Need a resume?  Your current resume not landing interviews?  Don’t know where to start?  Let us help!  Learn about the 8 basic steps to building your resume that best reflects your strengths and talents.

1. Heading

Your name should be the largest font size on your resume (ex. Butch T. Cougar).  Following after your name is your contact info, which includes your phone number, email and your LinkedIn/GitHub link(s), if applicable.

Tailored Heading

When creating your category headings to organize your information, make sure to be descriptive with them and highlight specific experiences.  (Ex. Research Experience, Computer/Software Skills, Language Skills…)

2. Summary of Qualifications

Your summary should be the first section on your resume below your name and contact information.  It could be organized with 3-5 bullet points, or in a paragraph style fashion.  Your summary should state the reasons as to why you are the best candidate for the job by summarizing your entire resume in a quick and concise manner.

What skills, abilities, passion, knowledge or awards are you bringing to the job that revolves around what the company is specifically looking for?

This section of your resume should showcase how you bring value to the job you are applying for and what you wish to gain from it.

3. Education

Provide any college information in this section where you earned or are pursuing a degree in, as well as the college you earned it from and the month/year of the graduation.  If you are a freshman, you may include your high school degree in this section.  Noting down your cumulative or major GPA is not required to be on your resume unless asked for.  Relevant coursework may be added here, but you should only list down coursework that are relevant to what the employer is looking for, as well as those that provided a substantial amount of benefit for you while attending the class.

4. Skills and Abilities

Provide any skills you have that are relevant to the job you are applying for, or that they should know about you.  You can list some soft skills in this section, however, make sure that if you list one down, that there is an example given in your details under your experiences that demonstrate how that soft skill was used.  List your skills in order of relevancy.

5. Experience

Information in this section should include experiences only related to your major, or are relevant to the position you are applying for.  State the position title, the company name and location (City, State) and the months and years during your involvement.  Use 2-3 bullet points to describe these experiences by writing in past tense (even for current positions).  Be sure to use quantification in your descriptions where necessary and begin your description with action verbs (ex. Collaborated with a team of 5).

6. Projects

Any personal, school, and/or work, etc. projects can be included here accompanied by 2-3 bullet points.  Tell them what you did for the project, why you did it and what was the result from it (ex. Developed X to do Y resulting in Z).

7. Honors/Awards

List any honors, scholarships, awards and/or participation in competitions here based on the years you received them in.

8. Other Experience

Information in this section are experiences NOT related to your major.  Experiences in this section will be demonstrating your soft skills, such as teamwork, communication and/or customer service.  These experiences will also be accompanied with 2-3 bullet points describing what you did.

Other Reminders

When writing your resume, be aware that when you present this to an employer or company, you are given 6-10 seconds to impress them about your qualifications for the position you are applying for.

  • Keep it to one full page in length, 2 maximum
  • Do not use a given resume template, such as those from Microsoft Word
  • Stay consistent with your format and layout
  • tailor information to the position you are applying for
  • place the most relevant experience(s) at the top
  • Check for any spelling or grammatical errors and ask someone else to proofread again
  • Only include high school information if you are a first year student

Drop by Dana Hall 138 during office hours for a resume review or schedule an appointment with Sandi Brabb, Gabrielle Charles or Jovannie Laforga!