Robert R. McComsey Career Development Center
RESUME GUIDELINES
Phone: 607-871-2164
Fax: 607-871-2791
Web: www.alfred.edu/cdc
E-mail: [email protected]
Appointment Hours: 8:30-12:00pm, 1:00-4:00pm Mon, Tues, & Fri
Walk-In Hours: 10:00-4:00pm Wed & Thurs
The ideal resume is a concise, well-organized, aesthetically pleasing document that describes your
background as it relates to your current career objective. It is NOT meant to be a complete
autobiography that includes both positive and negative experiences. Instead, a resume highlights
your assets and omits your weaknesses. This guide will give you some general suggestions, but
you should talk with a counselor in the Career Development Center about your particular needs,
or use our resume critiquing drop-off service.
Organizing your resume:
The most common resume style for students is the chronological resume: Information is
presented with the most recent education and jobs listed first. This type is usually recommended
for a first resume and employers overwhelmingly prefer this style. Information is arranged in
order of chronology, most recent first. Advanced candidates will use a functional resume, which
combines chronological with a more skills-based resume. If you have several years of professional
experience, please use these guidelines as a starting point, but you may also want to ask a CDC
staff member for assistance in customizing your resume.
Major categories of information to include on your resume:
Name and Address:
 Your name should be at the top of your resume, and should stand out in some way. Use your
full name.
 Full address, including zip code. Include two addresses if applicable, college and permanent.
 Include your phone number, with an area code. If you have a cell phone, you may want to list
that as well. Either way, it is essential you indicate a place where you can receive a message.
Make sure your voice mail has a professional-sounding message.
 Include your e-mail address in this section, along with the URL of your homepage, if you have
one. Make sure your webpage and email addresses are professional. The best bet is something
like [email protected].
Career or Job Objective:
 Explain in one sentence the type of position you are looking for OR the types of skills you wish
to contribute.
 Be specific. Do not use statements such as “a position that utilizes my skills and experience,” or
“challenging work in my field of study.”
 If you are interested in applying for more than one type of position, prepare more than one
resume, each with a different objective. Do not combine objectives onto one resume to save
paper or time.
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 If you are applying for a job you feel well qualified for, consider putting in a “Summary of
Qualifications” rather than an objective. See the “Nancy Smith” resume for an example.
Education:
 Colleges/Universities attended should be listed in reverse chronological order, most recent first.
Each entry should include the formal college name, the dates attended, the degree obtained
(“Bachelor of Arts” or “BA”), and your course of study.
 For the degree you are currently working on, list it as you would above but use the phrase
“Candidate for Bachelor of Arts, May 2004” or “Bachelor of Arts candidate, May 2004.”
 Include your thesis title
 Include your GPA if 3.0 or above (although some recruiters would like it included regardless of
your GPA, especially in business and engineering). You can choose to use your overall GPA or
your GPA in your major. If you do it the latter way, you need to write “Major GPA 3.3.”
 If you do not have any experience in the field, and are applying for your first professional job,
you may want to list relevant courses in this section as a subheading.
 If you have studied abroad, list it in this section as a separate educational institution.
 If you are a freshman or sophomore, it is acceptable to list high school under education. Juniors
and above, leave it out.
 If you have a double major, list it as “Bachelor of Arts – Double Major in English and History,” or
“BA, Ceramic and Mechanical Engineering (double major).”
Experience:
 You may want to include full-time, part-time, summer, and volunteer work, student teaching,
internships, and co-op in this category, or make separate categories for some of these.
 If your internship was paid, list “Paid Internship” rather than just “Internship.”
 Emphasize only those experiences that best relate to your career objective. You do not have to
include every experience!
 Job descriptions should include specific duties, accomplishments, and achievements, verified
with numbers, percentages, statistics, etc.
 Consider including work-study experience, especially if it is related to your field, or if through
the job you are earning a significant part of your college expenses.
Skills:
 You may want to include a section highlighting your skills in selected areas, such as Technical
Skills, Computer Skills, Language Skills, etc. Be as specific as possible and use “keywords” acronyms, lingo, etc. - that are common in your field.
 Many resume software programs used by employers target skill sets on resumes as the most
crucial component. If you skimp on technical keywords your resume may not match the words
being searched for.
