Resume Writing

What is a Resume?

A resume serves as a brief summary of your qualifications and experiences as they relate to the type of job you are seeking—it is used when you apply for jobs, internships, or graduate and professional schools. The primary purpose of a resume is to secure an interview, giving you the opportunity to sell your strengths and abilities to prospective employers in person.

Your resume provides prospective employers with their first impression of you—it is an advertisement about you. Your resume is your chief marketing tool in the job search process. Therefore, your resume should be well-organized and highlight your background by emphasizing your skills and qualifications. Your resume helps prospective employers evaluate what you have to offer them and informs them of the type of job you are seeking, and the skills, accomplishments, and educational background you have to offer. 

If you have several career interests and you are applying for several positions that are unrelated, you may want to develop multiple resumes with different job objectives. The following pages will define different resume features and resume types and help you develop your own unique resume.

Need Individual Attention on Your Resume? 

Visit Career the Office of Career Services in Carroll Hall, 3111 or call 464-7560 to make a 30-minute appointment with a career counselor to review your resume. You may also attend a Resume Workshop. Please see our Website at: /careerservices for dates and times of these events.

Want information on resume writing?

Visit our website at /careerservices  or stop by the Office of Career Services in Carroll 311 to browse our books on resumes, cover letters, job search strategies, networking interviewing, negotiating salary offers, and business etiquette. 

Want Employers to Come to You?

Career and Academic Planning’s KeydetConnect and On-Post Interviewing Program are available to VMI cadets and alumni. By registering on KeydetConnect, you can search job and internship listings, post your resume online, apply for positions, and sign up for mock interviews. This saves you valuable time and gives employers access to your resume even when they are unable to come to campus.

Resume Content

The key to writing a strong resume is to highlight the areas of your background that best demonstrate your skills and abilities as they relate to the position or opportunity for which you are applying. Also bear in mind that there is no such thing as a “standard” resume format—your resume is unique to you.

Identifying Information

Your name, mailing address, telephone number, cell number and email address should always top your resume.  If you are still in school while you are sending resumes to potential employers, include both your permanent contact information as well as your college address and phone number.

Objective

The objective sets the tone for your resume and informs the employer of the position you are seeking.  It may include a job title, a description of activities and skills you wish to perform, the type of organization you wish to join, a special interest you have in a particular field, or your short and long-term goals.  A job objective indicates to the employer (or graduate program) that you have some direction; however, you may omit this information from your resume if you are unsure about the type of work you are seeking or you are applying for a variety of positions within the company.  In this case, state your objectives in a cover letter rather than your resume.

Examples:

• To obtain a financial trainee position with a dynamic banking organization that will utilize my analytical skills, language skills, and multinational experiences.
  
• To find a position as a programmer or analyst that will utilize and enhance my knowledge of the information systems field.                 
                                             
• Seeking a position in a foreign relations or intelligence field that will employ my knowledge on political science and background in Russian language and culture. 

Education

Include all colleges and universities from which you have earned a degree.  They should be listed in reverse chronological order (your most recent school listed first).  For those colleges and universities you attended but did not receive a degree, their inclusion should be considered if you participated in some kind of experience relevant to the objective of your resume.  As a junior or senior, you usually don’t include your high school, unless you were involved in a significant or unique experience relevant to your career goal.  For freshmen and sophomores, it is customary to include your high school information, including experiences related to your resume objective.  Include the name and location of your college, type and date of degree earned, and major and minor.  It is best to include your cumulative GPA and/or your major GPA.  If you’ve earned Dean’s List, make sure you list it here. You may also include any special training your received that supports your objective.           

Example:   Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia

Bachelor of Arts, May 2008    

Major: International Studies, Minor: Psychology

Honors Program, Cumulative GPA: 3.7, Major GPA: 3.8 , Dean’s List (2)

Related Coursework

You may list appropriate college coursework in your resume if you apply for a position that is unrelated to your major or the coursework is unique/specialized in the career field. For example, if you apply for a technical writing position, but you majored in biology, it would be advantageous to list your writing courses to highlight your skills. In most cases, it is recommended that you omit major-related coursework from your resume.

Experience

Summarize your experiences by highlighting those that best reveal your skills and abilities and are related to
the type of job you are seeking. You should include the title of your position, the name of the organization, location (city and state), and the dates you worked at the organization. You can include paid work experiences, volunteer work, internships, and student organization involvement. If you have several experiences that are directly related to the type of job you are seeking, you may list them under a separate category called “Related Experiences.” Remember to be brief and use strong action-verbs in the past tense to indicate your responsibilities and accomplishments.

Activities

This section highlights college and professional organizations and clubs in which you participated.  Include the name of the organization, any offices you held, and the dates you were a member. Include a brief description of your activities if these would be relevant to the position for which you are applying.                       

Honors

Provide information about any honors you received such as scholarships, Dean’s List, President’s List, and memberships in honor societies. Include dates. If you have less than three honor entries list them under the education section.

References

Before listing someone as a reference on your resume, you must always seek his or her permission so that the person is aware that he or she might be contacted. Think of faculty and employers who know you and your work well and will give you a positive recommendation.  You need only state on your resume, “References will be available upon request” if asked for. However, some people prefer to list their references on a separate sheet and either attach it to the resume and/or bring it with them to the interview. In this case, include names, titles, addresses, and phone numbers for each reference. Be sure to include your name and address on your reference sheet.  Only address references if asked for.

Skills

Information about special skills that are relevant to your job objective can enhance your resume, such as computer skills, research skills, communications skills and language skills.  You can include this information as a separate category or as part of other entries on your resume.

