Our team looks at hundreds of resumes each year and requests input from employers and alumni so that we can offer the most up-to-date advice on how to write a great resume for CICS students. Everyone has different opinions so ask your contacts for feedback and decide what’s best for yourself.
We assess resumes in terms of organization, content, and formatting (in that order). The organization is key since recruiters might only spend seconds reading it before they decide. Content is how you convince them to interview you. Proper formatting is essential to show your attention to detail and ability to create quality work.
[ ] Keep the document to 1 page and 1 column to influence how readers scan the page (i.e., top to bottom) and reduce line wrapping of bullets
[ ] Include sections for Education, Skills, Projects, Work Experience(maybe Leadership, Research, Volunteering, Publications, Interests if space allows)
[ ] Combine selective coursework in the education section and abbreviate without course numbers; include certifications and online courses. Limit section to 1 or 2 lines max
[ ] At the top include full preferred name (with personal pronouns), contact info (school or personal email address and phone number without +1) and links to your LinkedIn, GitHub and/or personal website (with customized URL and without visually showing the preceding https://www.); no labels needed
<aside> 🚨 Careful with this popular resume template since the contact URLs are active but invalid
</aside>
<aside> 🚨 Protect your privacy by not showing phone number or mailing address on resumes that are publicly available
</aside>
[ ] No need for a summary statement, objective, references, professional photo
[ ] Use "Expected Graduation: Month Year" instead of a span of time or "present".
[ ] Include GPA if it is high (i.e., 3.3+) or else use higher major GPA
[ ] Under work experience header, include employer, role, and dates (location optional)
[ ] Classify each line of technical skills (ex. Programming Languages: Java, Python); professional “soft” skills are best demonstrated in bullets versus listed
💡 Consider listing skills in Project header with project name (dates and Github link optional); listing skills at the bottom is less effective for guiding readers to relevant info
[ ] Prioritize sections and content within sections based on relevance and importance
[ ] Include all higher education "University of Massachusetts Amherst" including transfer school details; no high school
[ ] Only use acronyms if they are common or first explained ("Natural Language Processing (NLP)", then you can use "NLP" for any other references)
[ ] For each work experience or project, share 2-5 bullets explaining situation, tasks, actions, results
[ ] Omit unnecessary or negative words including: various, etc., basic, simple, a, the, I, we, our and avoid repetition of action verbs