Do
- Within each section of your resume, list your experiences in reverse chronological order. That means that your current/most recent roles go at the top and your oldest roles go toward the bottom.
- When describing your experiences, use bullet points focused on your achievements instead of paragraphs describing your duties or the job as a whole. Bullet points make it easier for employers to get the most important information when skimming your resume. Avoid using personal pronouns like I, me, and my.
- Include the month and year range for your experiences: May 20XX – December 20XX. An exception to this is in your education section. For your bachelor’s degree, list your expected graduation date in the format “Expected Month Year.”
- Your formatting should be clear and consistent. Use common and professional fonts like Calibri, Arial, or Times New Roman in 11-12 pt font. Margins should be consistent (no larger than 1″ or smaller than 1/2″) and content should fill the page. Use bold, italics, and underlines to differentiate sections of your resume and to emphasize important information.
- The length of your resume will vary based on your industry and amount of experience. The traditional resume is one page.
- Check your resume for spelling and grammar mistakes. You don’t want to miss your chance at the dream job because you put “Florida Golf Coast University.”
- Always tailor your resume to the position. There are several ways to do this:
- Incorporate key words from the job description into your accomplishment statements.
- Include a Relevant Coursework subsection in your Education section if you took any courses relevant to the position.
- Order the sections on your resume based on what you think will be most important or attractive to the employer.
- Base the skills in your skills section on the employer’s stated needs.
Don’t
- Don’t use a template. We recommend using a word processing software to make your resume by hand. Templates can cause difficulties for multiple reasons:
- Applicant Tracking Systems often can’t read them.
- They waste a lot of white space and often include elements that employers dislike, such as graphics and excess color.
- Never include a headshot or information regarding your age, gender, ethnicity, race, marital status, family situation, social security number, or university identification number. These put you at risk for discrimination.
- Do not included references or the phrase “References available upon request” on your resume. References should be on a separate document. Reference formatting examples can be found in the Additional Professional Documents section of this page.