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Resume Writingwriting, and meticulously formatted information willmake the most pertinent information easier to accessand read for an employer. When an employer onlylooks at your resume for 15-30 seconds at first glance,the hope is that he or she is reading exactly what youmost hope he or she will read in conjunction with thestrongest points of your candidacy. Keeping in mindthat a reader glances at a document and reads from topto bottom and from left to right, place items such aspertinent job titles, skills and recent education closer tothe top of the resume and to the left of the resume. Ifyour resume makes it past this first glance, your futureinterviewer(s) will read it thoroughly, but the resumehas to survive that critical first glance!Identification/Contact Information ame: this may be larger in font than the rest ofNyour resume and should be bolded and centered. Address: You may list your permanent address aslong as the job you are pursuing is in fairly closeproximity to your home. You don’t want to ruleyourself out of jobs because employers assume youwill not relocate. If you intend to relocate, add“willing” or “interested in relocating” in yourObjective as well as early in your Cover Letter. elephone number including area code: List oneTpreferred phone number for potential employers toreach you. Do not use telephone numbers in othercountries. Do not list your work phone number. Besure to have a professional voicemail message. address: Remove the hyperlink on yourEmailemail address from your print resume. Replaceunprofessional email addresses with professionalones. You may obtain a WPI alumni email addressby contacting the Alumni Relations office, or youmay use a gmail or other personal email address.Using a Gmail address is prefereable to using anAOL or Yahoo address, which may date you andyour experience.for W PI A l u m n i Optional:LinkedIn web address or electronicportfolio (note: this is especially important forIMGD and Robotics graduates).Do not include personal identifying information suchas marital status, number of children, height, weight,age, sex, race, religion, and national origin, or aphotograph. It is not recommended to provide this datain the United States due to potential discrimination.If you have reason to believe that some personaldata will give you an advantage (e.g., U.S. citizenship,permanent residence), place under your name orindicate it in your cover letter.Do not reduce the font size of your identificationinformation below 10-point font. If your resume isn’treadable, you will not be contacted for the interview.Order of Your SectionsAfter writing your Objective (first section) andProfessional Summary the order of your sections willdepend on many factors, including how recently yougraduated and how much related experience you have.Information from your background that is most relatedto the job you are seeking should be placed first. Itemswithin each section should be placed in reversechronological order by end date. Here are some tips : If you are greater than two years past yourgraduation, your Education section should golower on your resume. Your RelatedExperience sections should be placed after yourProfessional Summary. Ifyour desired job requires strong technical skills,your Skills section should be placed higher on yourresume. ComputerScience professionals should place theirSkills Section higher up on the resume.4

Resume Writing Ifyou are seeking a job in academia, you shouldplace a Teaching Experience section and aResearch Experience section higher on yourresume. Be sure to also have sections forPublications and Presentations. Ifyou are seeking a job unrelated to your major,you can place your Education section closer to thebottom of your resume. changing career paths, a RelevantWhenExperience section should be included to showexperience related to the the job you areseeking. This should have ample, detaileddescription about your experience and be placedhigher on the resume. Unrelated jobs should havelesser to no descriptions and be placed lower inyour resume in an Additional Experience section. IfCertifications and/or Patents are related to yourdesired field, you should place these near yourSkills section. Ifyou are an Actuary, scheduled and completedexams and those in which you are sitting shouldbe included in an Exams section and placed justbeneath your Professional Summary. Ifyou have your PE or FE certification, please putthese in a Certification section and place it close tothe top of your resume.forW PI A l u m n iWhen writing your Objective, avoid cliché phrases andwords such as, “to obtain a position ,” “challenging,” or“utilizing my education and experience.” Such attributesare sought by everyone and do not provide the readerwith a sense of the type of role you are seeking in theirorganization.You may hear and read conflicting advice onincluding an Objective