Alumni
Association
SENIOR RESUME WORKSHOP
“Confining
a resume to a single page is good advice for anyone.” -Daniel Lyons
3-4 bullets describing your experience, be results-oriented and data-driven
Be direct and use words such as coordinate, manage, direct, collaborate, drive, lead, create, develop
Use numbers wherever you can, if you received a promotion, mention it
Use bold, italics to differentiate your headings, consider using lines to break up your sections
Use clean, easy-to-read fonts. Some recommendations for modern (sans serif)- consider Arial, Arial Narrow, Gill Sans, Abadi, Calibri, Candara; for traditional (serif)- Times New Roman, Cambria, Century, Garamond, and Georgia.
SAVE YOUR RESUME AS A PDF BEFORE SENDING!
FORMATTING YOUR RESUME
• Margins: Half to 1 inch. 0.4 Inch for your header
• Fonts: Use simple, clean, easy-to-read fonts, such as Times, Arial, Arial Narrow, Candara, Calibri, Cambria, Century, Garamond, or similar.
• Font size: 10-12 for body, 11-14 for headers, 16-20 for your name
• Headings: Bold and/or italicize to differentiate headings
• Layout: Be consistent throughout your entire resume, keeping locations, dates, positions, and organization of headings all in the same place for each category
Contact Information
ORGANIZING YOUR RESUME
• Name (largest font size on page, possibly bold), address, email, phone
Education (Header)
• Boston College, Carroll School of Management | Location | Date
Bachelor of Science in Management, Concentration(s) in XYZ, Major/Minor in XYZ
• GPA: You must include your cumulative, additionally, you can include your Major GPA, but you cannot have only your major GPA
• No rounding, it needs to match your degree audit
• Leave off if under a 3.0
• If you made Dean’s List include it here
• Rank: Include rank if you are in the top quarter of the class
• Special Notes:
• Honors/ Awards/ Societies/ Scholarships
• Student Athlete
• Study Abroad/ Special Programs/ Certifications
• Expected Graduation Date (month and year)
EDUCATION
EXAMPLE: EDUCATION
Boston College, Carroll School of Management |Boston, Massachusetts
Bachelor of Science in Management, Concentration in Marketing, Minor in International Studies
GPA: 3.831; Rank: Top 10% (40/445); Sr. Thea Bowman Scholar; National Jesuit Honor Society
University of Seville | Seville, Spain
Montclair Kimberley Academy | Montclair, New Jersey
GPA: 3.8; Mary Waring Scholar; Cum Laude, Varsity Athlete
May 2022
August - December 2020
June 2019
EXPERIENCE
• Can be labeled as Professional/ Work/ Relevant Experience
• Work Experience indicates anything you were paid for, professional would only include business jobs, relevant experience could include both paid and unpaid roles
• MUST be listed with most recent and relevant experience at the top
HOW TO WRITE BULLET POINTS
• Descriptions must be short and action-oriented
o Bad example: Responsibilities included the implementation of a new scheduling system
o Good example: Implemented a new scheduling system
• Emphasize contributions and skills learned over duties
o Bad example: Duties included ensuring safety of patrons, cleaning the pool area, and ensuring proper levels in pool
o Good examples:
§ Promoted to head lifeguard as a result of strong leadership and effective teamwork
§ Supervised water safety staff
§ Developed schedule, responded to both staff and patron concerns and resolved conflicts
Be specific and utilize data where appropriate. Use details that give a sense of importance and scale:
“Increased student club membership by over 35%”
“Contributed 20+ hours per week during peak season”
“Processed 3,000+ applications during season”
“Selected out of 300 candidates to lead…”
“Supervised four staff members and over 40 campers”
EXPERIENCE
EXAMPLE: EXPERIENCE
The Newtown Athletic Club| Newtown, PA
Lifeguard
o Supervised the administering of swim tests to 60+ children
o Managed high-volume facilities, requiring strong attention to detail
May -August 2019
ACTIVITIES
• Can be labeled as Leadership Experience, Extracurricular, Volunteer, or a combination (i.e. Leadership & Volunteer Experience)
• If you have more relevant leadership experience or are a student athlete, this section should go above your work section
SKILLS AND INTERESTS
• Languages: List your proficiency level with each. Do not list if you are not at least conversant. For example, if someone were to start conducting the interview with you in that language, would you be able to answer basic questions about yourself? If not, do not list it.
• Technical: Microsoft Office Excel, Facebook Business Manager, Adobe Photoshop, Python, Google Adwords, MailChimp
• Certifications: Only those that are relevant to a professional employer:
• Good examples: Hubspot, Bloomberg, Google Analytics
• Bad examples: CPR, Scuba
• Interests: List 3-5 fun, specific interests that are not evident elsewhere in your resume
• Good examples: Civil War History, Snowboarding in Vail
• Bad examples: History, Music, Travel
• Awards: Any outstanding achievements or awards received
• Examples: Eagle Scout, published works
EXAMPLES: SKILLS & INTERESTS
SKILLS & INTERESTS
Language: Spanish (conversational proficiency)
Technical: Microsoft Office: Word, Excel, PowerPoint; Comprehensive familiarity with social media
platforms: Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook
Other Interests & Activities: Collecting Vinyl Records, Hiking the Adirondacks, Traveling South America
SKILLS & INTERESTS
Language: Fluent in Spanish
Awards: Published poet (Stylus and The laughing Medusa)
Technical: Tech blogger: www.wordpress.com
Great opportunity to link to notable work or blogs
GENERAL RULES
• Number rules
• Numbers under 10 that are not ages or percentages should be written out
• Use M for million, B for billion, and $ for dollars
• Hour rules
• If you have any activities or jobs during the school year that amount to over 10 hours per week, note that.
• If it’s during the summer, it’s assumed to be full time
• Spacing rules
• Always keep a space between all organizations it keeps your resume clean and legible.
• If you’re short on space, reduce your space between experiences to a size 4 font
• Grammar rules
• Be consistent with your tense:
• Use past tense for past experiences
• Use present tense for experiences you’re actively doing
• Do not mix tenses within the same experience
• Use first person without the “I”
• Example: “Manage projects” not “manages projects”
• Do not use personal pronouns, like “I,” “my,” “our,” or “their”
POWER VERBS FOR YOUR RESUME
accelerated accommodated accomplished achieved acquired acted activated adapted added adjusted administered admitted advanced advised aided alleviated convinced cooperated coordinated correlated corresponded counseled created critiqued customized debugged deciphered dedicated delegated deliberated demonstrated designated expanded expedited explained extended extracted fabricated facilitated familiarized fashioned figured finalized forecasted formulated fostered founded fulfilled generated grew introduced invented investigated involved issued judged justified launched lectured led licensed lightened linked maintained marketed measured mediated minimized mobilized originated overhauled performed persuaded pioneered planned prepared prescribed prioritized processed procured produced programmed projected promoted publicized stimulated streamlined strengthened studied submitted substantiated suggested summarized supervised supplemented surveyed sustained synthesized systematized tabulated tailored
