Writing a Resume

Guess what?  Resumes are not just for graduating seniors!  First year students, sophomores and juniors need resumes to apply for part-time jobs, graduate school, scholarships and internships.  If you start writing your resume early, it will be in great shape by the time you are ready to search for a full-time job.  This handout and the Office of Career Services can help you begin the process of writing your very own resume.  If you’re not sure how to start, attend a resume writing workshop for assistance.

Step One - Preparation
Think about what you want to do.  Your liberal arts degree allows you to pursue many different career paths and you might be applying for jobs in a variety of fields.  This is OK, but you will want to create a different resume for each type of position.  For example, you wouldn’t turn in the same paper to your English professor that you submitted for chemistry class.  Similarly, you should design a resume with a specific type of job or internship in mind.  If you are unsure of your career goals, your resume may be more general.  The purpose of a resume is to help you secure an interview.  It is not a life history, but it should document your qualifications and describe your accomplishments.

Step Two - Design
You may know that Microsoft Word has resume templates where you just have to enter a little information and the computer makes the resume for you.  Using these templates is not a good idea!  Template resumes are difficult to format and are not necessarily a good fit for you and your unique experiences.  It’s a good idea to develop your own format that works best for your resume. Here are some easy tips to make your resume look polished and professional:

Step Three – Identification / Heading
Finally, it’s time to really start writing that resume.  Every resume begins with personal contact information.  The heading should include your name, current address, permanent address, phone number and email.  Remember, an employer may call at any time, so be sure to list a phone number where you can be reached and receive messages.  If you must list your cell phone, label it as a cell or mobile number.  Your email address should be as professional and simple as possible.  It is OK to use Hotmail or AOL addresses, but littleprincess65490 and soccerchamp2004 are not appropriate.  Seniors, you should not provide your Rollins email address, since it will expire after graduation and you may still be job searching.  There are no strict rules about how the heading
should look, but here are a few examples:  

Step Four – Objective
You might find it useful to write an objective because it will help you develop a focused and targeted resume.  An objective can help determine what content is included in the rest of your resume.  Be sure that the objective addresses the career field to which you are applying.  If you use an objective, it should be short and specific.  Say what you have to offer the employer, not what you want the employer to do for you.  Here are some examples of strong and weak objectives:

This is a strong objective since it tells the reader the type of position you are looking for, what term you want to begin the internship and the type of experience you already have that will be of use to the employer. 

This is a weak objective because it is too general.  What type of position are you seeking?  (finance, marketing, sales, etc)  It is Ok to say Fortune 500 company, but it is better to name the specific company where you are sending this resume. 

This objective is too vague.  Of course you want to help the company succeed, that will be part of your job!  What specific type of position are you applying for and what relevant skills, experience or coursework do you have to tempt the employer to keep reading?  

Unfortunately, this objective includes too many different career paths.  Although you may want to remain open to different options available at a company, these three choices are totally unrelated and make the resume writer look unfocused and confused.

This objective is a good example of how to inform the reader what type of experience you are looking for and what related skills and experience you will describe further in the resume.

Step Five – Education
In most resumes, the education sections goes near the top of the page, before any type of work experience is listed.  Items included in the education section are your school's name, city and state of the school, your degree, your major(s), minor(s) and month/year of anticipated graduation.  Study abroad experiences and scholarships can be listed in this section, as well as GPA, if it is 3.0 or higher.  Sometimes, if you do not have much work experience, you can list relevant coursework and any certifications you may have earned.

Q.  Should I include my high school information on my resume for an internship or a full-time job after graduation?
A.  First year students and sophomores may include high school information, but only if you plan to list relevant activities and awards later in your resume or if you need help filling the page.  Juniors and seniors, you should generally remove all high school information from your resume, unless it would specifically help you get an internship or job.  For example, if you attended a private, well-known dance academy in Manhattan during high school and now you wish to seek full-time employment as a dance instructor in Manhattan, the high school information is relevant and should be included on your resume.

Q.  How do I list the classes I took at community college or a different university?
A.  In general, you should only list institutions from which you received a degree or where you are currently pursuing a degree.  Thus, Rollins will likely be the only collegiate institution listed on your resume.  However, if your coursework at another school was specifically related to the field you are now pursuing, you may include that information.  If you earned an associate's degree from another institution in a subject area related to the job you are applying for, you may list that degree after your information from Rollins. Students who earned a degree from outside the United States are encouraged to list that institution and degree on their resume. 

Q.  Where do I put study abroad experience?
A.   Students who have completed study abroad programs may list the international institution where they attended classes. You can format study abroad experience similarly to the Rollins College information, but you probably will not include a GPA.  You may write a line that describes the type or focus of coursework you completed while studying abroad.   

Here are two examples of how to construct the education section of your resume:

Step Six - Experience
This section is extremely important to employers!  Experience may include part-time jobs, internships, student teaching, work-study employment or certain types of long-term volunteer work.   For each position, be sure to include the name and location of the company, your title, dates of employment and your specific responsibilities and accomplishments.  Remember, your resume is not an autobiography, but it should adequately describe what you did in each position. 

When listing your experience, you’ll want to start with your most recent position and work backwards.  If you have meaningful, relevant experience in the past, but now have a part-time job in an unrelated field, you might divide this section into two separate sections – “Relevant Experience” and “Work Experience.”  This will allow you to put your most relevant experience at the top of your resume (under "Relevant Experience) and the less relevant information lower on the page, (under "Work Experience").   

