Resume and Interview Guide with Samples

Resume and Interview Guide with Samples

RESUME WRITING

The main purpose of a resume is to help you obtain a job interview. A resume does not need to include everything you have done, but it should highlight your skills and strengths as well as your professional experiences.

RESUME CHECKLIST

HEADER

• Does your header contain one email, one phone number, and one address? (LinkedIn URL optional)
• Is your email appropriate?
• Have you set up your voicemail with a professional message?
• Is your name slightly larger and bold?

INVENTORY YOUR EXPERIENCE (pg. 5) (Not all of these will apply to you)

• Education, Trainings, Certifications
• Research, Relevant Coursework, Projects
• Previous Employment (Experience), Internships
• Military Experience
• International Experience
• Community Service, Volunteer Work
• Activities, Campus Involvement
• Leadership Experience, Honors, Awards
• Technical Skills
• Languages (not including English-if applying in the U.S.)
• Professional Associations

ORDERING YOUR EXPERIENCES (pg. 7)

• Are your most relevant experiences (paid or unpaid) to the top and
  left of your resume?
• Did you use section headers related to YOUR experiences (paid or
  unpaid)?
• Do you have more than one item in each section? If not, can you
  combine sections?
• Are your bullet points formatted similar to the examples in the Career
  Center Resume & Interview Guide?
• Do your bullet points include transferable skills as well as job duties?
• Are the job duties you’ve included relevant to the position you are
  applying for?
• Have you exaggerated any of your experiences? If so, revision is
  recommended. Honesty is very important.

  

  FORMAT

• Have you used a template? If so, it is typically recommended to start
  over with your own original document.
• Have you double-checked grammar and spelling?
• Are you on one page? This is the standard for undergraduates. If you
  are on two pages, you might want to check with a Career Center
  advisor or faculty member.
• Have you included your high school or activities from high school
  (recommended to remove after the end of your sophomore year)?
• Did you use a font size of 10 or larger?
• Is your main font a consistent size (you could include larger section
  headers)?
• Are your dates aligned?
• Have you used a consistent format for all of your dates (12/2018, Dec.
  2018, or December 2018)?
• Are you utilizing white or neutral paper (or resume paper, if possible)
  and black text?
• Have you left off pictures, graphics, and color text/lines (if you’re not
  in a design-oriented field)?

PROOFING

• Have you had someone else review your resume?
• Have you used the Career Center Resume & Interview Guide to view
  examples?
• Does your resume appear balanced on the page (not a lot of white
  space on the left or right sides)?
• Is your degree and GPA (if you wish to include/ typically if it’s 3.0 or
  higher) listed correctly according to KSIS?
•  Have you used capitalization/punctuation/bolding/italics consistently?
• Have you used different action verbs (at the beginning of each bullet
  point)? (pg. 9-10)
• Did you change your bullet points or move your sections to tailor your
  resume to the position? (pg. 7)
• If you are applying for Federal positions on usajobs.gov are you aware
  that your resume could be different? Have you researched the
  differences?
• ARE YOU PROUD TO PRESENT THIS DOCUMENT TO AN EMPLOYER OR
  GRADUATE SCHOOL?

  

  INVENTORY YOUR EXPERIENCE

• Catalog your experiences and what you have been involved in over the past
  3-4 years. Customized your document to emphasize college experiences.
  Do not include anything from high school after your freshman/sophomore
  year of college. Consider the following categories for things you might
  include:
  • Education, Trainings, Certifications
  • Research, Relevant Coursework, Projects
  • Previous Employment, Internships
  • Military Experience
  • International Experience
  • Community Service, Volunteer Work
  • Activities, Campus Involvement
  • Leadership Experience, Honors, Awards
  • Technical Skills
  • Language Proficiencies
  • Professional Associations

IDENTIFY AND COMMUNICATE YOUR SKILLS
Examine your experiences and determine what special skills, abilities, and
knowledge you have gained from them. Communicate this information
through bulleted, action statements.
• Begin each bullet with an action verb
 See a list of action verbs on pages 9-10
• Make sure you are using the correct tense. Use present tense
(develop) for current experiences, and past tense (developed) for
previous experiences
• Use brief, yet descriptive phrases to show how you have acquired
and/or utilized your skills, abilities, and knowledge

WRITING EFFECTIVE BULLET POINT STATEMENTS
Use strong action verbs to describe relevant job transferable skills, and/or
outcomes or accomplishments.

ACTION VERB TENSE
Jobs/Activities you are currently doing = present tense (develop).
Jobs/Activities you did in the past = past tense (developed).
PERIODS? You can use periods at the end of your bullet point statements
or not, as long as you are consistent.

TRANSFERABLE SKILLS:
Examples: Communication, teamwork, problem solving, organization,
analytical, technical, selling

• OUTCOME/ACCOMPLISHMENT STATEMENTS:
  Examples
  • Recognized by supervisor for work ethic, timeliness, and resolving
  unique customer concerns efficiently.
  • Promoted to Kitchen Lead upon recognition of work ethic,
  timeliness, and ability to collaborate with a team of 5-7 employees.
  • Received a raise after one year of service based on work ethic and
  leadership in the server role.
  • Recommended a change to mailings from paper to electronic which
  was implemented resulting in $600 decrease in expenses per
  quarter.

  

The following questions can serve as stimuli in identifying and writing
your achievements:

1. Did you solve a recurring problem for your area, department or
   section?
2. Did you suggest any new procedures or programs for the
   company?
3. Did you make any job easier or more efficient?
4. Did you train anyone?
5. Did you implement a new procedure or system?
6. Did you do a job with fewer people?
7. Did you do a job in less time than before?
8. Were you asked to do a special project? Take on new
   responsibilities?
9. Did you exceed your targets, goals or objectives?
10. Did you receive any awards or special recognition?
11. Did you do anything for the first time at the organization?
12. Did you save the company money?

What could be the result or benefit of what you did?
Perhaps you
• Increased productivity
• Improved performance
• Reduced time
• Increased efficiency
• Improved reliability
• Reduced costs
• Reduced waste
• Streamlined workflow
• Improved safety
• Improved working conditions
• Increased sales
• Created something new
• Improved the customer
experience

TAILOR YOUR RESUME
It is important to match your skills with the employer’s needs. In order to
make your resume stand out, you must tailor your resume to the position
you are applying for.
• Utilize the job description; analyze it and identify key skills that the
employer is looking for.
• Make sure to incorporate the desired skills that you have within
your action statements.
• Do not simply state that you have these skills; use examples to
SHOW how you have demonstrated them.

ORGANIZE YOUR RESUME

You want the information on your resume to be easily accessible. An employer should be able to find the information most relevant to the job description in the first 6-30 seconds.
• Name and contact information is always listed first.
• Objective statements are optional and if used should be brief and specific.
• Within your education section, you might also list study abroad/international experience and/or certifications that apply to your major.
You may want to use an objective statement for a career
fair to be clear regarding the type of position (full-time,
internship, etc.) and the time frame e.g., (Summer 2016).

• Your experience section should include significant experiences, particularly those most related to your field; they do not have to be paid positions. Consider: jobs, internships, leadership positions, activities, volunteer work, significant class projects, etc.
• Prioritize your resume; the most relevant information should always be toward the top.

Additional Tips:
• Length should be one page for most undergraduates.
• Capitalization, punctuation, bolding, dates, etc. need to be
formatted consistently.
• Never exaggerate your experiences.
• Add numerical details when you can; this will help to quantify your
experiences.
• Avoid excessive white space.
• Your resume needs to be error free—no typos, grammatical errors,
etc.

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