Your First Resume

Major and minor subject areas

You may also list any honors, awards, Dean's list commendations, and GPAs if they will enhance this section of your resume. Any certifications or completed training courses that that are relevant to the position you are seeking should also be included.

Newer graduates can include a list of completed courses that are directly relevant to the type of position you are seeking. For example, a newly graduated Accounting major may want to highlight her course in Financial Accounting, Management Accounting, and Tax Accounting.

You should only include high school information if you do not have a college degree or if you achieved high commendation in some area that reinforces your career objectives.

Key Skills and Qualifications

This is the most critical section of a functional resume. The Skills section of your resume should highlight any relevant skills that might not otherwise be disclosed on your resume. This section will be highly individualized to both the person and the position they are seeking.

First, identify the key skills relevant to the type of position you are seeking. Some examples of key skills include customer relations, graphic design, marketing, leadership, and computer technology skills. It may be necessary to develop several different versions of your resume so that you are able effectively market yourself to a variety of jobs.

Next, rank the key skills in order of importance - you want the most important skill to appear at the top of your skills list. Then, under each of these key skill categories, include any information about yourself that demonstrates how you possess this skill. You can draw from any work experience, volunteer experience, schooling, extracurricular activities, or any other area as appropriate. As with the key skills themselves, rank this in order of importance so that the most relevant examples appear first.

Examples of key skills with supporting documentation are as follows:

Research
Designed questionnaire to assess customer needs
Identified sample population to be included in the study
Drafted analysis plan
Prepared survey results report and presented the results to the study team

Marketing and Distribution
Developed layout and organization of merchandise for a 25-page giftware catalog
Maintained accurate, up-to-date computer records of merchandise inventory, suppliers, customers, and shipping vendors.
Handled all facets of order receipt, processing, and fulfillment

Work Experience

Since you are new to the workforce, employers do not expect you to have much in terms of work experience. This section should be very brief. You should not provide any details of your responsibilities and accomplishments in this section (these should have been included under Key Skills and Qualifications). Instead, simply list your job title, the name of the employer, the location of the position, and your dates of employment as follows:

2004 - Present Customer Service Representative ABC Telecommunications
Baltimore, MD
2003 - 2004 Treasurer Omega Lambda Pi Fraternity
Baltimore, MD
2001 - 2003 Sales Assistant Magellan Imports
Washington, D.C.

Other Optional Sections:

Honors and Awards:
List any career, academic, leadership or athletic honors you have received. Academic awards may alternatively be listed under the Education section of the resume.

References:
You may include a statement declaring "References Available upon Request" if you need to fill space on your resume. Otherwise you should list references in a separate document. References should typically only be provided when requested or once it is clear that the competition for a position is narrowing. Do not include specific reference names or contact information on your resume.

Other Categories:
If there is additional information that you feel is important to include butt does not fit into any of these categories, you can create custom categories. Examples of custom categories may include Background, Professional Activities, and Recitals/Art Shows.

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