Identifying Heading – Include your name, address, (with zip code) and telephone number. Indicate a present and/or permanent (or forwarding address), with phone number when appropriate. If both types of address are included, they should be labeled as current, present, permanent, etc. or dates when each apply should be clearly indicated. If you check your email regularly, then include it as well.
Career Objective (Optional) – Indicate the kind of work you wish to do now. Be as specific as possible without excluding primary areas of interest.
Education – Begin with your most recent education. Include degree to be earned, name of college or university, (date degree to be conferred) major, minor, and if appropriate, your GPA.
Related Course Work (Optional) – List related undergraduate or graduate courses, research papers, seminars, independent projects that are important to the type of job that you are seeking.
Experience – Describe jobs, fieldwork, internships, cooperative educational placements, clinical work, student teaching, assistantships, volunteer work, and research projects. For each experience include job title, name of organization, location (city and state) and dates. Emphasize experience most closely related to the kind of work you seek. Include skills used, scope of responsibilities and a description of your accomplishments. Avoid use of the personal pronoun “I” by using short phrases (not sentences). Use the past or present tense of verbs to highlight your skills and present yourself in a dynamic way. Avoid phrases such as “duties included” or “responsible for”. Appendix 1 has a list of Action Verbs.
Special Categories (Optional) – Include additional categories if some things you wish to indicate about yourself do not fit into the above categories. Possible themes are Certification, Interests, Honors, Awards, Clinical Experiences, Language Skills, Computer Languages, Committee Work, Extra-Curricular Activities, Personal Strengths, Skills, Professional Memberships, Publications, or Military. Feedback from employers indicates that they are seeking employees who are “well rounded”. Refer to the list of self-descriptive words (Appendix 2) if utilizing skills or personal strengths category.
References – Do not list the names of individual references on your resume. Instead create a separate references sheet or supply written letters of reference when requested. Refer to the example in Appendix 3. The statement “References available upon request” is a sufficient statement to place on your resume.