Résumés

Drop-in Express Hours

Do you have a quick question about your résumé, interview skills, graduate school application, etc., but don't have time for a regular appointment? Check out our in-person Drop-In Express Hours, which will be held every Tuesday and Wednesday from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. where trained career services staff will be able to assist you!

Résumé Review

Students and alumni are encouraged to submit their résumés to resume-review@iup.edu. Your résumé will be reviewed by one of our career consultants, and you will receive feedback in approximately five business days. We do not schedule résumé reviews on weekends, and same-day or requests for reviews less than 24 hours after the request for review has been submitted will not be able to be accommodated.

Questions regarding cover letters, interview skills, etc. can be sent to career-development@iup.edu.

When preparing your résumé, it is important to remember that the purpose of a résumé is to get you an interview. In the 30 seconds that your résumé will be looked over, you must convince a prospective employer that you deserve an interview. Therefore, do not attempt to present an autobiography of yourself. Focus on your accomplishments and the skills that you have acquired and what you have to offer a particular company for the future.

Creating Your Blueprint

To begin your résumé, make a detailed list of all of your experiences. Segment these experiences into categories such as:

• Education
• Work Experience
• Internships
• Volunteer Work
• College Activities
• Professional Group Memberships
• Honors
• Awards
• Special Training

Optional items for your résumé include:

• Additional Skills (Computer Skills, Languages, etc.)
• Relevant Coursework
• Publications/Research
• Job Objective

Formats

Include everything that you can think of because your résumé can be revised later during a résumé appointment with a career coach at the Career and Professional Development Center. Once you have compiled a list of experiences into categories, you will need to decide on the format that best exemplifies your accomplishments and your goals. The two formats most often used are the chronological and functional résumé.

Chronological Résumés

A chronological résumé focuses on past experiences. It is the most effective format to use when:

• staying in the same field as prior experience
• job history shows growth and development
• entering a highly traditional field
• previous employers are highly prestigious

It is the least effective format to use when:

• you have a spotty work history
• changing your career goals or if you have had frequent job changes

Sample

Functional Résumés

A functional résumé focuses on strengths and accomplishments. It is the most effective format to use when:

• emphasizing capabilities not recently used in work experiences
• changing careers
• you have a variety of unrelated work experiences

It is the least effective format to use when:

• entering a highly traditional field
• performing limited work functions
• emphasizing a management growth pattern

Sample

Tips

Once you have gathered and organized your information, there are several things to keep in mind as you begin the actual writing process:

• Be consistent.
• Use bullets to draw the reader's attention to your verb phrases.
• Use phrases to describe your skills instead of sentences.
• Condense ideas.
• Be specific.
• Be neat and organized.
• Use quality résumé paper in shades of cream and gray.
• Use a laser printer.
• Be honest about your information including your GPA.
• Proofread.
• Have someone else proofread your résumé, and edit, edit, edit!

You should never include in your résumé:

• References to race, religion, sex, or age
• Photos
• Reasons for job changes
• Self-serving claims
• Abbreviations or jargon
• Irrelevant information

Individual résumé coaching is available by appointment. Please contact the Career and Professional Development Center to make an appointment.

Action Words

The following "action" words can be used as the first word of sentence fragments in your résumé. Always begin your statements with an action word that describes a certain skill or ability you possess. A thesaurus can be a helpful tool in this process.

The Do's and Don'ts of Résumé Writing

Common Employer Criticisms of Résumés

• Misspellings, bad grammar, and wordiness
• Too long, short, or condensed
• Poor layout, physical appearance
• Poor punctuation
• Lengthy phrases, sentences, and paragraphs
• Too slick, amateurish, and "gimmicky"
• Too boastful or dishonest
• Poorly typed and reproduced
• Irrelevant information
• Critical categories missing
• Hard to understand or requires too much interpretation
• Does not convey accomplishments
• Text does not support objective
• Unclear objective
• Too much jargon

Tips for Scannable Résumés

In order to cut costs, some employers have begun using computers to read résumés. The development of scanners and Optical Character Recognition software now enables an employer to "read" and store thousands of résumés into a candidate database, which can be searched for keywords when a vacancy needs to be filled. As the use of this technology grows, it will change the way in which résumés are prepared. For now, the following tips can be used to make your résumé more "scanner-friendly":

• Use non-decorative typefaces, such as Helvetica, Futura, Univers, Optima, ITC Avante Garde, Goth, Time, New Century Schoolbook, ITC Bookman, Palatino, or Courier. These fonts are easier for scanners to recognize.
• Use a font size of 10 to 14 points.
• Avoid italics, script, and underlining. Avoid using graphics and shading.
• Use light-colored, standard-size 8-1/2” by 11” paper, printed on one side only.
• If you know your résumé is going to be read by a scanner, do not fold, staple, or wrinkle it.