Missouri State University Career Guide - Flipbook - Page 12
RESUMES
Your resume is a document that summarizes your work experience, skills, accomplishments, and education. Employers use it to assess an
applicant's suitability for a role and determine who they want to interview. Resumes may also be required in other instances such as
scholarship or graduate/professional school applications.
Resume Writing Tips
• Use headings to organize your resume.
Employers often spend less than 30
seconds reviewing it, so headings help
them find key information quickly.
• Typically your resume will be one page.
This may vary depending on your
intended audience, industry, or years of
experience.
• Avoid personal pronouns such as "I" or
"my'' in your bullet points.
• Avoid including demographic
information (age, race, marital status,
etc.).
• List all experiences in reverse
chronological order (most recent first)
within each section.
• Choose a 11-12-pointprofessional font.
• Prioritize readability over space limits
(font size, margins). Consistent
formatting helps readers easily
distinguish sections and jobs.
• Avoid using premade, hard-to-edit
templates.
• Do not use unknown acronyms without
first spelling them out.
• Tailor your resume to each job by using
keywords from the description and title.
This boosts your chances of passing AI
and applicant tracking systems (ATS)
screenings.
• Prepare list of references on separate
page, but send only when requested
• Proofread multiple times to ensure
correct grammar and spelling.
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MSU CAREER CENTER
RESUME SECTIONS
A first look at your resume often lasts 7-10 seconds, so important information
should be easy to find. Tip: The top-left quarter of your resume should
highlight your most important attributes. After a heading, education is
traditionally the first section of the resume for college students and recent
grads. Everything on the resume should be relevant to the job description and
ordered with the most important sections at the top.
Heading
• At the top of the page, write your name in a bold, larger font.
• Below, list your contact information: phone number, email address, and
location (city, state and/or zip code will suffice, no need to include street
address).
• Feel free to include your pronouns.
• If applicable, you may also include a link to a portfolio or Linkedln profile.
Objective Statement (Optional)
• 1-3 short sentences summarizing your skills and what you can offer to a
workplace. Objectives should be specific to the position. Avoid using a
generic objective statement.
Education
• List your accurate degree, major, minor, university, and expected date of
graduation including month and year.
• GPA is optional.
• Graduate students: Your thesis or dissertation title should go in this section.
• If you studied abroad or completed any other major educational programs,
list them here.
Work Experience
• List your employment and internship experiences in reverse chronological
order (most recent first).
• For each position, include your title, the name of the organization, location,
and dates (including month and year).
• Briefly elaborate on the duties, skills, and accomplishments associated with
each position in a bulleted list. Avoid long sentences or full paragraph
format.
• Describe your most impressive qualities as a candidate rather than creating a
list of daily duties and responsibilities.
• Use strong action verbs to describe your experiences. Highlight your actions
and their specific results, including metrics/data if available.
• Demonstrate your transferable hard and soft ( career readiness) skills. Don't
be afraid to include class projects that relate to the position.
