RESUME WRITING
A resume is:
GENERAL RESUME GUIDELINES
A clear and concise summary
of your experience and
education as it applies to
your job search goals;
Length: Most employers will accept either a one or two page resume.
Business employers prefer one page, especially for new professionals.
Use the most concise format which includes highlights of your
background which are relevant to your job search goal. An exception
is the curriculum vitae (c.v.), which is an academic version of a resume
used most frequently by college professors, physicians, and scientists.
Although this style will not be covered in this handout, there are
resources in the CRC Library on the c.v.
An advertisement for you,
highlighting your relevant
strengths and abilities for the
position for which you are
applying;
Easy to read, well organized,
and error-free, so that an
employer can scan it briefly
and gather key information
about your qualifications;
and
Used for many purposes,
including applying for posted
positions, distributing at job
fairs, offering at
informational interviews, and
applying for internships.
Tone: Your resume should be targeted to a particular career field or
type of position. If you do not know what kind of position you will be
applying for, see a career counselor to clarify your skills, interests, and
values in order to come up with a clear goal. In writing your resume,
try to take the employer’s perspective, thinking of the questions that
he or she might have about your background.
Accuracy: Everything on your resume must be true. Do not include
any exaggerations or falsehoods; this could be grounds for getting
fired. While you certainly do not want to be overly modest, it is critical
that everything you state is factually true.
ORGANIZING YOUR RESUME
A resume is not:
Your autobiography;
A list of previous employers’
names, addresses, and phone
numbers;
An exaggeration of your
accomplishments; or
Boring!
Chronological resumes are the most common format, and include your
accomplishments listed in reverse chronological order (i.e., most
recent first). Each entry includes a brief description of your
accomplishments and responsibilities. This format works well for
most people, especially those who have some recent relevant
experience. Most employers say chronological resumes are the
easiest to decipher.
What to leave out of a
resume:
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Anything that is not true.
Information about your
height, weight, sex,
marital status, health, or
age, or race.
Any errors.
“Cute” graphics. Many
employers don’t like
them.
Common resume errors:
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•
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Leaving on too many jobs
from long ago.
Vague job descriptions.
Listing jobs in an
inconsistent style.
Being unclear about the
exact name of the degree
and major.
Overusing boldface print.
Using current tense to
describe previous
experiences.
Incorrect use of
apostrophe for plural
possessive nouns: if you
worked with a group of
students, write,
“Reviewed students’ final
projects.”
If you say “Reviewed
student’s final projects,”
it means you worked with
one individual student.
Using acronyms that
others don’t understand.
For example, people
away from Lesley may
not know that L.A.T.A. is
the Lesley Art Therapy
Association.
Using field-related section headers can often be very helpful when
tailoring your resume for specific types of positions. Relevant
experiences are listed in categories, with specific positions listed
within each category. For example, someone who is changing careers
from business to teaching might have a category called “Teaching
Experience” and another category called “Business Experience.” The
category most relevant to your job objective is listed first, and the
positions within each category are listed in reverse chronological
order. The categories themselves do not have to be in chronological
order, so this format is helpful for someone who has relevant
experience that is not the most recent.
SECTIONS OF A RESUME
Identifying information: At the top of the resume, put your name,
address, e-mail address, and a telephone number with area code. Be
sure your telephone number has a professional sounding outgoing
message and be sure that this is the number where employers can
reach you. Your e-mail address should also sound professional and
you should check it at least once a day. If you have a web address that
links to an e-portfolio and/or a LinkedIn profile, you may include these
at the top of your resume as well.
A note about postal mail addresses:
Ø If you have a current address and a temporary address that are
in very different geographic locations, you may include both by
putting your name in the center, then putting one address in
the right corner, and the other in the left corner. This is
especially helpful if you are applying for opportunities in both
geographic locations.
Ø If you are applying for opportunities in one geographic location,
you may want to include only one address that is closest to
where you are job searching.
A note about links on e-resumes: Be sure that any links are live, so that
employers can click on them and be automatically directed to your email address or online portfolio.
Profile/Summary/Qualifications: This is an optional category. If done
well, a summary states your key qualifications for the position and
starts the resume with a strong statement. Often these statements
are more effective for individuals who are experienced in their fields
and have specific areas of expertise that they want to highlight. It is
Selected list of
action verbs:
achieved
administered
advised
analyzed
assessed
budgeted
collaborated
communicated
conducted
consulted
coordinated
created
demonstrated
designed
developed
devised
distributed
drafted
educated
evaluated
executed
facilitated
hired
improved
increased
initiated
interviewed
introduced
managed
negotiated
organized
originated
participated
produced
provided
published
recruited
represented
researched
selected
supervised
taught
tested
trained
utilized
recommended that you include three to four strong bullets. This
section is also helpful for people who are changing careers and want
to highlight their transferable skills/accomplishments.
Example: (for an Expressive Therapist)
Summary:
• Counseling and expressive therapy experience with
adolescents and adults in inpatient and outpatient settings.
• Adept in using all modalities of expressive therapies, including
music, drama, art, and dance in individual sessions and group
settings.
• Strong background in assessment and crisis intervention.
Be sure to include fairly specific content areas. Avoid statements like
“excellent interpersonal skills” or “well organized.” While these are
important, they are not appropriate at the top of the resume because
they are too general, and the reader may assume that you do not have
any specific relevant skills. In the interview, you will have an
opportunity to share this information and provide examples.
Education: Put your education first if you recently completed a degree
which is relevant to the field in which you are seeking employment or
if you are seeking an internship. After you have worked in your field
for a few years, experience is usually listed first. If your education is
not relevant to the field, or you received your degree a long time ago
and have worked in the field since then, put experience first.
