How to make a Resume
By the Professional Development Society
What is a Resume????
 A Resume is the first tool you have at your
disposal towards building a career
 It is a means to sell yourself to companies
 It represents what you feel are your most
important experiences and qualities
What Types of Resumes should
you have?
A Paper Resume
 Should Look Nice
 Have Bullets
 Be used for:
– faxing
– e-mailing
– Career Fairs
– Interviews
An Electronic Resume
 Plain Text(not fancy)
 Used for on-line
resume submission
(text box)
 Melded to company
specifications
What does a good Resume
consist of?
 Neat
 Clean
 Error Free
 Grammatically Correct
 Well organized
 ONE PAGE
 Unique
 Eye Grabbing
There are 4 types of Resume
formats
 Chronological Resume
 Functional Resume
 Combination Resume
 Curriculum Vitae(Vita)
Chronological Resume
 Highlights your work experience in reverse
chronological order(most recent jobs)
 This is the most widely used format
Functional Resume
 Highlights Specific skills for which the
market has a high demand
 Seldom used by college students or even
recent graduates
 Used to change jobs or careers
Combination Resume
 Highlights specific work experience
 Highlights marketable skills
 Uses chronological order
 Occasionally used by college students
This should be the resume style of choice for
most college students
Curriculum Vitae (Vita)
 This is not “technically” a resume
 It is a 2-4 page summary of academic
experience, work experience, experiments,
papers, and publications
 This is mainly used by doctoral students
Electronic Resume
 Keep the concepts for the Standard resume
the same for this one
 Make all the text the same size, without any
style at all
 No bullets, nothing fancy
 If you need to use bullets, use an asterik *
 Remember, this is only to be used when you
have to put your resume into a text box to
submit on-line
The Standard Resume
The Header
The Header of your resume should contain:
•Your Name in a big font
•Your e-mail address
•The Address which you use most
frequently or your permanent and current
address
•It should also contain and phone numbers
you wish to disclose
The Objective
The Objective should be clear, concise, and
to the point!!!
ex ) Bad Too Vague
Objective: I want to get a job
ex) Good but still vague
Objective: To attain an internship
in the computer industry
Objective: To attain an internship
in the computer industry working
with databases or networks
ex) Good
Education
 First off, do not put your high school
education on your resume
 If you have decided upon a major, use a
format similar to this:
Bachelor of Science, Management Science Information Systems, May 2001
GPA 3.0 Major GPA 3.0
GPA should only but put if it is 3.0 or better
Honors and Awards
 This section should only contain honors and
awards from the time you entered college
till the present
 This can include scholastic and academic or
extracurricular items
 Give a brief description of the honor or
award you received and what it symbolizes
Relevant Courses
 This is an optional section for your resume
 It can be used to fill space, and/or to define
your efficiencies
 Mostly this should include courses within or
prerequisite courses towards your major
 Interesting courses or unique courses are
also a good choice for this section
Relevant Courses cont’d
 A good way to design this section is a table
Statistics
Calculus I
Communication
MSIS
Advanced MSIS
Information Technology
CS111
CS112
CS211
 A good thought would be to keep the course
names in ascending order(title size)
 Also, keep similar courses together
Skills Section
 There should be a section to denote some
important skills, computer or communication
 Once again making a table layout is good
SQL
Excel
Windows 95/98
HTML
Word
Unix(SUN)
JAVA
Access
Mac O/S
 You can put any skill that you have used
before on your sheet, just be sure to let
employers know your level or knowledge
when you interview with them
Work Experience
 This section is dedicated to your most
recent and/or relevant experiences
 This section should have your employer and
location on the first line, your position and
time-span of your job on the second
Telcordia Technologies, Piscataway, NJ
Product Testing Internship, June 2000 - August 2000
Work Experience cont’d
 Each experience should have at least 2
bullets explaining your role and
contributions, relating it to your skill level
 Tense and grammar are extremely important
 If you worked a job then you developed,
created, installed (Note past tense)
 If you are currently working a job then you
develop, create, install (Note present tense)
Work Experience cont’d
 You must write your thoughts in complete
sentences
I developed an integrated networking system relating sales
and marginal profit.
 Poor grammar will make your resume look
half-done and leave a bad impression.
 If you cant take your resume seriously the
why would you take your job seriously???
