General Résumé Guidelines
- Be sure your resume is visually interesting. There should be plenty of white space on the paper to make it easy to read.
- Your email address should be professional -- don't use anything like hotstuff@hotmail.com
- Use a standard font like Arial, Times New Roman or Garamond that is easy to read and stick with it. The font size should be 11 or 12 points.
- Be consistent in your use of capital letters, bullets, boldface, underlining and periods.
- Bold, CAPITILIZE, or underline headings to make them stand out.
- Double space between sections. Single space within sections.
- List job information (company name, city and state, job title, dates) in the same order from one entry to the next.
- List entries in reverse chronological order (most recent experience first).
- Wording should be concise and to the point.
- Be sure there are no errors - typographical, spelling, punctuation, grammar, accuracy of information.
- Use bullet points with short statements to describe experiences. Put the most important information on the first line under each entry. Start each with an action verb.
- You do not need to include high school information.
- A reference list is not necessary.
- Resumes should be one page in length.
- Spell check your resume. Ask a friend to proofread it for you.
Résumé Components
Your résumé should be a snapshot of who you are. As you prepare it for your internship with the Chicago Semester program please include the following sections:
Contact information:
- Name
- Address (you may want to list both a campus address and a home address)
- Telephone number(s); designate cell phone number
- E-mail address
Objective:
- A brief statement about the kind of internship that most interests you
Education:
- Degree
- College or university and its city and state
- Date of degree (or degree expected stating month and year)
- Major field of study
- Minors
- GPA if above a 3.0; use, at most, two decimal places
Relevant coursework and off-campus study:
- Please list 4 – 6 courses that are relevant to the type of internship you are seeking and any off-campus study in which you have participated.
Experience:
- List work experience in reverse chronological order, starting with your current or most recent position.
- Include company name, city and state, job title, and date for each position.
- Add bullet points to highlight skills learned, tasks completed.
- Use action verbs to describe accomplishments (e.g. supervise, coordinate, assisted, planned). Present tense should be used for current work. Past tense action verbs should be used for past experiences.
- Quantify your experience as much as possible - e.g. "Supervised 18 lifeguards" or "Dance Marathon raised $15,000 for charity"
Honors/Awards:
- List activities and honors, describe skills gained, leadership roles and include dates of involvement
Computer skills:
- List programs with which you are familiar