Career Development Center

Career Development Center

RESUME WRITING RESOURCES

Do you need assistance writing or editing your resume? You can use this handy collection of tools and resources to develop or revise your résumé and cover letter. Strategies, tips, advice, instructions, word lists, formats, templates, and samples are available here for your use. Everything you need to write a professional résumé is contained in this comprehensive résumé writing kit.

Resume Writing

Resume Basics

A good resume is the one that is tailor-made to meet your current job-seeking needs, one that fits your specific background, your unique contributions and your personal and professional goals. Your resume should be targeted to the needs of the employer. It should be written from the employer’s perspective. It must speak the language of the employer.

Your resume functions as an advertisement of yourself. It is one of your key sales tools. You are the product and your resume is the advertisement that sells that product. It is meant to be an effective way of marketing and packaging your product. Your resume presents, promotes and publicizes you to the job market.

Writing a Winning Resume
Resume Genius

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How to Write a Great Resume
Resume Writing Tricks

What Employers Look For in a Resume
Customize Your Cover Letter

Your resume must spark interest and grab attention. It must arouse the curiosity of the reader. It must make the reader want to meet you. It must clearly differentiate you from your competition. It must make you stand out.

A good resume will enable you to affirm in writing your positive and relevant qualities, skills and characteristics. A good resume presents supportive information that justifies your job objective. By stating your work-related accomplishments, duties, responsibilities, experience and qualifications, you effectively document your capabilities and provide evidence of your suitability to the job.

Resume Genius

Resume Mistakes You Need to Avoid

How to Write a Great Resume
Sample Resumes

Resume Writing Tricks

What Employers Look For in a Resume

Action Verbs & Power Words

Your resume generally includes highlights and information drawn from your professional work experience, educational background, extracurricular activities and community service. It may also mention memberships, internships, awards, honors and distinctions. Experience and activities may be official or unofficial employment, fulltime or part time, paid or unpaid.

The information on your resume should be positive, selective and relevant. Keep your presentation short and full of spark. Your resume should be a concise statement of what you've learned from past experiences and how they will help a future employer. Your resume must project a positive image. It must fit both you and the circumstances.

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500 Resume Action Verbs

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Resume Language

How to Say it: Resume Language

Your resume is not a lengthy, detailed, official, historical document of every area of your life. It is not your life story or your job history. It should be brief, concise and full of spark. It should be targeted to a specific job or career field. The information on your resume should be positive, selective and relevant. A resume is an individually designed document that summarizes your background. It is intended to demonstrate your fitness for a particular position. It focuses on the most attractive and applicable aspects of your background.

Every element of your resume must present you as a perfect match for the job you are seeking. Keep the reader in mind. Make sure your resume conveys what you have to offer. Tell what contributions you can make. Emphasize transferable skills. Write clearly and simply. Use active, positive language. Use short, direct, succinct phrases.

Resume Sections

Header - At the top of your resume is a banner that includes your name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address.

Profile - The first section on your resume is a summary of your background and credentials. It should provide a very brief overview of your knowledge, experience, skills, and personal traits.

Education - The second section on your resume provides a list of the schools you attended. Under each institution you should list your degree/diploma, your academic awards, memberships, clubs/organizations, and extracurricular activities.

Experience - The third section of your resume provides a list of companies and organizations you worked for (fulltime, part time, paid, unpaid, voluntary, freelance, internships). Under each organization you should list your responsibilities, duties, and accomplishments.

Writing a Winning Resume
Resume Genius

Resume Mistakes You Need to Avoid

How to Write a Great Resume
Resume Writing Tricks

What Employers Look For in a Resume
Customize Your Cover Letter

Resume Details

Resumes generally should be only one page in length. Resumes should not be detailed. It is not necessary to list every job. Resumes need not include a complete job history. Do not tell everything, only what is relevant to the job being sought.

