Resumes
A resume is your personal marketing tool—it’s a snapshot of your skills, experience, and achievements designed to show potential employers why you’re a strong fit for a role. The purpose of a resume is to get your foot in the door by highlighting your most relevant qualifications and making it easy for hiring managers to see what you can bring to the table. A well-crafted resume not only lists your experience but also tells a clear story about your professional strengths and goals.
Parts of a Resume
1. Contact Information (Header)
Include your essential contact details at the top of your resume so employers can easily reach you.
Your Name – Make it prominent at the top.
Location – City/State/Country is enough; full address is optional.
Email Address – Use a professional email (avoid nicknames or casual handles).
Phone Number – Include the number you check most often.
Other Relevant Links – Optional: LinkedIn, personal website, portfolio, or professional social media.
2. Professional Summary or Objective (not required)
A brief statement (2–4 sentences) highlighting your key skills, experience, and career goals.
Professional Summary – Focus on your achievements and strengths; best for those with some work experience.
Objective – Focus on your career goals and what you hope to contribute; best for entry-level candidates or career changers.
3. Work Experience
List your relevant jobs, internships, or volunteer work in reverse chronological order (most recent first).
Include job title, company name, location, and dates.
Use past tense for previous jobs and present tense for current jobs.
Focus on achievements and measurable results, not just duties.
Use action verbs to describe your responsibilities.
Don’t include too many bullet points, especially for jobs that are not as relevant.
Organize work experience by category when helpful. For example:
Counseling-Related Experience
Customer Service-Related Experience
4. Education
Include your degrees, certifications, or relevant coursework.
List school name, degree, major, and graduation date.
Optional: GPA, honors, coursework, or awards if relevant.
5. Skills
Highlight relevant hard skills (specific, teachable abilities or technical knowledge you can quantify, such as using software, coding, or operating machinery) that match the job description.
Examples: Technical skills, software proficiency.
Can be a bullet list or a short section in columns for readability.
6. Optional Sections
These sections can showcase additional strengths depending on your background:
Certifications & Training – Professional courses or certifications relevant to your career.
Projects or Portfolio – Examples of work, especially for creative or technical roles.
Volunteer Experience – Relevant experiences that demonstrate transferable skills.
Awards & Honors – Recognitions that show achievements and credibility.
Languages – Indicate proficiency level if relevant for the role.
Examples
Resume Tips
Keep it concise: Aim for 1 page if you’re early in your career, 2 pages if you have more extensive experience.
Tailor each application: Adjust your resume to highlight the skills and experiences most relevant to the job or program.
Use action verbs: Start bullet points with strong verbs like led, created, analyzed, developed, improved.
Highlight accomplishments, not just tasks: Show how you made a difference, not just what you were responsible for.
Quantify results: Use numbers to make achievements concrete (e.g., “increased sales by 20%” or “managed a budget of $50,000”).
Be consistent in formatting: Use the same font, style, and spacing throughout. Use an easy-to-read professional font in 10-12 point size.
Avoid jargon and acronyms: Make your resume easy to read for people outside your specific field.
Prioritize readability: Use bullet points, bold headings, and white space so your resume is easy to scan quickly.
Proofread carefully: Typos and errors can give a negative impression.
Show transferable skills: Include teamwork, communication, problem-solving, and leadership examples, even from non-work experiences.
Group your most relevant experiences under a heading that reflects the type of role you want: For example, if you’re applying for computer programming positions, create a section called Programming Experience and include all related internships, part-time jobs, class projects, club roles, and volunteer work in that section.
You can also have another section under this called Other Work Experience that includes other positions that are not as relevant—however, you want to ensure that the bullet points you include for these are transferrable skills.
Accomplishment Statements
Focus on what you achieved, not just what you did. A simple formula:
Action + Task + Result
Action: What you did (use a strong action verb)
Task: What you were responsible for
Result: What you accomplished or improved
Example:
Developed a social media campaign that increased engagement by 25%
Led a team of 5 to complete a project 2 weeks ahead of schedule
Action Verbs
Leadership & Management
Led, Directed, Supervised, Coordinated, Managed, Delegated, Oversaw, Facilitated, Guided, Organized
Achievement & Results
Achieved, Completed, Improved, Increased, Expanded, Accelerated, Delivered, Exceeded, Generated, Advanced
Creativity & Innovation
Designed, Created, Developed, Initiated, Innovated, Launched, Conceptualized, Revamped, Implemented, Built
Analysis & Research
Analyzed, Researched, Evaluated, Assessed, Investigated, Monitored, Measured, Audited, Examined, Tested
Communication & Collaboration
Presented, Negotiated, Advised, Consulted, Trained, Informed, Mediated, Documented, Facilitated, Promoted
Technical & Operational
Programmed, Engineered, Operated, Configured, Built, Installed, Troubleshot, Maintained, Upgraded, Optimized
Support & Service
Assisted, Supported, Guided, Mentored, Coached, Responded, Delivered, Facilitated, Provided, Helped
Getting Through Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)
An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is software that employers use to manage job applications. It scans resumes for keywords, skills, and qualifications to help employers quickly identify candidates who match the job requirements. Optimizing your resume with relevant keywords can increase the chances it passes an ATS and gets noticed by a hiring manager. If your resume isn’t optimized for an ATS, it may never reach a human reviewer.
How do you optimize your resume to get through an ATS?
1. Use Standard Section Headings
ATS software looks for common headings like:
Experience / Work Experience / Professional Experience
Education
Skills
Certifications / Awards
Avoid creative or unusual headings like “My Adventures” or “Learning Journey,” because the ATS may not recognize them.
2. Include Keywords from the Job Description
Look closely at the job posting and identify important skills, tools, and qualifications.
Use the exact words or phrases (e.g., “project management,” “data analysis”) in your resume where appropriate.
3. Focus on Relevant Experience and Skills
Group your experiences in ways that match the job you want.
Highlight achievements and tasks that show the skills mentioned in the posting.
4. Keep Formatting Simple
Use a clean, standard font (like Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman).
Avoid tables, text boxes, graphics, or unusual symbols—ATS may not read them correctly.
Many Canva resumes, while they may look good to human eyes, are not ATS friendly.
Use standard bullet points (• or –) instead of special characters.
5. Save Your Resume in a Compatible File Type
Most ATS systems prefer .docx or .pdf files.
Check the job posting for any specific instructions.
6. Review and Test
Proofread carefully for typos.
You can also use free online ATS resume checkers to see if your resume is likely to pass.