Resume Guidelines

• Understand the problem – Be a problem solver
  • Analyze the job description
  • Imagine the situation
• Be able to do most of the job
• Take the employer’s point of view
• Show problem-solving ability:
  • Education
  • Experience
  • Personality
  • Skills
• Make it easy to find what’s important – know what’s important to whom

• Be accurate
• PROOFREAD! Spellcheck does not count
• Maximum impact, minimum words
• Guide the reader with formatting
• List everything in order of your strengths
• Do not include personal information or references

• Make sure grammar is consistent and correct
• Use keywords throughout your resume
• Quantify when possible
• Be crisp and succinct
  • omit needless words
  • omit first person pronouns (I, we)
  • omit articles (the, a)
• Use action verbs
  • omit helping and being verbs (have, had, might, is, am, are, were)
• Omit items that:
  • don’t count or could be used against you
  • have negative connotations
  • are just for your ego

CONTACT INFORMATION

• Name as you wish to be addressed
• Mailing address
• Phone number where a message can be left
• Email

SUMMARY/PROFILE

• This is the opening argument; the rest is the “proof”
• List your strengths for the position in 4 bullets or less
• Be mindful of overt and implied meanings
• Do not repeat what you said in the cover letter

EDUCATION

• List month/year of graduation; use clear English notations (“with distinction”, etc.) instead of Latin praise (“cum laude”, etc.)
• List relevant coursework when you have a strategic reason
• Indicate if you worked fulltime while attending school
• Use bolding to highlight areas of focus
• Include meaningful honors and affiliations
• Don’t include High School unless you have a specific reason
• Beyond a few years past graduation, leave off the year of graduation and your GPA
• Include professional development if appropriate (software training, etc.)

EXPERIENCE

• Put things in order of importance to the employer!
• State accomplishments and evidence of problem-solving as well as tasks
• Create separate sections to allow you to group what you want to highlight first
• Include both paid and unpaid experience, if relevant
• Be strategic in what you highlight – title, company, etc.
• Explain what the organization does if necessary
• Don’t include irrelevant tasks or things you don’t want to do
• Reword job titles to make them more descriptive of what you did
• Quantify results when possible: “improved overall office efficiency”, “improved volunteer loyalty”, “reduced customer response time”

OTHER:

• Skills: List in order of importance to the employer; omit those that are clearly irrelevant or outdated
• Honors: Include relevant honors (can also put in education section instead)
• Leadership: Volunteer, community service and college extracurriculars; list leadership roles;
  if substantial, list under experience
• Misc: If not a US citizen, state here, and specifically state you are authorized to work in the US

• Use the language of your target industry – don’t confuse them with jargon they will not know or care about.
• Use exciting words! Work to find the right word for each sentence.
• Borrow words and phrases that say what you want to say, but take care not to mimic others’ resumes.
• Think of words the prospective employer would use to describe your accomplishments.
• Read the company website and articles written by people that work in the company you are targeting to find words.

• White space makes the resume easier to read – don’t cram!
• Use bullets, not large blocks of texts – employers first skim then read – they will skip over blocks
  • Max 3-4 bullets in a section with 1-2 lines each; create sub-sections if you need more
  • Create sub-sections based on job description requirements
• Create Section Heading titles that allow you to put the most important information first
  (International Experience, Engineering Experience, Additional Experience)
• Be consistent in headings, dates and spacing; be sparing if you mix fonts
• Pick a typeface that is easy to read
  • A serif font can sometimes be easier to read than a san serif font
  • Use between 10-12 font size; never less than 10
• For printed copy
  • If you have two pages, at the top right of pg. 2, include your name and “page 2 of 2” in a smaller font
  • Use regular white paper
  • Use black ink
  • Never staple your resume

• Attach as .pdf unless directions state otherwise
• Do not use special characters or italics (just bold) for formatting if you think your resume will be scanned
• Add your cover letter as page one of the resume if you want to attach only one document and it will not be scanned