Crafting a Compelling Resume: A Guide to Listing Your Education

A resume serves as a marketing tool, a concise summary of your education, experience, skills, and accomplishments, designed to entice the reader to invite you to an interview. It is not merely a history piece or your life story, but rather a carefully curated personal sales piece targeted to the job for which you are applying. To make a strong impression, your resume should be clear, concise, and tailored to the specific position you seek.

General Resume Guidelines

Brevity: Aim for one page for recent graduates and two pages for those with extensive work history.
Readability: Ensure your resume is easy to read with clear section headings, bullet points instead of blocks of text, and 0.5-1.0” margins.
Formatting: Use 10-12 point font for the text and 14-20 point font for your name.
Proofreading: Eliminate typographical, spelling, or grammatical errors. Don’t rely solely on spell-check; have someone proofread it carefully. Errors often screen out otherwise qualified candidates.
Tailoring: Customize the content to each job application, incorporating keywords and phrases from the job description. Read job descriptions and requirements carefully, emphasizing what they tell you to emphasize on your resume.
Chronological Order: List information in reverse chronological order, starting with the most recent.
Relevance: Organize information according to what is most relevant to the position and be selective about what you include. Decide carefully what to include and leave out.
Verb Tense: Use consistent verb tense - past tense for completed roles and present tense for current positions.
Plain Text Version: Some job boards and employer sites require a plain text version of your resume.
Templates: Templates are not generally recommended, as they may be less flexible and designed for individuals with more work experience.
Exceptions: Federal resumes and resumes for international opportunities may have different guidelines. A Curriculum Vitae (CV) is often longer and more focused on academic achievements.

Essential Resume Sections

Contact Information

Include your name, phone number, email address, and city/state. No need to include your full address.

Professional Profile or Objective Statement

This section provides an immediate view of the kinds of tasks you are ready to undertake.

Professional Profile: A brief 3-5 sentence summary to advance and organize the key ideas for your reader. It includes highlights of your experience, education, qualifications, and career objectives that are most relevant to a specific field or position.
Objective Statement: A one-line description of the position you’re applying for, typically including the job title and company name.

Your resume can include either a Professional Profile OR an Objective Statement - but not both. The objective should be specific and focus on your skills. Avoid generic objectives like "A job in the field of public health where I can gain experience." Instead, aim for a targeted objective such as "To obtain a health educator position at Public Health Seattle and King County that will allow me to utilize my communication and outreach skills."

Education

Your education section should list your academic background in reverse chronological order. If you are a current student or recent alum, the education section should be just below the heading, with the most recent education listed first. Generally, you should not include your high school on your resume; however, first-year college students may include relevant high school experiences.

Include: The name of your college, city, state, the degree you received or expect to receive, and the date of the degree.
Also Include: Certifications, honors, dissertation/thesis research, and study abroad experiences.

Example:

MPH, Maternal and Child Health expected June 2017University of Washington School of Public Health, Seattle, WA

BA, Sociology May 2014Stanford University, Stanford CA

Skills

This section lists skills, experience, and abilities relevant for the position you are seeking. This section allows the reader to see upfront that you have the skills they are looking for in a candidate.

Must Include: Any skills you have that are listed in the job description. Only the skills you can perform with little or no supervision.
Use exact words/phrases from the job description. Some employers use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) that scan your document for keywords.

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Be sure to include your transferable skills on your resume. For example, skills like communication, problem solving, leadership, adaptability, teamwork, and time management are all transferable and can be relevant in multiple scenarios.
Skills may be grouped into sub-categories such as laboratory skills; computer and software skills; research techniques; language skills; communication skills; and administrative or professional skills. While you will want to be selective and only list relevant skills, these might range from technical skills, like expertise using a digital tool, to experience-based skills, like project management or database design.
Consider including proficiency level (expert, proficient, intermediate, beginner), especially with technical skills.

