Are you beginning your career search or looking to advance into a higher position? If so, ensuring you have a strong, well-developed resume can help you stand out among interviewers. At JWU, our Experiential Education & Career Services team (EECS) can help you create a resume, with tips on how to design the resume and what information to include and exclude. No matter where you are in your career or resume journey, our experts at JWU are available to help create an effective resume designed to help you land your dream position.
Designing a Resume
It’s important to keep the design of your resume simple, as the information in which you include is the most important part. When designing your resume, you want your education, skills and work experience to be organized in a clear, concise order that is easy for interviewers to read.
At JWU, our EECS team can help you to determine the best layout for your resume. “We all meet with students both virtually and in-person, so setting up a time to chat about a resume is easy and flexible,” explains Melanie Rainone, Senior Experiential Education & Career Advisor. “In addition to one-on-one help, we also have resources in jwuLink like a Resume Guidebook, resume samples by major and college, and a Resume AI Tool through a platform called Big Interview that allows students to scan their resumes for compatibility with a particular job posting.” With a wide range of resume resources, students have the opportunity to create an effective, well-designed resume.
Information to Include on a Resume
Include essential information on your resume that highlights your professional background. Rainone notes that the “best practice is always to include education and work experience – even those jobs that may feel less relevant. For career starters and changers, this is where we can highlight some transferrable skills.” We recommend including:
- Contact information – Include your name, updated email address and personal address
- Work experience – Include previous employment experiences
- Education – Include college or university attended, the degree earned and years attended
- Skills – Highlight skills that are specific for the job posting you’re applying for
Including standard information helps to highlight your experience and how you can fit the role of the position. Additional information that you can add to your resume include:
- Certifications
- Volunteer experiences
- Awards
- Projects
- Professional links
Information to Exclude from a Resume
“What to include or not to include on a resume is going to vary by industry and experience level,” Rainone explains. Including information that distracts from why you are the right candidate can ultimately impact the result of landing an interview. “For what to leave off, we recommend avoiding anything that’s going to read as a big chunk of text or paragraph, like an about paragraph or objective, or education and experiences from high school,” Rainone notes. We understand this can be a challenging part of your resume-building process, which is why we highly recommend utilizing our EECS team to help you.
Get Assistance on Building Resume
Resumes can help you to enter the professional world or help you to advance to a new position in your life. At JWU, our EECS team helps to ensure your resume is ready to go for the position of interest. Rainone notes, “Resumes should be highly customized to the person and to the job posting, so meeting with us to determine the best resume for you is super important!” They offer virtual resume drop-in hours on a weekly basis, meaning you can connect with an expert when you need to.
Additional Resources
Our EECS team offers additional support outside of building your resume. “Online students do have the option to complete an internship, and we’re here every step of the way if they decide to do so. We support them with registration, internship search, and are here while they are out on internship as well,” Rainone notes. “We also offer assitance with interviewing, job searching, building a LinkedIn profile and more. We encourage students to make an appointment with us so we can get their questions answered and see how we can best support them in their career journey!”
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For more information about enrolling in one of our many online degree programs at Johnson & Wales University Online, complete our Request Info form, call 855-JWU-1881 or email [email protected].