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An effective resume does more than serve as a summary of the facts about yourself. It focuses the employer’s attention on your special abilities for a particular career field or function. Your resume is an advertisement or sales presentation about you.
There are a 1000 ways to write a resume. Here, we provide the basic structure and examples to help you get started. Once you have a draft ready and after each revision, we strongly encourage you to to get your resume critiqued.
Generally, a resume should include the following:
Contact Information
Professional Objective
Education
Special Skills
Experience
Leadership
Activities
Presentations
Contact Information
- You want to include your name, address (both home and school, if applicable), at least one phone number (the one you use most), and one email address.
- If you choose to include a website address, ensure that everything on your web site is professional.
- Spell out "street," " avenue," "road," etc.
Professional Objective
- Your objective is a brief functional statement of your career goals or interests and should serve to help organize your resume. It should be
REALISTIC, CONCISE, and TARGETED, but not RESTRICTIVE.
- Avoid vague and general clichés such as: "opportunity for advancement"; "a challenging position”; "a progressive company." These terms may sound appealing but have little meaning to the person selecting candidates.
- Your career objective can describe the position you are seeking, the industry in which you wish to work, or both. Using both criteria narrows
your objective to a very specific area. For example:
1. To obtain a position as (type of position) utilizing (skills) in (type of industry).
2. A position in a management training program in the (type of industry or company).
- You may also want to include 1-2 relevant skills as they relate to the position for which you are applying.
- Make sure that the statement is work-centered rather than self-centered. You want to bring across what will bring the position/company, not what it will do for you.
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Education
- Include the name and location of Lehigh and other colleges attended (if you are a masters or PhD student) in reverse chronological order.
- List major(s), minor(s) and graduation date.
- G.P.A. optional, but often desired. You can include major GPA, but don't over do it with listing several GPAs.
- You can include relevant courses in your major/minor/electives, but ensure the list is concise (5-9) and includes upper level courses, if applicable. Do not list course numbers, only titles.
- Academic Honors can be included in the education section.
- Study abroad experiences may be placed here, or you can include them in another completely separate section, possibly titled "international experience," or "study abroad" experience.
- If you are in your first or second year of college, high school information can be listed, but as you progress and gain more experiences, it may be time to remove high school related information.
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Special Skills
- Computer competencies (list applications in order of importance), procedures/techniques utilized in your field, equipment you can operate (scientific, etc.), foreign languages.
Experience
- Experience can be listed in one or two separate categories. All experiences should be listed in reverse chronological order (for chronological resume style). Include title, organization name and location, and dates. Use action verbs to describe responsibilities and achievements.
- Related Experience include full-time/part-time work, internships, co-ops, externships, class projects, research, or volunteerism that directly relates to the stated objective. Here is an expanded list of possible related experiences.
- Additional Experience includes any other employment or experience that does not directly relate to the career sought but is important to include to show time-management, consistency, etc.
- In all experience entries, be sure to include: position titles, company names, city, state, and dates employed.
- Include major responsibilities and outstanding achievements and/or recognitions.
- Quantify where ever possible. For example, if you, increased membership in your organization, state that increase in a percentage (Increased membership by 45%).
- Major class projects, IPD, LEO, thesis, all can be included in related experience sections.
- Keep descriptions action oriented using strong action verbs: organized, designed, supervised, created, initiated. Don't use "I" to start sentences.
- Avoid redudancy and choose words carefully.
- Keep descriptions concise.
- Use bullet or paragraph format for descriptions. Be consistent with what format you choose.
Leadership
- Leadership is any activity you are involved in where you have responsibilities above and beyond membership. Click for a list of leadership experiences.
- Describe the experience as if it was a job. Provide a title (if applicable), the organization name, and dates of involvement. Use same format as you did in your experience sections to maintain consistency. Utilize action verbs to start your experience.
- Career Library holds reference materials for employers.
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Activities
- List clubs, committees, and organizations in which you are a member. Include: sports, clubs, Greek affiliations, hobbies, etc. However, do not repeat clubs and organizations listed on your resume in a different section (i.e Leadership).
Presentations
- You may have significant presentations you would like to include on your resume. Make sure to include the name of the topic or paper presented. You may also include the conference, date, city, and state.
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