Resume Tips

1. Determine Your Objective
• State the field or position in which you are interested.
• Know the skill sets and experience needed.
• Make sure you are clear and concise because this is the first thing that employers read on your resume.

2. Generate Interest
• Remember to use your resume as a marketing tool to get you in front of the company.
• The purpose of a resume is to generate interest in you so that they want to interview you.

3. Education
• List your education and degree below your career objective.

4. Relevance
• List your qualifications in the order of relevance with the most recent first.

5. Use Action Words
• Begin each sentence with an action word such as developed, managed, presented, organized, prepared, etc. (Also see Action Words Link for more examples.)

6. Design Tips - Use a design that will grab the attention of the hiring manager and make it appealing to read.
• The design and font should be similar to the cover letter.
• Include dates – Include start and end dates of each position.
• Margins - Should be even on all sides (this makes the resume easier to read and helps with eye appeal). Hiring managers receive hundreds of resumes; you want yours to stick out.
• Font – Don’t use fancy fonts (Times New Roman or Courier New work great). Font size should be no smaller than 10 point. 12 point font is ideal.
• Length – The length should be one or, at most, two pages.
• Use Bullets – These help the reader view your accomplishments and skills easier. Put the stronger bullet points first.
• Spacing – Spacing is important because it will catch the eye of the reader.

7. Selling Yourself - Highlight your strengths and not your weaknesses.
• Indicate your accomplishments and your collegiate athletic background. Companies want to hire collegiate athletes. Be proud of being a collegiate athlete.
• Don’t go into great detail about every accomplishment; highlight the main achievements. You can go into more detail in the interview.
• Don’t stretch the truth.

8. Check for Errors
• Use Spell Check and NO punctuation errors. Errors will give a poor impression to the hiring manager.

9. Originality
• Does your resume look original and not copied from a template?

10. Proofread and Get Advice
• Have at least three people read your resume and cover letter. Having people critique your resume will only help your chances of an interview and the job.

11. Items to Omit
• Omit marital status, age, race, health, social security number, and hobbies.

12. State Numerical Statistics
• Statistics such as percentages, dollar amounts, and numbers are helpful (for example, state the number of people you managed, or the amount that you generated for the company). This shows the progress you have made with your current position.