The Office of Career Services has recently uploaded to CareerConnector the Guide to Resumes and Cover Letters, a very useful resource to help you in creating and updating your resume, cover letter, and list of references. The first page includes a list of guidelines that are very important to adhere to when writing a resume. Remember, recruiters are looking for reasons to throw out your resume, not reasons to keep it! Ignore any of these guidelines and you increase your chances of having your resume tossed. The guideline I see ignored the most when reviewing resumes with students is the one about not writing in first person on a resume. You never want to include personal pronouns (i.e. “I,” “me,” “my”) anywhere in the resume.
Pages two and three are sample resumes to serve as a guideline for acceptable resume formats. The first sample is a standard format that is acceptable to most employers, while the second sample shows how you can incorporate a little bit of creativity in your format without getting too elaborate. The entertainment industry is obviously a creative field, so you do have some room for letting those creative juices flow in the format of your resume, as long as it remains easy to read. Both samples also include in the job descriptions examples of results. This is something that I see missing from most resumes when doing resume critiques either by appointment or via CareerConnector. The reader wants to see how your efforts positively affected the client or improved the company for which you previously worked.
The fourth and fifth pages of the guide includes a list of action words to use in your resume when describing your past experience, but unlike previous lists you may have seen, this one has the action words organized by skill. For example, if you have skills in management and are seeking management jobs, you’ll find appropriate action words to describe any and all management experience.
In addition to the sections provided to help you with your resume, the guide also includes a cover letter template, sample cover letter, sample reference list, and a step-by-step guide to utilizing CareerConnector.
To view and download the Guide to Resumes and Cover Letters, click on the “Documents” tab in CareerConnector. Once you’ve drafted a resume based on these guidelines, you can make an appointment either with Tish Stewart or Lori Bumgarner who are happy to take a look at it and critique it for you!