on your resume. At WPI’s CareerDevelopment Center, we always recommend includingone for three reasons: if multiple jobs are posted, theemployer immediately knows which one you areapplying for, and the Objective can be helpful to youas you draft your resume, as a reminder to be assupportive of it as possible. Finally, a job posting is notflexible; you need to determine that a job is right foryou before applying, rather than telling the employerwhat you want and hoping the job lines up with it.Remember that you are applying to this job and not thejob you hope it may become. It is important to makesure and demonstrate that your background matchesup well with the qualifications that are called for in theposting. (Exception: If you are inquiring about apotential opportunity or one that is not posted at acompany or if you are going to a career fair, you mayadd more detail to your Objective.)Be concise with your Objective (it should be no longerthan one line):Examples:ObjectiveThe Objective statement, displayed at the top of yourresume, tells the reader what you would like to do orfor what position you are applying. It should be briefand include the position position name and the thecompany name. You may also indicate a focus so longas it is consistent with what is emphasized in the jobdescription.“Senior Mechanical Engineer at Raytheon”“Position in Game Development with a focus on programming”“Electrical Engineering I position with a focus on signals.”If you find yourself unable to clearly state yourObjective, take advantage of the resources and staff atthe CDC. Even if you have identified a career path, theCDC can help you locate appropriate job titles.5

Resume WritingProfessional SummaryIf you graduated from WPI at least 7 years ago or more,or have 7 years or more of experience related to thejob you are seeking, you should include a ProfessionalSummary just beneath your Objective on your resume.In this section, you should quantify the skills andexperience you have that directly correlates with whatis called for in the job posting. Writing this section inthis way makes your qualifications much moreconcrete. For example, if a Mechanical Engineeringposting indicates that the candidate needs design skillsand Solidworks expertise, you might start the Summarylike this:“Seven years of professional experience as aMechanical Engineer, with five years of expertise inmechanical design and using Solidworks.”Your Professional Summary only needs to be a fewsentences or bullets long and should directly addressthose qualifications called for in the job posting.We do not recommend a Professional Summary foralumni who have been in the work force under 5 years.Its purpose is to quantify skills so it is important to bein the work force a while to be able to quantify skillsgained in that position.If you graduated more than two years ago, move yourEducation section to the bottom of your resume andplace any community involvement or activities beneath it.EducationThe placement of your Education section dependslargely on when you graduated. Any experience relatedto the position you are seeking since you graduatedwould be placed before your Education section.If you are a recent graduate, your education will be oneof your strongest selling points. This section includesthe degree earned or degree being pursued, name offorW PI A l u m n ithe university or college, and date of graduation orexpected graduation (you should not mention the word“expected”). Always bold your degree and major, andyou may also choose to bold the name of theuniversity. In addition, you should list any minors aswell as concentrations within your field of study. Youshould include your GPA if it is a 3.0 or higher, regardless of how long ago you graduated. High GPA’sdemonstrate high achievement.Examples:If you have earned multiple degrees, they should belisted in reverse chronological order. You should listevery degree you have received or are receiving, evenif they seem unrelated. You should always emphasizeyour degrees in bold font. You should not list yourhigh school.An example:Doctor of Philosophy, Mechanical Engineering, May 2015Master of Science, Mechanical Engineering, May 2010Bachelor of Science, Mechanical Engineering, May 2009Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), Worcester MAIf you are a recent graduate, or if you are transitioningto your field of study for the first time since graduation,you may also include advanced or special “RelevantCourses.” These do not need to be listed in reversechronologically but should be listed according to howsupportive they are of your Objective. You may includecourse names in a list format separated by commas. Ifyou graduated more than a few years ago, you do notneed to list these courses. Use official course namesrather than numeric course numbers. If there arecourses you have taken that may be outside the realmof your major but are relevant to the job, you mayinclude them. Additionally, you should only have onecombined list of relevant courses, placed at the bottomof your Education section, combining the mostadvanced and relevant courses from different degrees.6

