How to Write a Great Resume!
Greg Iaccarino Kari Nysather
L&S / Human Ecology & Graduate Business School
Career Services Advisor Career Services Advisor
What do I need a resume for?
¡ To get your target employer’s
attention…in 30 seconds or less!
¡ To communicate your credentials
¡ To demonstrate your achievements
¡ To create a first impression of your
professional image
Getting Started :
Know thyself and thy job
¡ The biggest initial obstacle to writing a resume is
describing your experience in terms of skills and
abilities and not just as the duties you performed
or your job responsibilities.
¡ Sometimes it’s necessary to convey job functions,
but employers are really looking for you to
identify what you learned from those duties and
how they’re going to transfer to the new job
(since no two positions have identical, static
responsibilities).
Getting Started :
Know thyself and thy job
¡ Once you’ve identified your skills, then
you can begin looking for the job(s) that
would be the perfect fit for you. If you’re
having trouble narrowing your job search,
rank the skills or talents you’ve learned in
your education, work, internship,
volunteer or extracurricular involvement
in the order in which you’d most like to
use them in your future career.
Resume Styles
¡ Which style will best represent your
skills and experiences to a potential
employer?
l Reverse Chronological
l Functional
l Combination
Reverse Chronological format…
if you’re staying on the same career path
¡ The REVERSE CHRONOLOGICAL RESUME is the
traditional structure for most resumes.
¡ This format focuses on the Experience section and
highlights in detail the last several jobs you’ve had as if
they were rungs on the career ladder you’re now
climbing.
¡ This type of resume is best used if you’re sticking in
the same profession or type of work, or if you’re
applying within a conservative field (such as law or
academia).
¡ A career objective on this type of resume acts as the
next rung you’d like on your career ladder.
Functional Resume…
if you want to veer down another path
¡ The FUNCTIONAL RESUME highlights your major
skills and accomplishments from the very beginning.
¡ The functional resume is a must for career changers,
those with divergent careers, those with a wide range
of skills in their given profession, and who want to
make slight shifts in their career direction.
¡ Readers can see clearly what you can do for them,
rather than having to read through job descriptions.
¡ It helps target your resume into a new direction or
field, by lifting up from all past jobs the key skills and
qualifications that help prove you will be successful in
this new direction or field.
Combination Resume…
for something in between
¡ A COMBINATION RESUME is another wonderful
option.
¡ This type includes elements of both the chronological
and functional formats.
¡ It may be a shorter chronology of job descriptions
preceded by a short “Skills and Accomplishments”
section (or with a longer Summary including a skills list
or a list of “qualifications”); or, it may be a standard
functional resume with the accomplishments under
headings of different jobs held.
¡ It maximizes the advantages of both kinds of resumes,
avoiding potential “turn-off” of either type.
Essential Components
¡ Contact Information
¡ Educational background
¡ Relevant professional or school-related
activities, clubs or organizations
¡ Experience
Must Have’s: Contact Information
¡ Your Name
¡ Your Address: Most college students give
“current” and “permanent”
¡ Phone Numbers: Make sure that any phone
number you include has a professional message
at the other end
¡ Email address: Again, make sure it’s
professional…(ie. no
rockstarstudent@hotmail.com)
Contact Information (example)
Maria Velasquez
mjvelas@uwalumni.com
Permanent Address: 367 Alameda
Drive, Chico, CA 95926
Present Address: 1623 Monroe Street,
Madison, WI 53711
Phone: (608) 257-1914 (home)
(608) 279-0484 (cell)
What’s next Experience or Education?
¡ If you are a current college student
or about to graduate, you generally
list education first
¡ If you’ve been out of school for a
few years working, then you
generally list experience first
Must Have’s: Educational Experience
Education:
¡ Always list the name of your University first
¡ Next, spell out your degree
¡ List your major(s) and certificates after your
degree and your graduation date (or expected
graduation)
¡ You can also list relevant coursework
¡ Academic awards, honors, and recognition should
also be listed under this section
¡ You may want to list your GPA…it depends
Educational Experience (example)
Example:
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Bachelor of Arts, May 2002
Double Major: International Relations and Spanish
Awards and Honors: Chancellor’s Scholarship
Dean’s List (8 semesters)
Hilldale Research Grant Recipient
Relevant Coursework:
Latin American Politics International Economics
Business Spanish International Business
Must Have’s: Experience
¡ You can use subsections for specific skills or
experiences
l (Volunteer/Community Service, Study/Work Abroad,
Language Proficiencies, Professional Memberships, Public
Relations Experience, Editing/Journalistic Experience,
Fundraising Experience, Laboratory Experience,
Experience With Children, etc.)
