Résumés

Your résumé is a statement of your abilities, skills, achievements, and aspirations. Essentially, it is an advertisement where you are the product — your own personal marketing tool.

While you are developing your résumé, it is important to keep in mind:

• Just like real-world advertisements, résumés are meant to be attention-grabbing. Reviewers are often going through a batch of résumés quickly, which doesn't give you a lot of time to communicate your strengths, skills, and goals. Therefore, it is important to clearly and concisely capture their attention immediately.
• Résumés are fluid; that is, they are never "done." You will be adding, editing, and reformatting throughout your working life. Sometimes you will need to tailor your résumé to a specific field or even a particular job in a specific company. Résumés are also individualized — what works for your roommate will not necessarily work for you, and that's a good thing. You want your résumé to reflect your unique abilities, skills, achievements, and aspirations.
• A résumé alone will never get you a job. The primary function of your résumé is to convince an employer to interview you. It is the interview that will hopefully lead you to the job offer.

Résumé Professionalism Rubric

Is your résumé novice, average, or advanced? See where your résumé stacks up on our Professionalism Rubric [PDF].