Market You with a Winning Resume!

CAREER CENTER | www.TrineCareers.org

The purpose of a resume is to get you an interview. The resume has to impress the

hiring manager in less than 60 seconds. To make that impression you have to highlight

your skills, experience and abilities most relevant to each position/organization. You

will tailor your resume to each job. We recommend a combination functional and

chronological resume for best impact. To create a draft resume, use the following

guidelines:

1. PERSONAL LETTERHEAD: Create a personal letterhead for a document header.

 Make your name stand out: use 12-16 point bolded font

 Include address, phone number, e-mail address, and social media/web page

link (if applicable)

 Use your letterhead on all pages of the resume (usually one page for entry level positions), the

reference sheet, and your cover letter

John Student

300 E Felicity Street | Angola, IN 46703

(111) 555-4123 | jestudent13@my.trine.edu

2. RESUME HEADINGS: Use appropriate resume headings which may include:

 Objective

 Qualifications Summary

 Education

 Professional Experience

 Skills (include certifications, licenses, computer skills)

 Activities

 Honors/Awards

3. OBJECTIVE: If you include an objective statement, write a short, focused career objective that is

tailored to the specific position/organization to which you are applying. One or two sentence objectives

are best.

An entry-level position in marketing; special interests in public relations.

A mechanical engineering internship in the automotive industry.

A Staff Accountant position requiring strong problem-solving and business planning skills.

4. QUALIFICATIONS SUMMARY: A Qualifications Summary section (optional) gets the hiring

manager’s attention by emphasizing accomplishments and/or demonstrated skills/qualities. This

highlights your professional strengths and is listed after the objective (in 5-6 bullet points).

CAREER CENTER | www.TrineCareers.org

 Proven leadership skills with experience leading teams and coaching athletes.

 Advanced: ProEngineer, Inventor, Excel; Intermediate: MathCad, EES, Word, PowerPoint

5. EDUCATION: For new grads, education typically appears near the top of the resume. Include the

official name of your Degree, Major, Name of Institution/Location, and Graduation Date. You may

include classes relevant to work that would show related skills (e.g. Surveying, Accounting I). As a

general rule, if you GPA is 3.0 and higher, include it.

Anticipated Bachelor of Science in Business Administration: Management

Trine University; Angola, IN – Expected Graduation: May 2014

GPA 3.5 (4.0)

Relevant Coursework: [Example for an engineering student]

Basic Technical Drawing Advanced Design Techniques

Computer Aided 3D Modeling Jig and Fixture Design

Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing

6. PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: List employment experiences chronologically, in reverse order.

Include the name of the organization, city and state, your job title, and your dates of employment. Use

action words (see handout) to describe what you did and what you accomplished—concisely. Don’t use

I, me or my. Include keywords that match those found in the job description.

Bass Company; Fremont, IN 08/20012 to Present

Sales Associate

 Assess the needs of the customer and provide appropriate level of service and expertise

 Provide check-out and fitting room assistance

 Restock inventory and display cases

Acme Marketing; Grand Rapids, MI 05/2012 to 08/2012

Advanced Sales Representative

 Developed client relationships; made presentations; and sold product

- Earned two promotions in three months based on sales performance

- Received word-of-mouth referrals to new clients

Show your professional experience in terms of accomplishments. When writing

accomplishments, start with a verb, follow the verb with the area you acted upon, then follow

this with a quantitative end result.

 Increased sales by 50% in the first year.

 Managed 20-30 volunteers every Sunday evening for a building project. Under budget by

$1,000 at project completion.

CAREER CENTER | www.TrineCareers.org

7. SKILLS: This section is used to identify specific skills and abilities. If you are bilingual, consider

including a separate heading Language Skills. Use a separate heading Computer Skills and list specific

software you can use such as ProE, MathCad, SolidWorks, Microsoft Office, including Excel,

QuickBooks Accounting Software.

Computer Skills:

Pro/E Wildfire Rapid Prototype Machine

Pro/E Mechanica MathCad

Pro/E Mechanica Motion EES

Skills:

 Microsoft Office: Word, Excel, PowerPoint; Video-editing: iMovie; Photo-editing: Photoshop

 Social Media: Facebook fan page administrator, Twitter, LinkedIn, Skype

 Working knowledge of both Mac and PC environment

8. ACTIVITIES: Activities should include professional affiliations such as SIFE, ASME, AiChE,

memberships on sports teams, clubs and include information showing leadership such as Treasurer.

President, ASME 2013-2014

Team Captain, Volleyball 2013, 2014

9. HONORS/AWARDS: Highlight relevant honors and awards. Employers want to hire high achievers, so

let them know that you were chosen the “Outstanding Chemical Engineering Student for 2014.”

10. PROOF IT: Never submit a resume with spelling or grammatical errors. Review your resume with

Career Services, a professor or someone in your field. You may get multiple opinions, but use your best

judgment and be open to constructive criticism.

11. REFERENCES: Create a separate reference sheet.

 Don’t include the phrase “References Available on Request”

 Head the sheet with your personal letterhead

 List two professional, two academic, and one personal reference

 Ask permission from your references before including them

References:

 Job Choices: For Business and Liberal Arts Students. Bethlehem, PA: National Association of

Colleges and Employers, 2013.

 http://www.quintcareers.com/resres.html

 http://career-advice.monster.com/resumes-cover-letters/Resume-Writing-Tips/Whats-Your-Resume-

Objective/article.aspx