NAME

• Telephone Number • City, State, Zip Code •

• Email Address • LinkedIn URL •

TITLE

SUMMARY (DO NOT INCLUDE THIS WORD)

Bullet points (flush left) (optional)

CORE COMPETENCIES
• First CC • Second CC • Third CC • Fourth CC • Fifth CC •
• Sixth CC • Seventh CC • Eighth CC • Ninth CC • Tenth CC •

TECHNICAL SKILLS
• First TS • Second TS • Third TS • Fourth TS • Fifth TS •
• Sixth TS • Seventh TS • Eighth TS • Ninth TS • Tenth TS •

EXPERIENCE
NAME OF CURRENT OR MOST RECENT EMPLOYER, CITY, STATE DATES OF EMPLOYMENT
Job Title

Bullet points (flush left)

NAME OF NEXT MOST RECENT EMPLOYER, CITY, STATE DATES OF EMPLOYMENT

Job Title

Bullet points (flush left)

EDUCATION
• Graduate Degree Honors (if any), Concentration (if any), Name of School (GPA: XXX) (Graduation Year) •
• Undergraduate Degree Honors (if any), Major, Name of School (GPA: XXX) (Graduation Year) •

OR

GRADUATE DEGREE HONORS (IF ANY), NAME OF SCHOOL GRADUATION YEAR

• Concentration (if any):
• GPA: XXX.
• Honors and Activities: (i.e. scholarships, honorary societies, clubs, etc.)

UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE HONORS (IF ANY), NAME OF SCHOOL GRADUATION YEAR

• Major/Minor: XXX/XXX.
• GPA: XXX.
• Honors and Activities: (i.e. scholarships, honorary societies, clubs, etc.)
 CERTIFICATIONS
• Name of Certification, Name of Awarding Organization, Location (Date Certification Awarded) •

ASSOCIATIONS
• Member, Name of Association, Location (Date Became a Member) •
 Instructions

“Do List”

• Margins should be uniform, and usually a minimum of .5 inches all around.

• The best fonts are Times New Roman or Arial.
• Point size. The minimum point size for text is 10, but 11 or 12 is preferred. Use the following table to
determine the best point size for the various sections of your resume:

Point Size – 11 or 12 Point Size – 10 or 10.5

Name 16 12 or 14
Title 14 12 or 14
Headings 14 12
Employer Names 12 10 or 12
Job Titles and Spacing 11 10 or 10.5

• To create a professional appearance, use small capitals for your name, title, headings, employer names,
and dates. (Go to the “Format” menu and click on “Font” to find the box for “Small caps.”)
• Bold job titles for easy reference.
• Alphabetize as much as possible for easy reading.
• Use periods at the end of each of your duties and achievements.
• Many people incorrectly use the present tense to describe their previous jobs. Use the past tense instead,
including for all of your duties and achievements. For your current job, use the present tense to describe
all of your existing duties and projects. But use the past tense to describe any duties that you no longer
perform, completed projects, and all of your achievements. These are all past activities. They should
therefore be described in the past tense, even though they are part of your current job.
• Numbers.
o Spell numbers if they are the first word in a sentence. Example: Seventy people attended the
meeting.
o Numbers less than 10 are usually spelled, but this rule is less likely to be followed in resumes
because of the need to quantify results as much as possible.
o Write numbers used with the “$” symbol. Example: The ice cream cone cost $2.
o Write percentages, unless they are the first word in a sentence. Example: Ten percent of the project
was unfinished. Example: Revenue declined by 6%.
o Abbreviate numbers of one million or more. Examples: $1 million, not $1,000,000; $1.75 million,
not $1,750,000.

“Do Not List”

• Do not use boxes, colors, columns, fancy fonts, headers, photographs, or pictures. Most applicant
tracking systems will either not recognize or ignore these features.
• Do not include an “Objective” statement or section.
• Do not include hobbies, interests, age, or marital status.
• Do not use “I” or write in the third person.
• Do not use right justify. It creates uneven spacing between words, and makes it difficult to locate and
reference items.
• Do not use the “&” symbol, unless it is part of an official name or title.
• Do not abbreviate “million” with “M,” “thousand” with “K,” or “more than” with “+.”
 Mailing

Always email your resume as a PDF unless instructed otherwise.

