Resumes and vitae

Purpose of your resume
	A resume is a brief, concise document that presents, and effectively sells, your most relevant and positive credentials for employment, admission to graduate school, consideration for a scholarship or fellowship, or other professional purpose.
	A vita, or curriculum vita, is a more extensive document typically used by those with graduate education who are pursuing positions in academia or research. See more about vitae (curriculum vitae).
	An effective resume gets you an interview, not a job.
	An employer will usually spend 15 to 20 seconds reviewing your resume, so the content of your resume must be clear, concise, and targeted to the type of job for which you are applying.
	If your resume has a typo or grammatical error, it will probably jump off the page to an employer, and this is a way to weed you out of a candidate pool. Your resume may be the only chance you get to make an impression, so make it a good one.

Resume formats and samples
Page layout:
	Use Microsoft Word, but don't use the MS Word template. Avoid shading on your backgrounds or text. It doesn't photocopy, fax or scan clearly.
	(Also see resume software and templates for more about page layout.)
Content layout:
	Chronological format and variations
	Skills format
	How to choose a format for your resume
	Samples
	Scannable sample
Chronological format and variations:
	The most common resume format is called "chronological." It's simply a resume that lists your education and experience in reverse chronological order - most recent items first - and it's a good way to start a draft of your resume. Most of the samples are variations on the chronological format. You may also hear the terms "functional" or "creative" used to describe resumes. These are just variations on the chronological format that use headings that best showcase your background and qualifications.
Skills format
	A skills resume combines the skills you have from a variety of experiences - paid work, volunteer work, student activities, classroom work, projects, you name it - and groups these skills by category of skills that relate to the kind of job you're seeking. This format works best when a traditional resume just doesn't work to make you look like a good candidate even though you have relevant skills. A Career Services advisor can look at your first resume draft and help you decide if a skills format might be the best approach to use.
	Skills resume sample: Kelly (MS Word doc) — B.A. candidate
How to choose a format for your resume
	Look at the samples, and the features of each. Choose the combination of features that matches your background.
	DON'T choose a resume style simply because the fictional student in a sample has your major. Students in any major can use any resume style.
	You may choose any style regardless of the type of employment you are seeking, whether internship, co-op, or permanent employment.
	DO choose a format which best shows how your individual credentials support your objective.
	If you are unsure, start with a chronological style (the most traditional), have your resume critiqued, and revise your resume as needed.
Samples:
All samples are MS Word documents; each link opens a new browser window; you can use any sample as a template for your own resume if you wish.
	Silva — B.S. student, seeking co-op position; hasn't yet had career-related experience to list on resume.
	Gimble — B.A. student seeking internship; features "related employment and college activities" section; "other employment" listed without details.
	McWellen — B.S. candidate; resume features course work and lab skills.
	Barbour — B.A. candidate; features study abroad, language skills, "related" and "other" experience sections.
	Constantine — B.S. candidate; features details on student organization leadership role.
	Sorvino — B.S. candidate; features "related" and "other" experience sections; skills other than computer skills.
	Walsh — B.A. candidate with coursework outside major that supports the objective; includes language skills.
	Kelly — B.A. candidate; skills-based resume format.
	Matthews — B.Arch. candidate; features design skills and study abroad.
	Neilson — B.S. candidate; features a course project detailed.
	Neilson scannable resume — same as above in strictly scannable format.
	Vandeveer — M.S. completed, plus 2 years of professional experience; features qualifications summary, appropriate for experienced professional.
	Arnez — M.A.Ed. candidate with teaching objective.
Scannable sample
	In addition to your resume for the human eye, you may also need a scannable resume to submit to employers, particularly those who request this type of resume to be sent via email or submitted on their web sites. See more on scannable resumes.
	Samples of the same student's resume, two versions (both MS Word docs):
	Neilson resume for the human eye — B.S. candidate; features a course project detailed
	Neilson scannable resume — same as above in strictly scannable format

Resume software and templates

Use Microsoft Word to prepare your resume; however, DON'T use the resume templates in Microsoft Word. Templates we have seen do not create effective resumes based on what we know about employers' opinions.

