• Resumes are reviewed by employers for less than 10 seconds! It must be easy to skim and formatted consistently across sections with appropriate headings and subheadings. 

• Your resume should fit on one page until you have had several years in a career-related position or several accomplishments.

• Ensure the document is aesthetically pleasing with a balance of white space and text.

• Every industry has slightly different best practices, see examples below and meet with a Career Coach for further details. 

• Highlight your responsibilities and accomplishments concisely, focusing on experiences that are relevant to the prospective position. The employer should clearly understand how your background is applicable or transferable to their setting.
• As a current student, education should be the first section beneath your name and contact information.
• The Experiences section of your resume should be in reverse chronological order (most recent listed first).
• There should be no spelling or grammatical errors on the resume.
• Use action words that demonstrate your abilities, achievements, and grit.
• Quantify your experiences whenever possible (e.g., "Increased social media following by 30% in 6 months")

Remember to tailor your resume to accentuate your individual strengths and significant features of your background that distinguish you from the competition. It needs to reflect you and what you are capable of. Sell yourself with confidence—with the primary focus being experiences, specialized training, and transferable skills. 

Consider these universally appealing experiences: 

• Customer service experience 
• Supervisory or management responsibility 
• Promotions or increased responsibilities 
• Use of communication/interpersonal skills 
• Basic computer/technical skills (e.g., Microsoft Word, Excel; Power BI; AutoCAD; ) 
• Meeting deadlines or working in a high-pressure environment 
• Report writing or presentations 
• Independent decision making/problem solving responsibilities 
• Working as a member of a "team" toward a common goal 
• Providing training 
• The use of numbers to substantiate what you have done (e.g., increased sales by 20%; balanced a $200,000 budget) 

Include indications of you excelling and distinguishing yourself. Of particular interest to employers are group activities and leadership roles. Emphasize any activities that required voluntary involvement, whether school related, community related, or informal. Academic honors such as being a part of the Honors program or earning Dean’s List should be included. 

• Limit your resume to one page 
• Use a 1/2 inch – 1 inch margin on all sides 
• Quantify accomplishments wherever possible  
• Place all dates on the right side of the resume aligned to the margin 
• Maintain consistent font style, spacing, indentation, capitalization, and bullet style 
• Use a font that is easy to read (i.e., Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri, Cambria, etc.) 
• List experiences in reverse chronological order 
• Use phrases that start with action verbs 
• Maintain consistency with verb tense (past experiences in past tense, current experiences in present tense)