Skip to Content

Alumni Association

 

Job Search

Resumes

An effective resume is a marketing tool that highlights your competencies, qualifications, accomplishments, and future capabilities as they relate to the position you seek. It is a focused sketch of your professional and educational background strategically tailored to meet your future objectives--Not a laundry list of jobs and responsibilities.

Always remember that the purpose of your resume is to gain an interview. The more targeted and specific you are the better.

Collection of Professional Resumes and Bio Examples

Getting Started

Keep the following three questions in mind, before you get started.

  • What job am I targeting? (if uncertain about your target, focus around skills)
  • What skills, knowledge, and experience should I highlight to be considered for the position?
  • What business skills do I want to use more/less of?

Know Your Value
There are several tools available to help you capture your interests, value and skills. If you are interested in learning more about these tools, go to: Self-Assessments. You can also follow three simple steps to get you started.

  • Conduct a Skills Inventory
    Write down your skills, strengths and assets. Here are a few examples: Visionary with strategic analytical skills; Practical, articulate, and creative with proven ability to solve difficult business problems; Lead multidisciplinary teams defining new products, setting project goals, timelines, budgets, and manpower requirements to deliver products to market; Consistently obtain high performance through leadership and cohesive team building; Uncommon planning, organization, and conceptual abilities; Skilled in motivating and managing technical and non-technical teams to achieve desired results; Actively coach and develop staff with a proven ability to transfer job knowledge and skills to all levels; Apply sound business strategies and tactics to set and achieve targeted goals (Source: Marketing Your Talents, Right Management, 2006).
  • Talk to friends, colleagues and former bosses
    Take a friend, colleague or former boss out to lunch and ask what they perceive as your greatest strengths (and weaknesses). Give them advanced warning so they have time to develop thoughtful responses. You may be surprised by what they think and introduce ideas you haven't thought of before. Reviewing past performance reviews may also be helpful.
  • Develop PAR statements
    The PROBLEM-ACTION-RESULT format has been around for a long time and still works. A PAR statement succinctly describes an accomplishment. Here are the components of a well-written PAR statement:
    1. Problem solved or challenge overcome - i.e. Decline in annual sales
    2. Action you took to resolve - i.e. Developed and released new product catalog
    3. Result and benefit to organization - Increased annual sales by 120% over two year

PAR Statement - Developed and released new product catalog which increased sales by 120% over two years.

Other PAR statement Examples (Source: In Search of the Perfect Job, Lowstuter, 2007):

      • "Achieved a customer satisfaction rating of 99.9% by developing a high level of proficiency on new software during a town-month systems conversion."
      • "Created a performance-based culture, and repositioned the company from a pure distributor to a value-added provider of high-technology products and services. Improved market capitalization and estimated 150%."
      • "Identified and evaluated 10 acquisition candidates ranging from $15M to $50M, including due diligence and deal structure development. Two businesses valued at $45M were acquired."
      • "Grew market share 50% in one year through branding, value repositioning, product rationalization, and distribution channel strategy implementation.
      • "Eliminated $1.6M in system development costs by instituting Six Sigma that achieved record QA metrics while accelerating completions and staff reductions."
      • "Led HR due diligence efforts for six acquisitions whose combined revenues exceeded
      • $200M. As Regional Board Member, established the standards for effective integration and growth."
      • "Pioneered "Homelessness Prevention Program" for at-risk families in Seattle-Tacoma-Olympia. Program has served 5,000 families in it's six year history and has been over 85% successful in keeping families in housing."
      • "Entrepreneur who grew three businesses from start-up to $20M in annual sales through effective business planning, creative sales techniques, and innovative marketing."

Accomplishments Memory Jogger

Have you:

      • Accomplished more with the same or fewer resources? (How? Results?)
      • Received awards, special recognitions, etc. (What? Why?)
      • Increased efficiency? (How? Results?)
      • Solved difficult problems? (How? Results?)
      • Accomplished something for the first time? (What? Results?)
      • Developed, created, designed, or invented something? (What? Why important?)
      • Prepared original papers, reports, and articles? (What? Why important?)
      • Managed a work group, a department? (Who? How many? Results?)
      • Saved the company money? (How? How much?)
      • Supervised, managed or trained employees? (Where? How many? Results?)
      • Increased sales? (How? By how much?)
      • Been promoted or upgraded? (When? Why important?)
      • Increased production? (How? Results?)
      • Been promoted or upgraded (When? Why important?)
      • Increased production? (How? Results?)
      • Identified problems others did not see? (What? Result?)
      • Developed a new system or procedure: (What? Result?)
      • Reduced downtime? (How? How much? Result?)
      • Managed a budget? (How much? Result?)

Source: Marketing Your Talents, Right Management, 2006

Action Verb List

No job-seeker should ever be without action verbs for describing accomplishments on your resumes and cover letters. Remember to use these action verbs in writing your resume and cover letters to increase the strength of your writing and make potential employers take notice of your accomplishments and skills.

From Quintessential Careers

Resumes Types

Chronological

  • Most widely used format.
  • Displays your professional and academic experience in reverse chronological order.
  • Effective if you are continuing on the same career path or if your background substantially relates to your next career objective. Shows steady or significant growth and development.
  • Include no more than 10-15 years of experience even if you have an extensive work history.

Functional

  • Used when previous professional experience is more relevant than current experience.
    Focused less on employers and specific dates.
  • Highlights accomplishments achieved first so the reader focuses on results rather than gaps or number of positions held.
  • A purely functional resume is not recommended as it may trigger suspicion about what you are trying to hide (i.e. age, terminations, extended gaps in employment, job hopping, etc.)

