Résumé Tips
Sell Yourself
Show you are familiar with the industry by eliminating any doubts about how your qualifications meet the needs of the employer. You can accomplish this in three ways:
- use key terms and phrases common in your target industry
- highlight information that is most relevant to your target career
- incorporate the specific qualifications they mention in the position posting within your résumé.
Make a Positive First Impression
Your overall résumé presentation says volumes about you. You have approximately 20-30 seconds to make that good first impression. Put yourself in the employers shoes. Would you seriously consider a person for a job whose résumé was printed on thin, cheap paper with smudgy dot matrix printing, misspelled words, poor grammar, or who used a too general throw-away objective? Doubtful.
Check It Once, Check It Twice
Do not put your complete trust in computer spell-check. It is always a good idea to have someone else look over your résumé. After you spend hours working on something, you may not catch spelling errors or questionable grammar, so let the career counselor, or at least a friend, double-check your work.
EDIT ! EDIT ! EDIT !
Components of the Résumé
Contact Information:
List your name, address, city, state, zip code, area code and telephone number of where you can be reached. Include your e-mail address if you check it regularly and often.
Career Objective:
State the position title for which you are applying or cite the field in which you want to work. Also, indicate what you have to offer the employer by using statements like "... utilizing my leadership and organization skills." Avoid generalities like "challenging position with opportunity for growth and advancement." Always tailor your objective for each position you seek.
Education:
Recent graduates should place education first as it is the primary qualifying factor for the position. List most recent degree first and work back in time. It is not necessary to list high school education. List your degree and major, minor, name of school(s) attended (include city and state), month and year degree was (or will be) earned, and your GPA if 3.0 or above.
Relevant Course Work:
If you don't have career-related work experience, it is a good idea to list some of the courses you have taken or are currently taking that are relevant for the position for which you are applying. This gives the employer an idea of some of your training and shows that you have knowledge in your specific area.
Experience:
You may include internships, experiential learning, volunteer work, clinical rotations, practica, and senior projects. This includes both paid and unpaid experience. Show what you have achieved and special contributions you have made. Make sure you define abilities rather than your duties, stress your accomplishments, cite dates and a brief description using bullet statements with strong action verbs.
Honors/Awards/Scholarships:
State the name of the honor, award and/or scholarship, and the date received. Also include recognition you have received in athletics.
Involvements & Activities:
This section may include on-campus as well as community involvements and activities. It may also include your memberships in professional organizations and/or military service. Be certain to make special mention of any offices you held or presentations performed that relate back to your career objective. Listing hobbies is optional.
Special Skills:
List computer languages and software, research, laboratory, teaching or tutoring, communication, leadership, and foreign languages skills. If you are a Computer Science major, you may wish to have a separate section dedicated to computer skills thereby drawing the employers attention to it.
For more information, or to set up an appointment, contact Career Development at:
Room 114 in the Houston Harte University Center
P.O. Box 11026, ASU Station
Office Hours: Monday-Friday 8am - 5pm
Phone:(325) 942-2255
Fax: (325) 942-2150
E-mail:career.services@angelo.edu