Résumés: Your Road to the Future

Average Time Spent Reading Resumes 20 seconds Resumes are scanned, not read.

What to put on a resume? Jobs and experience since high school All work that involved business, engineering, or “people” skills Nothing personal, unless a special case

What do employers expect? Ability to communicate Ability to learn Self-confidence Willingness to accept responsibility Initiative Leadership Energy Imagination Flexibility Interpersonal skills Adapted from Career Assistance Center, UT College of Engineering

How to make your resume fit you...

Résumés: Two Major Types Chronological  Usually emphasizes education  Usually best for young college grads  Works backwards from most recent for jobs, awards, etc. Functional  emphasizes skills  organizes many and diverse job experiences  Headings name skills instead of job titles or places of employment.

Common Sections of Chronological Resume Education  Related Courses Experience  dates easily seen  including volunteer work if relevant Skills  including languages (computer & other) Accomplishments (or Honors)  including awards and scholarship Interests (or Activities)  especially team sports and activities

Two Common Questions Do I need an Objective statement?  Answer: it depends Where do I put my GPA?  Answer: under Education  You may list Overall and Major GPAs?  Also consider stating how much of your college education you financed.

Job Experience Use specific keywords that highlight specific technical, organizational, or communication skills:  “pavement distress mechanisms,” “life-cycle costs,” “multimedia presentations” Use a past or present tense verb to begin each job description.  Check the list of action words for suggested verbs. Highlight job title, employer, location, and dates employed. Cluster repeated jobs held at different times.

Résumé Formats Print  for interviews and cover letters  handsomely designed Scannable  laser original on good quality paper  plain and simple design  text-only is safest  Ms Word or PDF Web  provide PDF version if possible  avoid typical web-page excesses

Electronic Resumes Keep the resume design simple and standard. Make good use of white space. Computers like white space. Use standard typefaces/font styles. Use a font size from 10 to 14. Do not condense spacing between letters. Avoid 'fancy' extras (italics, underline, bolds etc.). Do not use horizontal and vertical lines, graphics, and boxes. Use boldface for section headings.

More Tips Use common names for section headings (i.e., Education, Experience, etc.) Put name first with contact information on separate lines. Avoid most abbreviations. Be concise and concrete in descriptions. Use format to differentiate between job title, company name, and place. Use some industry keywords (including common abbreviations).

For lab this week... Resume Workshop Please bring a hard copy of your resume to lab on Thursday the 3rd. You can remove or change your actual GPA for the workshop, if you’d like