Saltsburg Middle-High School Guidance Office

Resume Writing

What is a Resume?

A resume can be an important communication tool in the college application process. Often times, there is little space provided to state your experience and accomplishments. When using a resume, you may write on your application “Please see enclosure”.

A resume is a concisely written summary of your personal, educational, activities, and work experience intended to:

  • Introduce yourself to a school.
  • Organize the relevant facts about you in a written, logical, easy to read, easy to understand, and visually pleasing presentation.
  • Focus attention on your qualifications and accomplishments and demonstrate why you are an attractive candidate.

There are a number of ways you might write your resume, all depending upon who you are, what you have to offer, and what kind of school you are seeking. The three types of resume formats most frequently used are:

  • Chronological resume - lists your qualifications (education and experience) and other relevant information in reverse chronological order.
  • Functional resume - focuses on a summary of the functions you have performed and plays down dates of work history. the functional resume is often used by people without experience directly related to their current objectives.
  • Combination resume - uses elements of both the chronological and functional resumes.

Resumes may vary in content as well as form, appearance, style, and layout. It is important to remember that a resume is a personally written document that allows for individual creativity. It should present a positive image to the potential school. It is important to keep the college admissions officer in mind, as he or she may be the sole reader. By positioning the most important information about your experiences and qualifications first and devoting the most space to them, you highlight your strengths.

Basic Resume Principles

All resumes should follow the same basic principles to be of interest to and optimally read.

1.       Before developing your resume, begin with a thorough self-assessment. What do you want to do? What skills and abilities do you need and do you possess? How can you demonstrate what you know and can do?

2.       Place your name, in all capital letters and bold, and address on different lines at the top of the resume. Include your telephone number, e-mail address, and home page address. If your resume is two pages (which rarely occurs), your name should be the first line on the second page.

3.       Length depends upon your experience and qualifications. Generally, resumes do not exceed two pages. For most recent high school students, a one-page resume is all that is necessary and expected.

4.       Your resume should be on 8 1/2" x 11" paper, printed on one side. Use a computer with a high quality printer and only black ink. You may reproduce your resume using a high-quality photocopier.

5.       Present your resume on quality bond paper of at least 20-pound weight. Knowing your audience is your best guide to the selection of paper and color - white, off-white, ivory, light tan, or light gray paper. If you prefer to use colored paper, select a lightly tinted color that will make clear copies.

6.       Be honest. Emphasize your strengths, experience, and capabilities. Provide accurate dates and list only months and years, or just years.

7.       Avoid writing anything negative.

8.       Identify your skills by using nouns. Use industry jargon and buzzwords. Example: AP (Advanced Placement)

9.       Put the most important information first working keywords into the body of the resume.

10.   Use "action" verbs to communicate accomplishments and results. Use present tense in referring to activities in which you are currently engaged. Describe previous activities in the past tense.

11.   Make your resume easy to look at and follow. It should read more like an outline than narrative. Do not use first person pronouns. The "I" is implied as the subject when you are writing about yourself. Use incomplete sentences or phrases and maintain a consistent format.

12.   Use plenty of white space. Computers like white space and so does the human eye. One-inch margins (top, bottom, left, and right) are optimal for viewing. Some recent word processing programs have the default margins set higher. Change the margins to one-inch to take advantage of the best use of space.

13.   Use one font size of 10 to 12 points. Some say point sizes up to 14 are acceptable but, to the human reader, anything over 12 may appear as if you are just taking-up space. Use one popular, non-decorative typeface throughout. A few excellent fonts include Times, Arial, Palatino, and Helvetica.

14.   Avoid using italic, script, and underlined text. The letters sometimes touch and computers may have difficulty recognizing the individual characters and will be unable to read the information. Avoid graphics and shading. Scanning equipment is generally set to read only text, not graphics.

15.   CAPITAL LETTERS are acceptable, however, use them sparingly for effect and attention grabbing for the human reader, it doesn't matter to computers. Boldface may be acceptable and should be used sparingly as well.

