RESUME2

Twardowski
Career Development Center

West Chester University

225 Lawrence Center
West Chester, PA 19383
General: cdc@wcupa.edu
Employers: recruit@wcupa.edu
Phone: 610.436.2501
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Resume Writing Guide for Alumni

The primary purpose of a resume is to summarize your experiences, education, skills, and accomplishments in order to ultimately get an interview. There are many accepted “best practices” in writing resumes – things everyone should do – and yet you still have a lot of flexibility with formatting and style to make yourself stand apart from others. Use this guide to help you build an initial resume but also utilize the professionals in the career development center and people in your network to get feedback on how to best present your strengths and experiences.

Formatting

Sections of a Resume: Education, Experience, Activities, Skills & more

Transferable Skills & Action Words

Sample Resumes

Get Resume Feedback & Assistance

Professional Communication Guide - Cover letters, thank-you notes, and other correspondence.

FORMATTING

An employer spends an average of 20 seconds looking at a resume – that’s it! Consequently, an easy-to-read, concise, consistent resume is critically important.

Many employers prefer a one-page resume just due to the sheer volume of resumes they must review, however a two-page resume is acceptable when your experience is relevant to justify the length.
Even spacing, alignment of text, margins, and consistent headings contribute to visual appeal.
Font size should be no smaller than 10-point and no larger than 12-point. Your name at the top of the page can be slightly larger for emphasis.
Use common font styles such as Times New Roman, Garamond, Cambria, Arial. Avoid intricate fonts or those with narrow or wide spacing.
Be consistent with your highlighting such as use of bold, ALL CAPS, underlining, and italics.
Avoid templates, tables, text boxes, borders, columns, and fancy fonts. All of these elements can cause problems for uploading to a web site or if the recipient is using a different word processing program that you utilized.

SECTIONS OF A RESUME

CONTACT INFORMATION

Include your name, address, telephone number, and professional e-mail address.
Use a telephone number and e-mail address at which you will reliably receive messages.

Robert J. Smith

8091 Market Avenue, #4B

Drexel Hill, PA 19026

484-111-2222

rjsmith@gmail.com

Samantha S. Martin

444 Westin Drive, Philadelphia, PA 19014

215-321-9876

martins@gmail.com

OBJECTIVE (optional)

An objective describes to the employer your current goal, often combined with your highlighted strengths.
Objectives are optional and in general most employers would rather you focus on presenting skills and accomplishments in your experience descriptions.
In the absence of a cover letter or email that explains your objective, to make your resume “stand alone” you could use one. The best objectives are specific and tailored.

Objective: Seeking a Brand Manager position in a consumer products company that will utilize my analytical, teamwork, and research skills.

OBJECTIVE

To obtain a Media Relations Specialist position in the Communications & Marketing Department.

SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS / PROFILE (optional)

As an alternative to an objective, a profile/summary allows you to summarize skill sets and strengths that have been developed throughout all of your collective experiences.
Can be useful for a professional with a significant amount of work experience or for a career-changer who wants to emphasize skill sets first regardless of where those skills were acquired.
Considered optional because many employers still prefer to see your specific accomplishments in relation to the job in which you achieved them.

PROFILE

Maintain critical thinking skills essential to providing competent and dignified patient care. Advocate for patients’ rights; strive to understand a patient’s needs and concerns.
Hardworking and energetic; flexible; adapt easily to change of environment and work schedule.
Personable with a positive attitude; interface well with patients, families, and nursing staff.
Team leader with able to create a positive working environment.

EDUCATION

List the name and location of each institution attended, the complete correct degree program and major, and the month and year of graduation. For individuals who graduated several years ago (there is no generally agreed upon number of years), you may opt to exclude the date of graduation to avoid being “dated” by that year.
Start with the most recent and highest degree first and work backwards.
If you have participated in professional development activities, you could include them in Education; however, those are often highlighted in a separate section for extra emphasis.
A year or two after graduation, GPA becomes irrelevant to most employers so only include it when requested.
A few years after graduation, it is more common to list Experience first and move Education farther down the page.

EDUCATION

West Chester University of Pennsylvania, West Chester, PA

M.S. in Counseling: Higher Education/Student Affairs, May 2011

Temple University , Philadelphia, PA

B.A. in Psychology, May 1998

EXPERIENCE

A year or two after completing an undergraduate degree, you will begin to emphasize professional experience more than less relevant part-time jobs or internships from college.
As part of a master's degree program, you are likely to have had relevant experience as a graduate or research assistant that should be included and emphasized.
Include the name of the organization, location, your title or role, dates of employment or involvement, and descriptive information about your responsibilities and accomplishments.
Use present tense if experience is current and past tense if completed or in the past.
Avoid listing just job duties (e.g., “Answered telephone. Raised funds.”). Describe accomplishments, the quality of your work, and the scope of your involvement. Quantify achievements where possible.
If you have had a range of experiences, you can group them under more descriptive section headings such as Writing Experience, Teaching Experience, Team Leadership, and so forth.

