A resume is a tailored document highlighting a person’s education, work experience, and skills. It is a summary of your qualifications for a job, internship, scholarship, or other opportunity, that represents your personal brand as a marketing tool. We suggest that you have a “master document” that outlines all of your past and current accomplishments. From there, you can pull the relevant information to create your polished, tailored document.
The purpose of a resume is to get the applicant a job interview by generating the employer’s interest in the applicant and their qualifications for the position. Studies indicate most recruiters spend about 6 to 10 seconds reviewing individual resumes, so brevity (or length of your resume), along with organization and layout of information, are key considerations.
If you apply for a position using a common online job board (i.e., Indeed, LinkedIn, CareerBuilder, Monster, etc.) or through a company website, there is a strong possibility that your resume will go through an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) — 98% of Fortune 500 companies use an ATS.
If you aren’t tailoring your resume by using keywords from the job posting, the possibility of an ATS giving you a low score is high.
Ways in which an ATS narrows the applicant pool:
Create an ATS-friendly resume
Resume Keyword Tracker Systems:
You may include a general Experience section or use targeted sections, such as: Research, Leadership, Management, Volunteer, Relevant and/or Transferable Experience sections. Choose headings that will best group and highlight your experiences as they pertain to the position you are seeking.
Resume Accomplishment Statements
Accomplishment statements are the bullet point statements under the Experience section of your resume that describe and quantify your achievements, results, and successes from your past work, internship, leadership role within a student organization, volunteer, military, student teaching and/or job shadowing experiences.
When writing these statements, many students simply list their roles, responsibilities, and tasks; while this is a good start, employers want to also know how you can contribute to their team or organization. In other words, don’t just list what your role was; also give specific examples of the impact you made and the value you added during those experiences.
The following guidelines will help you start the process of writing strong accomplishment statements that highlight your qualifications and demonstrate your skills.
Creating Accomplishment Statements: Tasks + Skills
Needs Improvement
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Tips
Pitch Your Skills: Highlight transferable skills you gained from your past experience that your future employer will value (e.g. research, analytic skills, teamwork, communication skills, leadership).
Be Specific: Include relevant details that show the reader you are capable of making an impact in the organization.
Creating Accomplishment Statements: Tasks + Results
Needs Improvement
Almost Ready
Lion Ready!
Tips
Quantify your Impact: Before revision, bullets are focused mostly on describing activities, not outcomes. It is important to numerically measure what you accomplished through your actions
Contextualize Your Accomplishment: Provide a baseline for comparison to make it easier for recruiters to understand your accomplishment
Although the Header, Education, and Experience sections are the only required areas on a resume, you will want to add additional “Lagniappe” sections that demonstrate the unique skills and experiences that you bring to the role and/or organization and provide a richer picture of who you are professionally.
How much to provide here will depend upon the length of other sections, keeping in mind that in most cases, resumes will be one page. Remember, a resume should include information that pertains to the position/organization for which you are applying. Outlined below are examples of “Lagniappe” sections that may be a great fit for your document.
Activities
Awards/Honors
Certifications/Licenses
Course Projects/Research
Objective Statement
Presentations
Publications
Skills
Skills Summary/Qualifications Summary
Tips:
Student Example:
Skills Summary
Alumnus Example:
Skills Summary
EXAMPLE 1
“Lagniappe” sections can be placed under one heading when there is limited space on your document.
Skills/Activities/Honors
Technology: Google Meet, Zoom, Slack, Salesforce
Languages: Spanish, proficient
Activities: Delta Omega Alpha
Honors: Dean’s List, multiple semesters; President’s List, Fall 2019
EXAMPLE 2
“Lagniappe” sections can be separated if there is a need to get your document closer to one page.
Skills
Activities
Honors
Click here to see our complete list of Resume Examples.