Resume Checklist
Source: educationamerican.net
The following checklist has been designed to assist you in writing your resume.
- Overall appearance...
- Makes an immediately favorable impression
- Is inviting to read
- Is easy to read (choose one font, use only 11, 12 and 14 pt. size)
- Looks professional
- Contact information...
- Is clearly presented at the top.
- Includes address information; permanent and temporary
- Includes telephone number(s) where you can be reached from 9am to 5pm
- Objective (optional; use if yours is specific)...
- Includes type and level of position sought
- Includes type and size of organization sought
- Emphasizes strongest qualifications and skills pertinent to desired job
- Organization...
- Highlights strongest qualifications or credentials
- Uses headings to help establish common ground with employer e.g., Graduate Business
- Education, Professional Social Work Training, Retailing Experience
- Is brief - usually one page unless you have 5-10 years experience
- Content...
- Demonstrates ability to do the job and speaks to employer's needs
- Supports and substantiates objective
- Stresses transferable professional skills, accomplishments, and results
- Contains only that personal data relevant to your objective e.g., language skills,
- Computer skills
- Omits racial, religious, or political affiliations unless a bona fide occupational qualification
- Education section includes...
- Most recent degree or program in which you are enrolled; date of graduation or anticipated date
- List of other degrees or relevant higher education, training certificate programs,
- Licenses, or short courses
- Name and location of high school, university, college, or training institution
- Major, minor, and/or area(s) of concentration or interest
- Relevant coursework, skills, or knowledge acquired through workshops, trainings,
- Research or projects
- GPA (if 3.0 or above -also include the GPA scale, Ex: 4.0 scale), honors, and awards
- Extracurricular activities section (optional) includes... list of clubs and organizations and offices held (if any), including title and
- Organization
- Leadership roles and transferable skills
- Pertinent professional memberships
- Experience section...
- Each paid, volunteer, extracurricular, intern, or co-op experience relevant to your objective, includes: title held, organization name, city, state, or country location (if not U.S.)
- Dates position held
- Position description that stresses transferable skills, previous accomplishments, and effectiveness (rather than a mere summary of past duties and responsibilities)
- Specific examples of successes and results supporting your objective
- Examples that quantify results or successes e.g., increased sales, raised $1,200 for charity, completed environmental project, restored old automobile to original condition
- Language...
- Is expressed in succinct manner
- Uses action verbs to begin phrases
- Has short action-oriented phrases instead of complete sentences
- Is free from grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors
- Is in active rather than passive voice
- Uses vocabulary of working world e.g., Sales and Marketing Employment, Budgeting Experience
- Layout and space utilization...
- Is crisp and clean
- Separates sections and incorporates enough blank space for easy reading
- Centers text with adequate margins
- Highlighting and emphasis...
- Uses bold type, and sizes (12 or 14 pt) to emphasize key words
- Is well balances - does not use highlighting and emphasis too frequently
- Printing and production...
- Paper is high quality; heavy weight bond
- Paper is off-white, ivory, light tan, light gray, or other conservative and conventional color
- Reproduction is clear, clean and professional
- Print is letter quality, never photocopied 10/2005 Source: EducationAmerica.net