How to Write a Resume

From Foreignliving

Your resume is a brief presentation of your skills and experiences. It is a tool to get you an interview, not a job. It also serves as a memory aid for employers, networking contacts etc.

Much of the content in this document is based on the presentation by Lesley Yarbrough of the UT Austin Natural Sciences Career Services.

Contents 1 General stuff 1.1 Resume vs. Curriculum Vitae (CV) 1.2 Resume Formats 2 Resume Content 2.1 Contact Info 2.2 Objective (optional) 2.3 Education 2.4 Experience - Employment 2.5 Skills 2.6 Activities/Professional Affiliation 2.7 Honors 2.8 References 3 Tips and Advice 3.1 Formatting/Style 3.2 General 3.3 Strategic Resume Concepts 3.4 Advice from Gayle Laakmann's website (weblink) 4 Action Verbs 4.1 Good Words for Administration and Management 4.2 Good Words for Communication and Creativity 4.3 Good Words for Sales and Persuasion 4.4 Good Words for Technical Ability 4.5 Good Words for Office Support 4.6 Good Words for Teaching 4.7 Good Words for Financial Management 4.8 Good Words for Many Skills 5 External Links

General stuff

Resume vs. Curriculum Vitae (CV)

Resume

• When used: outside of academia and research science
• Target vs. General: resumes should be adapted to fit each specific job to which you are applying
• Length: 1-2 pages

CV

• When used: for academic and research positions in govt. and industry
• Target vs. General: CV's need less alteration to fit each specific job opening
• References: highly flexible

Resume Formats

Chronological

• Familiar
• Easier to prepare
• Emphasizes job continuity
• Reveals employment gaps
• Does not highlight skilled areas

Functional

• Not as common
• Longer to prepare and read
• Good for career changers or people with little relevant experience
• De-emphasizes employment gaps
• Emphasizes relevant skills

Resume Content

Contact Info

(insert examples)

Objective (optional)

The objective statement can include the following:

• Position orientation, e.g. "Principle Chemist position" or "Grant writer"
• Function orientation, e.g. "medicinal chemistry" or "grant writing"
• Skill orientation, e.g. "organization and analytical skills"
• Work Environment/Industry Orientation, e.g. "non-profit" or "government"
• Time orientation, e.g. "Full-time," "summer internship," or "part-time"

Use at least two of the above.

A poor example:
Objective: Desire a challenging position that will utilize my education and experience to its fullest within a high-growth organization that offers opportunities for advancement and growth".

A better example:
Objective: : Seeking a full-time (time) museum curator position (position) in a science museum (work environment) which will utilize my outstanding organizational and communication skills (skills).

Education

For each institution attended, include the name of institution, degree, major(s)/minor(s), graduation date, thesis or dissertation title, GPA and optionally relevant coursework.

(insert samples)

Experience - Employment

For each organization or job-role (depending on functional vs. chronological) include the job title, dates (month year to month year), employer, city and state and job related skills and accomplishments. The city and state are generally not considered as important but are typical of American resumes. When specifying the date, be sure to include both the month and the year, otherwise 2001-2002 could be as little as two months and as long as two years.

(insert samples)

Skills

• For technical fields, include technical skills, such as computer skills.
• Spoken languages are always a plus.
• Additional skills, such as "Excellent public speaking skill, comfortable with groups of 10 to 200+" (if vaguely relevant to the job)

Activities/Professional Affiliation

Includes name of organization, affiliation and a brief description if appropriate. For example:

• Undergraduate Forensic Organization, Member

or

• Women in Natural Sciences, Member

or

• Zavala Elementary School, Volunteer Tutor

. Meet weekly with third-grade students to practice science skills.

Honors

These can be academic, employment, athletic, or community service.

Sample:

  HONORS
  Mary E. Gearing Scholarship      2004-2005
  C.J. Davidson Scholarship        2005-2006
  Safeplace Volunteer of the Year  2005

References

Writing "Available on request" is no longer necessary and goes without saying. If you include references, use a separate page and make sure that the referees have been informed before-hand. If you expect the referees to be contacted, talk to them to see if there is something they specific that they can mention or highlight about you rather than a general-purpose positive statement.

Sample:
Lucia Gilbert, PhD
Vice Provost
The Univesity of Texas at Austin
1 University Station, G10000
Austin, TX 78712
512-123-4567
lucia@email.edu

Tips and Advice

The following sections on advice from different sources can be merged if they talk about similar things.

Formatting/Style

• Contact info at top
• Balance white space (text should be "justify-aligned")
• Use a reasonable size font (for most fonts, the minimum should be 10pt)
• Use appropriate amount of "highlighters", for example bold or italics
• Be consistent in category and content format (Dates all the same: Sept 05 - Sept 06, and not 09/05-09/06 in some other section)

Many websites often ask for an acii version of the resume, in which you can only use plaintext. Here are some tips for formatting an ascii resume, courtesy Yahoo! Jobs:

• Keep your resume clean and simple.
• Do not use tabs, bold, italics, underlining, or other formatting commands. You may use capital letters, spaces, or any of the characters on your keyboard.
• Use asterisks (*) instead of bullets.
• Left-align your text.
• If some particular formatting is an integral part of your resume but is not permitted in our text field, mention in your cover letter that your formatted resume is available upon request.

