RESUME TUTORIAL
The importance of a professional, effective resume cannot be overstated. It is your calling card; it’s all the information the Host Organization will have about you. Major host organizations receive hundreds of resumes; you’ll want yours to be clean, correct, and memorable.
Layout
Your resume should be no more than one page, with one-inch margins, and typed in an easy-to-read font. If it must exceed a page, remember to keep it focused, specific, and uncluttered.
Contact Information
All contact information—your name, you address, your phone number, and your email address—should be at the top. If you don’t have a working phone number, you cannot be contacted. If you don’t have a working email account—get one. And please have a professional sounding handle for your email address—your name is preferred (i.e. joe.student@gmail.com).
Objective
Your career Objective should be right below your contact information and be no more than one sentence, e.g., “Seeking an internship in finance.” Usually it’s best to avoid the general objective such as “working for a dynamic organization”. However, if you do not have a specific career focus, that’s fine. Just state that you’re looking for any experience that will help you figure out exactly which career path is right for you. Don’t be worried about using a different Objective for different internships.
Education
Of course include relevant educational information—an impressive GPA or awards are welcome. These courses should be listed before work experience if such experience is not media related. The relevant courses listed should relate to the goal stated in your Objective. Further, host organizations want to know at a glance whether you are a sophomore, junior, senior, etc. Graduates are usually not considered.
Work Experience
Try to emphasize leadership and quantify responsibilities such as budget or number of employees supervised. Be sure to spell out work duties. Host organizations want to know if people can fax, copy, software skills, etc. You may include a “Skills” section in your resume.
Portfolio
Include links of relevant portfolio work available on the web. Keep it professional—avoid MySpace pages.
Languages and Other Skills
Do you speak a language in addition to English? List the languages that you know besides English!
Share
Have friends and family members review your resume to see if anything you’re listing isn’t clearly stated. Remember that the resume isn’t meant to answer all the questions, it’s just meant to get you the interview. The real work comes when you actually get in front of the person doing the hiring.
Get Advice
Visit your campus career development center! They have detailed information (printed & online), do workshops, have resume creation software, and will review your resume with a professional eye—for free!
