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A resume is a reflection of your specific skills, abilities and accomplishments that allows you to "market" your knowledge and experience to an employer. It provides information that lets an employer know if you are a good match for a particular job. Remember, it is often your first opportunity to make a good impression on an employer and get your foot in the door.

Your resume should be a well-organized profile of your qualifications for a position, accentuating your most marketable skills and experiences. Avoid a dishonest resume. Your resume should communicate enough information to an employer to elicit further interest. Omit personal pronouns (i.e. you, me, I), avoid wordiness, and don't get bogged down in details that are of no interest to potential employers.

Parts of a Resume

The resume is typically organized into sections arranged from the most important to the least important. The following is a description of the parts of a resume.

1. Identifying Information

This should include your name, present and permanent address, telephone numbers including area codes and email address.

2. Professional Objective

Prepare a brief, clearly defined statement indicating the field or position in which you are interested. Your professional objective represents the theme of your resume with the remaining information supporting your goal. If you are interested in more than one career field or position, you may need to have different resumes for each professional objective.

3. Education

For each post-secondary degree (most recent first), list:

  • Your college or university followed by your degree, major and graduation date.
  • Your GPA- only if it is 3.0 or better. If your GPA is less than a 3.0, you may want to identify only your major GPA.
  • If you have worked during college, consider including the percentage of the college expenses you earned.
  • If you do not include the following skills section, include your computer skills in this section.

4. Qualifications or Skills

You may want to include a section which briefly summarizes any skills or qualifications you have gained from your work experience and/or extracurricular activities that relate to your professional objective. This is especially helpful if your work experience is not career related. Examples of summary statements are:

  • Excellent time management skills developed through working 25 hours per week while a full time student.
  • Developed leadership skills by serving as a community assistant responsible for 40 residents.
  • Knowledge of WordPerfect 6.0, Windows XP, Microsoft Office and Lotus 1-2-3.

5. Experience

In a consistent manner, list your work experiences in reverse chronological order (most recent first). Experiences may include full-time or part-time employment as well as summer jobs, volunteer work, and internships. Follow these guidelines:

  • Give the names and locations of organizations for which you have worked.
  • List your job position, title, and dates you were employed.
  • If your experience is career related, and you did not include a "qualifications/skills" section, state the positive aspects of your work, such as accomplishments, acquired skills, and job growth. Quantify with numbers, i.e., "cash sales of $9,000" or "supervised four clerks."

6. Honors and Activities

Honors- List any honors which indicate your strong academic abilities, such as honorary societies, scholarships, awards, and Dean's list. Include any honors related to character and/or community service activities. Employers look for well-rounded individuals who involve themselves with extra curricular activities. Include both college and community activities, listing committees you participated in, offices held, and any responsibilities you had.

7. References

If you do not have space on your resume for references, it is a good idea to state, "References are available upon request" along the bottom of your resume. Create a listing of your references with work addresses and phone numbers on a second page. Always make sure that you have permission from the individuals before listing them as references.

Helpful Resume Sites