The resume header should indicate your name in large, bold type. Use the name by which you are commonly addressed. Include only one mailing address. Include telephone number with area code (home and/or cellphone). You may also include your e-mail address.

Resume Genius

Resume Mistakes You Need to Avoid

How to Write a Great Resume
Sample Resumes

Resume Writing Tricks

What Employers Look For in a Resume

Action Verbs & Power Words

Do not devote undue space to company's address (city and state only). Do not devote undue space to dates of employment (years only). Keep company name and job title simple. Do not include supervisor's name. Do not include company's telephone number or zip code. Do not include references on your resume.

Every entry on your resume should include a description of the duties, responsibilities, activities and skills associated with the experience. There is no need to differentiate between paid and non-paid experiences. All descriptions should be stated in terms of their transferability and relevance to the job being sought. Avoid technical or job-specific jargon unless it is related to the job you are seeking. Otherwise, use generic or general terms.

Information should be presented in list format, not paragraph format. Do not use narrative language. Avoid using full sentences or excessive wordiness. Don't use any personal pronouns. Short phrases, beginning with action verbs, stated in single lines, work best. Language patterns, information groupings, verb usage and tense should be consistent.

Format, layout and organization should be consistent, easy-to-read and appropriate to the specific occupational field. Make your resume visually appealing. Presentation should be clean and clear. Balance blocks of text with white space. Margins should be wide and even. Avoid using font or type style that is too fancy or exotic. Utilize emphasizing techniques for impact and easy reading: bold letters, capital letters, italics, bullets, dashes, indenting and font size variations.

You can typically arrange and organize the information on your resume into three categories: Profile (General qualifications, knowledge, experience, skills, and personality traits), Education (Schools you attended and related degrees, courses, awards, honors, memberships, and extracurricular activities), Experience (Jobs and employment, including fulltime or part time, paid or unpaid, temporary or long term, along with descriptions of responsibilities and accomplishments).

Resume Language

The key words and phrases you choose for your resume and cover letter can help you catch the attention of a potential employer.

When a hiring manager sees the same old resume time and time again with the same old clichéd words and overused phrases, you are guaranteeing that your resume will be tossed.

Avoid peppering your résumé with tired, stale, or empty buzzwords. Avoid using annoying jargon, anemic catchphrases, and colorless verbs. Poorly chosen words and trite phrases can destroy the interest of the reader. Power words when chosen correctly can have the opposite effect of motivating and inspiring the reader.

100 Great Resume Words

Action Verbs & Power Words

Key Words

Forbes Resume Tips

Resume Words That Suck

Resume Power Words

Key Resume Phrases & Words

Useful Resume Words & Phrases

Words & Phrases to Avoid on Your Resume

Every word on your resume should be working hard to highlight your talents, skills, and strengths.

Choosing positive power words for your resume will make help you stand out from your competition. Use words that have substance and impact. Use words that are descriptive, compelling, and dynamic.

You'll need to carefully select what you're going to say on your resume, but also be conscientious of how you say it. In a format such as a resume with limited space, you need to choose powerful, effective words that will get your message across immediately. You need to be as specific as possible, leaving no room for reluctance in a recruiter's mind. And you need to be concise and get to your point quickly.

Distill everything you want to say into a selection of carefully chosen words, sentences, and bullet points, so that someone reading your resume can see your accomplishments at a moment's glance, and most importantly, be impressed by them. Careful, concise, powerful language is the only way to achieve this goal.

Keep, it simple. Avoid bloat. Remove personal pronouns and articles. Keep track of tense.

When describing your experience and accomplishments, it is important that you use the right verb or adjective. Use active voice rather than passive voice. Site accomplishments and achievements by using statistics and numbers to show improvement. Provide examples.

100 Powerful Resume Words

Resume Action Verbs

Resume Success

500 Resume Action Verbs

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Positive Personality Adjectives

Resume Words With Impact

Descriptive Resume Adjectives

Positive Adjective Glossary

Resume Language

How to Say it: Resume Language

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