RESUME WRITING

Presenting Yourself on Paper

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Workshop Agenda
✔ Purpose and Impact of a Resume
✔ General Guidelines
✔ Various Formats
✔ Scannable Resumes
✔ Email & Electronic Submissions
✔ Key Components
✔ Optional Categories
✔ Resume Check List
✔ Cover Letters
✔ Follow Up
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Purpose and Impact
✔ Marketing Tool
– Designed to create a favorable first impression
– May get you an interview, won’t get you the
job!
✔ Personal Account of Your:
– Education and Training
– Experience
– Skills and Abilities
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Purpose and Impact
✔ Provides an accurate, concise, and original
presentation of who you are
✔ Resource for employer at interview
✔ Remember: Employers spend 4 - 5 minutes
at most reviewing a Resume. Make each
word count!

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General Guidelines
✔ Length
– Generally one page (especially recent grads)
– Two pages with extensive related experience
✔ Layout
– Direct reader’s eye using headings and layout
– Choose standard font in 10-14 point size
— Use appropriate color & high quality 8 1/2 x 11

paper, one-sided only!

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General Guidelines
✔ Layout continued
– Leave ‘white space’ for uncluttered look
• One inch margins on all sides is standard
– Be consistent with:
• indentations
• capitalizations
• font
• spacing

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General Guidelines
✔ Content
– Proofread! Don’t rely on Spell-check
• grammar
• spelling
• typographical errors
• punctuation
✔ Stress accomplishments and results
✔ Tailor contents to each position (e.g. rewrite
Objective/revise Skills section)
✔ Omit information which could be used in a discriminatory
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way (e.g., religious affiliations, age, etc.)
Resume Formats
✔ CHRONOLOGICAL FORMAT
– Easy to read, most commonly used
– Presents education and work experience in
reverse chronological order

✔ Very effective if majority of education and

work experience is related to objective

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Resume Formats
✔ FUNCTIONAL FORMAT
– Focuses on skills and abilities, not dates of
employment
– Lists skills you’ve demonstrated which are
required for a particular job
✔ Allows you to emphasize skills gained through
volunteer work and extra curricular activities
✔ Often used by career changers, graduate
students and postdoctoral scholars
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Resume Formats
✔ COMBINATION FORMAT
– Uses elements of Chronological and Functional
– Emphasizes skills and abilities
– Provides job/experience descriptions

✔ Effective when job objective has multiple

components (e.g. research and management,
marketing and administrative)
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Resume Formats
✔ TECHNICAL FORMAT
– Used as a term to describe a resume prepared
for technical positions (e.g. computer science or
engineering)
– Can use any format; emphasizes technical skills
such as specific computer languages, laboratory
skills, etc.
– List GPA if 2.5 or above

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Resume Formats
✔ CURRICULUM VITAE
– Used by individuals seeking teaching and/or
research positions in a post-secondary
institution or high-level research industry
– Often two or three pages for master’s or
doctoral degree candidates

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Scannable Resumes
✔ Uses nouns indicating specific job functions,
skills, responsibilities (see detailed job description
to select key words to use)
✔ Use “key words” associated with position you are
seeking. Include terminology of the business or
industry
✔ Do not fold, bend or staple resume. Mail in a
large, flat envelope

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Scannable Resumes
✔ Forget “fancy fonts”, flashy graphics
and colored paper
– 10 - 14 point size, standard font
– white, off-white, 8 1/2 x 11 paper
– avoid shading,
shading graphics♥, bolding, italicizing,
and underlining

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Scannable Resumes
✔ Avoid:
– Bullets
– Lines
– Columns
– Brackets