16.   You may use bullets but make sure they are solid, not hollow, symbols and that at least one blank space, up to two blank spaces, are inserted between the bullet and the text. Using more than two blank spaces defeats the purpose of the bullet by placing the text too far from it. You may have to adjust the automatic spacing for bullets with some word processing programs.

17.   Omit irrelevant and personal information such as height, weight, age, sex, unless it is for a visual / performing arts school.

18.   Do not use staples. Pages may stick together after a staple is removed.

19.   Draft and redraft your resume until it will capture a school’s interest and show that you have the qualifications to be admissible.

20.   Always proofread your resume for visual quality, content, and typographical, and spelling errors. Have several other people proofread your resume as well.

21.   Plan ahead. Do not anticipate writing your best resume overnight.

22.   Update your resume regularly

What information should be included on my Resume?

The following suggestions are provided to assist you in drafting your resume. There are several acceptable styles for organizing material in your resume. Although the names of the categories may vary, the following information should be included as appropriate:

  • Personal Identification: Name, present and permanent addresses, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, and home page address if you have one and want a school to view it.
  • Objective: A brief statement indicating what your goals are. It is a critical part of your resume; everything that follows should support the objective. If you have more than one objective, you may want to tailor separate resumes to fit each one. Some schools won't place importance on having an objective other than admission. An objective indicates that you've thought about what you want to do, and that you have some direction or goal.
  • Education: List your high school, projected date of graduation, AP or Enriched courses, and outside enrichment coursework, including summer classes or study abroad. (Your transcript lists all your course work, so you will only need to highlight your most rigorous classes.) List your class rank and grade point average if it is 3.0, or higher, on a 4.0 scale – 9.0 on a 12.0 scale. If you list your grade point average, list the scale, too. Include test scores, including AP, PSAT (if appropriate), SAT, SAT II, ACT.
  • Academic Awards and Honors: List items of importance.
  • Extra-curricular activities: Athletic and non-athletic, both school related and otherwise. Include leadership positions, awards, years involved.
  • Volunteer and/or Work Experience: List and briefly describe, in reverse chronological order, your experience. Experience may include paid and volunteer positions, full- and part-time work, and internships and should emphasize skills, accomplishments, and knowledge, using action verbs. Indicate your job title, name of organization with city and state, and dates of the experience.
  • Special Talents: Areas that demonstrate great time and passion that may help you stand out (i.e., figure skating, equestrian, extensive theatre work, published article, computer experience, extensive travel).
  • Leadership Opportunities: This may include conferences or groups you have been invited to participate in. If you are a leader within a group, be sure to list that under the appropriate category.
  • References: Indicate that references are "available upon request" or list the two or three references (usually two teachers and a counselor) as a means of bringing closure, even if you are including your letters of recommendation with your resume and application. Referring to your references indicates that your resume has come to an end and lets the reader know there is not a missing page. The people you ask to be your references should be familiar with your academic and/or experience capabilities. Be sure to obtain permission from the people whose names you intend to offer as references.

Suggested Resume Action Verbs

As a rule, students are often too brief in their description of their skills, qualities and traits. Consult the following list of action verbs when writing your resume and describing your experience.

A HELPFUL STRATEGY FOR USING THESE VERBS:

  • Go through the entire list and check off all of the action verbs (skills) schools might be looking for.
  • Go through the list a second time and check off all of the verbs you have used in the experiences you are describing on your resume.
  • Note the words that you have checked twice. Incorporate the words that best sell your skills and abilities.

