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Your resume and
cover letter have a single purpose: to obtain an interview. The
resume is a marketing tool; it is an organized summary about your
qualifications as a potential employee. Career planning precedes
resume writing. Start the career planning process by taking a
personal inventory of your skills, interests, accomplishments and
experiences.
Since employers
may spend as little as 30 seconds reviewing a resume, you must
quickly convey a positive vision of who you are, and what you can do
for the employer. Concisely describe your career objective,
skills/qualifications, education, work history and interests in ways
that give the employer the best possible image of what you can do.
Think of the job or internship as an unmet need of an employer. Find
out the key skills for the type of position that you are applying
for, and then write statements that reflect these skills. During the
interview, you will need to support what you have said about
yourself in the resume or cover letter, through citing relevant
examples. While there is not an absolutely "correct" way to present
information on your resume, there are different resume styles that
will enhance your making the best impression possible.
The resume must
quickly catch the reader's attention with an attractive, powerful
summary of who you are and what you can do. Obtain maximum impact
with specific examples. Convince the employer to interview you by
relating everything on your resume to the job objective. It is a
good idea to create a resume using key words that describe your
skills, traits, and knowledge since many resumes are now scanned
into databases.
Keys to Your
Resume
Customize:
If you are seeking more than one type of job, you may want several
resumes with different career objectives or job targets.
One page:
Keep its length to one page unless you have extensive, relevant
experience.
Specific:
Concise, detailed, results-oriented phrases get maximum interest,
e.g., "Trained and managed three sales clerks in women’s clothing
section, averaging highest weekly sales out of six departments."
Language:
When possible, use the terminology or jargon of the employer.
Quantify:
Describe your duties and accomplishments with measurable data, e.g.
dollars, percents, numbers, and frequency. Use adjectives and
adverbs to describe your actions and results with detailed
descriptions. Be specific about your skills and competencies;
emphasize those skills most related to the position.
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Design:
Make the resume look inviting to read with attractive headings, a
good balance of black and white, wide margins, and a limited
selection of font sizes and styles. Do not use less than a 10 point
font. Bullets and columns can make it easier for employers to
quickly review your resume
Highlight:
The reader's eye goes first to the top, left side of the resume and
this is where to place your most important information. Headings and
important details can be given extra emphasis by careful use of
indenting, italicizing, underlining and bolding.
Proofread:
Have your resume critiqued by several people, including a
professional in your field? Grammatical, spelling, or typographical
errors are unacceptable.
Consistency:
It is critical to provide information in a consistent format within
each section of your resume. For example, present each of your jobs
consistently with job titles, employer name, location, and dates in
the same order.
Printing:
Laser quality print on laser compatible paper is suggested. If you
fax or scan your resume, always use white paper.
Resume Sections
Contact
Information:
Include your name, street address, city, zip code and home telephone
number with area code. You may want to include your email address
and fax number. If you feel comfortable, you may include your
business telephone. Contact information is usually placed at the top
of the page. Some students may wish to include both their home and
campus address and phone numbers.
Career or Job
Objective:
The career objective is a concise statement of what position you are
seeking and/or the industry or field desired. The remainder of your
resume should describe you in a way that makes the job objective
seem reasonable. In most situations a job objective is used. In
addition, general purpose resumes may be more useful at career
fairs.
In writing your
job objective, focus on the following:
Sample Career
or Job Objectives:
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Education:
Include your degree (e.g. BS or Bachelor of Science), major and
minor. If you have more than one degree, list your most recent and
relevant degree first. You may spell out the degree (Bachelor of
Arts) or use abbreviations (BA). If using abbreviations, make sure
they are commonly understood. Also included under the Education
heading is the name of the college or university, city, state, and
graduation date. Following this, list similar information for any
past degrees. Other ideas for the education section include a short
list of relevant classes completed, high GPA, honors, awards,
scholarships, special projects, and certifications. Any
education-related information that enhances the employer's view of
you could be included. High school information is usually left off a
resume unless it significantly contributes to the overall vision.
The Education section may be listed before the Experience section if
it is more relevant to the employer than your past jobs.
Experience:
This section includes your most recent job title, name of the
employer, city, beginning and end dates of employment (month and
year), and a description of your job accomplishments and outcomes
where possible. If you lack paid job experience, relevant unpaid
experience (internship or volunteer) may also be included here. This
section may be listed before the Education section if you’re past
experience is more impressive to the employer than your education.
Action verbs provide more concise and powerful information (refer to
action verb list in this handout for ideas). Where possible,
quantify accomplishments using numbers, percentages, time frames,
and other specific details. When interviewing, be ready to give
examples for everything you present on your resume. Dates of
employment are necessary to include for each job listed. However,
the old format of dates listed on the left margin of the resume has
changed to listing dates on the right side or after the job title,
employer name, and location of job. Remember a rule for resumes…put
your most important information near the top and left sides in order
to attract the reader's attention. Your dates of employment will
rarely get you an interview. If you have both related and unrelated
experience, you may want to consider having two experience sections.
For example, someone in the environmental field may have two
sections, one labeled Environmental Experience and another section
labeled Other Experience.
Accomplishments
Employers want to
learn about your accomplishments and results in:
Examples of Accomplishments:
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Action Verb Sample List
Sample
Keywords:
Supervisor, manager, CPA, IRS, Spanish, will travel, promotion,
sales, competitive analysis, trainer, results-oriented, BS, Bachelor
of Science, chemistry, will relocate, C++, design, project
management, testing, software design, consulting, Word, counseling,
mechanical engineer, UNIX, strategic planning, hotel administration,
video production.
Headings:
You can create headings to fit the skills you want to highlight.
Foreign languages, computer languages, and hardware/software are
also often included in a special section. Include a heading if it is
relevant to helping the employer gets the best possible impression
of you and if it relates to the job.
References:
The names, addresses, and phone numbers of references are not listed
on your resume. However, a notation such as "References Available
Upon Request" is commonly included, if space exists. Be prepared to
give an employer your list of references upon their request.
References are usually former employers who can speak about the
quality of your work. College professors are appropriate to list if
they can discuss your qualifications. Obtain permission from your
potential references to use them as references. Give your references
a copy of your resume and keep them informed of potential employers
who may contact them. Consider coaching your references on your
strengths as they relate to specific jobs.
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Resume Checklist
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Always include
a cover letter with your resume.
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No
typographical, spelling, or grammatical errors.
-
Avoid vague
objectives such as "Seeking a challenging position…" Few people
ever apply for boring jobs.
-
Understand the
impact of potentially controversial information such as inclusion
of your religious or political affiliations, your sexual
orientation or detailed, personal information. Is there a
compelling reason for including the information? Does it relate to
the job?
-
Use a quality
laser printer.
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Find
appropriate synonyms rather than using the same words repeatedly.
-
Describe the
positive results or outcomes of your actions or duties.
-
Avoid vague,
irrelevant, or redundant statements that are not likely to
encourage an employer’s continued interest in you.
-
Watch out for
abbreviations that are not likely to be understood by the
employer.
-
Speak
positively about your background and skills, relating them to your
job objective in a persuasive way. Do not claim something that is
not true.
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Write your
resume yourself. If you cannot effectively write about yourself,
you may be ineffective in selling yourself during an interview.
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Be consistent
with verb tenses. Use past tense verbs with jobs in the past, and
present tense verbs for current positions.
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Use action
verbs to start the phrases in the experience section of your
resume.
-
Use key words
(nouns and short phrases) when you know your resume will be
scanned into a database.
-
Do not list
personal information such as marital status, age, or number of
children.
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