The bullet points that you list underneath each work experience are very important.  These bullet points should briefly describe your duties at the position and your accomplishments.  Each bulleted statement should only be one or two lines long and be as specific as possible.  Rather than write “trained new employees,” you can write “trained eight new part-time employees in cash register operation and inventory control.”  Underneath each work experience, start your bulleted list with the most relevant information first and then continue to the more common responsibilities.  For example, if you trained new employees and worked the cash register, training new employees would be your first bullet point. 

A good resume includes a variety of strong “action verbs” that help explain your role in the organization.  Each bullet point should start with an action verb that demonstrates what you did as an employee.  You can find a list of suggested action verbs on the Samples page of this website that will help you get started.  If you are currently working at the position right now, you should use verbs in the present tense (write, coordinate, develop, organize).  If you no longer work for the employer, describe your responsibilities in the past tense (wrote, coordinated, developed, organized.  Do not use words such as "I" or "me" on your resume and avoid making personal evaluations such as "learned a great deal through this experience," or "developed strong leadership skills."  State what you did using a variety of action verbs and let employers make judgments themselves.

Below are a few examples that illustrate how you can format the experience section of your resume.

Step Seven - Campus Leadership / Community Involvement / College Activities
After listing your work experiences, you can describe your additional activities.  This section is important for most college students or recent graduates because you may have limited work experience thus far.  This category is where you can summarize your role in campus organizations, community service projects, sports or club affiliations and any information that might help you demonstrate your qualifications to an employer.  For example, if you are applying for an internship at the county courthouse and have experience serving on Rollins’ student judicial board, you will want to include that information in this section of your resume. 

The title of this section will vary, depending on what type of activities you wish to list.  Possible suggestions are “Leadership Experience,” “Community Involvement,” Campus Involvement,” “Campus Activities,” “Activities,” and “Volunteer Experience.” 

Remember, most recent college graduates should have a ONE PAGE resume, so you may have to limit the number of extra-curricular activities you list.  When listing activities, be sure to include the name of the organization, your title or position if applicable, and dates of affiliation.  For some positions, you may wish to have bullet points describing responsibilities of the position, or accomplishments you achieved while in office. 

This section of your resume can be very tricky, so we recommend that you begin by listing ALL of your activities, including dates and positions, then consider narrowing down the list so that only the most relevant experience is included on your resume.  Experiences in this section should be listed in reverse chronological order so that your most recent activities are listed first, similar to the format of your work experience section.  Below are some examples, but remember, every resume is different and there are many “right” ways to do it.

Step Eight - Skills
Technology plays an important role in most career fields today, so it is strongly recommended that you include your computer skills on your resume.  You may also list specific skills relevant to your job interests, such as foreign languages or research.  If you have received any special certifications or training related to your field, you might wish to include that information here.  For example:

Step Nine - References (On a SEPARATE PAGE!)
It is not necessary to include references on your resume!  In fact, most employers prefer that you don't waste valuable resume space with a line that says "References available upon request."  The truth is, references should be available on request and if the employer wants a list, you should be ready to provide one - on a separate sheet of paper.  

Your references page should have the same identification/heading information, font size and type of high quality paper as your resume.  Underneath the heading, you will list the name and contact information, including title, place of employment, business address, phone and email, of 3-5 references.  A good reference is someone who knows you well, either in an academic classroom, a volunteer experience or work setting.  Close friends and family members are rarely considered credible references.  Faculty members, organization advisors, Student Affairs staff, internship supervisors and current or former employers can serve as references.  It's important to ask yourself whether a potential reference knows your work style and strengths and whether he or she is willing to represent you in a positive light.  You should ask each reference if he/she is willing to speak on your behalf and provide him/her with a copy of your updated resume.  

After you have submitted a resume and been called for an interview, you may wish to update those serving as your references on your job search.  Depending on the employer, an organization may call your references anytime before or after the first interview and you want your references to be prepared.  

Step Ten - Proofread, Revise and Send
Good news, you are almost done!  Most employers will receive hundreds of resumes for their position openings and even organizations offering internships will get several resumes from interested students.  Spelling and grammatical mistakes on your resume are unprofessional and can seriously hurt your chances for employment.  After you have created a draft of your resume, take time to edit it, maybe add bullet points, or delete some materials if you have more than one page.  Ask a friend to check your spelling and grammar.  Don't rely on spell check to catch all the mistakes!

Resumes may be sent via fax, email or snail mail.  Try to avoid faxing if possible, as most machines tend to print blurry pages that are difficult to read.  Email attachments should always be converted to a PDF file and be sure the title of the attachment is appropriate.  You don’t want to email an attachment to SunTrust Bank named “Resume for Regions.”  If you are mailing the resume in hard copy, place it flat in a large envelope so the paper is not folded.

The resumes on the "Samples" page are designed to give you a visual picture of a polished and professional resume.  You can use these samples to help you understand how to format your own resume and see how certain types of information might best be listed.  Please don't copy these examples...use your own words to make your resume unique!

Still confused about resume writing?  Attend a resume writing workshop in Career Services to learn more.  Don't forget...the Office of Career Services is here to help you focus on the future.  Stop by anytime to drop off your resume and we will be happy to critique it and offer suggestions for improvement.