Teachers College Columbia University Career Services

Functional Resume Writing Guide

Your resume is generally your first introduction to an employer. It should be written with great care and consideration. All resumes should be written with your career goals in mind. Your resume is your marketing brochure, showcasing those skills, achievements, and qualifications that relate to the type of position(s) you are pursuing. It should include specific descriptions that give the reader a solid picture of your accomplishments and capabilities. Remember, your resume is not a summary of your entire history; it is a promotional piece that is targeted toward its reader. What is a Functional Resume? A functional resume focuses on achievements drawn from education, work experience and volunteer positions listed according to groupings of skills. General Tips 1. Resumes must be one page in length if you are applying to corporate jobs. If you have trouble fitting your resume on one page, evaluate your content for relevancy and be creative with margins, font size, and format. Non-profit and education resumes can go onto two pages, but be concise whenever possible. You do not need to include every job you’ve ever had – only the ones that are relevant to your future career goals. 2. Select and order the major content categories so that the most relevant information is placed on the top 2/3 of the page 3. Use verbs to describe your achievements 4. Emphasize skills and experience related to your field of interest and/or positions desired 5. Avoid self-serving and subjective descriptions 6. Include occupation or industry specific-key words 7. Be achievement and results-oriented in your position descriptions. Communicate your skills and capabilities 8. Quantify achievements by citing numbers, dollars, percentages or time 9. Do not include personal information such as age, health, marital status, height, weight, and religion 10. Do not lie or exaggerate 11. Proofread carefully!!!!! Errors are unacceptable. Have someone else proofread your resume as well 12. Include related employment history within the last 5-10 years. Employers run background checks and will notice if your employment history detailed in your resume does not match their findings.

RESUME WRITING GUIDE Ask yourself: Have I effectively presented my skills, qualifications, and achievements? If not, what is missing? Writing your resume is a time consuming and difficult process. Push yourself to do your best possible work. FONT  Use Times New Roman. Use one font throughout  Font should be 10.5-12 in size, your name 14-18 size font (10 can be used, but is not preferred) LAYOUT  Margins 0.5 to 1  Do not use a table format SUGGESTIONS  One (for corporate jobs), other industries can be pages. If two pages, as a header on second page include name, email, phone, page number (font can be smaller)  Proofread for spelling and grammar  Print on resume paper, fax on standard paper and email as a MS Word or PDF attachment  Be honest – never lie, stretch the truth, or misrepresent yourself CONTENT Bold, Underline, Italicize and/or CAPITALIZE headings --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------RESUME FORMAT

Identifying Information Center align this information Name address, phone number and email address Education List educational degrees in reverse chronological order, most recent first. Write out degree. Specify each college/university you attending, is location (city and state), degree received, and graduation date or anticipated date of graduation (Month, Year). Include study abroad. Do not include GPA for grad or undergrad unless asked. Include thesis if applicable. Example: Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY Master of Arts in Cognitive Studies in Education, Expected May 2007 Thesis: (include if applicable) Honors/Awards Honors may be listed as a separate category or included under the university/college where you received them. List scholarships, academic honors and/or professional awards.

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Career Services Office, Created 9/20/10

RESUME WRITING GUIDE Certification/Licensure (if applicable) Can be listed under appropriate degree or as a separate section. List certifications like CPR below under skills. Type of Certification and/of Licensure, Specialization (if appropriate), Grade, Month, Year Languages List all languages under this heading if directly applicable and/or requirement of the job you seek (Bilingual, Fluent, Proficient, Conversational, including Sign-Language). If not, include language under skills heading. Related Coursework Include related coursework only if you do not have any experience that relates to the job you seek. Summary of Qualifications List here the 3 to 5 qualifications that you want to highlight to the employer. These are not general skills or qualifications but rather the best of the skills you possess which are related to the position you are seeking. Professional Accomplishments This is the bulk of your resume. Use 2 to 4 separate categories or sections, each highlighting a particular area of skill, such as Leadership, Organization, Communication, Administration, Counseling, Supervision, ect. List these categories in order of importance to the position you seek. For each category include 4-6 bullets focus on accomplishments that relate to the type of position you seek. Write your professional accomplishments using the Action + Results format. Tell the employer how you did a task and why. Begin statement with an action verb and include the intended results. Work History Under each heading, list all positions in reverse chronological order. Include title, organization name, city/state and dates of employment (Month/year – Month/year) Professional Experience Example: School, New York, NY Special Education Teacher

Month Year – Month Year

Papers/Publications/Presentations (write in the APA Format) See below (Optional) Published works and presentations are typically found on a CV. Include only if they relate to the position you seek. If you are an educator, include all, even if they do not relate to the job you seek. Presentations Landrum. R. E. & Murdnal, C. (2003, April). When the spelling of a name is reversed: Does Anyone Notice? Poster presented a the meeting of the Rocky Mountain Psychological Association, Reno N.V Publications Smith, T., & Murdnal, C. (2004). Assigning the appropriate (high) value to reaching. College Student Journal, 49, 521-529

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Career Services Office, Created 9/20/10