Combination or Hybrid (Functional within Chronological)

  • Becoming more popular, this style includes an introductory section on qualifications or skills followed by experience listed chronologically.
  • Valuable for professionals making substantial career changes and who want to highlight ability to perform a different job.
  • Useful for highlighting specific functional expertise.

Electronic Resumes

  • For online job postings, you may have to copy-and-paste your resume into an employer's form. Special formatting, such as bold or bullets, may be lost in the process. We recommend that you develop a version of your resume that is concise and free of special formatting.
  • Employers are increasingly accepting resumes by email. In some cases, you may have to send your resume as a plain text file rather than as a formatted attachment.

Resume Components

Identification

  • Consists of your name, current address, telephone number, and email address. Cell phone is optional.
  • Your name should be as prominent as any other word on the page. For example, if the largest word on the page is 12 point, bold, capital letters, then your name needs to have similar formatting.
  • Conversely, your name should be no more than 4 points larger than the largest word on the document.

Executive/Professional Summary

  • Should be tailored to the specific type of job you are seeking.
  • Composed of 50-70 words
  • Allows the resume scanner to quickly determine if the background is interesting and a fit.
  • Summary includes functional areas of expertise, significant technical strengths or skills, relevant personal qualities, industries served, and results delivered.

Experience

  • This section is also in reverse chronological order starting with your most recent experience. You may also strategically include relevant project or volunteer opportunities.
  • List the organization name, location (city and state/country only), title, and dates (years are sufficient).
  • Describe your experience in functional terms. Stress accomplishments. Use action verbs, quantifying and qualifying your background wherever possible, e.g., "first in department to increase sales by 45%."
  • Be concise and factual.
  • Avoid using jargon and abbreviations. The most powerful resumes are those that everyone clearly understands.
  • If you opt for the functional-within-chronological format, for each position, select one to four skill-based subheadings for each position and include relevant experiences/accomplishments under each.
  • Military experience needs to be translated to business terminology to ensure that readers will grasp the scope of your accomplishments. You may want to stress budgeting responsibilities, training, development and supervision of staff,
    management of complex projects, and other demonstrations of leadership, administration, and problem-solving. Be sure to include awards.

Education

  • Present graduate and undergraduate education in reverse chronological order. Include all degrees and the dates when you received them as well as the names and locations of the institutions.
  • It's optional to leave out dates. However, you may run the risk of employers thinking you are older than you are.

Optional Sections

You may choose to create a category called additional information, which might include:

  • Unusual technical or computer skills
  • Language competencies
  • Community activities
  • Professional Associations/Affiliations (relevant to the job/industry you are targeting)

Format and Presentation

  • Limit to two pages. Remember, it's a marketing document, not an autobiography.
  • Use formatting to create an outline of your background. Highlight those parts of your experience that work for you and obscure what doesn't by selectively using bolds, underlines, capitalization, and italics.
  • A left-justified format is the classic formatting approach; include headings (e.g., EXPERIENCE, EDUCATION) in the left margin. You may also want to include dates.
  • Maintain consistency of approach. Formatting and writing style should remain consistent throughout.
  • Print on 8 ½" x 11" paper. Laser printed.
  • Use high-quality paper in white, off-white, or ivory.
  • Create one-inch margins all around to make your resume visually appealing.
  • Minimum font size should be 10 points.
  • Don't use graphics. Lines are fine.
  • Do not be unconventional in the physical makeup of your resume. Avoid binders, bright colors, covers, or photographs. An unusual resume may get attention for the wrong reasons.
  • Proofread and spell-check your resume to ensure that there are no typographic, spelling, or grammatical errors.
  • Ask others to proofread your resume (ideally, request feedback from those with experience in the particular field or industry you are seeking).

Writing Style

  • Use language that is dynamic and concise.
  • Omit the words I, me, my, the, a, an.
  • Stress results and achievements. Quantify wherever possible.

What Not To Include

  • Salary history or requirements.
  • Abbreviations, acronyms, or organization-specific terminology.
  • Reasons why you left or were terminated from positions.
  • Personal information not relevant to your professional competencies that could be used to discriminate against you including sex, age, race, ethnic background, marital status, religion, or health status.
  • Do not include references with your resume. However, for use later in the interview process, be sure to prepare a separate sheet listing four to six references, both professional and academic. List the individual's name, title, organizational
    affiliation, address, and phone number. Contact people prior to putting them on the list to ask their permission to use them as a reference.

FAQs

  • Is it okay to have a resume longer than one-page?
    Yes. Most people have significant professional experience and it would be difficult to keep everything to one page. It's perfectly acceptable to have a two-page resume, provided that you use good formatting , concise language and target your resume for specific opportunities.
  • How far should I go back when listing prior work experience?
    We recommend that you limit your experience to the last 15 years. You may choose to omit a prior career experience if it's not relevant to your current search targets. Also, if length is an issue, you may wish to omit your earliest experiences in order to keep it to two pages.
  • What's the appropriate date format used when listing professional experience?
    Use years only i.e. 2000-2005.
  • Should I include references?
    No. Prepare a separate page and offer when it's requested from the organization.
  • Should I craft different versions of my resume?
    Yes, tailoring your resume for a specific job interest may make the difference for getting an interview or not. Many people have expertise in a particular area that they wish to highlight for select positions but not for others. Make sure to specify each resume version (i.e. Google Business Development.doc) to keep track of which version to use during the interview.
  • Do I need to send a cover letter every time I send a resume?
    Yes, it's highly recommended. The cover letter provides you with an opportunity to make a positive first impression by conveying your interest and enthusiasm for the organization and job position. In addition, you have the opportunity to make the connection between your resume and fit for the organization.