Resumes & Cover Letters: Tips & Examples

Resume Writing Guide

Your resume is a marketing tool that introduces you to prospective employers. Overall, it is an opportunity to demonstrate your fit for a particular job opportunity. It explains what you would like to do for the employer by describing your relevant qualifications, skills and accomplishments.

These helpful tips will get you started:

Research the Position: To market relevant skills on your resume, visit the company’s website to learn more about the position and company for which you are applying. Talk to others you know who have worked for the company in similar positions. You may also want to visit websites such as glassdoor.com to learn about a company's interviewing style and questions they have asked other applicants.
Use Numbers to Highlight Impact: Include numbers to show the amount of customers served, money saved or earned, time saved, efforts improved, or the result of each of the examples you offer.
Format Your Resume: Recent research shows that potential employers spend less than 10 seconds reviewing a resume. Make sure its easy to read by keeping these suggestions in mind:
- Use every day, professional language and avoid jargon
- Write in concise and easy to interpret sentences
- Give the facts, and don’t explain too much
- Single-space within sections and double-space between sections
- Bold or capitalize section headings
- Use bullet points when creating a list
- Proofread for spelling and grammatical errors
Use Keywords: Keywords are the names of important tools, procedures, skills, or systems needed to do the work. Most employers scan for keywords when looking at a resume. Consider adding keywords from the position description, but do not cut and paste information.