Heading

• Center and use bullet points to separate your name and contact information. List your telephone number
first. Do not use the words “cell” or “mobile.”
• Include your city, state, and zip code, but not your street address. Doing so is unnecessary, and an invitation
to identity theft.
• Include your LinkedIn URL. It should match your name and email as closely as possible. You can change
your LinkedIn URL by clicking on “Edit public profile & URL” in your LinkedIn profile.

Title

Your resume must have a title. Your title should state who you are and what you do in a single, concise,
statement. One option is to combine your current and a previous job title. You can also combine your current
job title with one of your core competencies. These are some examples:

• Vice President of Sales and Account Executive.

• Operations Director and Project Manager.
• Inside Sales Representative and Corporate Trainer.

Summary

The average resume is read in just six seconds. Many employers and recruiters will in fact only read your
summary, at least initially. Your summary must therefore be a concise and informative “snapshot” of your
entire resume. This usually means a short paragraph summarizing your skills and education, followed by
alphabetized lists of your core competencies and technical skills. This creates a “mini resume” at the beginning
of your resume that can be read easily and quickly by everyone, including employers and recruiters.

• You can add up to six bullet points immediately after your summary in order to list some of your best
achievements, especially those with quantifiable results. Doing so reinforces their significance, and
increases the chance that they will be read. Try and leave a blank space before the first and after the last
bullet point, which should be flush left with the margin.
• Separate your core competencies and technical skills with bullet points by going to the “Insert” menu,
clicking on “Advanced Symbol,” and then choosing the • symbol.
• Skip the technical skills section if your technical skills are limited to MS Office, but do include MS Office
with a list of other technical skills. Do not list the individual MS Office programs, unless you have advanced
skills in at least one. Example: MS Office (Excel Advanced), or MS Office (Excel, Word – Advanced.)
• IT professionals and others with many technical skills can instead use one or more of these categories:

• Programming Languages:
• Platforms:
• Technologies:
• Software:
• Software Development:

The skills within each category should be alphabetized, but not bolded. The bullet points should also be
flush left with the margin.
 Experience

• Your dates of employment should be flush right with the margin. Use the word “Present” instead of
“Current” if you are currently employed. It is acceptable to just list years, and not include months.
• Bold your job titles, not the names of your employers. Whether your job title matches the title of the job to
which you are applying is much more important than the names of your employers. Bolding both is
distracting, and diminishes the effect.

Education

Use either of these formats for your education:

• First Format. Use this format if you are only including your degree, honors (if any), major or concentration
(if any), and the name of your school.
• Second Format. Use this format if you are also including the additional information noted.

Please note the following:

• Order. List your most recent degree first.

• Degree Names. Abbreviate degree names. These are some examples:
o MBA instead of Master of Business Administration.
o B.S. instead of Bachelor of Science.
• Honors. The designations cum laude, magna cum laude, and summa cum laude are italicized. The word
“honors” is not, although it should be in parentheses.
• Majors. Graduate degrees do not typically have a major, but some have concentrations.
• GPA. Do not include your GPA unless it is at least 3.5 on a 4.0 scale.
• Graduation Dates. Do not include your graduation dates if you graduated more than 15 years ago. If you do
include your graduation dates, then do so in parentheses after your school name if you use the first format,
or flush right with the margin if you use the second format.

Certifications and Professional Associations

You can add additional optional sections for certifications and professional associations. You can also combine
your education and certifications into one section, especially if you need to prevent your resume from just
having a few lines on a new page. But you should only combine the sections if you use the first format for your
education. Leave a blank space between your last degree and first certification.

Links to Free Job Search Articles

• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/10-ways-improve-your-cover-letter-andrew-friedman/.
• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/10-ways-improve-your-resume-andrew-friedman/.
• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/12-ways-make-your-linkedin-profile-generate-more-traffic-friedman/.
• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/15-ways-improve-your-writing-andrew-friedman/.
• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/people-hire-know-10-ways-network-right-now-andrew-friedman/.
• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/6-tips-when-applying-jobs-online-andrew-friedman/.
• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-triumph-over-age-discrimination-andrew-friedman/.

Please note that there are now 15 ways to make your LinkedIn profile generate more traffic.
 **********

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