¡ Include company name, city and state
¡ Dates of employment (month or season, and year)
¡ Job Title
¡ And excellent descriptive statements to convey the
skills you used, the accomplishments you made, and
the initiatives you took…
Experience (example)
Intern, Human Rights Watch
Washington D.C.
Summer 2001
l Performed research for international human
rights campaigns
l Initiated contact with international political
organizations such as the European Union
l Translated documents from English to Spanish
and vice versa
What’s an excellent resume vs. a
mediocre resume?
¡ Use ACTION verbs
¡ Show your achievements
¡ Demonstrate scope
¡ Readability and organization
¡ Clear and Concise Language
¡ Error Free (check grammar, spelling,
content)
¡ Relevance, Relevance, Relevance !!!
Weak vs. Strong Descriptive
Statements
¡ The example statement below was on a student’s
resume that I counseled on resume improvement.
After further discussion, I found out he was not
concisely showing his abilities and skills as an
Assistant Sales Manager. The statement on the
next page reflects the change.
¡ “Responsible for stocking inventory, working with
employees, helping customers, keeping books,
and closing store.”
Strong Descriptive Statements
¡ Supervised and trained 30 employees in
selling shoes, customer service and
stocking shelves in a store with sales of
$200,000 annually
¡ Consistently exceeded Corporate Sales
Goals
¡ Top sales manger out of three managers
¡ Created and implemented employee
incentive program, and increased sales by
20% per year
Optional Resume Components
¡ Objective statement – (mixed reviews on this)
¡ Skills Summary or Professional Profile
¡ Honors or Awards
¡ Availability
¡ References upon request
¡ Computer Skills
¡ Group Projects
¡ Rule of Thumb…
¡ Make sure it’s relevant to your target job !!
More on Career Objectives…
do I need one or not?
¡ The rule of thumb on Career
Objectives…
l If you are changing career directions,
or have a diverse background you may
want to use a career objective.
l If your resume show consistency in a
particular career path, you may not
need one.
If you use a Career Objective…
make sure it clarifies the following
¡ the Position that you’re applying for
¡ the Industry you’re interested in
¡ or the Skills you would like to utilize
More specifically, a Career Objective
can define…
¡ Functional area of interest and/or specific job title
¡ (sales, data processing, research, copy writing…)
¡ Type of organization or industry
¡ (governmental, manufacturer, retailer
¡ social service agency, financial institution…)
¡ Level of position — optional, unless listed
¡ (mid-level, entry-level...)
¡ Size and scope of organization if relevant
¡ (small, large, local, regional, international…)
Examples to help you prepare your
own career objective:
for ADVERTISING:
¡ Interested in a career in media or market research field
with a large agency. Particular focus on corporate
communications.
for COMPUTER PROGRAMMER:
¡ Seeking assignment as a programmer or systems
analyst with an interest in marketing and finance
applications.
for PERSONNEL:
¡ In pursuit of a personnel assistant post in public
service organization with partiality towards human
resources management.
Other Optional Components
¡ If you have little professional work experience, think
about the skills that you used in the following areas:
l Research Papers/Project
l Summer Jobs
l Certification Courses
l Internships
l Campus jobs (Work study)
l Campus Activity Positions
l Entrepreneurial/self-employed jobs
l Temporary Work
l Volunteer Work: service learning, tutoring, mentoring,
clubs, non-profit organizations
l Extracurricular Positions
What NOT to Include?
¡ Personal information
l Marital or family status, age or date of birth,
etc.
¡ Pictures
¡ High school honors
l Undergrad awards are okay if relevant
¡ Personal interests
l Unless you know how it connects
¡ Personal characteristics
l Example: reliable, fast learner, team player
Final Test!
¡ Try a variety of styles and organizational
techniques – what works best for you?
¡ Have professionals in career services and
your field read your resume to be sure of
clarity and image projected
¡ Keep more than one resume on file to
accentuate different skill sets