Resume and Cover Letter Notes

  • Start resume with name and contact information (name, phone number, email).
  • For local jobs, include location (e.g., Los Angeles, California).
  • Write a brief summary objective:
    • Career objective: 1-2 sentences for those with little experience (introduction).
    • Personal profile: 2-3 sentences for those with extensive skills (skills, ambitions, what you're looking for).
  • Resumes should be specific and tailored to the job and organization.
  • List education (dates, degrees, credentials, GPA, licenses), skills (computer, organizational, leadership), employment history (dates, job title, responsibilities), languages (fluency), honors/awards, and community involvement.
  • Functional Resume: For those without extensive work experience.
    • Emphasize relevant skills and education.
    • Includes a career objective.
  • Chronological Resume: For those with extensive career experience.
    • Career objective is replaced with a personal profile.
    • Emphasize general skills in the personal profile (key skill sets as subheadings).
    • Present employment history and education in reverse time order (most recent first).
    • List dates of employment with month and year.
    • Resume templates can be difficult to update.
    • Resumes typically do not contain complete sentences (except for the career objective on a functional resume).
  • Detail skills, work experience, and accomplishments.
    • Quantify skills, responsibilities, and accomplishments.
    • Include job-specific and transferable skills.
    • Use action verbs (power verbs) to describe accomplishments.
  • Finalize resume: spell check, proofread, use underlines/bold/italics for emphasis, use bullet points to emphasize key skills, easy-to-read fonts/sizes (Times New Roman/Arial), black ink only.
    • Do not include personal information (photos, birthday, marital status, SSN, hobbies).
    • References should be on a separate sheet, provided only when requested.
  • Create a cover letter as an introduction to the resume.
    • No more than one page.
    • Use a friendly, professional tone, complete sentences, and proper grammar.
    • Include information about the company and how your skills meet their needs.
    • Address the cover letter to a specific person.
    • Display initiative by stating you will follow up.
    • Use proper business letter format.
    • Tailor the resume and cover letter to the specific job and company.
  • On resumes, if you have served time in prison, include all jobs held and skills learned while incarcerated with the correctional facility in place of the employer.