Career Services offers further information for students and alumni at various stages within the job search process.
Find out more at hireTSTC.
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Tailor your resume to the job you are applying for. Do not use the same resume for every job you apply for. Some times this can be a few tweaks to your resume but, depending on the position, your resume may need a complete overhaul! |
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Look at the job posting and focus on the language used. Try to match this level of writing as it will help employers consider how well you will fit in their organization. |
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Ask yourself what specifically is the company looking for and how does your experience relate to the position requirements. |
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Do research on the organization/company and its mission/goals. Include this type of information in your qualifications. |
A resume summarizes your education, employment history, and expertise in relation to specific job postings to which you are applying.
The purpose of your resume and cover letter is to get an interview. You need to market yourself on about 1 page to a potential employer, showing them that you have the skills and experience for their needs.
The Contact Information Section should include all methods of getting in touch with you.
Your name should typically appear at the top of the resume in a relatively large, readable font (don't get carried away with fancy or elaborate font styles). Your contact information should appear directly below that. You do not need to label it as such; it simply appears below your name. At the minimum, your contact information should include the following:
Often, people also include the following contact points:
If you are a student, you might need to include your school address and your permanent address. However, if you do so, it is beneficial to include what dates you will be at each address. It is always a good idea to make it as easy as possible for potential employers to find you.
If your contact information changes, it is crucial that you notify potential employers. For instance, if you move or change email addresses, it is a good idea to notify any employers who might have your resume on file. You can either resend your new resume with the current contact information and a note explaining that your information has changed, or you can send an email to the Human Resources department asking them to change the information on their copy of your resume.
The Education Section is the place to detail your educational history.
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What to includeIn the Education Section, you typically discuss the highest degree you earned. Therefore, if you have a college degree, you would NOT include information about where you went to high school. If you attended college or a technical school but did not receive a degree, you should state how long you attended and your field of study. You must be clear, however, that you did not receive a degree. If you did not attend college or a vocational school, then you would include information about your high school education or GED. The Education Section must include pertinent facts about your education. It should include the following:
Typically, people include their GPA although you are not required to do so. Keep in mind, though, that if you do not put it on your résumé, potential employers may assume that you omitted it because it was bad. Generally, if you have a 3.0 or lower, you may want to omit your GPA. |
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How to format the section.Formatting is important in the Education Section because there are often many bits of information that do not require full sentences or much space. In order to avoid a choppy list of short items going down the left-hand side of the page, you might want to consider columns that will allow you to include several short bits of information on one line. Remember, however, that if you do set up columns in this section, you will want them to visually match any other formatting you might do in any other sections of your resume. For instance, if you place the city and state of your educational institution on the right-hand side of the page, you will most likely also want to put the city and state for each of your employers (in the Work Experience Section) along the right-hand side of the page. |
The Work Experience Section is the place for detailing your previous employment information. This section can be called Work Experience, Work History, Employment History, Employment Experience, Relevant Experience, or whatever else indicates the type of information that is included. For instance, if you have really great volunteer experience in the field to which you are applying, you may want to title this section Relevant Experience rather than Employment Experience, in order to accurately represent the information.
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What to includeThis section typically includes the following:
This section can also include any promotions you might have gotten while on a job. Detailing the duties you performed, though, is perhaps the most important part of the Work Experience Section. You must be not only accurate and concise but also highlight those duties that are most relevant to the position you are seeking. While it is acceptable to write full sentences in paragraph form for each position you held, it is more common to create a bulleted list of the duties you performed. If you choose to create a bulleted list, be aware that each bullet must be in parallel form (which means that each item must be grammatically formatted the same). It is also a good idea that you put each item in the active voice and use powerful action verbs. Each job should have a minimum of three bulleted items with the most relevant duties listed first. Take some time to really think over what you actually accomplished for the job, list the specific activities and duties that you were responsible for, and craft exciting and concise bulleted items representing those activities. The following items illustrate examples you can model: Durango * Austin, TX * May 2023 - Present
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How to format the section.Formatting is crucial for the Work Experience Section because you must convey a lot of information quickly and concisely. You may want to consider columns in order to conserve space. You might consider putting the company name in a left-hand column, the city and state in a center column, and your employment dates in a right-hand column. Remember, if you used columns in any other section of the resume, you must make sure they visually complement the columns you use in the Work Experience section. |
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Tips on handling different types of work experience.Because each person's work history is unique, you may have unusual circumstances to represent on your resume. If you have worked for one company for many years and held several positions, you can list each position separately. If you are applying for a position outside of the field most of your work experience is in, you can also list relevant volunteer experience and community service. If this is the case, you might also want to consider a Skills Resume, in which you group bulleted items by skills and abilities rather than by company or job. If you are a student, your resume might contain summer jobs that are not relevant to the position for which you are applying. If this is the case, remember that you honed skills in every job. Be creative and thoughtful in creating these lists. For example, if you worked at McDonald's, you learned how to do the following:
As your work experience becomes more relevant to your field, you can drop off the oldest summer jobs until all of your listed work experience is relevant to your field. It can be difficult to know how to represent periods of unemployment. Consider listing what you were doing during that time period. For example, if you took time off work to raise your children, you can put Homemaker (or what you prefer) on the resume and detail some of what you accomplished. In addition, you can list volunteer work or community service if you were not actually employed during that time period. If you took any classes (even if you did not obtain a degree), you can list the educational activities you were involved in during that time. |
This section of the resume highlights the relevant activities you have been involved with and the honors you have received that you could discuss with your prospective employer. You also want to communicate how these activities and honors might make you an asset to the organization.
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What to include
Examples:
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Why write an honors and activities section?
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Where should you place this section?The honors and activities section is generally placed after the education and experience sections of the resume. Since this section is usually the last one on the resume, you can include as many or as few honors and activities as space permits. |
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Content to consider.Scholarships
Academic Honors
Leadership Positions
Membership in Professional Organizations
University Service Positions
Community Service Positions
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While not all resumes contain a skills section, a skills section may be helpful when you want to emphasize the skills you have acquired from your various jobs or activities, rather than the duties, or the job title. If you do not have enough previous experience for a specific job you are seeking for, it is important to emphasize your skills pertaining to that job.
Prepare your skills section.
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Skill example 1
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Skill example 2
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Skill example 3
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Skill example 4
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Deciding resume lengthAs the job market becomes ever more competitive, you may need to use multiple pages to persuade a potential employer to grant you an interview. For resumes, limiting your document to one page is a good approach for new college graduates and high school students. Some employers may specifically ask for a one-page resume. However, do not shy away from adding that extra page of accomplishments—as long as it is relevant and persuasive. |
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When to use one-page resumes.
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When to use two-page resumes.
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When to use three-page resumes.
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Tips on making a second or third pageBefore you make your resume longer, you should first ask employers if they even accept two-page resumes. If they do, then you should plan the extra pages. For instance, you may want to focus an extra page on key leaderships skills or projects. You could even title that page to reflect its focus. Then, you could list and describe projects you led in classes, organizations, sororities/fraternities, etc. You may find that the extra pages work best as supplemental sheets. Such sheets could list presentations, awards, technical skills, etc. If you use this option, you could pick and choose which sheets to send to what employer. For example, you may send a detailed list of your technical skills to a computer company, but you would send a list of your research awards and presentations to a research firm. Extra pages can:
Extra pages must:
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