List your graduate degree first (if you have one) and undergraduate
degree second Include your field of study, school name and location,
and year of degree. If you have not yet received your degree, state
“Candidate for M.A.” Check with the Registrar or your advisor if you
are not sure about your exact degree.
Use the same format for all degrees. If you say Master of Arts, say
Bachelor of Science. Alternatively, you can use M.A. and B.S. If you
say Master of Fine Arts, also say Bachelor of Fine Arts.
Other information which can be included under “Education” is any
academic honors you received (Dean’s List, Latin honors such as cum
laude), and the title of your thesis (if it is relevant to your job search).
Study abroad can also be included in the education section.
Description example #1:
Before: I helped work on
bringing in many new clients
to the agency.
Improved: Designed and
implemented comprehensive
community outreach
program; increased agency’s
service population by 25%.
Description example #2:
Before: Responsible for
teaching reading groups and
working with individual
students.
Improved: Led individual and
group reading lessons.
Supplemented basal reading
program with teacher-made
materials and
dramatizations.
Description example #3:
Before: Worked with my
supervisor and the
department head in writing
new employee orientation.
Improved: Wrote new
employee orientation
program, in collaboration
with management team.
The education section generally includes degrees in programs where
you were matriculated. Short courses or non-credit courses would
usually go later in the resume in another section called “Additional
Training” or “Professional Development.”
Experience: Your relevant experience, whether paid or unpaid,
including jobs, field placements, internships, and community service,
is included in this section. Using a consistent format, list the
organization name and location (city, state - do not include street
address or zip code), the position title, and dates of employment.
Next, include a description of your responsibilities and
accomplishments. Start out by writing as much as you can, then go
back and edit. You should plan to write several drafts of this section,
because this is the most critical part of the resume. Describe all your
responsibilities (avoid using the term “responsibilities included”) and
major tasks using action verbs. Think about what you did in each
position that was original, creative, or especially significant. This is
the place where your resume can show how your background is
distinctive from other candidates. What you did beyond the minimum
requirements and routine duties is what will make your resume
interesting. Include key words which indicate your knowledge of the
jargon of your field.
If you have experience in several fields, it is often helpful to use a
combination format, in which experience is categorized. For example,
you may divide your experience into “Human Services Experience”
and “Business Experience.” Positions are listed in reverse
chronological order (most recent first) within categories, but the
categories can be listed in whatever order is most related to the
candidate’s job search goal.
If you have many jobs, consider omitting some. A good general
guideline is to go back about ten years in a resume. (If you are a
current traditional age undergraduate student, you will usually only
include experiences since high school.) Remember that for many
teaching positions, experience outside the classroom is quite relevant
to teaching.
If there is a gap in your employment, deleting the months may be
helpful. You may go back further if you have relevant experience that
is older; you may not go back ten years if some of your previous
experience is irrelevant.
Do not explain gaps on a resume (saying “2002-2004: Raising a family”
is not necessary). You may be asked to explain gaps during the
interview.
While each person’s background and resume are different, think about
the following questions as you prepare your Experience section.
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Is the job/internship relevant to the job for which I am applying?
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If someone has not heard of the name of an organization, will the
organization’s purpose be clear from the description of my
position?
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Is my description distinctive and interesting?
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If possible, have I included information on the scope of my
responsibilities: how many and how much, (rather than
“supervised staff”, say “supervised four professional staff
members”)? Provide quantitative details when possible.
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Have I avoided use of all personal pronouns (I, me, you), helping
verbs (have, had, may, might), and being verbs (am, is, are, was,
were) when possible?
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Is my description results-oriented?
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Have I used action verbs (created, designed, implemented)
whenever possible and used the most powerful (facilitated instead
of helped, coordinated instead of assisted with) and specific verbs
(taught rather than worked with, counseled rather than met with)?
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Are the action verbs in the past tense for previous positions and in
the present tense for current positions?
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Have I eliminated all non-essential phrases (responsibilities
included, activities such as)?
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Have I used language indicating my knowledge of the techniques,
skills, and content areas in my field?
Notice that descriptions are written in verb phrases, not complete
sentences.
Other Sections: There are a number of other optional sections,
depending on your particular background. Some examples include:
Skills (can include technology skills, design software, educational
software, and any other special skills)
Professional Development
Professional Memberships
Community Service
College Activities (Be sure that someone away from Lesley will
understand what you did; they will not know that you sang in
the college a capella group if you simply list Harmogeddon.)
Languages (If you say you are fluent in another language, you
should be able to interview in that language! Only list
languages where your skill is at a high enough level to use in
the job.)
Honors and Awards
Publications
Travel (should be significant travel, not just short vacations)
Professional Presentations
Interests (Be sure that if you include them, they are significant and
fairly original.)
There may be other categories that are relevant for you.
RESUME DESIGN AND LAYOUT
Either a list (“bullet”) or paragraph format is acceptable. Be sure to
keep your paragraphs brief; 2-3 sentences. It is also recommended
that you use 3-7 bullets per entry. If you need to list more than that, it
is suggested that you group your bullets by theme.
Your resume should be clear, readable, and well organized. Putting
the dates in the right column de-emphasizes them and therefore
emphasizes your job titles and locations rather than length of service.
Use a type size and style which is easy to read, being sure to leave
enough white space on your resume to make it easy to read. There
should be a generous margin. Do not crowd 1 1/2 pages of
information onto one page in order to get a one page resume. If you
have decided that your resume must be one page, delete selectively.
Techniques such as boldfacing and capitalizing can highlight different
sections or elements of your resume. The key with any kind of
highlighting is to be consistent (if category names are in bold print, be
sure all names of categories are done that way) and not to overdo it.