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E-mail and Electronic Submission
✔ Maintain professional tone
✔ Use professional sounding email address
(not tweetybird@wherever.com!)
✔ Be specific in subject header
✔ Follow employer directions carefully!
✔ Avoid use of characters and symbols
✔ Use left-justified format
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E-mail and Electronic Submission
✔ Do not underline, bold, or italicize text
✔ Use “standard” font, such as Arial or Times New
Roman
✔ Use hard return to insert line, not word wrap
✔ Sign your email with your full name
✔ Proofread and use spell-check before sending
✔ Do a ‘trial send’ to yourself or a friend to see how
your resume looks after sending
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Resume Key Components
✔ TITLE BLOCK/HEADING
– Your name
– Address, including zip code
– Daytime telephone number(s) - don’t forget
area codes
– email address - ONLY IF YOU CHECK
DAILY!
– Cell phone or pager number(s)
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Resume Key Components
✔ OBJECTIVE
– Gives resume focus, credibility and direction
– Be concise and logical - develop different
resumes for different types of jobs
– Avoid cliches such as “like working with
people”
– Emphasize short term aspirations
– Considered by some to be optional
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Resume Key Components
✔ EDUCATION
– List highest degree first, followed by other
degrees received
– Degree level
– Major(s), minor(s) and emphasis if applicable
• If your major/degree is relevant, list that first; if
not, emphasize UC Davis, then list major
– University of California, Davis

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Resume Key Components
✔ EDUCATION continued
– Date to be conferred
– GPA if 3.0 or higher (in engineering, list if 2.5
or higher)
– Other colleges/universities attended, including
Education Abroad
– DO NOT include High School degree!

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Resume Key Components
✔ EDUCATION continued
– Lower division students seeking an internship
should consider
• listing class standing first
• followed by major(s), minor(s) and emphasis if
applicable
• then listing Bachelor’s degree expected in month
and year
• then listing University of California, Davis
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Resume Key Components
✔ EXPERIENCE
– Summarize significant full and part time
positions
– Include relevant volunteer work or internships
– Highlight responsibilities, skills developed, and
accomplishments
– List job title, employer, city, state, and dates of
employment, followed by description
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Resume Key Components
✔ EXPERIENCE continued
– Present information in reverse chronological
order
» OR
– Create special sections (e.g. Related
Experience, Research Experience, Marketing
Experience)
– Use action verbs and sentence phrases, NOT
complete sentences
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Resume Key Components
✔ EXPERIENCE continued
– May include significant academic assignments
and relevant extra-curricular activities
– List accomplishments and contributions you
have made
– Quantify accomplishments, if possible

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Optional Categories
✔ SKILLS
– List skills you can perform with little or no
direction
– Computer - list hardware, software, and
operating systems
– Laboratory - list techniques, procedures and/or
equipment
– Language - indicate fluency level, specify if
you can read/write/speak the language
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Optional Categories
✔ SKILLS continued
– Research - list research skills with which you
are familiar
– General skills, including communication
(written and verbal), problem-solving,
managerial, etc.
– Presentations
– Others specific to the job
– Skills are often underestimated by students!
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Optional Categories
✔ Publications
– List articles published and those accepted for
publication
– Include in Experience section
✔ Qualifications or Skills Statement
– If major is not obviously related to job
objective, this provides an opportunity to tie
everything together
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Optional Categories
✔ Licenses, Certifications, Credentials,
Training
– Related items only (CPR, First Aid, Hazardous
Materials Training, Professional Engr., etc.)
✔ Extra-Curricular Activities/Professional
Affiliations
– List memberships and offices held
✔ Military Service
– Include in experience section 29
Optional Categories
✔ Honors/Awards/Hobbies/Interests
– Avoid listing those which may be controversial
✔ References
– Usually state “References Provided Upon
Request” as last line of resume
– Provide separate sheet with three - four
reference names and contact information
– No relatives, friends, other students
– Ask permission before listing someone! 30
Resume Review Check List
✔ Does your resume look appealing?
✔ Is it clearly labeled, using appropriate
headings?
✔ Does it highlight your skills and abilities?
✔ Have you had it critiqued by others?
✔ Have you triple checked for accuracy?

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The Cover Letter
✔ Should be customized for each position
✔ Establishes personal contact
✔ Should be addressed to a specific person,
using name, and title
– In salutation, never use first name!
– Use “Dear Recruiter” if no name is available
✔ Use same paper, font and format as resume
✔ Keep letter to one page in length
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The Cover Letter
✔ Use standard business format
✔ Emphasize how your skills, education,
experience can benefit the employer
✔ Close by indicating your interest in the
position and follow-up plans
✔ Don’t forget to sign the letter!

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The Cover Letter
✔ Paragraph one
– What position are you applying for and how did
you find out about the position?
✔ Paragraph two
– Why do you want to work for this particular
employer, and why should employer hire you?
✔ Paragraph three
– What’s your next step going to be? Indicate
how you will follow through or express desire
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for an interview.