Write Your Resume 

• Transferable Skills
• Action Verbs
• Quantify Your Skills
• RealizeYour Skills
• References 

• Never written a resume?  Use this worksheet to help you get started.
• Have a resume and want to strengthen it? See the follow the instruction in Write Your Resume to develop your draft .

Then, bring your draft to the Career Resource Center and we'll help you
turn your draft into a professional resume!

• We can edit a resume that is too long
• We can expand a resume that is too short
  

No experience in your field?

• We'll help you identify relevant skills learned in courses, clubs and volunteer work.
• We can also help you identify your transferable skills. 

Stop by the CRC we are here to work with you!

WRITE YOUR RÉSUMÉ

A resume is your personal advertisement to the employment world. Plan on spending time developing this important job search tool. Before attempting a first draft, give some thought to the following self-assessment questions:

• What type of skills and/or knowledge do you want to utilize in your work?
• What type of organization do you want to work for?
• What about yourself do you want to "market" to prospective employers?

There is no universal resume format. These are only guidelines that you should follow. Remember, the person receiving your resume may spend only 8 - 10 seconds scanning that 1 - 2 page summary of your qualifications. In its final form, your resume should:

• be a concise, factual, positive, quick and easy to read summary of your achievements.
• project a good impression of you.
• focus attention on the college years. By the time you are in your second or third year of college, information pertaining to your high school experiences (clubs, activities, etc.) should not be included unless your achievements were clearly outstanding.
• meet the test of relevancy. All the information included in your resume should either support your job or career objective, or support your character in general. If you do not have a definite purpose for including something, leave it out.
• leave out any information that might possibly be used to screen you out.
• be written so the information is in order of support for the positions for which you are applying.

Be sure to have a member of the professional staff review your final resume. The staff at the Career Resource Center is more than willing to help you make your resume the best possible representation of you.

A RESUME DOES:

• Reflect personal strengths that separate you from other candidates.
• Provide a summary of your experiences, capabilities, and goals.
• Highlight your accomplishments.
  

A RESUME DOES NOT: 

• Tell your life story or your whole work history.
• Run too long or too short; one page is best, two pages is acceptable.
• Bore the reader with insignificant details.
  

TIPS ON RESUME PREPARATION:

• Type your resume on a computer so it will be easier to update.
• Double check spelling, grammar, and typing.
• Use wide margins and indentations.
• Be consistent and organized. Make sure your resume is easy to read and understand.
• Do not include transcripts unless requested.
• Do not include a photograph unless requested.
• Be honest.
• Be positive; do not offer any negative information.
• Be sure to use good quality white or off-white bond paper.
  

RESUME STYLES:
There are two major styles of resumes: the Chronological and Functional. A combination of the two and other variations may be used.

Chronological:

• This is the most widely used and familiar resume style.
• It lists education and work experience in reverse chronological order starting with the present and working backwards.
• It highlights agency affiliations, job titles and advancement in your career.
• It describes and dates each work experience.
  

Functional:

• This style is used to indicate categories of qualifications and skills that promote the experience you have, whether or not the skills and qualifications have been gained through experience that is related to your career goal.
• Each category is labeled, for example: Maintenance, Research, Supervisory.
• Each category is then supported with listings of specific examples of how you developed these skills through work, special course work, independent projects, volunteer experiences, etc...

Samples of both styles of resumes are also available at the Career Resource Center.

WHAT MUST APPEAR ON YOUR RESUME:

• Name, mailing address, email address, and telephone number where an employer can contact you!
• Education
• Experience (include employment and/or volunteer work experience)
• Everything else is optional (Objective, skills, personal qualifications, relevant courses, volunteer work, interests, references, extracurricular activities, memberships, etc...)

PART I: Your Name, Addresses, Telephone Number and email address
At the top of your resume, you will want to put your full name. If you are married and have taken another name, you may want to include your maiden name; this will help a prospective employer check your references. Put your complete mailing address, email address and a phone number where you can be reached, directly under your name. You may want to list two addresses: College Address and Permanent Address.

PART II: Career Objective Statement
Your objective will follow your name; this can be stated as Objective or Career Goal. There are no hard and fast rules for writing your objective. Be concise about what your objective is, but not too specific. Your objective should focus your resume, give the prospective employer an immediate sense of your direction, and should communicate what you have of value to give to an organization. Usually the objective is the most difficult aspect of writing a resume.

There are three types of objectives:

1. Position Objective - names a specific job title
Example: To obtain a position as a Wildlife Biologist.

2. Field Objective - a broader statement, you cover a wider area without being specific about your job title.
Example 1:  Seeking a position educating the public about the conservation of our natural resources.

