Champlain College, Established 1878

Resume Writing 101

Need help writing your resume?!

Optimal Resume is here! Just login and work through the resume writing process. You can save multiple resumes in multiple formats. Simply save them to your desktop, email them to your career advisor for approval, and you are good to go!!!

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Your resume has about 45 seconds to make a good impression and convince the employer to read further, so here are some helpful hints and samples to guide you.

Use the three C's:

  • Clear: Identify key positive points in seconds
  • Consistent: Use headings, underlining, boldfacing, bullets, white space, vertical alignments, and serif fonts for greater readability.  Keep the style, grammar, punctuation numbers/dates, capital letters, etc. consistent and parallel
  • Concise: Keep your resume to one or two pages. If your resume is a little over one page, adjust margins and font size to get it to one page. If you use two pages, evenly space the information so the copy looks well-balanced with uniform margins.

General Process

  • Present information in reverse chronological order
  • Use short, descriptive phrases with action words (lead, organize, coordinate, etc)
  • Have at least two people proofread your resume
  • Avoid unusual type styles if you are preparing an electronic resume since equipment is set to read “text” not “graphics.”
  • Present most pertinent information first and with the most detail

Format

  • Name (write out in full), Address, Email Address & Phone number
  • Objective: Let's the employer know the position you are seeking (optional)
  • Summary of Qualifications: Synopsis of your greatest skills/strengths
  • Education: include Name/address of school, dates of attendance, degree w/major. Underneath include achievements/awards/honors/leadership roles
  • Work History/Employment: Include business name, city/town and state, job title, dates of employment, and brief, action-oriented description of your major responsibilities and achievements. Accomplishments should include degree of responsibility,level of difficulty, results and recognitions of excellence.
  • Internships: Include business name, city/town and state, type of internship, dates of internship, brief, action-oriented description of your goals, special projects, major responsibilities, and outcomes.
  • Professional Memberships: Include name of organization with city/town and state, dates of affiliation, leadership roles or details of your membership activity
  • Professional Development: Include names and dates of workshops/conferences with brief statement about what you learned
  • Volunteer Activities/Community Service: Include name of organization with city/town and state, volunteer role, dates of service (month/year to month/year), brief, action-oriented description of your service to the organization
  • Interests/Hobbies (optional): Include particularly if it would be an asset in your career field of interest
  • References: Can be handled in two ways:
    • References will be provided upon request
    • With a separate page listing references: include name, title, affiliation (business name or school name), address and phone number. Include heading w/your own name and contact so reader know whose references they are.
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