GUIDE TO CREATING

YOUR RESUME
A resume is an essential document to your job application process. It is a document that lists your
abilities, experiences and qualifications for the job. It makes it easier for the prospective employer to
review and select their candidates because it contains the most important information about you as
an employee all in one or two pages. A resume is meant to be tailored to your style and structure
but it should always have the following essential information:

*** Skills and Abilities: _

 To begin, you should create a list of the skills and abilities you have developed over time
(specifically from past experiences and previous jobs)
 You will be able to refer to and draw from this list when you are creating your resume and/or
preparing for an interview.
 This will be for your personal reference only and should NOT be included on your resume
To begin your list:
 What are your strengths? What are you comfortable doing and why? Do you have any special
skills, certifications or trainings that would come in handy?
 Ex. you have good communication because you worked as a receptionist and had to keep the
nurses updated; you are good with people because you were a cashier and were at the face of
the restaurant greeting and saying bye to people.
 What have you learned during your time at a job/volunteering with the program etc.?
 Remember to always include proof that shows that you are what you claim to be through
your experience

BODY OF YOUR RESUME: _

1. Summary of Qualifications: _
 In this section you should roughly summarize your strongest, most relevant services, abilities,
areas of knowledge and professional experiences that make you a competitive candidate for
the job
 This section can be in either a paragraph or bullet point format and no more than 5 lines/5
bullet points
 It should roughly summarize your strongest, most relevant services, abilities, areas of
knowledge and professional experiences
  An example of how this section can look:
Paragraph Format Bullet Point Format
Experience working in a medical  Experience working in a medical
environment, often interacting with environment, often interacting with nurses
nurses and doctors. Mobilized and and doctors.
self-sufficient when given an objective  Mobilized and self-sufficient when given an
goal. Extensive experience in medical objective goal.
and customer communication.  Extensive experience in medical and
Organized in terms of tasks and customer communication.
attention to detail. Helpful when  Organized in terms of tasks and attention to
circumstance is opportune. detail.
 Helpful when circumstance is opportune.
 Ways to start your sentences:
o Able to…; An accomplished…; Experienced in…; Knowledgeable in…; Skilled in…;
Demonstrated…; Computer skills include…; Familiar with…; Background in…; Well
versed in…; Strong (list a skill) skill in…; etc.

2. Professional Experience : _
 Does not have to only be a history of jobs you have had, it can also be things like unpaid
internships, programs, volunteer experiences (and so on) that have trained you in some way
for the job that you are applying to and as long as it’s professional
o this experience should have given you key skills/exposure relevant to the job you are
applying to
 This section should include:
o Your title at the job/program
o Company or program name
o Dates you worked or attended
o Summary of your tasks/job duties and accomplishments in that position
o **Be ready to be asked why you left the job, you do not have to write this down on
your resume but you should make a note of what you want to respond, if asked
o You can include military service here
 You can choose to separate into 2 sections, “Professional Experience” and “Volunteer
Experience” but you do not have to
  This section can be functional or chronological, meaning that you can either list your
experience based on the most relevant to the job, regardless of order, OR you can list your
experiences chronologically.
o If you have more than a handful of experiences, you can pick and choose the most
relevant/the ones that you grew from and taught you the most.
 An example of what the format should resemble is:

Customer Service Representative, Main St. Health Clinic | March 2014-September 2017
 Maintained an updated schedule for the clinic
 Restocked, tracked and ordered all office material as well as medical equipment
 Constant communication with the doctors and nurses for updates on weekly happenings and
patient care
 Effective customer service for all patients to ease their medical visit experience
 Etc….

3. Education: _
 You can list education if it is relevant to the job
 You can include this right after your summary of qualifications as well
o Suggested to do so only if it is essential to the job you are applying to (ex. if you are
applying to be a TA or Lab Assistant etc.)
o It has become more common to include this toward the end (after professional
experience) but it is up to your discretion and judgement
 Should include the most recent level you achieved and the date at which you graduated/got a
diploma etc.
 Can include relevant educational achievements like academic awards and seals
o Ex. bi-literacy seal/certification, dean’s list (if that is related to the job –like applying to
a lab) etc.

4. Certifications: _

 Can be combined with education as one “Education and Certification” section or it can be left
as its own section
 If you have obtained any sort of certification or license for anything, you can go ahead and
list it here
 If it is not relevant, you can choose to leave it out
  You must include:
o The certification, who provided it, the date you obtained it and the expiration date
o Ex. CPR and First Aid Certification, American Heart Association; Expires May 2019

5. References: _
 You should have a list of at least 2-3 references that you can provide
 These people should be reliable people that remember you and will vouch for you and your
good work ethic
 You DO NOT have to include this on your resume but there is a good chance that the
employer you are looking at will ask for at least 2 references to cross-reference you with
 A reference can be a previous supervisor, higher up, teacher, mentor, program director
 You should inform them that you might be using them as a reference and ask them for their
up-to-date telephone number and email address
 You can have their information like this:

Daniel Cruz, Employee Supervisor at Main St. Health Clinic

(278) 987-6543 | danielcruz@mainstreetclinic.org

*** Formatting: _

 0.5”-0.75” top margin

 0.5 bottom margin
 0.5-0.75 on the sides (depending of what it takes to fill the page)
 14pt for your Name (Arial, Calibri, times) – can bold if want to
o Under name in 12 or 11pt font, type your city and state, email address, phone and
LinkedIn URL if you have one
 12pt for your headers (Arial, Calibri, times) (“summary of qualifications” “experience”
“education” etc.)
 11pt (Arial, Calibri, times) for rest of font