Resumes
Creating a resume can feel like a challenging task: different people give different advice about the same resume, and when you finally submit your resume, employers typically spend less than 30 second initially reviewing it. The process can be frustrating, but whether you’re writing your resume for the first time or fine-tuning it, help is available!
Writing Tips
- Resumes should be a page in length. If you feel you need more than one page to present your qualifications, meet with a career counseling officer who will review your resume and advise you on where to consolidate certain items.
- Use action verbs to convey your qualifications, making your resume skill-oriented.
- List your experiences (education, work, and co-curricular) in reverse chronological order — from most recent to least recent.
- After sophomore year, your resume should omit high school experiences and focus more on experiences you’ve gained while in college.
- Make sure your resume is legible. Use universal fonts likes Times or Arial and add emphasis by utilizing white space, bold, italics, and underline.
- Proofread to ensure your resume is free of grammatical and/or typographical errors.
Use this worksheet to develop your resume.
Sample Resumes
The following PDFs include additional comments in yellow markings to help you format your resume.
- DNP CV
- Extern Candidate resume
- Graduate resume
- Graduates resume with objective
- Graduates resume with objective #2
- Undergraduate resume with objective
- Compact resume
- Extern resume
Review
Have a neutral party review your resume before submitting it. You can do this by:
- Attending a resume writing workshop.
- Meeting with a career counseling officer for a one-on-one review.
- Emailing your resume as an attachment to a career counseling officer who will return it back to you within two business days.
Curricula Vitae vs. Resumes
Resumes and curricula vitae (CVs) have similar purposes in the U.S.: to educate the reader about the individual’s background and qualifications. Despite these core similarities, resumes and CVs have key differences.
| Area of Difference | CV | Resume |
| Uses in the U.S. | Academic and health care settings | All other settings |
| Goal | Provide a full background | Concisely communicate relevant information |
| Length | No limit | 1-2 pages |
| Visual nature | Not as stressed, although CVs should be attractive to the reader | Important since the amount of data “crammed” into 1-2 pages must be easy to read |
Content
Use this guide to ensure your resume or CV markets you effectively:
| Topic | Resume | CV |
| Complete contact information: name, address, email, and phone* | Yes | Yes |
| Objective | Optional | Optional** |
| Summary and highlights of qualifications | Optional | Optional** |
| Statement of philosophy | No, perhaps in cover letter | Optional** |
| Education: degrees and institutions | Yes | Yes |
| GPA | If over a 3.0 | Yes |
| Research | If applicable to the type of role you seek | Yes |
| Honors, awards, and recognitions | Optional | Yes |
| Teaching experiences | If applicable to the type of role you seek | Yes |
| Clinical experiences | Optional | No |
| Work experiences | Yes | Yes |
| Co-curricular experiences | Yes | Yes |
| Community service experiences | Yes | Yes |
| Skills gained through experiences like teaching, clinical, work, co-curricular, and community service | If applicable to the type of role you seek | If applicable to the type of role you seek |
| Publications | If applicable to the type of role you seek | Yes |
| Presentations | If applicable to the type of role you seek you seek | Yes |
| Professional affiliations | If applicable to the type of role you seek | Yes |
| Language skills | Yes | Yes |
| Computer proficiencies | If applicable to the type of role you seek | Yes |
| References | No, have a separate page that you send only when requested | Yes |
| Length | 1-2 pages | 3 or more pages |
*Your name and the page number should appear at the bottom or top of each page after the initial page. Full contact information is not necessary or recommended on each page.
**Though the objective, summary, and statement of philosophy are each optional on a CV, at least one of the three should be included.