RESUME WRITING GUIDE Activities (Optional) All activities must be Politically Correct. Examples of activities are: Sport participation, clubs, organizations, and international travel. (if an educator, include all international travel) Undergraduate activity experience can be included for those students recently graduated from college (within the last 2 years, unless if you are an educator. List all international travel). Activities can be relevant to career goals and a reflection of character. However, activity participation should not overwhelm the resume. Example: Choir, Volleyball, Softball Note: Activities can also be placed in Volunteer Experience if the activity was on a volunteer basis. Professional Associations (Optional) List the names of professional organizations to which you are still a member of and indicate leadership positions and committee work where appropriate Include leadership/board membership for former organizations. Skills (Optional) Computer skills, any type of certifications that you have, such as CPR, language (for language, include level of proficiency) and/or interest. (Interests - if applicable to the job you seek) Example: Computer Skills Proficient in MS Office Suite Or Skills Computer: Proficient in MS Office Suite Language: Conversational in Spanish Interests: Travel Abroad

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------How to Write Your Professional Accomplishment Statements  Write your Accomplishments using the Action + Results format. Tell the employer how you did a task and why. o Begin with an action verb to describe the type of work you did o Include a word that describes the results or intended results of your work. Example: Taught parents discipline techniques, communication, and how to set appropriate boundaries to foster responsibility in home, academic and social settings o Sample Results Words – resulting in, to foster, in order to, to ensure, to educate, to increase o Action & Result Words – please see Resume Action/Result Words  No “I” Statements  Write current position in present tense and former positions in past tense  Be concise and to the point  Under recent or related position list 4-6 bullets. 2-4 bullets for older jobs and/or jobs not related to the position you are seeking, and highlight your transferable skills.  Be consistent and either end all bullets with a period or omit all periods  List bullets in order or relevance to the job you seek -4-

Career Services Office, Created 9/20/10

RESUME WRITING GUIDE

How to write your Accomplishments that are not related to the position you seek If you have limited or no related experience, you should include other types of employment. When writing these jobs,  Highlight the skills you utilized to get each job done, instead of listing the type of work you did.  Focus on skills that relate to your particular degree and/or concentration. Example: psychology students should focus on their interpersonal skills, communications skills, one on one and group facilitation, report writing, crisis management, problem solving, and collaboration with peers and supervisors

TOP RESUME MISTAKES It’s easy to make mistakes on your resume and very difficult to repair the damage once an employer has your resume. Here are the most common pitfalls and how to avoid them. A. Typos and Grammatical Errors Your resume needs to be perfect from a grammatical standpoint. If it isn’t, employers will read between the lines and draw not-so-flattering conclusions about you. B. Lack of Specifics Employers need to understand what you’ve done and accomplished. Take the following for example: a. Worked with employees in a restaurant setting b. Recruited, hired, trained, and supervised more than 20 employees in a restaurant resulting in $2 million in annual sales Both of these phrases could describe the same person, but clearly the second one’s details and specifics will more likely grab an employer’s attention. C. Attempting One Size Fits All Whenever you try to develop a one-size-fits-all resume to send to all employers, you almost always end up with a resume employers will toss in the recycle bin. Employers want you to write a resume specifically for them. They expect you to clearly show how and why you fit the position in a specific organization. D. Highlighting Duties Instead of Accomplishments It’s easy to slip into a mode where you simply start listing job duties on your resume. For example: a. Attended group meetings and recorded minutes b. Worked with children in a daycare setting c. Updated departmental files

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Career Services Office, Created 9/20/10

RESUME WRITING GUIDE Employers, however, don’t care so much about what you’ve done as what you’ve accomplished in your various activities. They’re looking for statements more like these: a. Used laptop computer to record weekly meeting minutes and compiled them in a Microsoft Word-based file for future organizations reference b. Developed three daily activities for preschool-age children and prepared them for a 10minute holiday program performance c. Reorganized 10 years’ worth of unwieldy files to make them easily accessible to department members

E. No Action Verbs Avoid using phrases like “responsible for.” Instead, use action verbs: Resolved user questions as part of an IT help desk in order to serve 4,000 students and staff.” F. Leaving Off Important Information You may be tempted, for example, to eliminate mention of the jobs you’ve taken to earn extra money for school. Typically, however, the soft skills you’ve gained from these experiences (e.g., work ethic, time management) are more important to employers than you might think. G. Visually Too Busy If your resume is wall-to-wall text featuring five different fonts, it will most likely give the employer a headache. So show your resume to several other people (including Career Services!) before sending it out. H. Incorrect Contact Information Double check even the most minute, taken-for-granted details – sooner rather than later. (Top Resume Mistakes Adapted from the Zicklin School of Business Graduate Career Services and Monstertrak.com)

What You Should NOT Put in a Resume  

Place of Birth Age or Date of Birth

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Marital Status

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Gender

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Ethnic or Racial Information -6-

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Religious Affiliation

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Political Affiliation

Career Services Office, Created 9/20/10

RESUME WRITING GUIDE

Resume Action/Result Words Action/Result Verbs for Cover Letters and Resumes Teaching

Management

Communication

Helping

Detail

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Career Services Office, Created 9/20/10

RESUME WRITING GUIDE

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Career Services Office, Created 9/20/10