Sequence of resume information.

The order and content of everyone’s resume does not have to be the same. However, formats are somewhat standardized so that employers can easily find the information they seek. After your heading, sequence the information on your resume from most important to least important with regard to supporting your career objective.

Heading.

Head your resume with this information:

• Your full name. Use the form of your name as it appears on academic records and other documents an employer may require you to provide, so there will be no confusion that documents belong to the same person. If you go by a middle name or nickname, you can emphasize or insert this, as in George Bradley (Brad) Martinez, or Kathryn (Kate) E. Winthrop.

• Current/school address and phone number and your permanent address and phone number. Employers may wish to contact you during school breaks or even months after you submit your resume. Make it possible, and easy, for them to find you.

• Email address(es).

• DO NOT place the word “resume” at the top of your resume.  It’s simply not done.  (If the employer can’t tell it’s a resume, you’ve got bigger problems.)

• DON’T include a URL for a personal web site unless the contents are strictly professional / academic. We see many student resumes listing web sites that contain inappropriate material — a quick way for employers to decide you don’t have the judgment or maturity to be hired. See more about listing your personal web site URL on your resume.

Objective.

Your objective tells a prospective employer the type of work you are currently pursuing. The rest of your resume should be designed to most effectively support your objective. If you are using your resume to support an application for a scholarship, admission to graduate school, or the like, you can state this in your objective. Always state your objective simply and concisely; it is never necessary to have a long-winded statement.

For a job search, don’t make an employer guess what you want to do.
Therefore:

• Make sure the employer knows either the industry you want to work in, or the type of work you want to do, or the skills you want to apply, or some combination. Example: Marketing position in sports or sports promotion, interest in using writing and public speaking skills.

• Avoid objectives like, “position which utilizes my skills and abilities” without specifying your skills and abilities.

• Avoid objectives like, “position related to (name of your major),” when your major does not describe a job or career field or is too broad to be meaningful. For example, “position in business” is far too broad to give an employer an idea of what you want to do.

• It is not the employer’s job to be your career counselor, so the employer should not have to hunt through your resume to guess what you are interested in doing. Employers won’t take time to do that anyway.

• If you are seeking an internship or summer employment, a co-op position or other non-permanent position, state this in your objective, so the employer will not misconstrue and assume you are a graduating student seeking permanent work.

• If you find you have several different areas of focus or different objectives, create more than one version of your resume. Each version of your resume can be slightly different to support its objective.

Education.

Your education section should almost always immediately follow the objective statement. This is because your education is your most recent significant accomplishment and is usually related to your objective. Even if your major is not specifically tied to your objective, you want the employer to know that you are completing (or working on) a college degree.

Include:

• Degree(s) - first list the most recent degree your are pursuing or have earned, then list previous college degrees, as in master’s degree first, followed by bachelor’s degree.

• On one line include the degree level, major (and second major, minor or concentration), and date of completion or anticipated completion by month and year. If your combination of majors, minors, concentrations, etc. are too long to fit on one line, put the extra information on the second line.

• The word “major” is unnecessary.

• On another line include institution and location by city and state. You can use the university’s full name, or the official nickname of Virginia Tech, or both — see example.  Think about the types of employers to whom you will be providing your resume and whether or not they will be familiar with the university names.

• Either the degree or the university name can be first, and either line can be bold, depending upon whether you want to call attention to your institution or your degree.

• List additional degrees in reverse chronological order (most recent first).

• Study abroad, if you have done it or have been accepted to do it, should be included.

You may include:

• Overall and/or in-major GPA .
• Indication of the percentage of money you contributed toward your education, as in “Earned and financed 50% of college tuition and living expenses.”

• Technical or continuing education experience can be listed if it is related to your career goal.

The following could be included in the Education section, or in other sections of the resume:

• Academic awards, scholarships, scholastic achievement are generally included in an “Honors” or “Activities and Honors” section. However, if you have one significant academic honor and/or a particularly outstanding academic honor, you may wish to list it in your education section. This can be helpful if your GPA is not truly reflective of your achievements.

• Career-related course work.

• Class projects or independent studies.

• Publications.

Don’t include:

• With rare exception, don’t list your high school degree. If you’re in college the employer knows you have one. The only exception would be if you are a freshman or sophomore and attended a special or well-known high school for outstanding students, or something similar. By junior year, you need to be showcasing your college accomplishments. By graduate school, list college and graduate level work only.

Experience.

• If at all possible, use relevant experience to support your objective. This experience can be paid or unpaid, an internship or a substantial class project, volunteer positions, or positions held in clubs, etc.

• Your experience does not have to be paid to be relevant. This allows you to include any experience in which you learned or demonstrated skills, knowledge or abilities that are related to the type of job you are seeking.

• If your experience seems to break into two distinct categories of “related” and “other,” you can use these two headings and divide your experience this way. Related experience might include a mixture of paid employment, volunteer work, student organization work, etc. You can give more detail in your related experience section, and leave out details in the other experience section.

• If you have not had related experience, you should still list your employment background. This shows an employer that you have learned basic work ethics and skills such as taking responsibility, working cooperatively with co-workers, customer service, time management, or other characteristics that are important to any work environment. Think about skills you used that are transferable to a different work setting.

• Generally, within each category, list your experiences in reverse chronological order.

• For each entry, give the job title, name and location (city and state) of organization, dates of employment (month / year), and a concise description of your accomplishments. Use phrases; not complete sentences.

Activities and Honors.

• Your accomplishments and extracurricular activities tell an employer about your interests, motivations, and skills (e.g. organizational, leadership, interpersonal, etc.).

• You may include scholarships, awards, recognition of academic achievement, etc.

• Activities and Honors can be one combined section or two separate sections, depending on how many you have, the types you have, and how you want to sequence them in your resume.

• For example, if you have several activities that are related to your career objective, you might list Activities nearer to the top of your resume, while listing Honors nearer to the end.

• However, if you have one honor, or items that could fall in either category, use a combined section.

• If you have one significant academic honor and/or a particularly outstanding academic honor, you may wish to list it in your education section. This can be helpful if your GPA is not truly reflective of your achievements.

When listing organizations:

• Use a complete name instead of just the abbreviation. Example: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

• If the nature or purpose of organization is not clear from the name, provide a brief explanation. Example: XYZ, co-ed service fraternity.

• DON’T preceed each of your organizations with “member of…,” “member of…,” member of….” If you list an organization, the employer knows you are a member; the organization name is sufficient.

• DO indicate positions held and/or activities in which you have participated (and about which you can articulate your accomplishments in an interview).

• If you held offices or leadership positions, you may wish to briefly list or describe your accomplishments (as you do with work experience). Emphasize the activities or skills that support your career objective. See the section on Experience above; you may wish to include an activity under “Related Experience” if applicable.

• You may indicate dates of membership and leadership roles held.

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