Resume WritingAlso, if you have paid for a significant portion of yourcollege expenses, including loans that you are repayingor have repaid, you may add a line under the universityand degree that says “Self-funded” or “IndependentlyFunded.”ProjectsThis is an essential section for recent WPI graduatesas it enables you to highlight your MQP, IQP, GPS, andany course, design, or lab projects that support yourtechnical preparation. Use the full name of the projector course, e.g., “Great Problems Seminar (GPS),”“Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP),” and “MajorQualifying Project (MQP).” For GPS, be sure to add acolon followed by the specific course name (i.e., “Healthe World”).If you have been in the work force in your field for twoyears or more, it is not necessary to include a Projectssection in your resume, because your experience willbe more important to a new employer. However, ifyou have been working for a few years away from yourfield of study and are now pursuing a job in your fieldof study at WPI, you should include a Projects sectionto highlight your MQP and one to two other relatedcourse projects.Example:Major Qualifying Project (MQP): Wind Turbines, WPI, Aug 2014-PresentDesigned and built wind turbine on team of four.How to Write about Your ProjectsAs you write your project descriptions, use the followingquestions as guidelines. Use action verbs to begin everysentence: Did you work on a team? Did you work on aninterdisciplinary team?forW PI A l u m n i What did YOU do on that project? How did you do it? What process did you employ? What did you use? Think about technical skills orprograms and be sure to name them. What was the outcome? Did you write a report, givea presentation, acquire a patent, provide cleandrinking water to a village in a Third World country?What If My Project Wasn’t “Relevant?”Often, recent alumni believe that their projects are not“relevant” enough to include on their resumes. However,many employers look for this section in particularwhen they spot a WPI resume. Many employers areexperienced at hiring WPI alumni, or are WPI alumnithemselves, and expect to see it. Other employers havenever heard of these projects but are interested inknowing more about them.No matter what your project topic, this section givesyou the opportunity to impress employers with theunique educational qualities of the WPI Project Plan.The fact that you gained collaborative skills and possessthe ability to work on projects with people in otherdisciplines is a strong selling feature.If you have projects that are more relevant than yourmost recent project, you can divide your projects intosections and position the most relevant project first. Forexample, if you are a mechanical engineering alumniand you have done a project in one of your classes thatis more relevant than your IQP, create a section called“Mechanical Engineering Projects” and put the relevantproject and any other suitable projects in that section.If you have graduated within the past year, create asubsequent “Projects” section that includes your IQP andother projects.For alumni whose first job was not relevant to theirmajor and within a few years of graduation are seekinga job related to their major, the Project section is critical.7

Resume WritingEmployers view this section favorably and with anunderstanding that project experience includes realworld application of theory.In this section you may also include significantcommunity projects that are relevant, and for recentgraduates, you may include Eagle Scout/Gold projects,FIRST Robotics, and independent projects that youcompleted on your own.“Projects” Completed on a Job Belong inYour Experience SectionforW PI A l u m n i What were the results of your efforts? Did youreceive any accolades? Who did you work with? Did you work on a team? How does this experience support your careerobjective? What tasks have you done in this job that are mostclosely aligned with the job you are seeking? Youshould describe these tasks in most detail and listthem first.You may have completed a variety of projects in your job,but these should be included in your Experience section,in the description for the respective job. The WPI CareerDevelopment Center and many employers recommendthat Project work strictly related to coursework and/orfor academic credit (MQP/IQP/GPS/Theses) should go inyour Project section. Working on campus (in a lab, forexample) for pay or as a volunteer would not constituteProject work and would go in your Experience Section.Develop action verb phrases that highlight job skillsthat support your stated career objective. Note anysupervisory position you have held and emphasizeincreased levels of responsibility