Employopedia!

The best résumés are written by people who have an understanding of what they are seeking and are able to present their experience, education, and personal qualities in a succinct and impressive manner that opens interview doors.

Résumé Appearance

• Résumés for recent graduates are limited to one page, brief and to the point.
• Adjusting margins can help:
  • Left and right margins - you may use as low as ½”.
  • Top and bottom margins – ¾” is the lowest to go.
• Use high quality, white or off-white, 8 ½ by 11 inch, résumé paper.
• Dates, titles, and abbreviations should follow the same format throughout.
• Everything should line up and your résumé should have a neat clean appearance.
• Correct any spelling, grammatical, or typographical errors.
• Do not fold or staple your résumé.
• For mailing your résumé, put it in a large envelope with a cover letter.

Résumé Heading

• Bold your name and make it 1-2 font sizes larger than the rest
• List permanent address and telephone number, as well as, local information.
• Include your e-mail address – professional look with at least part of your legal name.
• Leave ¾ - 1” space between heading and body of resume.
• Your name and the page number should be placed at the top of additional pages.

Résumé Body

• Use Verdana, Ariel, Palatino, or Garamond Font throughout.
• Use 10 point font size for the body.
• Bold subject areas – Objective, Education, Work Experience, etc.
• Conventional résumé - text variety is good (i.e. italics, script, underlined words)
• Scannable résumé - avoid italics, bullets, script, or underlined words.

Résumé Inventory

Objective

• This section is optional.
• Focus the objective on a specific company and position.
• Avoid ‘canned’ or vague statements. 

Education

If expected graduation date is May 2011, simply state:

Bachelor of Science in Business      May 2011

The University of State, Anytown, ST

Major: Finance

GPA: 3.8/4.0

Mention academic honors.

List other schools (not high schools) you have attended with information cited above, if you received a degree from that school.

Experience

Briefly give the employer an overview of work that has taught you skills. 

Use action words to describe your job duties.

Bullets are preferred over heavily worded paragraphs.  3-5 bullets per job are average.

Present tense verbs are used if your position is current. Occasionally past tense is used.

Past tense verbs are used if you no longer hold the position.

Include your work experience in reverse chronological order (most recent listed first).

It can be beneficial to pull experience directly related to the job to the top of “Experience” even if it is not the most recent job.  For example, an internship or job from a previous summer might be listed first as “Relevant Experience” followed by Other Experience is shown in reverse chronological order.         

Use round bullets for work descriptions.

Include the following information:

• Title of position and inclusive dates
• Name of organization and location
• Describe your work responsibilities with emphasis on specific skills and achievements
• Work duties, that are simple or difficult to add details, lump into one bullet, such as:
  • “Scheduled production, managed inventory, and performed quality audits”.
• Avoid phrases such as “Responsible for”, and “Assisted”.
• Quantify where possible.  For instance, how many sales dollars did you generate, how many people did you supervise or train, etc.
• Adverbs such as “Successfully” or “Efficiently” may be used occasionally.

Internship Experience

Include information as with work experience.

Other Information

You may wish to add:

• Special skills or competencies, (foreign languages)
• Leadership experience, teamwork, communication skills
• Volunteer organizations, field experiences, sports
• Major research projects
• Certifications

Computer/Language Skills

Include this section after Education or after Experience.

Depending on what the job calls for this may need to be closer to the top of your résumé.

List software packages, programming languages and operating systems in which you are competent.

Honors/Awards

Dean’s List, 4 semesters

Academic Scholarships

Activities/Associations

Circle K Service Organization

Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE)

Leadership

If you have leadership experience you may want to create a separate Leadership Section to better highlight your leadership ability.

References

Stating “References available upon request” is not necessary.

Prepare a separate page of reference to give to employers.

Ask people if they are willing to serve as references before you give their names to a potential employer.

Download a Sample Resume

Attachments:

File
Sample Resume.pdf