Cal State LA Career Center Rev 8/15/2022
COLLEGE RÉSUMÉ RUBRIC
1 - Beginner 2 - Intermediate 3 - Advanced Level Comments
Readability
Verb tense and punctuation are not
consistent. Titles, institutions and dates
are not formatted consistently.
Contains spelling mistakes or incorrect
words (autocorrected by spell check).
Grammar and spelling is accurate. Titles,
institutions, dates and punctuation are
formatted consistently. May use more
than three font variations. Alignment may
be varied. May be more than one page.
Content, formatting, alignment and font
styles are accurate and consistent. Easy to
scan. Information is concise and relevant.
Exceeds one page if relevant experiences are
extensive. Can quickly identify target roles.
Contact Information
Includes your name and a way for the
reader to contact you. If an email
address is listed the name may not be
professional.
Example:
Aaliyah Elbaz
Includes essential information: name,
phone number, email address and city and
state. The email may not be professional.
There may be mistakes in the spelling of
the email domain or state abbreviation.
Example:
Aaliyah Elbaz
888-888-8888
Los Angeles, Ca
Includes name, phone number, a professional
email address, city and state, and LinkedIn or
professional profile URL.
Example:
Aaliyah Elbaz
888-888-8888
Los Angeles, CA
linkedin.com/in/aaliyahelbaz
Headline (Recommended)
Reads like an objective statement.
Describes how you are seeking
employment. Does not include future
career roles or academic areas of
interest.
Example:
Seeking opportunities to build my skills.
May read like an objective statement, but
includes academic area of interest and/or
general career goal. Content is beginning
to highlight your unique professional self,
but is not specific. May repeat
information that is in other sections of the
résumé.
Example:
Marketing major seeking an internship in
the beauty industry.
Reads like a professional brand statement.
Academic areas of interest and/or causes of
interest are relevant to the workplace and
specific. Builds upon information in other
sections of the résumé.
Examples:
Graduate student familiar with online
marketing, graphic design and photography.
Online Marketing | Graphic Design |
Photography
Summary (Optional)
Does not read like paragraph. Does not
include “I” statements. Uses vague or
broad words to describe skills or
strengths. May read like an objective
statement. May be more than three
lines of text. May read like an online
profile rather than a summary of
information in other sections of the
résumé.
Example:
Graphic designer who is hard-working
and creative. Likes drawing and
photography. Seeking a paid internship.
Friendly and kind to co-workers.
Begins to summarize information in other
sections of the résumé. Includes
descriptive words that describe two or
three career-ready, professional or
discipline-specific skills that you possess.
May include an example to support these
skills. May include specific areas of
interest explored in your classes.
Information may still be broad.
Example:
Creative social media marketer with
experience developing brand campaigns.
Summarizes key experiences described in
more detail in other sections of the résumé.
Includes descriptive words that highlight
professional skills you possess. Gives specific
examples of experience in areas of interest.
May include outcomes that highlight the
contribution you can make at a company.
Example:
Collaborative, creative, and detailed social
media marketer with experience developing
brand campaigns including logo design, video
content, and audience engagement.
Increased brand awareness among Latinx
college students by 150% within one week.
COLLEGE RÉSUMÉ RUBRIC (continued)
2
1 - Beginner 2 - Intermediate 3 - Advanced Level Comments
Education
The name of the university may
be listed, but the degree and
major may not be included. The
name of the university may be
abbreviated (e.g., CSULA). The
date when you started the
degree program may be listed
(e.g., Aug. 2022 – present).
Includes high school education.
Education is partially complete. It includes the
name of institution(s), the degree and major,
and expected graduation date. The degree
may be abbreviated (e.g., B.S.). The institution
may be abbreviated (e.g. Cal State LA). The
graduation date may mention the semester
(e.g., Spring 2025). If student has not
graduated yet, intended date is listed and may
include words like anticipated or expected.
Does not include high school information.
Education is complete including the full name
of the institution(s), the full name of the
degree(s) with the major, and graduation date
specifies the month and year (e.g., May 2020).
If student has not graduated yet, intended
date is listed and does not mention
“expected.” May also include a GPA if it’s 3.5
or above. May list academic honors and
awards under the degree. Does not include
high school information.
Relevant Coursework
(Optional)
Lists lower division or
introductory courses. May not
use the course title. May list
more than four courses. May
include course number.
Lists upper division courses with the course
title. Courses listed may not be targeted to
easily identify your career focus. Lists four or
less courses.
