Writing Your Resume

What is a resume?

Writing a resume is perhaps the most important step in searching for a professional position. A resume is a short synopsis of  your professional experience, interests, accomplishments, education and skills. It is so important because it is often the first contact you will make with potential employers. It should be clear, concise and provide enough relevant information to capture their attention.

How can a resume be used? 

A resume can be used to supplement information found on an application or in some cases may serve as your application. Resumes can also be sent to potential employers who are not currently advertising for a position.

What must be included on my resume?

• Contact Information including: your full name, address, email, & telephone number
• Education including: your degree, date of graduation or expected graduation
• Experience including: employment and/or volunteer experience
• Everything else is optional (Objective, skills, personal qualifications, relevant courses, volunteer work, interests, references, extracurricular activities, memberships, etc...)

What style resumes do people use?

There are many types of resumes, however Unity College students tend to use Chronological, Functional or Federal Resumes styles.

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: Educator, 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...

 Federal

• Federal resumes include a very thorough work history
• When writing a federal resume it is best to use an electronic formatted form available through USAjobs or Avue.

How should I format my resume?

There is no universal resume format or strict guidelines. The person receiving your resume may spend only 8 - 10 seconds scanning that 1 - 2 page summary of your qualifications. Here's some suggestions to consider.

• Be Concise, Factual,  & Positive
• Focus 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.
• Tailor your resume to the position to which you are applying
• All the information included in your resume should either support your job or career objective, or support your character in general.

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?

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.
  

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.

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. .

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.

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.

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 get
       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.