Resources

Resumes

• Resume Templates
• Building Your Resume: Step-by-Step
• Key Resume Sections
• Writing Strong Accomplishment Statements
• Formatting Tips

Your resume is a tool used to express your interest in a specific job or internship; its purpose is to provide a snapshot of the education, skills, experiences, and accomplishments that align most closely with the position description. It is related to your cover letter, which is a narrative-based introduction to a prospective employer that outlines your interest in the position, the organization, and why you are qualified for that job.

Resume Templates

Building Your Resume: Step-by-Step

Step 1: List all of your work experiences and leadership activities along with your associated tasks

• Non-Profit Internship: task 1, task 2, task 3, task 4, task 5, task 6
• Organized Women’s Conference: task 1, task 2, task 3, task 4, task 5, task 6

Step 2: Group together related tasks into 1-3 “projects”

• Non-Profit Internship: Tasks 1-3 are about social media, tasks 4-6 are about data analysis
• Organized Women’s Conference: Tasks 1-3 are about coordinating a panel, tasks 4-6 about setting up the venue

Step 3: Develop each project experience into impactful bullets using Accomplishment Statements (details below)

• Non-Profit Internship : Optimized organization’s social media presence by doing tasks 1-3; increased web hits by 25%, from X to Y
• Organized Women’s Conference : Recruited a 5-person panel of female entrepreneurs for inaugural 2-day, 200-person Women’s Leadership Conference; coordinated their travel (task 1), established the topics for discussion (task 2), and welcomed them upon their arrival (task 3)

Step 4: Group together related experiences and leadership activities under 2-3 resume section headings (details below)

Step 5: Using this ‘Master Resume,’ create several one-page resumes for the different roles you are targeting

• Research Assistant Position: Highlight your research projects or technical skills
• Consulting or Banking Internship: Highlight activities that showcase your problem-solving skills, leadership, teamwork, and communication skills

Step 6: Convert your resume to PDF and name it properly for submission (firstname_lastname_resume)

Key Resume Sections

Heading

• Include your name, phone number, and email address. The font size of your name may be slightly larger than the other text.
• Once you build your  LinkedIn Profile , consider listing your personal URL under your name.
• It is not necessary to include your street address, although the city and state may be helpful if searching for a position in that geographic area.

Education

• As a student begin your resume with an education section, listing your Baruch degree first and your high school education second. If you have studied abroad list that in this section beneath your Baruch College experience.
• Include the degree you are pursuing, your major, and anticipated graduation date.
  • Example: Bachelor of Science in Information Management, May 2020‍
• You may include related coursework, senior thesis/project, GPA. Honors and awards can be included in this section or a separate section.

Work Experience & Leadership

• You may include general experience and activity headings, or targeted headings, such as Journalism Experience, Leadership, Research, or Community Involvement. Choose headings that will best group and highlight your experiences.
• Within each section, list your experiences and activities in reverse chronological order with the most recent first.
• With each experience or activity, include your title or role, the organization or employer name, location, and dates affiliated.
  • Example: iSchool Security Club, President Fall 2014-Present
• Provide concise descriptive statements about your experiences, focusing on accomplishments. Begin with action verbs and avoid personal pronouns.

Possible Additional Sections

• Technical Skills (such as Programming Languages, Software, Database, Social Media)
• Honors and Awards
• Performances
• Publications
• Interests

Writing Strong Accomplishment Statements

What are accomplishment statements?

Accomplishment statements are the bullets/sentences under the experience section of your resume that describe and quantify your achievements, results, and successes from your past work, internship, student organization, volunteer, military, or education experiences. When writing these statements, employers want to also know how you will contribute to their team or organization. In other words, don’t just list what your role was; also give specific examples of the impact you made and the value you added during those experiences. ‍

Before you start writing accomplishment statements, consider the following questions:‍

Have I ever: Improved something? Achieved more with fewer resources or money? Reduced costs? Improved productivity? Saved time? Increased recruitment numbers? Designed, developed, or implemented a new process, program or product? Brought diverse constituents together to accomplish something? Improved morale? Solved a pressing problem? Managed or led a team? Presented complex information clearly? Successfully multitasked? Dedicated long hours of work to accomplish something within a short timeframe? Balanced extracurricular/outside commitments with coursework? Took initiative without anyone asking? Received awards or positive performance reviews?

What are you most proud of? What would others you have worked with say about your contribution? How have organizations benefitted from your work? What special projects have you worked on and what was the outcome? What is the tangible evidence of your accomplishments?”