General

• Use quality paper
• Laser print, you want your resume to make a good impression
• Keep to 1 page if possible, no more than 2. Undergraduates should limit to 1 page strictly unless lots of internship experience.
• Separate sections with some whitespace
• Send a cover letter if given the option

Strategic Resume Concepts

• Highlight skills, strengths, and special qualities/uniqueness
• Describe and quantify accomplishments
• Bring it alive with action verbs
• 3 to 5 bullets per job (chronological) or per skill area (functional)
• Tailor resume specifically to each position
• Make it concise, easy-to-read
• Proofread - NO typos or grammatical mistakes

Advice from Gayle Laakmann's website (weblink)

General Tips

• A resume should sell your skills, not just list what you've done. Remember that with everything you list.
• NO spelling or grammar mistakes, whatsoever. Most employers with throw out your resume if you have a single mistake. You should have many, many people look over your resume
• If you are not a native English speaker, you should ask a number of people who native English speakers to read over your resume and make any and all comments
• If you have at least a 3.0 gpa, list your gpa. If only your in-major gpa is over a 3.0, you can specify that the gpa is in-major. Penn's official gpa/resume rules state that you can round your gpa (from 3.65 to 3.7)
• Make sure your resume is well formatted... And in order to design a well formatted resume, you need to learn to use Word's tables. You will often be emailing your resume to employers, so the trick to making a table border invisible is to show all the borders, but set the color to white.
• If you're emailing your resume: make sure the file name has your last name in it
• You need to list your graduation date... Otherwise employers won't know whether you're going for an internship or fulltime

Computer Science Tips

• List the languages you know... and put them in order of importance. This is a good order: C, C++, Java, C#, SQL, XML, HTML. This is a bad order: HTML, SQL, XML, C#, C++, Java, C
• Have a projects section on your resume. Employers like Microsoft and other big companies care far more about projects that you've done than they do about leadership experience and extra-curriculars. See my resume for an example
• Unless you have completed your undergraduate degree and have significant work experience behind you, your resume must be one page... (I have done three Microsoft internships, plus an Apple internship, plus TAing for three years, and even I was told by the Microsoft recruiter that my resume must be one page.)

Action Verbs

The following list is taken from Resume for Dummies by Joyce Lain Kennedy. Going through such a list can often give you ideas on the use of appropriate terminology when writing your resume.

Good Words for Administration and Management

advised approved authorized chaired consolidated counseled delegated determined developed diagnosed directed

disseminated enforced ensured examined explained governed guided headed initiated influenced inspired

installed instituted instructed integrated launched lectured listened managed mediated mentored moderated

monitored motivated negotiated originated oversaw pioneered presided prioritized processed promoted recommended

redirected referred reorganized represented responded reviewed routed sponsored streamlined strengthened supervised

taught trained validated

Good Words for Communication and Creativity

acted addressed arranged assessed authored briefed built clarified composed conducted

constructed corresponded costumed created critiqued demonstrated designed developed directed edited enabled

facilitated fashioned formulated influenced initiated interpreted interviewed introduced invented launched lectured

modernized performed planned presented produced projected proofread publicized published realized reconciled

recruited rectified remodeled reported revitalized scheduled screened shaped stimulated summarized taught

trained translated wrote

Good Words for Sales and Persuasion

arbitrated catalogued centralized consulted dissuaded documented launched lectured led

liaised maintained manipulated marketed mediated moderated negotiated ordered performed established

expedited familiarized identified implemented improved increased planned processed produced proposed

publicized purchased realized recruited reduced reported researched resolved influenced inspired

installed integrated interpreted investigated judged restored reviewed routed saved served

set goals sold solved stimulated summarized surveyed translated

Good Words for Technical Ability

analyzed broadened charted classified communicated compiled computed conceived conducted coordinated

designed detected developed devised drafted programmed published reconstructed reduced researched

edited educated eliminated excelled expanded expedited fabricated facilitated forecast formed

generated improved increased inspected installed restore revamped streamlined supplemented surveyed instituted

integrated interfaced launched lectured maintained marketed mastered modified molded operated

packaged pioneered prepared processed systematized trained upgraded wrote

Good Words for Office Support

adhered administered allocated applied appropriated assisted assured attained awarded balanced

budgeted built charted completed contributed coordinated cut defined determined dispensed

distributed documented drafted enacted enlarged evaluated examined executed followed up formalized

formulated hired identified implemented improved installed instituted justified liaised maintained

managed operated ordered organized packaged planned prepared prescribed processed provided

recorded repaired reshaped resolved scheduled screened secured solved started

Good Words for Teaching

acquainted adapted advised answered apprised augmented briefed built certified chaired

charted clarified coached collaborated communicated conducted coordinated delegated delivered demonstrated

designed developed directed dispensed distributed educated effected empowered enabled enacted

enlarged expanded facilitated fomented formulated generated grouped guided harmonized implemented

influenced informed initiated innovated installed instituted instructed integrate lectured listened

originated persuaded presented responded revolutionized set goals stimulated summarized trained translated

Good Words for Financial Management

adjusted administered allocated analyzed appraised audited balanced bought budgeted calculated computed

conciliated cut decreased developed dispensed disbursed distributed doubled downsized eliminated

economized exceeded financed forecast funded gained generated increased invested maintained

managed marketed merchandised planned projected purchased quadrupled reconciled reduced reported researched

reshaped retailed saved shopped secured sold solicited sourced specified supplemented

systematized tested tripled underwrote upgraded upsized vended

Good Words for Many Skills

accomplished achieved adapted adhered allocated appraised arbitrated arranged articulated assured

augmented collected communicated composed conceptualized conserved contributed coordinated demonstrated dispensed

evaluated executed facilitated forecast founded governed guided illustrated improved increased

initiated integrated interpreted invented launched led navigated optimized organized originated

overhauled performed prioritized promoted proposed reconciled rectified remodeled repaired reshaped

retrieved solved stimulated streamlined strengthened trained upgraded validated won

External Links

• Resume Workbook - Oakton Community College Career Center