Explore the Resume Resources posted on Canvas and choose the format best suited to your skills and experience: Chronological, Skills or Functional, or Combination. Look back at the samples frequently as you compose your own resume to ensure alignment with best practices.
Refer back to the information you gathered for your Module 2 Research Report: Mine it for key details to reference and/or be aware of as you craft your resume and target your listings specifically to that researched audience.
Use the evaluation criteria listed below as a checklist for yourself to ensure that you are including all of the aspects of a successful resume.
(Note: if you are in a discipline with its own resume guidelines, you should refer to those conventions. In so, please share the official guidelines with me so I am aware.)
Protect your privacy: Please use fake contact info or put XXX on those lines so that your personal information remains private during peer reviews.
How Your Resume Will Be Graded:
The rough draft will be assessed points based on authenticity, completeness, and thoroughness of the effort.
The final draft assessment will be based on the following evaluation criteria:
1. Visual Appeal:
Clean, straightforward overall look: avoid busy templates and decorative add-ons
Appropriate and consistent typeface and size
Bulleted lists rather than paragraphs, neatly aligned
Balanced spacing/white space; “chunked” information
Consistent and visually helpful use of bold and/or underlining and/or upper case to highlight headings
2. Format:
Appropriate, standard formatting: Use a logical order & categories of information that are easy to follow and conform to best practices for resumes as described in the posted Resume Resources. Keep in mind as you format the following formatting distinctions:
The “Chronological” resume lists information in reverse chronological order by dates; best for those with more and/or relevant experience to list
The “Skills” resume (also called “Functional”) organizes experience by categories rather than by dates; best for those with relevant experience from one or more sources (not just jobs, and/or not every job held, if not relevant)
The “Combination” resume combines the two approaches, listing the most relevant experience grouped according to categories, with less relevant information listed briefly as “Additional Experience” in reverse chronological order at the bottom of the resume.
Note that no matter which of the above formats you use, the following formatting protocols should be followed:
The Education listing should come before Experience, unless you have many years of relevant experience to list.
The Objective is optional, appears as the first item, and should be one, specific phrase with no pronouns (do not write “I am….”)
Do not include a summary or profile paragraph at the top.
3. Content:
Crafted as a persuasive argument, specifically targeted to your audience, through careful curation of quantifiable, specific, factual evidence of qualifications, skills, and experience relevant to the position desired.
Describe jobs in terms of what you DO or DID, quantifying when possible, using specifics rather than generalizations; avoid descriptive adjectives about how well you did the job (“provided excellent customer service” would be replaced by “served 100 meals per shift”).
The Skills listings should be measurable skills only, such as languages and software, not personal character qualities, such as “team player” or “fast learner.”
4. Writing:
Short phrases or fragments, not complete sentences, listed as bullet points in correct parallel structure, with the first letter capitalized
Job descriptions start with action verbs in the correct tense (past tense for jobs in the past, present tense for current positions) and form (first person singular—the “I” is implied but not stated)
Concise, specific wording; omission of articles (“the,” “a”)
No “I” references
No grammar, punctuation or spelling errors
No typos