Example of Work Experience
Rutgers Campus Computing Facilities, Piscataway, New Jersey
Computer Consultant, May 2000 - Present
• Provide level I & II help desk support for 1500 users
• Maintain a secure network of PCs, MACs, and X-Terms
• Develop and utilize communication and interpersonal skills
Activities
 The activities section should be set up in the
same format as the experience section, but
instead of the address you have a general
location
Professional Development Society, Rutgers University
Founder and President, March 2001 - Present
•Developed marketing strategies, areas of focus, and the unique concept of the organization
•Coordinate projects and develop courses of action to increase productivity
•Develop and perform presentations for computer and communication skills
•Hold executive meetings, create agendas, delegate responsibilities, and manage the organization
Organizations
(Professional Affiliations)
 This section should only have the title of an
Organization that you are/were in, listing
your status in that organization. You can
specify when you were in the organization,
but it is not necessary.
Member Capoiera Club
Staff Writer Livingston Ledger
Member, Professional Development Society
Member, JCA
Member, MBSA
Member, MSIS Society
 Once again make the section look nice
through formatting
Projects Section
 Very few people have this section, so
getting the opportunity to use this is a huge
plus!!
 This section is used to show any lengthy,
impressive, or relevant projects that you
have worked on or contributed to
 This should not include projects from your
classes unless it is substantial
Projects cont’d
 A good layout for this section is similar to
experience and activities, but can be less
wordy
ex) Non-wordy
Career Services Database Integration, MSIS Society
• Created an easy to use access conversion of File
Maker Pro and implemented it for Career Services
Projects cont’d
ex) Wordy
Access Database Conversion Project,
MSIS Society
Group Leader: Jay Mussan-Levy,
May 2001
• Designed an access database system, converting the old File
Maker Pro database into an easy to use system
• Tested the program using test cases to optimize performance
• Led the project group throughout the process, mediated
conflicts, made decisions, and implemented a group
democracy system in which everyone had equal say and
power
Putting it all Together
Remember these and you should do alright
 Proper Grammar
 Complete sentences
Dazzle it up
 Organize it
This is your sales pitch to companies,
design it to leave a lasting impression
Jay Mussan-Levy
greywolf@eden.rutgers.edu
11 Jennifer court
Marlboro, New Jersey, 07746
Current 732-373-3819
Permanent 732-536-6276
Cell 732-610-2402
Objective
To attain an internship relating to computer science or information technology, gain experience in
developing and maintaining networks or software applications, database design, or web pages
Education
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey
Bachelor of Science in Information Technology and Informatics, May 2003
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, May 2003
Relevant
Coursework
Accounting I & II
Data Structures(JAVA)
Micro & Macroeconomics
Computer
Skills
Excel
Flash
Windows 95/98
HTML
Experience
Rutgers Campus Computing Facilities, Piscataway, New Jersey
Computer Consultant, May 2000 - Present
• Provide level I & II help desk support to 1500 users as well as maintain the computers
• Develop and utilize communication and interpersonal skills
Discrete Structures
Computer Architecture
Information Technology
PowerPoint
Photoshop
Unix
JAVA
Communication
Statistics for Business
Computer Science(JAVA)
Word
Office 2000
Mac O/S
PERL/CGI
Access
Outlook Express
Assembly
SQL
Telcordia Technologies, Piscataway, New Jersey
Product Testing Internship, Delivery Department, June 2000 - August 2000
• Created templates and queries as well as SQL queries, forms, and reports
• Gave a successful presentation to upper management on my internship and accomplishments
Putting Everything Together cont’d
Experience
Marlboro Travel Association & FIFA, Marlboro, New Jersey
State Licensed Soccer Coach and Referee, 1994 - Present
• Mastered 3 State License courses attaining the highest state license
• Attained the level 8 FIFA referee license
Shapiro-Mason Campaign, New Brunswick, New Jersey
Political Volunteer, September 1998 - November 1998
• Co-designed campaign literature and supervised its distribution
• Involved in public relations decisions and marketing tactics
Activities
Professional Development Society, Rutgers University
Founder and President, March 2001 - Present
• Developed marketing strategies, areas of focus, and the unique concept of the organization
• Coordinate projects and develop courses of action to increase productivity
• Develop and perform presentations for computer and communication skills
• Lead executive meetings, create agendas, delegate responsibilities, and manage the organization
Organizations
Member, MSIS Society
Staff Writer, Livingston Ledger
Member, Capoiera Club
Projects
Career Services Access Database Conversion Project, MSIS Society,
March 2001 - April 2001
• Normalized and converted the archaic File Maker Pro database into an easy to use access format
• Designed queries which run in under five seconds when less than seven queries are run simultaneously
• Presented the Project to the client with a full demonstration of the database’s functionality and versatility
Computer and Communication Director, Chabad House
Member, Minority Business Students Association
Member, Japanese Culture Association