EXPERIENCE

Target, Exton, PA

Store Manager, June 2009 – May 2012

Recruited into Store Management Trainee program and progressed to leadership role within 16 months.
Drove sales by overseeing the guest service and merchandising of two departments with sales ranging from $2 - $3 million.
Supervised leadership team and conducted daily floor personnel meetings.
Acted as leader on duty, as well as opened and closed the store on assigned days.
Assisted with recruiting and hiring of sales associate team.
Received extensive training as part of store executive leadership experience.
Ensured excellent service by interacting with guests and team members.
Regularly achieved sales goals and maintained budget controls.

FUNCTIONAL FORMAT FOR EXPERIENCE

A functional resume organizes experience by skills sets or groups of “functions” that you can perform for an employer, which can be tailored/changed to fit different employers’ needs.
Typically create 3-4 functional sections to group all of your experience descriptions, regardless of where or when those occurred; create a separate Work History section to list job titles, where you worked, and the dates of employment.
This format is sometimes more accepted in sectors such as Education and Nonprofit, whereas in more corporate/technical settings the chronological approach may be preferred.
This format enables career changers and others to place more emphasis on skills and less emphasis on where those skills were developed. It can also help minimize gaps in employment history because all details are not organized chronologically.
Refer to the functional resume samples below to see how to construct this style of resume.

ACTIVITIES

As a general rule, the longer it has been since you graduated, the less likely it is that you will include college activities on the resume.
Your involvements as a student may be kept on the resume if particularly relevant to your current field of work or if they demonstrate a high level of accomplishment and leadership.
Community service, volunteerism, and related activities can still be relevant in the absence of other professional experiences. For career changers or individuals who may have left the work force for a period of time but are planning to re-enter the labor market, community and other involvements can be a good way to demonstrate skills and competencies.

ADDITIONAL SECTIONS

Other common sections of a resume include Professional Associations, Publications, Presentations, Certifications, Community Service, to name a few.
An Interests section is common for the traditional college student, but for alumni your focus should shift toward professional activities and involvements.

SKILLS

Usually a brief list of computer software applications you utilize, languages you speak/write as well as your level of proficiency, or areas of certification relevant to your field (e.g., C.P.R.).

Skills: Proficient with Microsoft Word, Excel, and Outlook. Conversational Spanish.

REFERENCES

There is no need to put “References Available Upon Request” on your resume; while it can be a simple way to conclude the document, it often just wastes a line of space.
Create a separate page for listing your references, typically listing 3-5 individuals including: name, title, organization, address, phone and email. If the relationship to you is not clear by the title, consider indicating their professional relation to you. (Sample Reference Sheets)
Before listing someone as a reference be sure to check with the person; in addition, be sure to provide a copy of your resume.

If you have other information to point out, such as an e-portfolio or a website, you could include something like the following:

Professional Portfolio available at www.sampleportfolio.com/jsmith

TRANSFERABLE SKILLS & ACTION WORDS

Transferable skills are an important component of your resume. Through different jobs and areas of involvement (volunteering, professional associations, etc.), you develop many skills that can relate to any career field. As you describe these experiences, you want to make sure that you are accurately highlighting the skills that you can offer to an employer. We encourage you to use strong action words to draw attention to the skills that you have. Below is a list of action verbs, separated by skill sets, to help get you started with the brainstorming process:

Leadership/Management

Administer	Encourage	Integrate	Persuade
Assign	Enforce	Interview	Plan
Coach	Evaluate	Lead	Present
Coordinate	Implement	Manage	Produce
Decide	Improve	Mentor	Recruit
Delegate	Increase	Motivate	Review
Develop	Influence	Order	Schedule
Direct	Inform	Organize	Strengthen
Empower	Inspire	Oversee	Supervise

Problem-solving/Decision-making

Adapt	Conclude	Expand	Plan
Adjust	Control	Improve	Receive
Anticipate	Deliver	Increase	Recommend
Attain	Distribute	Monitor	Reduce
Change	Eliminate	Obtain	Utilize
Complete	Establish	Perceive	Work

Communication (Verbal & Written)

Advertise	Direct	Negotiate	Report
Arrange	Draft	Persuade	Represent
Author	Edit	Present	Respond
Collaborate	Facilitate	Promote	Review
Communicate	Interpret	Proofread	Revise
Compose	Introduce	Provide	Sell
Correspond	Market	Publicize	Summarize
Describe	Mentor	Publish	Translate
Develop	Moderate	Recruit	Write

