After going through the steps below, log in to VMock, a resume building platform, to create your resume.
Developing Your Resume
Your resume is your chance to display your qualifications, skills, and ambitions. It is a tool for communicating your capabilities to a potential employer. Follow the steps below to craft your resume.
- Begin by listing your experiences including jobs, volunteer positions, campus involvement, etc.
- Determine sections. The content of your resume will help you determine appropriate sections. Current students should lead with the Education section. The experiences in each section should appear in reverse chronological order. View the sections of our sample resumes below.
- Write bullet points for your experiences. Employers want to see accomplishments on your resume, not just tasks. Use this formula: action verb (skill) + noun (what/how many) + result. Lead each bullet point with an action verb and, if possible, end with results. For example, “Exceeded sales goals by 10 percent or more each quarter” is a stronger phrase than “Promoted merchandise to customers.”
- Tailor Information. Organize your sections according to relevance to the target audience. If applying for a job, incorporate language from the job posting.
- Have Your Resume Critiqued. Upload your resume to VMock for 24/7 immediate feedback. You can also attend our resume walk-in hours.
- Upload your resume to Handshake for employers to see.
Sample Resumes and Bullet Points
Use our MS Word documents as a starting point. See tips for writing bullet points. You can preview all of the sample Word Doc resumes linked below by viewing this PDF.
Resume Tips
In general, your resume should be one page long.
Is your resume too short? Consider additional categories:
- Relevant Coursework (if you have taken courses not required for your major or that otherwise set you apart). Select three or four and list by name, including the semester in which you took each course.
- Project Work: Have you taken courses in which you worked in a team to provide a presentation or other deliverable at the end? See the Commerce and Business Administration resume sample.
- Special Interests: This may include hobbies, sports, or other leisure activities
Is your resume too long?
- Consider listing “Relevant Experience” and “Additional Experience” separately and write bullet points for only the Relevant Experience.
- Headings such as “Volunteer Experience” may simply list the agencies or groups with which you’re involved, without bulleted descriptions of your work. Long lists of agencies may be broken into even columns, tabbed apart, so that six lines becomes three.
- Shorten your contact information by including your number, email, and/or LinkedIn URL all on one line. Separate content with tabs or | lines.
- Narrow your margins to ½ inch. Avoid a single word using an entire line. Use “+” to indicate “more than,” as in 200+ customers.
Formatting and Content
Formatting issues? Use our MS Word template resumes. VMock will also help you create a consistently formatted resume that is compatible with applicant tracking systems.
The content of your resume should:
- Be accurate and tailored for each job description
- List your degree accurately
- Contain no spelling or grammatical errors
- Be listed in reverse chronological order within each section
- Not include any personal information (age, race, marital status, etc.)
- Not include a photo unless required by your profession
Applicant Tracking Systems
Organizations receiving a high volume of applications may use an applicant tracking system (ATS) to scan resumes for keywords associated with their requirements. To ensure that your resume makes it through the scanning process, be sure to: incorporate language from the job posting; spell out each organization, title, certification, etc., but also provide the acronym; and proofread very carefully – misspelled words will not be recognized.