Lists upper division courses with the course
title. May include a lower division courses if it
focused on a specific skill required for your
future career interest. Courses listed clearly
related to your career focus areas. Lists four
or less courses.
Class Projects
Includes a project, research,
presentation, or paper. May list
the course, but not include the
course name or number. May
list position in the group work
instead of the title of the
project. May not indicate the
institution where the project
was completed. May not include
the start and end dates of the
project.
Bullet points may not be specific
to the academic discipline.
The bullet points my start with
“I” statements or nouns (e.g.,
responsible for) instead of
action verbs.
Includes a project, research, presentation, or
paper. Lists the title. Lists the course name
and number. Lists the institution where the
project was completed. Includes start and end
dates of the project.
Bullet points include the actions you took to
complete the projects. Bullet points may be
general and have limited mention of academic
content or strategies used. Bullet points may
describe a challenge that was solved and the
outcomes.
Bullet points start with action verbs and the
verb tense matches the period of the
experience; for example, if you are no longer
doing the experience you use past tense (e.g.,
studied), and if you continue to do the
experience you use present tense (e.g., study).
Includes a project, research, presentation, or
paper. The title, course number and name,
institution, and start and end dates are listed.
Bullet points describe the steps taken to
complete the project or a challenge that was
solved and the outcomes. Bullet points are
specific to the project scope and mentions
academic content, strategies, methods, or
theories used.
Bullet points start with action verbs in the
tense appropriate to the time of the
experience.
COLLEGE RÉSUMÉ RUBRIC (continued)
3
1 - Beginner 2 - Intermediate 3 - Advanced Level Comments
Experience
At least one experience is included.
This experience can be a volunteer
role, a position in a student
organization, community service
activity, a job shadow or career
conversation, a lab or research
position, a part-time or on-campus
job, a conference or seminar
attended, an internship, or a full-
time job. The experience may not
be specific to your academic or
career interests, yet it displays
career-ready skills.
The experience may not include a
position title, the name of the
organization and the location, or
the start and end dates of the
experience. The experiences may
not be listed in reverse
chronological order.
The bullet points may describe job
duties instead of accomplishments.
The bullet points my start with “I”
statements or nouns (e.g.,
responsible for) instead of action
verbs.
Example Bullet Point:
•
Responsible for organizing my
team’s presentation.
At least one experience relevant to your
academic discipline or career interest is
included. This experience can be a
volunteer role, a position in a student
organization, community service activity, a
job shadow or career conversation, a lab
or research position, a part-time or on-
campus job, a conference or seminar
attended, an internship, or a full-time job.
The experience includes the position title,
the name of the organization and the
location, or the start and end dates of the
experience. The experiences are listed in
reverse chronological order.
Bullet points start with action verbs and
the verb tense matches the period of the
experience; for example, if you are no
longer doing the experience you use past
tense (e.g., studied), and if you continue
to do the experience you use present
tense (e.g., study).
Bullet points include the actions you took
to overcome a challenge or to achieve an
outcome you are proud of, for example.
Example Bullet Point:
•
Collected and combined team
member’s work to make a united and
readable presentation.
At least two campus and/or career exploration
experiences relevant to your academic
discipline or future career interests are
included.
The experience includes the position title, the
name of the organization and the location, or
the start and end dates of the experience. The
experiences are listed in reverse chronological
order.
Bullet points start with action verbs in the tense
appropriate to the time of the experience.
Bullet points include the actions you took to
overcome a challenge or to achieve an outcome
you are proud of, for example. Bullet points
provide details that answer who, what, when,
where, why and how, for example.
Bullet points are described from the perspective
of the future internship or job roles and
description. Specific skills and content
described in the bullet points are relevant to
the career-ready skills needed for the future
position and include content specific to your
target discipline/field.
Example Bullet Point:
•
Collaborated with team members on our
presentation strategy achieving the
campaign goal to increase engagement by
50 percent.
Skills
A technical or specialized skills
section is omitted from the
résumé. May list career-ready or
soft skills such as communication,
time-management or teamwork.
(Note: career-ready or soft skills
are better placed in
accomplishment statements to
demonstrate their validity).
Does not include career-ready or soft
skills. Specialized skills are included such
as computer and/or languages. If listing
languages, you indicate the level or any
qualifications to support your claim of a
second language. May not include
discipline-specific or relevant specialized
skills (e.g., design, business, research).
Includes specialized, discipline-specific and
required future work position skills. May have
skill categories with each category on a new line
with a subheading and list of skills specific to
each category.
Example:
Visual Design: InDesign, Illustrator, Premiere
Programming: HTML, CSS
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