1. Resumes & Your Future EGRE 101 Laura Lemza, MBA, M.Ed.
Assistant Director, Career & Industry Advising
EGRE 101

2. e.i.d. (electronic identification)
Please sign in on the iPad with your eid:
Your eid =
Your VCU address without the
Example:
of John A. Jones =
eid = Jonesja

3. Today’s Presentation Preparing Yourself for a Great Future
Career Services and You
Career Fair
Resumes – What’s on Yours?

4. Prepare For Your Future
How do you create a great resume?
Plan backwards. Start now.
Good grades
Student Organizations (IEEE, FIRST)
Research with a Professor
Work in a Lab
VIP Team – Sophomore year and beyond
Part-time work
Internships, Co-op
What do employers want? Certain skills, work experience, decent grades. Top 2? Work experience and skills/grades.
Get involved.
Develop your skills.

5. Today’s Presentation Preparing Yourself for a Great Future
Career Services and You
Career Fair
Resumes – What’s on Yours?

6. Engineering Career Services
Explore.
Info Sessions, Site Visits, LIFE Talks
Prepare.
Workshops, ENGR 395, Career Advising 1:1
Connect.
Employers
How does Engineering Career Services help?
Please use our center, not the main career center.

7. Today’s Presentation Preparing Yourself for a Great Future
Career Services and You
Career Fair
Resumes – What’s on Yours?

8. Wed, Sept 20th : The Fair
Location: East Hall and Snead Hall – all First Floor
Best time to come: Early! Start at 10 am if you can.
Why? Learn about the local companies.
Compete for an internship.

9. Companies Coming
Expect more than 70 companies at Engineering Fair

10. CareerFair+
Overview

11. Volunteer Be a Career Fair Volunteer!
Get a special nametag
Lunch with employers in employer lounge
Sign up on our website
Click on Career Fair Icon, then Volunteering

12. Today’s Presentation Preparing Yourself for a Great Future
Career Services and You
Career Fair
Resumes – What’s on Yours?

13. Pop Quiz - Resumes 1. What is a resume? A work history
A comprehensive list of skills, experience and other qualifications
A marketing document
Answer → C
Representative, not comprehensive
Strategic
A personal marketing tool to sell your relevant experience, education, skills, accomplishments and qualifications to potential employers
To see the format, verb list, and a skills list, go to HireVCURams Resource Library.

14. Resume Exercise Pair up 2 minutes to review a resume
Find the errors (what not to do)
Share with each other what you see
What stands out on the resume?
Can you tell what this person is good at?
Share with the class

15. Resume Appearance Legible and easy to read
Resume is 1 page*
Margins 0.5 inch to 1 inch
Font is point
Consistency – all periods or no periods
The word “I” is not used
Don’t use a template
Your name is larger than the rest of the resume

16. Name & Contact Information
Consistent across resume, cover letter, references list
Consistent name – Choose your professional name!
One phone number, One address? It depends….
Jamie T. Student
907 Floyd Avenue ▪ Richmond, VA ▪ ▪
________________________________________________________________________________
Current Address: 907 Floyd Avenue ▪ Richmond, VA
Permanent Address: 123 Lovely Lane ▪ Fairfax, VA ▪
Use a professional address
What else could be added in this section?
■ LinkedIn Page ■ Personal Website

17. Resume Format
Name & Contact Info
Objective
Education
Relevant Courses
Skills
Relevant Experience
Academic Projects
Independent Projects
Other Work Experience
Honors & Activities
This is one example of typical headings. Headings can change and should be tailored to your needs!

18. Objective
Keep it simple – one line should do it
Focus on how the employer would benefit, not on what you will gain
Electrical Engineering Sophomore who offers circuit design experience and programming in C/C++ skills seeking a part-time internship for Fall 2017.

19. Education VCU Comes First High School – Freshmen can list this
Community College – it depends
GPA – List 3.0 or higher
Relevant Courses – list by name, not number; select most relevant or highest level
GPA Debate – general guidance is that if your GPA is 3.0 or higher, list it on the resume; If GPA is below 3.0, don’t list it

20. Skills Computer Skills Programming Skills Design Skills Lab Skills
Technical Skills
Languages
Exercise: Break into groups by majors and create a list of skills you have. Share with the class.
Language Proficiency:
In the US, an influential proficiency measure is the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) scale, developed by the US State Department. It identifies five levels of language proficiency:
Level 1 – Elementary – Can fulfill the basic needs in a language, such as ordering meals, asking time, and asking for directions.
Level 2 – Limited Working Proficiency – Can fulfill routine social demands, such as small talk about one’s self, one’s family, and current events.
Level 3 – Professional Working Proficiency – Can discuss a variety of topics with ease and almost completely understand what others are saying.
Level 4 – Full Professional Proficiency – Can participate in all manners of conversations with ease and only rarely makes grammatical mistakes.
Level 5 – Native or Bilingual Proficiency – Can use the language the way an educated native speaker of the language would.

21. Experience Relevant Experience Academic Projects – Senior Design
Independent Projects
Other Work

22. Bullet Points Active verb Quantify, Specify
Results, Achievements, Contributions
Responsible for newsletter
Edited a monthly newsletter in Microsoft Publisher for the department of 50 personnel, streamlining office communication

23. Bullet Points Give Specific Examples! Do not Generalize.
× Utilized excellent oral communication skills
Welcomed 600 students and their parents to campus during New Student Orientation.
× Ability to work in a team
Played varsity soccer as a starter for 2 years, selected as “Best Team Player” by team members

24. Miscellaneous
Student organizations
Volunteer work
Honors, Awards

25. Today’s Presentation Preparing Yourself for a Great Future
Career Services and You
Career Fair
Resumes – What’s on Yours?

26. Questions? Walk-In Hours: Tues & Wed 10:00 am – 12:00 noon
Thursdays 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Make an appointment: HireVCURams
Home page, left column
Laura Lemza
Engineering Career Center
West Hall, room 235