of volunteer work, create a section called COMMUNITY SERVICE and highlight your contributions within that section.

Other sample section headings:

Resume Formatting

Language—Avoid first person pronouns (I, me, my).  Make sure your punctuation, spelling and grammar are correct.  Use action verbs but avoid repeating the same ones too frequently.  Steer clear of technical jargon or acronyms unless you are sure your reader will understand.  Avoid flowery or vague language and be specific about your past experiences.  You can’t assume that you’ll get the chance to explain something in an interview.

Length—Your resume should be no more than one page in length.  Remember, there is no need to include everything, just those things that are relevant for the particular job or industry to which you are applying.  If you are receiving an advanced degree and you have several publications to include, you may need two pages.  Be sure to place the bulk of your achievements on the first page, to more quickly capture employer interest.

Visual Appeal—Your resume should have adequate margins (no smaller than 0.75") and use formatting strategies that highlight rather than clutter.  Use bold, italics, and capitalization in a consistent manner.  Do not use unusual fonts or fonts that are too small (10-12 point is acceptable).  All text should be the same font size with perhaps the exception of your name which can be a couple sizes larger.  Use high-quality resume paper in white or off-white.

Things to Avoid— Resumes used in the United States should not list your age, gender, religion, political affiliation, martial status or social security number.  Don’t include salary expectations or salary history on the resume.  If you worked part-time, it is not necessary to include the number of hours worked per week.  Don’t write “References Available Upon Request.”  Employers will ask for references if they want them.

Format Types — Chronological resumes list your experience in reverse chronological order starting with the experiences that are most recent. This format is the most common and therefore familiar to employers and committees. It emphasizes consistent history of experience and highlights where you’ve gained your experiences. However, it can also highlight gaps in employment if those exist.  A functional resume is organized by your most significant skill ("functional") areas.  For example, a functional section of the resume might be Leadership; within that section, you would then list any leadership experiences or accomplishments, regardless of where it took place or was acquired. A functional resume can help emphasize skills and minimize gaps in employment but it is also less traditional, less common, and more difficult to compose.  A functional resume may work better for those with several years of experience rather than new graduates.

Resumes for Fellowships, Scholarships and Graduate School

Resumes used for fellowship, scholarship, and graduate/professional school applications should adhere to virtually all of the same formatting guidelines as other resumes. When applying for fellowships and graduate school, you will want to ensure that your scholarly pursuits and accomplishments achieve prominence on the page. Include greater detail on research experiences and coursework, showcasing the types of skills highly valued in academic settings. Publications or working papers (if any) should be included. A longer, complete list of scholarships, honors and awards is appropriate. As with any resume, think about the audience and organize the sections in order of importance. What type of fellowship are you seeking? In what type of graduate program do you hope to enroll? The most related educational, work and research experiences should usually be listed first.

Sections of the resume may include:

• Education
• Research
• Experience (internships, employment)
• Publications/Working Papers
• Volunteer/Community Services
• Athletics
• Extracurricular Activities
• Skills (technical, languages)
• Honors/Awards

You may have some programs or committees ask you for a “CV” – but how does that differ from a resume? A curriculum vitae (CV) looks very similar to a resume but tends to contain more detail on academic projects, publications, courses taught, and honors won than a resume targeted to specific employment purposes. The CV is most commonly used within academic and research environments. The overall strategies for formatting and visual appeal are the same for resumes and CVs. For those with several years of experience and graduate education, a CV may be two or more pages in length.

Most undergraduates can effectively present their qualifications on one page, a length strongly recommended and preferred in the employment search. If you have, however, accumulated a significant amount of experience, honors, and so forth, then you may exceed one page for fellowship and graduate school applications. Always be sure to have your name on the second page, in the event your materials become separated. Evaluate the relevance of what you include, which will ultimately dictate the length of the document.

Electronic Submission and Text-Only Resumes

Electronic submission of resumes – whether via a web site or email – has pretty much become the norm.  Unfortunately, not every organization requests materials in the same manner or format.  In many cases, an employer may specify that you submit your resume in a certain format, the most common of which are MS Word, PDF, and text-only.  At times, however, an employer may provide little detail about preferred formatting. 

When an employer asks you to submit materials via email, the best format to use is a PDF document because it preserves all of your formatting and minimizes the chance that the employer will be unable open your document.  That being said, MS Word is frequently a safe option for attachments.

When applying via a web site, you are frequently allowed to upload or attach a document, so again PDF or Word are fine options.  In some cases, however, you need to cut and paste text into one large box or several text boxes.  In these instances, use a text-only resume.  A text resume does not use italics, underlining, boxes, shading, graphics, symbols or bullets, unusual fonts, or other “fancy” design features.  Instead of using tables, indentation or tab stops, all text should be left-justified using line breaks between entries on the resume.  To highlight section headings, use ALL CAPS. 

Those companies that ask for text-only resumes are trying to ensure that they can read all submitted materials in a consistent manner, rather than have formatting issues create problems for them considering all applicants.  They might also be using keyword searches in their databases to screen for required skills and qualifications, which is made easier when they have text to search (rather than a PDF document which is only viewable or printable).

When in doubt about formatting, and when possible (as some will proclaim “NO PHONE CALLS” in their job listings), ask the employer directly for the preferred format or consult a career counselor for advice.

International Resumes

Resumes in different countries may call for a different format than one for a position within the United States. In Sweden, the resume includes a date of birth. A personal photograph paper-clipped to the right-hand corner is included in the German resume. In the United States, on the other hand, one should never include a date of birth or photo. It is important to be aware of these different practices when preparing a resume. Check out these web sites for more information:

• Eurograduate
• Le CV francais

Books available in the Career Services library that also include tips about international resumes are:

• Global Resume and CV Guide
• International Jobs
• Getting a Job Abroad
• How to Get a Job in Europe

Resume Samples

There is no one correct way to write a resume. Since this document is such a personal expression of yourself, be sure to create it using a layout and style that is right for you. Use the following resume samples to get a feel for what a resume should look like:

• Freshman-Sophomore Sample 1
• Freshman-Sophomore Sample 2
• Junior-Senior Sample 1
• Junior-Senior Sample 2
• Functional (This style is not usually used by undergraduates)
• Sample Federal Government Resumes

Also, consult resume writing books and online resources for more ideas. Here is a list of some of our favorite books from the Career Services library:

• 101 Grade A Resumes for Teachers
• Encyclopedia of Job-Winning Resumes
• The Global Resume and CV Guide
• Resumes for the Health Care Professional
• Resumes for High Tech Careers
• Resumes that Knock 'Em Dead
• Resumes that Will Get You the Job You Want
• Resumes that Work:  How to Sell Yourself on Paper