RESUME

What is a Resume?

A resume is a concise, tailored document highlighting your skills, experiences, and achievements relevant to a specific position. Resumes are used for non-academic careers, including roles in industry, government, nonprofits, private sector, and professional positions in academia.

Key Differences: CV vs. Resume

Length: CVs can be many pages; resumes are shorter, often 1–2 pages.
Focus: CVs emphasize academic history; resumes emphasize skills and accomplishments.
Audience: CVs are for academic/research committees; resumes are for employers, recruiters, and HR systems.

Standard Resume Structure

Contact Information:Name, email, phone number, LinkedIn, optional portfolio. You may or may not use your full address. Often resumes will simply include city and state.
Professional Summary: optional, 2–3 sentences highlighting key strengths
Education: Degrees earned (usually without details like thesis title or advisor); most recent degree first; GPA is optional
Relevant Experience: Reverse chronological order, emphasizing achievements and measurable impact
Skills: Highlight technical and transferable skills relevant to the job
Optional Sections: technical, language, software, certifications

How to Structure a Resume

An effective resume is a brief summary highlighting your experience and skills that directly relate to a job or internship. Below are 4 steps to writing your resume:

Prepare a master resume before applying for a position

A Master Resume is your personal archive that contains all of your experiences—academic, professional, volunteer, leadership, technical, and more.
It is not meant to be submitted to employers. Instead, it serves as your reference document that you can update regularly.
It can be 4–6 pages (or longer) and should include every role, project, and accomplishment you may want to draw from later.

A Tailored Resume is a customized version you prepare for a specific job application.
It is usually 1–2 pages long.
You select only the most relevant experiences from your Master Resume, adapting the language to reflect the job description.
Each job application should have its own version of a tailored resume.

Your Master Resume saves time—you don’t have to start from scratch each time.
Your Tailored Resume ensures employers see only what’s relevant to them.
Together, they give you flexibility: you can pivot between academic and non-academic applications without losing track of your full record.

Tailoring and Showcasing Skills

Every industry has its own quirks and expectations. You will need to know what hiring authorities in your target industry will expect to see in a job candidate’s resume. Online resources, such as company websites and news relating to the organization, can be useful to establish basic information about your target company, but no single website, template, or guidebook can write your resume for you.

RESUME

Step 1: Define Your Focus

Step 2: Decide the Overall Structure

Step 3: Evaluate each Experience

Step 4: Assess Each Section's Format

What is a Master Resume?

What is a Tailored Resume?

Why you need both?

Research the job you are applying for first

Analyzing job descriptions

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