Resumes

Master Resume

Every resume you send with a job application should be customized to that specific opportunity. However, you won't want to begin each resume from scratch. A "master" resume should house a wide variety of experience and serve as a digest from which to draw upon for your industry-specific resumes.

Tailored Resume

You need a customized resume for every job application. A tailored resume signals two important things to employers:

• It makes you stand out as a more appealing and relevant candidate.
• It shows the employer you put forth time and thoughtfulness when applying and didn't simply send your general resume to every employer you could find.

FORMATTING

Length

Keep your resume to one page. As a general rule, one page is the preferred length for undergraduates. This may vary if you have a graduate degree or extensive experience.

Spacing

• Keep margins wide and even. 1/2 - 1 inch on all sides
• Avoid large blocks of text (i.e. over 10 lines)
• Avoid templates. Automatic formatting will limit your options. Find a resume you like and use the style as a sample to create your own. 

Fonts

• Stick to one font type
• Use standard, readable fonts like Helvetica, Arial, and Times New Roman
• Keep font size within 10 - 14 points
• Do not use script fonts. Boldface and italics are better ways to highlight job titles or names of organizations. Underlining is only acceptable for headings. 
• Do not compress space between letters. You want your resume to be readable.

Visuals

• Avoid color, graphics, and shading. If you use lines to divide sections, put at least 1/4 inch of white space around them.
• Do not fold or staple your resume
  
  

The cardinal rule of formatting = consistency! 

CONTENT

Bullets or Paragraphs

There are pros and cons to both formats. The bullet format presents information in a concise, easy to follow manner. However, the page fills quickly because each description is a separate line. The paragraph format allows for more text, but can come across as dense and overwhelming, thus losing the interest of the reader. 

Considering employers tend to review resumes quickly, the bullet format is strongly recommended. 

PRO TIPS 

• Use strong action verbs
• Use the minimum number of words to convey meaning
• Use consistent verb tenses
• List your impressive descriptions or skills first within each entry
• Quantify your experience when possible. 
  EX: Managed projects with budgets up to $25,000 from the design to startup phases.

In your experience sections, describe what you achieved in each of your roles. Go beyond the "duties" of your role and describe specific tasks and accomplishments! Help the reader to understand the context, scope, and significance of your experience.

Bullets or Paragraphs

There are pros and cons to both formats. The bullet format presents information in a concise, easy to follow manner. However, the page fills quickly because each description is a separate line. The paragraph format allows for more text, but can come across as dense and overwhelming, thus losing the interest of the reader. 

Considering employers tend to review resumes quickly, the bullet format is strongly recommended. 

PRO TIPS 

• Use strong action verbs
• Use the minimum number of words to convey meaning
• Use consistent verb tenses
• List your impressive descriptions or skills first within each entry
• Quantify your experience when possible. 
  EX: Managed projects with budgets up to $25,000 from the design to startup phases.

The phrase formula outlined below provides a guide to developing compelling descriptions of your experiences! Following this formula will help you describe specific tasks and accomplishments as well as conveying the context, scope, and significance of your experience.  

PHRASE FORMULA

SKILL [strong action verb] + SPECIFIC TASK [job / responsibility] + OUTCOME / IMPACT [how / why]

Try the "5 W and H" questions to help you brainstorm what to include

• WHO | Who did your experience help?
• WHAT | What did you actually do? What was the result of your actions?
• WHERE | Where did your experience take place?
• WHEN | When did this happen?
• WHY | Why did your experience matter? What was the overall impact?
• HOW | How did you do your work? How does your experience relate to what you're applying for?

EXAMPLES

• Wrote C++ static performance code to calculate performance data
• Managed capital projects with budgets up to $20,000 from the design to startup phases
• Conducted sieve analysis and verified quality of mortar per the requirements of ASTM C790 standards
• Procured $5,000 in donations for University funds from 25+ alumni

TEAM PROJECT EXAMPLE

Senior Design Project  |  Department Name                                                            January - May 2023
Team Lead

• Coordinated with a team of four engineering students to design plans and renovate a building on campus while pursuing a LEED Platinum certification

Each descriptive phrase in your resume should begin with a strong action verb, and verbs should not repeat themselves throughout your document. Use the list below to identify verbs descriptive of your experiences.

ATS consists of AI software programs that aid companies in recruiting and hiring. ATS serves as a medium between the applicant and the company’s hiring body, filtering resumes before they reach employers. The purpose of ATS is for employers to narrow down wide applicant pools to the most qualified candidates.

Why are ATS important? 

Nearly 70% of large companies use ATS as a means of candidate screening. In the process, most applications are thrown out by ATS before they even reach an employer’s eyes. Ensuring your resume passes through ATS parameters can significantly improve your chances of being considered and hired for positions.

What does an ATS process look like?

There are several "do's" and "don'ts" that will help you ensure your resume is ATS-friendly. 

DO

• Create your resume from a blank Word document instead of a template
• Convert your Word document straight to a PDF and submit
• Stick to standard title sections. Keep it simple!
• Include the word “experience” in your title sections, as this will tip off ATS to register and prioritize that information (e.g. project experience, professional experience, relevant experience)
• In the skills section, make sure to use either bullet points or commas to separate skills (vertical lines will not work), or else all skills will be read as one
• Add the same skills from the skills section to your experience section; this will make them more meaningful to the AI and provide a timeframe

DON'T

• Use a resume template: Templates will often trigger ATS to throw out a resume. The software cannot gather the text it needs to analyze, so your resume will be removed from the applicant pool. Stick to blank word documents!
• Change between software when creating/exporting your resume
  • Google Doc Word PDF = will not pass ATS
  • Word PDF = will pass ATS (recommended way)
• Paste bullet points from chatGPT. They will not be read.

TIPS

To check if your resume will be read by ATS: 

• Copy the text and paste it into a blank Word document. It should read in the same sequence with no errors.
• If the formatting gets slightly changed but is overall still similar, it will be partially read, but may not pick up on everything.
• If the text can’t be copied at all, ATS will not be able to gather any of that information.

If you’ve created a graphic or templated resume you would like to share, add this to the “additional documents” section in the application, and submit a basic resume that will pass ATS.

TOOLS

• The guidelines provided on this page and the samples shown below follow best practices that align with ATS parameters.
• bigresume | A digital platform using artificial intelligence and large language model technology to review your resume and provide immediate feedback, enabling you to optimize it for ATS.