Teamwork/Helping/Interpersonal Skills

Advise	Encourage	Motivate	Relate
Aid	Ensure	Offer	Represent
Assist	Facilitate	Participate	Resolve
Coach	Guide	Promote	Serve
Collaborate	Help	Protect	Support
Contribute	Instruct	Provide	Teach
Coordinate	Interact	Recognize	Train
Counsel	Listen	Refer	Tutor
Educate	Mediate	Rehabilitate	Volunteer

Analytical/Quantitative/Research

Analyze	Examine	Learn	Solve
Assess	Experiment	Observe	Study
Clarify	Extract	Organize	Summarize
Collect	Formulate	Predict	Survey
Critique	Hypothesize	Process	Synergize
Determine	Identify	Prove	Synthesize
Diagnose	Inspect	Question	Systematize
Discover	Interpret	Reason	Test
Dissect	Interview	Research	Troubleshoot
Evaluate	Investigate	Review	Weigh

Initiative/Flexibility/Adaptability/Creativity

Act	Display	Institute	Photograph
Adapt	Draw	Integrate	Plan
Compose	Establish	Interpret	Play
Conduct	Express	Introduce	Print
Create	Fashion	Invent	Publicize
Customize	Illustrate	Model	Revitalize
Design	Imagine	Originate	Show
Develop	Initiate	Paint	Sketch
Direct	Innovate	Perform	Write

Computer/Technical

Assemble	Design	Lift	Program
Build	Drive	Maintain	Remodel
Calculate	Engineer	Make	Repair
Compute	Fix	Operate	Solve
Conserve	Handle	Overhaul	Treat
Construct	Install	Produce	Upgrade

Detail-oriented/ Organizational Ability

Administer	Compute	Log	Retrieve
Approve	Define	Manipulate	Review
Arrange	Dispense	Monitor	Schedule
Audit	Distribute	Operate	Select
Budget	Estimate	Organize	Sort
Calculate	Execute	Prepare	Specify
Catalog	File	Process	Summarize
Check	Gather	Purchase	Supply
Classify	Generate	Raise	Systematize
Collect	Implement	Reconcile	Transcribe
Compile	Inspect	Record	Validate

SAMPLE RESUMES

A variety of sample resumes are provided below which incorporate various formatting techniques. Depending upon one's field of employment, there may be industry-specific preferences or conventions - so be sure to do your research when deciding upon the approach you would most prefer to take with your resume.

Chronological Resume Sample1

Chronological Resume Sample2

Functional Resume Sample1

Functional Resume Sample2

Sample Reference Sheets

HOW TO GET HELP WITH YOUR RESUME

Here are the ways you can get feedback on your resume (we aim for 1-2 business days turnaround time) in order to strengthen the presentation of your skills and accomplishments:

1. Upload your resume to College Central Network (CCN)

CCN is the official resume and job posting service for career-related jobs and internships. Alumni may create free accounts to access a range of features, including a resume critique service.

Log in to your existing account or create a new one (only takes 2 minutes!).
From the main menu, scroll down to the section Upload/Manage My Resume.
When you upload a resume, it will have “Pending” status and a staff member will review the resume usually within 48 hours. You will receive email feedback about your resume with suggestions for improvement, or it will be “Approved” if your resume is deemed ready to use!
Note: Because CCN only has resume upload capability, cover letters or other job search correspondence must be reviewed using our other services (see below).

2. One-on-One Appointments and Drop-in Hours

If you want in-person assistance, you may utilize our regular drop-in hours (Monday through Friday, 2:00 to 3:30 pm) during the academic year or call the office to schedule a 30-minute appointment during regular office hours. We offer telephone appointments for alumni who do not live in the immediate area and cannot come to campus.

We strongly prefer that you bring a draft of a resume with you to in-person meetings so we can provide you with the most useful feedback. It doesn’t have to be good – that is why we are here to help you – but you will benefit more from the appointment if you have a rough draft already started.

3. Email Service

You may choose to email your resume, cover letter, or other job search correspondence to cdc@wcupa.edu for feedback. Because this is also an electronic service, we recommend you utilize CCN for resume assistance and the drop-off or email service for cover letters and other materials.

4. Drop-Off Service

You may bring a printed copy of your resume, cover letter, or thank-you note to the career center in 225 Lawrence and leave it with a staff member at the main welcome desk. You may pick up your documents with written feedback after two business days.

West Chester University of Pennsylvania
700 South High St, West Chester, PA 19383
610-436-1000
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