Creating a compelling resume is essential in today’s job market. Your resume is a personal marketing tool that highlights your unique qualifications, skills and experiences in a way that grabs the attention of employers.
Your resume isn’t just for job applications; it’s also for networking and career fairs. Whether or not you’re actively applying, keeping your resume up to date ensures you’re ready when the right opportunity comes along.
Here are a few key tips to make your resume stand out:
- Tailor it for every role. Use job descriptions to identify key skills and industry-specific language.
- Include a professional profile section. Objectives statements are outdated and inadequate. Placed at the top, the professional profile section is a short paragraph highlighting the most important information without needing to redo your entire resume each time.
- Highlight transferable skills. Show how your past experiences align with what the employer needs.
- Keep your resume clean and concise. Use simple and professional formatting that clearly shows each section:
- Experience
- Education and certifications
- Professional associations
- Community involvement
- Additional sections that add value to your resume
- Use bullet points that begin with an action verb and demonstrate an accomplishment/result. Whenever possible, include numbers to demonstrate your achievements. For example: Directed the work of 12 professional engineers to complete a $12M design project over three months.
- List your experience and education in descending order. Start with the most recent. In most cases, list the dates of your employment and degree graduations/certifications to the right for easy reference.
Students of our graduate programs have free access to Career Coach Jennifer Vancil and her team for support during and after their program. Support ranges from building a resume and marketing yourself to interview tips. Learn more about our graduate school resources.
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