DO create your own simple Microsoft Word format, using a table with invisible borders, as explained and shown in the example below:

1. Page margins of 1/2 to 1 inch on all sides generally look fine.
2. Except for your name, which can be larger, font sizes of 10, 11 or 12 generally look fine. Note that Arial 12 and Times 12 are not the same size. If you have trouble getting your content on one page, use a smaller font, like Arial 10.
3. Create your heading (name, addresses, phone numbers and email).  You can create a three-column, two-row table (with cells merged on top row) to organize your heading, as shown below, if you find this helpful.
4. For the body of your resume, create a table; one column for headings; another column for content; one row for each heading section.
5. You can resize and realign your content easily as you revise your resume. Using the table format means you don't have to individually tab each line of your resume.
6. Set your borders to be invisible: format > borders and shading > borders > none. You'll see them on screen as guidelines, but they won't print.
7. For assistance, use the "Help" function in Microsoft Word or visit the Career Services Computer Lab.

SAMPLE layout / format:

Name (centered or left justified; bold and larger than other text)
School address 1st line 2nd line Telephone Email address (email address under your name looks fine also)	Set your table borders as "none" in Microsoft Word, so the borders will not appear on your resume document. The table format is solely to help you structure your resume and reformat easily.	Permanent Address 1st line 2nd line Telephone

Objective	Your concise objective here
Education	B.S. (Major), June 2006 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) Blacksburg, Virginia GPA: x.x/4.0 Earned and financed 70% of tuition and college expenses
Skills	First skill Another skill Etc.
Experience	Employer Company/Organization, City & State location Job Title, Month/Year dates (DO use the bullet feature in MS Word to list each item) (DON'T try to manually insert bullets and manually add spacing to make your indentions line up)
Activities & Honors	(Leadership position in organization) (Award) (Scholarship) Etc.

The content of this sample is not intended to tell you exactly what to include or how to order YOUR resume.  See Content / sections of your resume for guidelines on what to include in your own resume, and see resume formats and samples for various examples.

Formatting your MS Word resume for eRecruiting
When you upload a Microsoft Word resume into eRecruiting, the eRecruiting system converts it to PDF format and to HTML format. After you upload your resume, you should check both the PDF and HTML versions to be sure the formatting is satisfactory.
PDF (Portable Document Format) was designed by Adobe Systems to preserve the exact format of the original document, so the PDF version of your resume should look exactly like the Microsoft Word version. In contrast, HTML was designed with other purposes in mind. Many assumptions and compromises are necessary to convert a Word document to HTML format. However, you can be more confident that the HTML version of your resume will look like the Microsoft Word original if you follow a few guidelines:
1.	Place all the text in the Word document in one or more tables. If you’re unfamiliar with using table in Word, review this topic in Word’s on-line help, or search the web for on-line tutorials for Word tables (e.g., http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Microsoft+Word+Tables+tutorial). You can learn the basics quickly and will find this time well-spent.
2.	Set the page margins before inserting any tables. Do not drag the table borders outside the margins after you insert them, or you’ll get very unpredictable results.
3.	Don't place text outside a table and center it on the page. Instead, place the text in a table cell, then set the cell alignment to center the text within the cell.
4.	Similarly, don't place text outside a table and use right-aligned tab stops to position the text. Again, place the text in a table cell, then set the cell alignment to right-justify the text within the cell.
5.	In fact, don't attempt to use tabs of any kind to align text. Use tables instead. For example, if you're creating a traditional resume with section headings on the left side of the page, create a table with one column for the headings, another column for the descriptive information, and one row for each section. (See how to do this.)
6.	You should also avoid using repeated spaces, margin adjustments, multiple columns, or indents to position text. The results will be unpredictable.
7.	Avoid graphic images, lines, headers and footers, and unusual fonts.
8.	In general, you’ll get the most predictable results if you keep layout of the Microsoft Word document as simple as possible. Remember, employers are looking for content, so don't worry about trying to create something elaborate.
9.	If solid gridlines appear around the cells in your tables, turn them off as follows: Place the cursor in the table. Click on Table on the main menu bar, then choose Table Properties. Click on the Borders and Shading button. Select the Borders tab. Set the Setting to None. At the lower right of the pane, apply the Setting to the Table, then click the OK button twice to return to the document.
	You may continue to see faint table gridlines. These appear for your convenience only. They won’t appear in the HTML version of your resume. You can turn the faint gridlines off and on from the Table menu.
10.	If you still get unpredictable results, try displaying the formatting marks in your document. Do this by clicking on Tools on the main menu bar, then on Options. On the View tab, under Formatting Marks, check the box labelled All, then click on the OK button. Review your document for any unexpected formatting marks. In particular, look for ones between the margins and the edges of the page.
11.	Still not getting the results you want? Send a copy of your resume in Microsoft Word format as an e-mail attachment to [email protected] with a request for assistance.
	Sample resumes formatted according to these guidelines are available at resume formats and samples. You can download one of these and change the data in it if you don't want to start from scratch.