Activities, Honors:
 List only those that best relate to your career objective. If you have done a lot with an
organization that is very relevant to your career goal, use a few bullets under the name of the
organization to emphasize what you did.
 Acknowledge leadership positions (President, Captain, etc.). Some employers prefer to see only
activities in which you have held leadership positions.
 If an award or scholarship is not self-explanatory, include a one-line description. “John Smith
Award recipient - highest design project grade of senior class.”
 You might want to separate honors and activities if there are several.
 Consider the way in which you list organizations that might be considered controversial (e.g.
political or activist groups). Depending on the impression you would like to give the employer,
you may choose to emphasize them or leave them off of your list.
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Interests:
If you have enough other information on your resume, leave this section out. If you need a
couple of lines, you can add this section, but exercise consideration when determining which of
your interests to include. Not every employer will be impressed with “Lifetime membership in the
National Rifle Association.” The safest bet is to include interests related to career interest, or noncontroversial interests.
Other possible categories might include:
Certifications
Presentations
Licenses
Community Involvement
Professional Affiliations
Volunteer Experience
Special Projects
Professional Development
Checklist: Use this when you think your resume is perfect
Appearance
_ Clean and easy to read
_ Font style and size is appropriate (no smaller than 10 pt. font)
_ High quality resume paper and printer used
_ Conservative with the use of formatting that may not translate well on a screen such as
different fonts, bolding, italicizing, underlining, tables, templates, headers and footers, etc.
_ Margins are clean and consistent
Organization
_ The most relevant categories and entries are listed first
_ The resume is an appropriate length (one page for bachelor’s degree or first professional
position, two if you have 6-10 years’ experience, more for an academic or PhD-level job search)
_ My name is listed in a font as large as, or larger than, the rest of the resume text
Writing style
_ Tense is consistent (past tense for older jobs, present tense for current jobs)
_ Active voice (e.g. “Supervised ten people” rather than “Ten people were supervised”)
_ I have personally spell-checked this and had two others also spell-check it, not including the
computer.
_ There are absolutely no grammatical errors
_ I have not used the first person (no “I”s)
Descriptions & Content
_ Contact information is complete, including email
_ Objective is targeted to the specific job or company, not vague
_ The first word of each bullet point is a specific action verb
_ I have quantified information (number of people supervised or trained, amount of budget
managed, percentage increase in sales, etc.) as much as possible
_ Customized to a specific position or company, including relevant keywords, acronyms and
jargon
_ Focused on accomplishments rather than duties (e.g. what did I accomplish that distinguishes
me?)
Details
_ I have emailed the resume to myself and to someone else to be sure it looks the way it’s
supposed to
_ I can positively explain everything on my resume; there are absolutely no lies or exaggerations
_ My resume is saved electronically in a way that a busy recruiter can find easily (e.g. john smith
resume.doc)
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_ I have had at least two people review this including a staff member at the CDC and the Writing
Center
_ My resume supports my objective and is employer-focused, not self-centered
Sending Resumes Electronically:
Many employers want resumes to be sent via email or submitted as part of an online application.
If the instructions say to email a resume, you can send it as an attachment. Include a shortened
cover letter in the body of your email that includes a sentence like “My resume is enclosed in
Word format. Please contact me if you have difficulty opening it.”
Some employers will specify that your resume should be sent in TEXT format, or sent in the body
of your email. In those cases, the employer is not at all concerned with format. Be sure to take all
the formatting and unusual spacing off your resume before sending it.
Always email a resume to yourself first to check for spelling and formatting before you try to send
it to a prospective employer. You are also welcome to email it to [email protected] and we will
review it for you.
Related Services from the CDC:
 Saxon JobLink on the CDC website will allow you to post several versions of your resume for
employers to view.
 24-hour resume critiquing service (also for cover letters, thank you letters, or any other job
search document). Drop it off in person or send your file to [email protected]
 Resume and cover letter guides in our career library.
 Make an appointment for individual assistance with resume/cover letter development by calling
the CDC.
Please ask at the CDC, or check our website, for the following specific resume samples:
Accounting
General entry-level
Art and Design – several types
MBA
Business
MBA with engineering undergrad
Communications/Public Relations
School Psychology
Computer Science
Sciences
Engineering
Teaching
Robert R. McComsey Career Development Center
1 Saxon Drive, Alfred, NY 14802
Revised: 1/11/16
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