Professional and Work Experience

This section lists your experience in reverse chronological order with emphasis on key skills you possess. In this section, provide details about your various experiences, highlighting accomplishments, learning outcomes, and transferable skills. “Experience” is broadly defined and can include full- or part-time work, summer jobs, internships, research, academic projects, campus leadership, volunteer opportunities, etc.

Include: Your job title, place of employment, city, state, and dates.
Avoid: Phrases like “responsibilities include.”
Use: Action Verbs to describe your duties in a bulleted list. Describe your experiences using strong, specific action verbs, and emphasize the results and impact of your work. Include start and end date for your experience.
Create: 2-5 accomplishment statements for each experience. Describe your experience in accomplishment statements, using short phrases starting with a strong verb.

Other Experience

This section can contain positions that are not related to the job you are pursuing. You can provide less detail about these positions.

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Special Skills

This section can include skills that supplement your experience. Include computer skills, language skills, communication skills, or other relevant skills.

Relevant Projects

Must include: Project title, department/class name, start/end dates
2-5 “accomplishment statements” in bullet point form
List projects in reverse chronological order (most recent first)

Class or personal projects can be a great way to demonstrate evidence of knowledge or skills that are relevant to the position you are applying for.

Honors and Awards

Must include: Name of award, grant, or scholarship Date received

If space allows, include a brief description of the award. This can be its own section or included under Education.

Publications and Presentations

Must include: Article or presentation title, name of publication or conference/meeting, date

Describe applicable skills, methods and techniques List in reverse chronological order (most recent first)

Volunteer Activities or Community Service

Must include: Organization name, start/end dates

List projects in reverse chronological order (most recent first)

This section is helpful to include if you participate in meaningful community engagement activities not related to your career goals. Any career-related volunteer activities should be listed in the Experience section. List activities that require significant/ongoing time commitment, not single events.

References

List references on a separate page with your name and contact information at the top. Always ask for permission from your recommenders before using their name and information. A list of 3-5 professional references should be prepared as a separate document. Do not include references on your resume. Do not list “References available upon request.” If an employer wants this information, they will ask for it. Some people avoid opening attachments to protect against computer viruses.

Dos and Don’ts

Do:

Write clearly, concisely, and precisely.
Use fully understood abbreviations (i.e., MPH, MHA).
Include a cover letter when sending a resume to a potential employer, unless specifically requested not to do so. If only one document can be uploaded for an online application, you can combine your cover letter and resume into one PDF.
List a page number and your name on each additional page.
Use concrete “action” verbs.
Include locations of past jobs/internships/positions.

Don’t:

Lie or exaggerate about your experience or accomplishments.
Use personal pronouns (i.e., I, me, my).
Include personal information (e.g., sex, date of birth, marital status, photo).
Include a laundry list of every experience.

Transferable Skills

Transferable skills are abilities and competencies that can be applied across different roles and industries. These skills are not limited to specific job functions, making them valuable assets that can be transferred and utilized in various contexts. Highlight transferable skills on your resume! For example, skills like communication, problem solving, leadership, adaptability, teamwork, and time management are all transferable and can be relevant in multiple scenarios.

For example, let’s say the work experience you want to include is from a barista role. If you are applying to another barista job, you can highlight skills that are very specific to being a barista. If you are applying to a non-barista job, you’d want to highlight the transferable skills you used on the job to demonstrate how you have applicable experience.

Applying to another barista job: Mastered various coffee brewing techniques, including expresso, pour-over, and cold brew, ensuring consistently high-quality beverages. (Job specific skills)
Applying to a non-barista job: Fostered a collaborative work environment by effectively communicating and coordinating with team members. Proactive problem solver, adept at resolving customer dissatisfaction and addressing any issues during shifts.

Getting Started

Begin by writing your resume in Google Docs or Word, and focus on demonstrating your experiences. Use hyperlinks sparingly. Too many will make your resume difficult to read and require extensive maintenance to keep them up to date. Simple, clean font (e.g. ☐ 10 to 12 pt. ☐ 0.5 to 1 in.

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