Personal Data

Unlike in the past, personal data such as race, sex, height, and marital status is no longer required on your resume—it is illegal in some states for employers to request this information and, more importantly, it has nothing to do with your skills and qualifications.  Some people do provide this data on their resume when applying for positions where the information is pertinent, such as flight attendant.

Other Categories

Be creative and don’t feel you have to limit the content of your resume to the categories listed above.  If you have special information that supports your application, create a place for it.

Resume Formats

There are three basic resume formats: chronological, functional, and combination. The type of format you use depends on your particular background and the type of work you are seeking.

Chronological Resume

A chronological resume emphasizes your work and/or experiences and organizes your information around dates.  Chronological resumes are easy to follow because they highlight career growth and the names of employers.  You should use the chronological format when your work or activity experience is strong and relevant to your job objective, when previous job titles are impressive and job history shows growth, and when you want to emphasize your accomplishments. Disadvantages of this format—your skills may not be highlighted and gaps in your career path may be more visible.  List jobs or experiences in reverse chronological order with your most recent position listed first.                              

Functional Resume

A functional resume organizes information under functional headings that highlight your major areas of accomplishment or strength.  Experiences and skills are organized to support your job objective and are not bound by employment dates. Titles and work history are de-emphasized. You may draw upon all sources of experience (employment, volunteer work, college activities, and coursework) to describe your skills.

Since the functional resume emphasizes capabilities and skills, it can be useful when you want to enter a different career field or illustrate your transferable skills. Although the functional resume takes more time and thought to prepare, it may be more effective than the chronological format if your work experiences have been limited or you wish to focus on special skills and abilities. See page 6 of this booklet for ideas on functional headings.

Combination Resume

The combination resume includes aspects of both the chronological and functional formats. Work history and skills or accomplishments are emphasized equally. This format allows you to include a section about prior work experiences and a section on your functional and transferable skills.

General Resume Writing Guidelines

• Be brief. A one-page resume is adequate. Use two pages only if you have had extensive experience.
  
• Use action verbs to describe your accomplishments. See the page 5 of this booklet for ideas.
  
• Emphasize your successes, skills, leadership abilities, and qualifications.  State all information positively and relate your skills and background to the job you are seeking.
  
• Give specific examples of your accomplishments. Quantify when possible to strengthen the impact of your message (e.g.: “supervised 12 employees,” “managed a $2,000 budget”).
  
• Be consistent with format, type style and type size.
  
• Be consistent with verb tense and proofread for misspelled words and grammatical errors.
  
• Use capital letter, bold print, or italics to highlight parts of your resume.
  
• Use simple graphics such as lines to create a border. If you are a graphic or interior design major, you may want to use your resume to display your design skills or logo.
  
• Print your resume on light-colored paper (white or ivory, for example) and use matching paper for your cover letter, especially when using a paper color other than white.

Action Verbs

Want to strengthen your resume? Try using a variety of verbs, like the ones listed below to describe your skills and accomplishments:

 Source:  Jackson, Tom. The Perfect Resume: Today's Ultimate Job Search Tool. New York: Broadway, 2004.

Scannable Resumes

The “Electronic Revolution” has made it possible for employers to find job applicants faster and easier.  Optical Character Recognition (OCR) systems look at images (resumes) to distinguish characters (letters and numbers) and then create a text file (ASCII). Artificial intelligence then reads the text and extracts the important information about the applicant.  The purpose of a scannable resume is to match employers’ needs to applicants who fulfill those needs quickly and effectively. Scannable resumes allow employers to search a database of resumes by using keywords, buzzwords, or descriptors to find matches or “hits.” Ultimately, a computer-friendly resume is one that maximizes the computer’s ability to read the applicant’s resume and obtain hits. Finally, it is a good idea to have two versions of your resume—a scannable version and a traditional version—to take with you to an interview.

Scannable Resume Content Guidelines

• Use common headings such as: Objective, Education, Employment, Work History, Positions Held, Skills, Accomplishments, Summary, Highlights, Summary/Highlights of Qualifications, Publications, Licenses, Certifications, and Honors
  
• Incorporate important nouns. The scanner will search for descriptive words (keywords) such as: writer, accounting, manager, Spanish (language fluency), Public Relations Society of America.
  
• Use concrete words, for example, it is better to use “managed a team of software engineers” instead of “responsible for managing, training...”
  
• Use common keywords to define your skills, experience, education, professional affiliations, etc.
  
• Use industry-specific jargon and acronyms. Minimize abbreviations to common ones like B.A., B.S., or GPA. When you use acronyms, also spell out their meanings.
  
• Include specifics such as names of software packages (Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Excel).
  
• When faxing a resume to be scanned, set the fax to “fine mode” so that the recipient receives a better quality.

Scannable Resume Format      

• Use any standard resume format—chronological, functional, or combination.
  
• Format your name and address with your name on one line and the address on each line appearing below it.
  
• List multiple telephone numbers on separate lines.
  
• Use capital letters for section headings.
  
• Do not use vertical or horizontal lines, shading, graphics, boxes, charts, or columns on your scannable resume.
  
• Use common, simple, non-decorative typefaces such as: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, Tahoma,
  Trebuchet, or Verdana.
  
• Use standard type sizes between 10 and 14 points.
  
• Do not use italics, underlining, shadows, or reverse (white letters on black background).
  
• Use white space, computers use it to recognize when one topic has ended and another has begun.
  
• Use one side of 8½ x 11” white paper.
  
• Use a laser printer or high-quality photocopier.
  
• Include your name on the top of each page if there are multiple pages of your scannable resume.
  
• Do not fold or staple.