accelerated

conceptualized

established

instrumented

prevailed

shipped

accomplished

conciliated

estimated

insured

printed

shored up

accounted for

concluded

evaluated

integrated

processed

showed

achieved

conditioned

examined

interpreted

produced

sifted

acquired

conducted

executed

intervened

profited

simplified

acted

confronted

exercised

interviewed

programmed

sketched 

activated

conserved

exhibited

introduced

prohibited

smoothed 

adapted

consolidated

expanded

invented

projected

sold 

added 

constructed

expedited

inventoried

promoted

solved 

addressed 

consulted 

experienced 

investigated 

proofed

sorted 

adjusted 

continued 

explained 

joined 

proposed 

sought 

administered 

contracted

explored 

judged 

protected 

sparked 

adopted 

controlled 

expressed 

kept 

proved 

spearheaded

advertised 

convinced 

extracted 

labored 

provided 

specified

advised 

coordinated 

fabricated 

launched 

publicized 

spoke

aided 

copied 

facilitated 

lectured 

purchased 

started 

aligned 

corrected 

familiarized 

led 

qualified 

stated 

alphabetized 

correspondence 

figured 

licensed 

quoted 

stimulated 

analyzed 

counseled 

filed 

located 

raised 

stopped 

anticipated 

counted 

filtered 

looked 

ran

straightened 

applied 

crafted 

financed 

made 

rated

streamlined 

appointed 

created 

fixed 

maintained 

realized

strengthened 

appraised 

critiqued 

forecast

managed 

reasoned

stripped 

approved 

dealt 

foresaw

mapped 

received 

structured 

arbitrated 

debated 

formulated

marketed

recognized 

studied 

argued 

deferred 

forwarded

mastered

recommended 

submitted 

arranged 

defined 

fostered

maximized 

reconciled 

suggested

ascertained 

delegated 

found 

measured 

recorded 

summarized 

assembled

delivered 

founded 

mediated 

recruited 

supervised 

assessed

demonstrated 

gained 

mentored 

reduced

supplied 

assisted

designed 

gathered 

met 

referred

supported 

assumed

detailed 

gave 

modeled 

rehabilitated 

surmounted 

 assured

detected 

generated 

moderated 

reinforced 

surveyed

attained 

determined 

governed 

modified 

related 

synthesized 

attended 

developed 

grabbed 

monitored 

rendered 

systemized 

audited 

devised 

graded 

motivated 

renovated 

tabulated 

authored 

diagnosed

greeted 

moved 

reorganized

talked 

authorized 

did

grossed 

named 

repaired 

targeted 

awarded 

digested 

guided 

navigator 

replaced 

taught 

began

diminished 

handled 

negotiated 

reported 

tended

bolstered 

directed 

hastened 

netted 

represented 

tested 

boosted 

discovered 

headed 

observed 

rescued 

tightened 

bought 

dispensed 

heightened 

obtained 

researched 

timed 

briefed

displayed 

helped 

opened 

resolved 

took 

brought

disproved 

highlighted 

operated 

responded 

took over

budgeted

dissected 

hiked 

ordered 

restored 

totaled

built

distributed

hired 

organized 

resulted in 

toured 

calculated

diverted 

housed 

originated 

retrieved 

tracked

calibrated

drafted 

hunted 

overcame 

returned 

trained 

catalogued

dramatized 

identified 

oversaw 

revamped 

transcribed 

caught

drew 

illustrated 

paid

revealed 

transferred 

caused

drew up  

imagined

painted

reviewed 

transformed 

chaired

dropped 

implemented 

participated 

revised 

translated 

changed

drove 

improved 

perceived 

rewrote 

transmitted 

charted

earned

improvised 

perfected 

routed 

traveled 

checked 

edited 

included 

performed 

said 

treated 

chopped 

educated 

incorporated 

persuaded 

saved 

tutored 

chose 

effected 

increased 

photographed 

saw 

typed 

classified

elected 

indexed 

piloted 

scheduled 

uncovered 

cleared up

electrified 

indicated 

pioneered 

scouted 

unearthed 

closed

eliminated 

indoctrinated 

placed 

screened 

unfurled 

coached 

employed 

influenced 

planned 

scrutinized 

unified 

collected

encouraged 

informed 

played 

selected 

updated 

combined

enforced 

initiated 

policed 

sent 

vitalized 

communicated

enjoyed 

innovated 

predicted 

served 

welcomed

compared

enlarged 

inspected 

prepared 

serviced 

won

compiled

enlisted 

inspired 

prescribed 

set up 

worked

completed

ensured 

installed 

presented 

set

wrote

computed

entered

instituted

preserved

sewed

  

conceived

entertained

instructed

presided

shaped