Title Resume Guide _ Colgate University.pdf ✅

Résumé Guide
2 Telling Your Story A résumé is a marketing tool that allows you to highlight your experiences, skills, and knowledge to attract positive attention from potential employers or networking contacts. It gives you the opportunity to share your desired narrative in a way that relates to the mission of an organization or the scope of the work you are looking to do. A résumé should introduce you and tell your story through your experiences and opportunities. When Will You Need a Résumé? • When applying to Colgate Premier (Colgate’s formal recruiting) positions and other jobs or internships on Handshake • When networking online and in person • When attending career and internship fairs • When applying to graduate and professional school, in some cases Starting Points for All Résumés The example below highlights required components for résumés and gives tips to organize your document. There is no one “right” way to compose a résumé. Below are some ways to help you get started telling your story. Anita A. Job 13 Oak Drive | Hamilton, NY 13346 | [email protected] | 555-555-5555 EDUCATION Colgate University, Hamilton, NY May 20xx Bachelor of Arts Major: Environmental Geography; Minor: Psychology • GPA: 3.41/4.00 • Dean’s Award for Academic Excellence Fall 20xx–Spring 20xx • Senior Thesis: Environmental Policy Impact on Natural Forest Preservation in Ghana Fall 20xx • Relevant Coursework: Social Science Research Methods, Geographic Information Systems, U.S. Environmental Politics, Applied Math, Social Sciences Colgate Environmental Study Group Fall 20xx University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia • Engaged in interdisciplinary academic exploration of environmental studies within a global context while immersed in a foreign culture EXPERIENCE Company Name, Location (City, State) Summer 20xx–Present Social Media Intern • Develop social media campaign to focus attention on new company project • Create daily Facebook and Twitter posts via Hootsuite to market new products and promote the company brand • Achieved 100,000 Facebook “Likes” in one hour upon product launch and increased Twitter following by 15% in 4 weeks APPLYING STORYTELLING Maintain a margin around your document, but use the full width of the page for your content. Keep your name and this contact information at the top of your résumé. Choose home and/or school address. Use present tense for ongoing experiences. Past experiences will be described in past tense. Experiential dates are consistently written in season, year or month, Include year. your overall or major GPA if it’s >3.00 Section headers reflect their content. For undergraduate students, the Education section follows contact information. Begin each bullet with a strong action verb. Bullets aren’t written in full sentences; delete extra words and personal pronouns. Each entry includes the employer or organization, location (city, state/ country), position title (if held), and dates of involvement. Be consistent in how you lay out each entry on the page. Include details of major accomplishments and core responsibilities. Quantify your impact whenever possible.
3 Experiences to Include Showcase your strong candidacy by illustrating your skills and nonacademic qualifications you have developed through paid and unpaid experiences that you want to convey to potential employers. Consider including: • Jobs • Internships • Community service • Activities, clubs, and organizations • Academic or independent research experiences • Shadowing experiences • Bootcamps and workshops • Conferences • Certifications or credential- awarding courses Writing Bullet Points to Support Your Story For each experience, highlight your major responsibilities and accomplishments by creating descriptive bullets that support your narrative through strong action-oriented verbs and answer the following three questions: What Did You Do? What tasks or projects did you complete? Begin each bullet with a strong action verb (see inside back cover for Action Verb Cheat Sheet). How Did You Do It? Include details that will help the reader develop a mental picture of your work. Include contextual information such as numbers, dollar amounts, software programs used, populations you worked with, techniques used, etc. Why Was It Important? Consider the impact your work had on your employer/organization, yourself, or others involved. This can include results, learning outcomes, ways in which your work facilitated a process/decision, or the larger goal you were working toward. Annual Fund Student Caller, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY Spring 20xx • Cold-called 500 alumni to yield $5,000 that will support university priorities • Reached phone-a-thon goal of $660,000 alongside team of student callers by calling 5,407 donors in 24 hours • Facilitated donor stewardship by utilizing Salesforce to record all alumni interactions and donations What How Why Key: Action Verb Details Impact Showcasing Your Skills • Create a list of your relevant “hard skills”: foreign languages, software programs, social media, research tools (SPSS, etc.), or laboratory techniques. These are skills that can be measured. • Include your level of proficiency [e.g., “Spanish (conversational),” “Java (advanced),” “Bloomberg Terminal Skills (intermediate)”]. • Avoid listing “soft skills” (e.g., team player, organized, hard worker, great communicator). Rather, illustrate them within strong examples in the bulleted descriptions you use to highlight your experiences. • Strategize the placement of the skills section based on how critical the skills are to the position you seek. SKILLS Language: Spanish (Fluent) Technology: Basic HTML, Java (Intermediate), Adobe Photoshop (Advanced), InDesign (Beginner) Science Equipment & Techniques: Scanning Electron Microscopy, Fluorescence Microscopy Certification: CPR (Valid through April 20XX)
4 Certified and Targeted Résumés What does “certified” mean? Career Services “certifies” a résumé when it meets professional standards for résumé writing, as outlined in the résumé rubric (pages 6–7). Why should I get my résumé certified? Having a résumé certified annually will help you understand how to craft a document that is relevant to the employer among a competitive pool of applicants. It also grants you eligibility to upload documents and submit applications through Handshake, including for Colgate Premier (formal recruiting) internships and jobs as well as Summer Funding. NOTE: Your résumé must be certified each academic year to apply to Colgate Premier opportunities on Handshake. Who can certify my résumé? A professional career adviser or peer career adviser can certify your résumé. Please call the office at 315-228- 7830 to schedule an appointment. To expedite the certification process, you should self-critique your résumé using the rubric on the following pages. When will my résumé be certified? When the document scores a rating of “excellent” or “acceptable with minor corrections” in each category on the rubric (pages 6–7), it is certified. The résumés of juniors and seniors must be targeted to be certified. See criteria under “targeting” in the rubric for specific goals of a targeted résumé, as well as examples on pages 8–13. Employers will expect a more targeted version of your résumé as you progress through Colgate. Seniors whose résumés were certified junior year maintain that status through graduation, although we highly recommend working with an adviser to target and improve your document in senior year. Once certified, I am done tweaking my résumé, right? Not yet. Your résumé will be updated continually as your experiences and academics evolve. You will want to continue to enhance, target, and strategically position your experiences. Even after your résumé is certified, you can meet with our advisers for additional feedback on future edits, but you are not required to have it critiqued again until the next academic year. What does “targeted” mean? As you begin your internship or job search, your application materials should be tailored to and reflective of the industry, employer, and position you are seeking. Customizing to the industry builds your credibility and demonstrates the strength of your candidacy by speaking to what is most important to the employer. Our advisers can help you target your documents. See examples on pages 8–13. Can I have different versions of a targeted or certified résumé? Yes. You should have different targeted résumés for different unique opportunities. However, once you have achieved certification with one, you are not required to have all other résumés certified until the next academic year.