CBS Resume Guide

A resume is a 1-2 page persuasive document that showcases your experiences, skills, competencies, and abilities relevant to the application you are submitting. A well-written and compelling resume will convince a hiring manager to interview you. Resumes are commonly used for applications to industry jobs, internships, research opportunities, scholarships, and graduate/professional school. This guide will help you create a resume from scratch or update your existing resume.

Writing your first resume can feel intimidating, especially if you haven’t had much formal work experience yet. Remember, everyone starts somewhere! Your resume is simply a way to highlight the skills, experiences, and strengths you already have. To get started, you can include class projects, research, volunteer work, campus involvement, part-time jobs, or leadership roles. Your resume will grow and improve as you gain more experience. Think of it as a living document that evolves alongside you. Keep in mind, the CBS career readiness team is here to guide and support you through this process!

Organize your experiences

Make a list of your past and current experiences and organize them into categories that will allow you to group them on your resume. If you are writing your first resume, you can consider including experiences from high school to the present. Here are a few categories to help get you started:

  • Education
    • Degrees in progress or completed
    • Relevant coursework
    • Certifications (i.e., Certified Nursing Assistant)
    • Skills (i.e., laboratory techniques, language fluency, computer software)
  • Experiences (paid or unpaid)
    • Jobs
    • Internships
    • Research projects
  • Extracurricular Activities
    • Volunteer work
    • Student organizations
    • Leadership

Tailor your resume to your objective

We recommend tailoring your resume to create alignment with the opportunity you’re pursuing so that you can demonstrate the transferable skills you possess. 

For example, if you are preparing for job applications, review a few job descriptions on Handshake and identify common threads within the “Job Descriptions,” “Duties & Responsibilities,” and “Qualifications.” Your next task will be to align the experiences on your resume to demonstrate the transferable skills that will make you a strong candidate for the hiring manager to consider.

Here are a few example situations and potential ways you can tailor your resume:

  • Job/internship applications: Highlight experiences, competencies, skills, and coursework most relevant to the position’s requirements.
  • Graduate or professional school applications: Research the program’s focus, and then emphasize a combination of competencies, skills, research experience, academic projects, publications, service, and/or leadership. No need to mention coursework if you submit a transcript with your application.
  • Scholarship, fellowship, or award applications: Showcase leadership, service, research experience, or academic achievements most relevant to the opportunity.
  • Career fairs: Create versions geared toward different industries or employers you plan to approach.
  • Networking events: Adjust your resume to highlight experiences that connect with the interests of the professionals you’ll be meeting.
  • Informational interviews: Provide a resume that emphasizes transferable skills for a career path that the person you are interviewing can review. Ask for feedback or insight on your resume if there are upcoming opportunities you’ll be applying for.
  • Exploring a career change or new industry: Reframe transferable skills and experiences to connect with the new field’s expectations.

Formatting guidelines

On average, a hiring manager spends 5-7 seconds looking at a resume, so your resume needs to be crisp and easy to read.

  • One page, margins .5-1”
  • Reverse chronological order
  • Vary sizes, bold, italics to differentiate sections
  • Save resume as a PDF titled ”First Name - Last Name”
  • Size 10-12 for body text
  • Best fonts: Times New Roman, Calibri, Arial, Open Sans, Roboto
  • Beware of internet templates – use our templates instead!
  • Do not include a headshot

Key resume sections

Include these sections as a baseline for your resume. Remember, this is your document, so you can customize each section of your resume to best reflect your experiences and to suit your application needs. Utilize our resume templates to help you get started.

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Name and heading

  • Your name should stand out at the top of your resume. Include your email, phone number, and address or city and state.

Education

  • Include the name(s) of the institution(s), city & state, degree, major, and expected graduation date in reverse chronological order. Consider including your GPA if you want to draw attention to your academic achievements.
  • Include high school education when you’re in your first few years of college.

Experience

  • List your positions in reverse chronological order – from most recent to least recent
  • For each position: include your title, employer or organization, location, and dates.
  • This section typically includes paid or unpaid work experiences or internships (i.e., research lab, customer service job, etc.).
  • Use present tense verbs for current positions and past tense for prior gigs. 

Leadership, service, or extracurricular activities

  • This section may be highly customizable based on your experiences.
  • List student organizations, volunteer gigs, athletics, or unique programs (like Dean’s Scholars).

Additional resume content

No two resumes should look the same! You will likely customize your resume for different opportunities. Talk with a CBS career coach for more guidance on what to add to your resume.

Objectives statement/summary of qualifications

This is a succinct, optional section near the top of your resume to help draw a recruiter’s attention to specific skills you possess that are relevant to the position you are applying for. Evidence of these skills must be found in the body of your resume. This section can be formatted as 1-2 sentences or 2-3 bullet points.

Honors/awards/other education add-ons

You might include being a part of the Honors Program, Dean’s List, scholarship awards, previous institutions, study abroad, or relevant coursework. 

Skills section

Include technical skills you’re proficient in. Examples:

  • Lab: PCR, gel electrophoresis, western blotting, cell culturing, assays
  • Computer: R programming, JMP, Java
  • Languages: Vietnamese (fluent), Spanish (proficient)

Opportunity/job/industry-specific experiences section

Tailor the name of this section to draw more attention to experiences that are relevant to the opportunity you’re applying for. Examples: research experience, healthcare/clinical experience, relevant experience, and volunteer experience. 

Publications/presentations

If you’ve had the opportunity to present or publish your research, help it stand out in your resume by putting it in a separate section. Use the templates below for formatting assistance. 

  • Publication Last name, First Initial., Author, B., & Author, C. (Year of publication). Title of the article. Name of the publication, journal, or website, Volume Number(Issue number), pages. URL
  • Presentation Contributor A., Contributor B., Contributor C., & Contributor D. (Year, Month Day). Title of presentation [Description of contribution]. Title of Symposium/Conference, Location. URL 

Craft experience statements

We recommend using a simple formula to start drafting your experience statements to show an employer your roles, responsibilities, and achievements. Utilize the list of Power Verbs as you write your experience statements.

Power verb + description of task + result

Example experience statements:

This

Not that

Maintained inventory of over 15 chemicals in Microsoft Excel to ensure an accurate record of chemicals in the lab.Maintained chemical inventories in the lab.
Assisted undergraduate students by breaking down concepts, reviewing notes, and suggesting new study strategies, thus improving their understanding of the course content.

Reviewed course content with students.

Managed the company’s Instagram account, increasing engagement by 300%.Ran the social media.
Greet customers to welcome them into the restaurant and take orders accurately and efficiently to ensure customer satisfaction.

Take customer orders.

Transported patients to inpatient physical therapy appointments safely and on time.

Helped patients get to appointments.

Resources