- Contact information: Place your name, address, telephone number, and email address at the top of the resume. Your name should be the most obvious component of your resume. List both school and permanent addresses if you plan to move within a year.
- Job Objective: The objective appears near the top of your resume and tells the reader about your career goals and/or expresses interest in a specific job or vacancy. The objective gives direction and focus to your resume.
- Experience, Employment Summary: List employment, (may include internships here or in a separate category) in reverse chronological order. Include your title, name and location of employer and dates of employment, usually by year not by month. If using chronological format, describe your accomplishments in each job using action verbs. If using a combined format, may want to include a single statement describing each company or summarizing each position.
- Education: If you are a recent college graduate, your educational credentials should be prominent on your resume. Mention not only degrees, but also any honors or special awards that you've achieved. Include courses or projects that might be relevant for employers. Be sure to write out your degree (Bachelor of Science, not B.S.), and include graduation date. Also include your GPA if it is 3.0 or higher.
If you transferred from another college, you may wish to include that information as well. If so, list the college, city, and state. Leave out high school information once you are halfway through college.
- Skills, Accomplishments: A combined format will require this section. Describe accomplishments/skills you have acquired through work experience, academic background, extracurricular/community/volunteer activities. These skills should relate to the occupation and setting you want to enter. May be organized under separate skills subheadings.
- Activities: This is an optional section where you can list campus activities, as well as job-related professional, humanitarian, or other groups. These activities may be worth mentioning, particularly if you were an officer or were active in some other way.
- Recognition and Awards: If you have received any formal recognition or awards that support your job objective, consider mentioning them. You might create a separate section, or they can be put in the work experience, education, or activities sections.
- Certifications and Licenses: You can include professional credentials at the top of the resume with your education. If you have more than one, you might consider creating a separate section.
- References: Three references is a good number of references to include on a resume. The format for attaching references is to include the person's name, title, organization, email address, and telephone number. You can list references as part of your resume or include them on a separate reference page to allow more room on the resume itself. If you attach a separate sheet, include three to five references, and divide them into "personal references" and "professional references." Personal references should be professors, advisors, or resident directors (i.e. a mentor or professional friendship); they are not relatives or friends.
