Resume Advice

Your resume has to be tailored to two main audiences:

  1. Automated HR screening tools that check for keywords.
  2. People on the search committee who decide if they want to hire you.

General Advice

  • Keep it to one page unless you have 5+ years of full-time experience.
  • Tailor your resume to every job. If you apply to 20 jobs, you should have 20 distinct versions of your resume. Use words included in the job description.
  • Have several people review your resume. Get somebody in your industry to review it.
  • Use a screen reader to read it out loud to yourself to check for spelling and grammar mistakes.
  • Delete "objective statements." These take up valuable space with content that should go in a cover letter or an introductory email.
  • Use AI tools to give you recommendations on your resume drafts.

The following advice applies to distinct sections.

Education

  • If you have not graduated, yet, put your anticipated graduation date. (Write "anticipated" so that you are not misrepresenting anything.)
  • You might list relevant coursework. Avoid course numbers. Feel free to describe the courses instead of using official course titles.
    • Bad: CIS 226, IS 435, CIS 250
    • Good: Project Management, Network Administration using Cisco Hardware, Penetration testing
  • Include any awards or a high GPA. If your GPA isn't terribly impressive, leave it off.
  • Put your education section at the top of your resume.

Work Experience

  • Use metrics if possible. For example, you might have sped up a process by 50% by thinking of a better way to get work done.
  • Write bullet points that describe what you did. Avoid listing job duties.
    • Bad: Report writing.
    • Bad: Performed duties as assigned.
    • Better: Developed a reporting dashboard that provided real-time insight into X.
    • Better: Worked with employees to schedule 100% coverage for all shifts.
  • Emphasize leadership skills:
    • Managing others
    • Scheduling others
    • Training people
  • These bullet points should convey the kind of person you are by describing the things you have done.

Service

  • Describe what you did instead of just listing roles
  • Leadership in student clubs
  • Volunteering to support conferences
  • Helping the community in general (e.g., being a youth counselor at the YMCA)

Skills

  • Include skills relevant to the job description.
  • Write what you can do.
    • Bad: Cisco
    • Good: Configure switches and routers using the IOS CLI.
    • Bad: Python
    • Good: Build websites using Python and the Django web framework

Personal

  • Include hobbies if you want. Sometimes these can spark interesting conversations during interviews.