Example 2:  To secure a position in the canoeing and kayaking industry with an emphasis on the design, materials, and techniques used to create such crafts.

3. Skill Objective - mentions your most marketable talents in your area of expertise.
Example 1:  Wish to utilize Conservation Law Enforcement academic training and work experience.

Example 2:  Seek a position which allows use of instructing and wilderness skills.

You may combine any of these three approaches to design the objective that states your goals most clearly. Omit pronouns such as "I" or "me".

PART III: Education
For most students, the information that will be of greatest support to your career objective is your educational experience. List dates of attendance; degree earned and major; name of college or university and its location.

Depending on your academic and extracurricular experience, it may be helpful to include any honors and awards achieved during your education. A grade point average above 3.0/4.0 should be included, as well as an expected graduation date.

You may want to include a Relevant Courses list.

PART IV: Employment/Experience
Before summarizing your work experience in a resume, it is important to identify the knowledge, skills, and abilities developed in each experience.

There are two basic types of skills:

• Transferable skills: Activities which can be used in many jobs - supervisory, organization, communication, etc...
• Job specific skills: Skills which are specific to a particular occupation - "knowledge of radio tracking techniques and tranquilizer guns."

If your previous positions are similar to the position you are seeking, list the "job specific skills" involved in your work. If your work experience is in a different area, stress the "transferable skills" which you could use in your new position.

Consider the following questions:

• What skills have you developed as a result of the experience?
• Did you supervise people?
• Did you make any decisions on your own? Recommendations?
• What were your job responsibilities? How did they change and/or otherwise develop over the course of the experience?
• Did you operate any equipment?
• Did you gather any information? Did you analyze information in any way?
• Can you quantify the results of your work? (i.e., number of customers served, percentage increase in sales.)
• Did you utilize and/or develop any technical skills?
• Did you produce any written documents and/or reports?
• Did you assume any leadership roles?
• Were you involved in any planning responsibilities?

Consider how the experience relates to each of the job responsibilities you might expect in your career field. Select and highlight those aspects of the experience that most directly relate to those responsibilities for your resume. Use numbers to highlight your accomplishments. Check this link out to learn how to quantify your skills.

List your experience in reverse chronological order.

You may want to list volunteer or internship positions in this section, especially if the volunteer position was similar to the type of position you are seeking or was a position where you volunteered a significant amount of time. (i.e. 1 day a week for the summer).

Short term volunteer activities, lasting for only a few days to a week should probably be listed in a separate Volunteer Experience or Activities section.

POSSIBLE HEADINGS FOR RESUME SECTIONS

• Permanent Address, Temporary Address, College Address, Address until May 15, 2003, Email Address
• Objective, Career Objective
• Highlights of Qualifications, Summary of Qualifications, Strengths
• Skills, Skills and Qualifications, Relevant Skills and Experience, Relevant Skills and Accomplishments
• Experience, Relevant Experience, Employment History, Military Experience, Work Experience, Education
• Additional Qualifications, Additional Training, Certifications, Relevant Course Work
• Activities, Volunteer Activities, Extra Curricular Activities, Memberships, Professional Affiliations
• Awards, Honors, References
  

THE RIGHT WORDS
When describing your education or your skills and work experience use concrete nouns, positive modifiers, and strong action verbs. Use concise phrasing rather than complete sentences. Here's a list of some action words that can be used.

Concrete Nouns and Positive Modifiers: consistent, resourceful, actively, effectiveness, substantially, capacity, pertinent, technical, competent, proficient, versatile, competence, qualified, vigorous

CHECK LIST
Ask yourself the following questions about your resume:

___ Is spelling and punctuation perfect? Free from typing errors?
___ Are any abbreviations used? (Con Law, Bio I ?) Don't assume employers will know. Spell things out.
___ Does it include your name, address, and telephone number? Email address?
___ Does your resume pass the 10 second scan test?  Will an employer quickly be able to gets a sense of your accomplishments and strengths?
___ Is the content of your resume strong? 
___ Does it emphasize your strengths? Is it positive?
___ Does it illustrate major college accomplishments?
___ Is it concise? One page, two at most! (Make it brief and to the point.)
___ Does it look neat and attractive? Is your resume easy to look at -- lots of white space?
___ Is it printed on good quality white or off-white bond paper? You may want to buy a box of good quality paper to print your resume and cover letter on.
___ Matching envelopes make a nice touch.
___Visit the Career Resource Center, the CRC staff is ready to help you!

Always ask another person to read your resume.

The Career Resource Center staff is available to help you!

Helpful Resume Links:

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