Resumes
Tory Nair, Career Advisor
Career Development Center, B-119
(773) 442-4685
Parts of a Resume
 Name and contact information
 Objective (optional)
 Qualifications summary/professional profile (optional)
 Education and relevant coursework
 Work experience
 Internship experience
 Volunteer experience
 Extracurricular activities/honors/awards
 Computer skills
 Language skills
 Additional sections for related information
The Length Debate
 How long should a resume be?
 1 page
 2 pages
 Doesn’t matter
 It depends
 Answer: It depends!
Formatting
 Margins: ¾ to 1” margins
 Consistency:
 Dates on right side
 How list work experiences
 Fonts/formatting
 Font:
 10-12 point font
 “Professional” font – Arial, Times New Roman, Calibri,
others
 Name & headings should be bolded, larger font size to stand
out
Formatting
 Additional Formatting:
 Use special formatting (bold/italics/underlines) sparingly
 Colors – black font is best in most situations
 No pictures or graphics!
 Important tips:
 List bullets in order of importance
 Do not need to include references on resume
 Make sure it looks ok when converted to a PDF file or being
sent via e-mail
 Avoid templates!
Chronological vs. Functional Resumes
 What is a chronological resume?
 Lists work, internship, and volunteer experience in reverse
chronological order (most recent to oldest)
 What is a functional resume?
 Highlights skills and qualifications vs. experiences
 Order of relevancy vs. chronological
Chronological vs. Functional
Chronological Resumes
(Use this style if you want to…)
Functional Resumes
(Use this style if you want to…)
• Stay in the same career field
•
• Emphasize past growth and career
development
• Return to the job market
• Show an established career progression
• Change careers
• Identify related skills within industry
• De-emphasize frequent job changes
• Highlight skills directly related to the
job
• Highlight transferable skills from
unrelated industries
Enter the job market
NOTE: Can also use the “combination” format – there’s no one right way!
Contact Information
 What’s wrong with this header?
No nicknames!
Check your
grammar!
“Snooki” Polozzi
Do not need to
write “cell,” just
include one
number
Use a professional
e-mail address
100 S. jerzeeee st
Jersey Shores, Nj 07480
Cell: 123-4567
hottiefromnj@yahooo.com
Watch for
typos!
Contact Information
 How it should appear:
Nicole Polozzi
100 S. Jersey St.
Jersey Shores, NJ 07480
(555) 123-4567
npolozzi@yahoo.com
 Professionalism reminders:
 Use a “professional” e-mail address, check it often
 Make sure your voicemail message is appropriate
 Yes, include your mailing address!
Education Section
 Should include:
 Current institution and location – write it out!
 Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, IL
 NOT Northeastern University (Boston), NEIU, NorthEastern…
 Graduation date
 Degree obtaining, including major(s) and/or minor(s)
 Master of Arts in Counseling
 NOT “MA” or “Masters” or “Masters of Arts”
 GPA (if a 3.0 or above)
 Can include GPA in different ways (e.g., major GPA vs. cumulative/overall
GPA)
 Previous institutions (for Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science)
 Can include: relevant coursework here
Education Section - Examples
EDUCATION
Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, IL
Master of Arts in Counseling
North Park University, Chicago, IL
Bachelor of Arts in Psychology
May 2014
May 2011
Education Section - Examples
EDUCATION
Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, IL
Master of Arts in Counseling
May 2014
Bachelor of Arts in Psychology
May 2011
Work Experience
 Include:
 Name of employer
 Location (city, state)
 Dates of employment
 Position title
 Use bullet points for easy reading
 Action verbs should start each bullet point
 Content should be specific and in order of importance (as related to
position description)
 Include skills, achievements/accomplishments vs. job duties or responsibilities
 Watch tenses!
 Present tense for current jobs
 Past tense for previous jobs
 Be consistent in formatting!
 Can have a separate section for “relevant” work experience
Work Experience
 How far back should you go?
 If you have more years of experience, include up to last 10 years
 If you have less years of experience, include all relevant and/or
recent experiences
 Can include relevant skills section
 Does not have to be exactly related, but try to pull out
transferable/related skills
 Should appear in reverse chronological order (chronological
resumes)
 Read job descriptions for clues!
Additional Experiences to Include
 Internships
 Can list among rest of work experience, but stands out if it
has its own section/heading
 Format and write similarly to work experience
 Can list on resume as soon as you start!
 Volunteer/Community Service Work
 Leadership/Student Organizations
Any experience is “good” experience, paid or not!
Phrases to Avoid in your Resume
 “Team player”
 “Responsible for…”
 “Hard-working”
 “Strong communication skills”
 “Proven track record for success”
 Demonstrate your skills by using specific details:
 Show, don’t tell!
Additional Sections for Resumes
 Computer skills
 Write out Microsoft Office products (e.g., Word, PowerPoint, Excel,
Access, Outlook, Publisher)
 Include any specific knowledge of social media, software, hardware,
coding, programming, and so on
 Foreign language ability
 Be careful with use of “fluent” or other words to describe extent of
knowledge/use in conversation
 Activities (extracurricular activities, campus involvement)
 Honors/Awards
 Any additional experiences you feel are relevant, unique
 DO NOT include hobbies, interests!
 DO NOT include “references available upon request”
On a Separate Page…
 3-4 professional references
 Name
 Contact information
 Phone, e-mail address
 Relationship to you and/or position title
 DO NOT include personal (family, friends) references unless
asked to do so!
 Make sure your references have agreed to do this for you!
Hints, Tips, & Tricks
 Tailor your resume to the position
 Place sections in order of relevance and importance
 Save your resume with your name in the file name (e.g.,
“Tory Nair Resume.doc”)
 Can also add the position title (e.g., “Tory Nair Career Advisor
Resume.doc”) or company (e.g., “Tory Nair ALA Resume.doc”)
 Save one file for every position, along with a master
 On new versions of Word, you can “save as” a PDF. Many
employers prefer this.
LinkedIn – Your Online “Resume”
 http://www.linkedin.com
 Can list this on your resume, but not necessary
 Import your resume for your profile
 One of the first things that comes up when someone searches
for you online
 Use it to connect to others and to research companies,
people
 LinkedIn workshops
Come in for a resume critique!
 Drop-in hours Mondays and Wednesdays 1-3pm (Building B,
Room 119)
 Appointments Monday-Friday
 Monday-Wednesday hours: 8:30am-7pm
 Thursday-Friday hours: 8:30am-4:30pm
Career Development Center –
Additional
 In addition to resume and cover letter critiques, we also assist
with:







Preparing for interviews
Writing thank-you letters
Applying to graduate school
Deciding what to do after graduation
Applying for internships and full-time positions
Negotiating salary and navigating job offers
Additional questions regarding your career search!
 We host many events, coordinate on-campus interviews and
job fairs, and post jobs, internships online (CCN)!
Questions?
 Career Development Center
 B-119
 773.442.4680
 http://www.neiu.edu/careerservices
 Tory Nair – v-nair@neiu.edu