Common Resume Categories:
• Applicant Information: Include your full name, full address (es), telephone number(s), and email address.
• Professional Objective (optional): Objective section helps you to define the focus. The objective may include-
some combination of the position of interest; industry/organization being sought; skills; and functions being sought.
• Education
• Honors and Awards
• Work Experience: Experience can include paid and volunteer work. Include your job title, place of employment, dates of employment, and a description of the duties (in order of importance to the employer) which demonstrate your major selling points. Use action verbs to describe your work.[o Examples: Developed sales and marketing strategies.
o Collected, measured, and evaluated chemical properties of soils.
o Coordinated committee meetings. ]
• Leadership/Skills/Activities: Employers are looking for your ability to work as a team member. Accurately identify skills, and communicate strengths; include items which are relevant to the reader; indicate level of proficiency for language or technical skills (e.g. proficient, conversant, fluent)
• Other categories could include: Professional Memberships, Publications, and Presentations
Presentation and Layout
• The resume should be one to two pages.
• Highlight items by underline, italics, capitals, bold, or indentation.
• Allow white space. Be consistent in form. Balanced margins and adequate space make for easier reading.
• Use a font size that is easy to read.
• Proofread several times.
Email Resume
Most employers want you to email your resume to them. An email resume should be sent as PDF file attachment. When sending a resume by email, a short cover letter should accompany the resume.
