This web primer is intended to support the Resume Assignment, required for all first-year students at UMF, and should be used in conjunction with the First-Year Resume on the CHD Career Resources page.

(1) Heading: The heading should include your name, mailing address, phone number where you can be reached with reliability, and an e-mail address. If you are using a Yahoo or Hotmail address, consider whether or not the name connotes professionalism. If your address is a non-intuitive nickname followed by a jumble of numbers, perhaps you might consider listing your UMF e-mail address (which is probably more self-evident, i.e., first name.last name@maine.edu) or creating a new Yahoo or Hotmail account that more closely captures your name, thereby making it easier for those doing the hiring to remember.

(2) The Objective is one aspect of the resume that changes with each use, because the objective should be written specifically for the position for which you are applying. If you are writing the resume for use at a job fair, in which case the available positions cannot be known in advance, then leave the objective off. The objective should be kept to a line and reference the name of the organization and position for which you are applying. Avoid focusing on yourself in the objective, e.g.: “Seeking a position in which to utilize my good computer and communication skills.” Instead, try to pattern your objective after the sample resume.

(3) The Summary of Qualifications, a list of skills relevant to a position or a general list of skills, allows the reader of your resume to glimpse what you can do for an organization or company. Common entries under the Summary of Qualifications include specific computer software skills, foreign language proficiency, web design experience, or any industry-specific process experience.

(4) Education: The order of information should be listed by reverse chronology, which means you should first list the school with which you are currently identified (UMF!), followed by your high school. Middle and elementary schools need not be listed on your resume. A good pattern for giving information is evident on the sample resume: Name of school, geographic location (town, state), B.S./B.A. in your degree program (academic major) and the date of your graduation or anticipated graduation. At UMF, B.S. (Bachelor of Science) degrees are awarded in Health, Rehabilitation Services, and all Education/Special Education programs. B.A. (Bachelor of Arts) degrees are offered in all other programs, although there is the option of earning a B.S. in Environmental Science. You are encouraged to list academic honors under the heading “Education,” so you can layer a message about academic success while the reader is digesting information about where, when, and for what degree program you attended college. Because high schools are generally not program/degree specific, you can simply indicate that you earned a diploma.

(5) Work History should be organized by theme. In other words, try to avoid lumping all of your work experience under the generic heading of “Work Experience.” Look closely at your work history to see if your jobs can be grouped by themes, such as “Child Development Experience” (for baby sitting, summer camp counseling positions, etc.), “Retail Experience,” “Sales Experience,” or “Office/Administrative Experience” (for clerical/administrative support work in an office setting). Organizing work history by theme allows the reader to consume information in smaller, more digestible chunks. Listing all your jobs under the generic heading of “Work History,” forces the reader to wade through all your experiences to locate that which is most relevant. If you can break out your work history by smaller theme-based categories, the reader can navigate your resume with greater ease and purpose. Within each of these theme-based categories, list the work history by reverse chronology. If you’re wondering which theme-based heading should come first in order, try to determine which experience/skill set is most relevant to the job for which you are applying and lead with that theme-based heading. If you don’t know what positions are available or you are simply writing the resume to introduce yourself to your academic advisor, list the theme-based groups by order of importance to you. Keep in mind that people read resumes much in the same way they read newspapers -- if they find the headline interesting, they read the story. Your theme-based work-history headings are like the headlines of your career story. Thus, make sure the headlines (work-history headings) are interesting (self-explanatory). You can have, of course, other headings for other experiences. Other common headings are “Volunteer Experience,” “Youth Development Experience,” “Leadership Experience,” or “Military Experience.” View the other sample resumes listed on the Resume Toolbox to see how others describe their background.

(6) For each position from your work history that you list on the resume, follow the pattern of information on the sample resume: Title you held (give yourself one if none was provided), name of the company/organization, its geographic location (town, state), and the dates of your service/employment there. And, for each position you list, include a series of statements that describe the responsibilities associated with your position. The trick is to be specific without being verbose. Kick off each statement with an active verb (past tense for jobs that have concluded and present tense for jobs that are ongoing), and avoid the use of “I,” “me,” and “my.” Use quantified details whenever possible to give the reader a clear picture of the scope and scale of your projects, responsibilities, etc. (See the sample resume.)