Resume Guidelines

The ideal resume is a concise, well organized, aesthetically pleasing document that describes your background as it relates to your current career objective. It is NOT meant to be a complete autobiography.

Contents of a Resume

Contact Information

Include name, address, phone number and professional email address. 
Your name should be the most prominent text on your resume.

Career Objective or Summary

Used to express your career or current interests and reference the skills you bring to the specific position to which you are applying.  Some applicants chose to use a "Personal Summary" or "Summary of Qualifications" section. This lists, in bullet point format, the skills, traits and experiences you have that directly relate to the job to which you are applying.

Education

Include names and locations of college(s) attended, dates of graduation (or anticipated), degree(s) earned and major/concentration.  You may include your GPA. Correct format  GPA: 4.0.  List awards and honors, and you may include relevant coursework as well.  Certifications and licenses can be included here also.

Experience

For each experience include place of employment, location (city, state), dates of employment, job title, and description of accomplishments and responsibilities.  Use action verbs to describe your accomplishments and responsibilities.   Quantify the results or scope of your experiences as much as possible.  You may include relevant, longer-term volunteer experiences in this section.

Skills

Not necessary, but allows you to list position/field specific skills. Consider technical skills, computer skills, language skills, or other special skills that would make an employer attracted to you as a candidate.

References

List professional references only, not personal references such as family members, friends, etc. Additional detailed information is available in the References section of the Career Toolbox.

If you are seeking additional resume assistance, read through RMC's Resume Guidelines and the 10 Steps to Creating a Winning Resume. You can also review sample resumes put together as guidelines to help you through your own resume creation. To add an energy to your words and interest to your resume, read through the action verbs that invigorate writing. 

Resume Do's and Don'ts

Do Create a professional, well-organized resume. Be honest and truthful. Use high quality paper, either white or off white. Be conservative and consistent with the use of fonts, bolding, italicizing, underlining, etc. Use concrete, specific nouns and strong action verbs in past tense for past experiences and present tense for anything that you are currently doing. Quantify as much as possible: number of people supervised or trained, amount of budget responsible for, etc. Customize to a specific position or company. Be concise. This is a summary of your past work experiences and education.

Do Not Misspell words or have incorrect grammar. Have too many different margins or spaces, especially when sending electronically. Use abbreviations. Spell out acronyms so employers can fully understand what you are conveying. List your social security number, personal information such as birthdate or family, supervisor's names (except for the reference page), or reasons for leaving positions. Include any mention of salary. Include anything that you would not want to be asked about in an interview.