Résumés - Specific by Section
Heading At the top of your resume, include your NAME (all caps, bold), local address, telephone, fax and email address (upper and lower case regular type). Note permanent and current addresses if necessary.
Education Here you will list your educational background in reverse chronological order. Start off with the name of the school IN ALL CAPS BOLD; and the location in upper and lower case regular type and right justified. The second line will list your degree and expected date of graduation. The third line will include concentration and additional relevant course work, honors, distinctions, and activities.
Leadership In the left hand margin, you can include a heading titled “leadership.” This should include clubs, sports, etc. — anything that will illustrate your leadership ability.
Experience On the first line the NAME of the organization is in all caps bold to keep it consistent with the name of your school. On that same line, the location of the organization should be in upper and lower case regular type.
Dates Perpendicular to the name of the organization and sitting in the left hand margin should be the DATES OF EMPLOYMENT. Under the name of the organization in upper and lower case bold list your Title.
Beneath your title you may choose to put a line or two about the organization or the department you were in if it’s not well known or can’t be derived from its name. Or, you can use this space to include a short overview of the job’s focus.
This section should highlight your transferable skills and abilities acquired, as demonstrated by specific activities and accomplishments:
- Use bullet points to highlight specific accomplishments.
- Choose specifics over generalizations.
- Avoid simply listing responsibilities on a typical day.
- Use strong, positive action verbs (action word list).
- Complete sentences are not necessary — short concise phrases are best.Keep points, if possible, one line in length.
Select a consistent order of information, format and spacing. If your experience starts with a brief overview, then they all need to start with a brief overview.
Personal This section can include anything that you want a recruiter to know about you or your interests.
Special skills Add things that will set you apart from other candidates. It can also include such things as professional memberships, publications, computer skills, travel, languages (languages need to be qualified, i.e., native, fluent, proficient, spoken fluently only) sports or creative talents. Everything listed on a resume is open for discussion, so be prepared to talk about it.
Resume specifications and suggestions
While you are free to use any style resume for outside correspondence, we recommend the above styles. Resumes should be one page. If they run more than one page, you may want to review it to see if you can eliminate any irrelevant information. Remember, you are writing this for the employer, not yourself.
Keep in mind that when you email your resume, there is a possibility that it might come out jumbled. If possible, make it into a PDF file.
We suggest that you use:
- Times Roman 10.5 or 11 pt. throughout the document.
- Margins — minimum of half an inch top and bottom, maximum 1 inch. Left margin should be half an inch. Right margin should be half an inch minimum, 1 inch maximum.
- Justified left text (except locations that are right justified).
- No graphics, i.e., underlining, separation bars, or icons.
Other:
- Everything should be written in past tense, even if you are currently doing it now.
- If you are switching careers, avoid using former industry or company-specific jargon; make sure you convince the reader that your current skills are relevant and transferable.
- Proofread, then proofread again. Have your friends read and analyze your resume.
- Reading the resume backwards is a good way to check for spelling errors. Don’t just rely on your computer’s spell-check function.