EHE Resume Guide

What is a Resume?

Your resume is a personal marketing tool which highlights your skills and experiences. In a resume you want to summarize your education, employment experiences, qualifications, and skills you possess to provide an employer with an overview of who you. It is important for your resume to be concise and easy-to-read so that an employer can identify your skills and characteristics as an applicant.

It is crucial to describe in detail your experiences and involvement. A common mistake people make when creating resumes is they forget to include numbers and statistics when describing their experiences and accomplishments. Numbers and statistics offer employers insight into your responsibilities and demonstrates important work-related skills gained through each experience.

To capture the eye of an employer use capitals, underlining, and spacing to emphasize important titles of experiences within your resume. Remember to have consistent formatting throughout your resume to create a professional brand and image.

Make sure your resume is accurate and up-to-date with your current contact information and experiences. When printing off your resume use white, cream, ivory, or light grey resume paper. Remember to remove the hyperlink from your email address, and convert your resume to .pdf, .jpg, or .png file so when an employer downloads your resume the formatting is consistent.

The Power of Action Verbs Action words enable the employer to understand what skills and talents you have to offer as an applicant. When constructing your bullet points begin each phrase with an action verb, followed by a short description of your responsibilities and accomplishments. Make sure to avoid the use of personal pronouns in your resume.

Action Words

Resume Checklist

Feel like your resume might be missing something? Below is a list of details to include in your resume.

Style

  • Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman font
  • Eleven or twelve point font size
  • Even margins and aligned bullet points
  • Resume printed on white or ivory paper with black type

Format

  • Descriptive section headings
  • Reverse chronological order within each resume section
  • Consistent content placement and features
  • Bulleted phrases which begin with an action word

Content

  • Eliminate vague phrases such as responsible for, duties include, numerous, or various
  • Reference job specific terminology and technologies to demonstrate industry knowledge
  • Include leadership, research, and service to show engagement outside of class
  • Tell one unique activity or exceptional accomplishment for each experience to set your story apart
  • Post data, reasons, and outcomes to highlight results
  • Proofread for grammar, punctuation, spelling and appropriate verb tense

Make it count

On average, an employer spends approximately six to ten seconds reviewing a resume. To highlight your information, incorporate the use of bold and italic fonts along with utilizing page spacing to attract the attention of employers to your skills and experiences.

Customize is key

Remember a resume is a customized document that needs to be tailored for each job application. You must answer the reader’s most important question, “Why should I hire you to be part of my company and/or organization?”

Critique Checklist

Once you have reviewed the checklist, double check your work using the Resume Critique Checklist.

Resume Critique Checklist

**Adapted from Stephen F. Austin University-Career Services

Please reach out to Nancy Dugan at dugan.2@osu.edu to request sample resumes.