Guidelines for Creating Impactful Bullets

Action + Project + Result Format

• Project: Group related tasks together into more meaningful projects/activities
• Action: Choose an action verb that describes what YOU did and YOUR contribution (NOT the TEAM!). Highlight the SKILLS you used.
• Result: Show the result and impact of your work, and QUANTIFY in terms of % improvement or % increase when possible. If your work resulted (or will result) in a publication or patent, mention that.
• Write it out: [A] choose an Action verb + [P] name a Project completed or problem solved + [R] describe the Result, quantifying when possible.

Accomplished [X] as measured by [Y] by doing [Z] Format

• Write it out: [X] Lead with the impact you delivered + [Y] Numerically measure what you accomplished + [Z] Detail specifically what you did

Formatting Tips

• Choose professional, easy to read fonts between 10-12 point with margins between .5 and 1 inch
• Do not use pronouns (e.g. I, my, me, we, our)
• U.S. resumes do not include personal information such as age, marital status, children, or religion
• Use reverse chronological order (most recent first)
• In most cases, your resume will be one page
• Bold, italics, and bullets can be used in moderation to accentuate and break up content
• Resume should be visually appealing and easy to read quickly
• Be consistent; for example, if you italicize your title and bold the employer name for one experience, do the same for all experiences
• Group information that places your most relevant and substantial experience higher on the page
• Proofread several times to avoid spelling and grammatical errors, and do not use abbreviations or slang

LinkedIn/Professional Online Identity

Social media is a powerful tool, but if not managed wisely your online identity could be harmful. Follow these tips to maintain a professional online presence.

• If you have a common name, consider using a middle name/initial on your resume and your online profile.
• Assume everything you post will be seen by potential employers; when in doubt make it private.
• Search your name and make certain you are comfortable with the returns - if not, adjust your privacy settings.
• Focus on building your professional identity (such as on LinkedIn) so any less flattering information appears lower.

The Importance of a LinkedIn Profile‍

LinkedIn has quickly become an important part of a success career search. Many organizations actively search LinkedIn for summer interns and full-time employees. In addition, thousands of internships and jobs are posted daily and can be sorted by industry, job function, location and much more.

Check out these helpful LinkedIn resources and tip sheets:

• LinkedIn for Students

Videos, guides and tips help you get the most of this powerful resource.

• Building a Student Profile

Quick, visual steps to help you showcase your professional experience.

• LinkedIn Interview Tips‍

Check out these helpful video tips to master your upcoming interview.

Tips for Building Your LinkedIn Profile

Once you build your LinkedIn profile, consider including the public URL at the top of your resume, just under your name with your email and phone number.

• • Professional "Headline": After your name, this is the first line viewers see. Go beyond simply putting “student." (Examples: Marketing Intern-Teach for America/Baruch College Senior/Graduate Student or Baruch College Graduate Student Seeking Digital Advertising Positions or Junior Environmental Studies Major at Baruch College).
  • Photo: This is the first image a viewer will have of you. Be mindful of how you want to project yourself and be sure that it is appropriate for the audience.
  • LinkedIn URL: Claim your personalized URL.
  • Summary: Highlight your key work experiences and accomplishments. Include specialties and skills. Keep it concise, specific and keyword rich.‍

Sample Summary: As a student, I have devoted my studies to ______, and am seeking employment in the following areas: _______ and _____ . My work as a _____ and ______ complemented my academic coursework at Baruch College and allowed me to develop an understanding of ________. I am excited to apply my strengths in _______ and ________ to the field of ________.

• Experience: Include experiences relevant to your career goals, any activities and leadership roles. Give a brief description of each position, the dates you worked and the name of the organization, similar to what you have on your resume.
• Education: Include, in reverse chronological order, Syracuse and any other schools or programs.
• Additional Sections & Information: You can add additional sections to your profile, or incorporate this information in your education, experience or summary sections, such as languages, volunteer experiences, courses, certifications, publications, honors & awards, personal website, groups and associations, interests, skills and expertise.
• Applications: LinkedIn Applications enable you to enrich your profile, such as Creative Portfolio Display, Blog Link, Word Press, Company Buzz.
• LinkedIn Groups: Join groups that are of interest to you and you will receive periodic emails and be able to engage with others in the group.
• Populate your profile with connections: First search for people you know in the Advanced Search section and send them an invitation to connect. Be sure to customize your invitation as most people won’t accept an invitation from someone they’ve never met. Keep in mind online networking does not replace in-person relationship building.