if you moved up withinthe organization. Do not start sentences with “I” or useany pronouns in your resume. It is assumed that eachsentence is starting with “I,” so you need only write theaction verb to begin each line, e.g., “Collaborated with.”,“Designed.” , “Developed.” , “Created.” , “Supervised.”Professional ExperienceEmployers want to know that you have work experience, even if it does not relate to your career Objective.You may also include part-time or non-career-relatedsummer work (for recent graduates) with less or no detail in an Additional Experience or Work History section.In regard to your previous employment, prospectiveemployers want to know: Where and when did you work? Recent graduatesshould include months with all dates, but moreexperienced alumni only need to include theyear. Your job title (the most important piece ofinformation to an employer about a job) shouldalways be in bold.Example:Job Title, Company, Inc., Worcester, MA, March 2011-June 2014 What did you do? How did you do it? What did you achieve?Example:Landscaper, Whittier Farm, Sutton, MA, May-Aug 2014If you have held several jobs, you may divide your WorkExperience into “Related Experience” and “AdditionalExperience.” Put jobs that are relevant to your Objectivein “Related Experience” and provide a description of thework. Put other jobs into “Additional Experience” with ajob title, company, location, and dates8

Resume WritingListing Multiple Jobs at One CompanyMultiple Similar Jobs in Same Department:for W PI A l u m n iIf you take on additional responsibilities, receive araise, but not a new title, you can reference this inyour description as a “promotion in place.”Line 1: Company Name, City, State, All inclusive datesyou have worked at companyExtracurricular andCommunity ActivittiesLine 2: Most Recent Job Title, Month Year you begancurrent role – PresentExtracurricular and community activities may indicateleadership, teamwork, and involvement, and areimportant to include on your resume. Campusactivities should be included only if you havegraduated recently. Employers are interested in whatyou do outside of your job. Often times, youractivities may trigger questions during an interview.Hiring managers can learn a lot about your personalityand character from the activities you list. At times, theycan even be a deciding factor among close candidates.Being part of a Greek organization is something toalways include on your resume.Line 3: Prior Job Title, Month, Year – Month year inpositionBegin the description of your role, with the first phrasebeing something like, “Promoted from x position to yposition, to include based on strong performancefrom .” You also can include phrases such as:“Developed as manager/job title.”Different Jobs/Departments within the SameCompany:Line 1: Company Name, City, State, All inclusive datesyou have worked at companyLine 2: Most Recent Job Title, Department, Month Yearyou began current role – PresentFollow Line 2 with bullets/description of what you do incurrent role.Next Line: Prior Job Title, Department, Month Year –Month YearBullets/description of what you did in prior role.Remember: Format consistency is extremely important. Listing multiple positions shows your proven trackrecord of success at your company.Recent graduates may list activities that support theirObjective, demonstrate campus or communityinvolvement, and exemplify your leadership abilities.You can also include organized groups/teams, Greekorganizations, athletic teams, and professionalassociations to which you belong. If you have hadseveral leadership roles, you might consider including a“Leadership” section on your resume. You should putyour leadership role in bold first when listing thatactivity.If you are not a recent graduate, list activities that include community service, charity work, coaching sportsteams, leading groups in any capacity, professionalassociations, musical groups, town government, boardmembership, church work, condo association membership, etc.Example:Treasurer, Oak Hill Condo Association, Fitchburg, MA, July 2012-July 20149

Resume WritingExample:Chapter Advisor, Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity, WPI, August 2011-PresentIf you have had more than one position in anorganization, you may need to pick and choose whichroles you keep and which you remove. It is a good ideato choose your most senior role in the organization, orthe one that involved the most leadership skills. If youheld the position five to seven years ago, you mightremove the position and just keep the organization andthe most current position only.forW PI A l u m n iyour proficiency in the language of that country(ex. “Native in Spanish.” Recommended: “Native,”“Conversational,” “Bilingual.”)If you only have one category of skills for your Skillssection, it is not necessary to include a subcategory.This may occur in fields that are not technical.Example:Software: Solidworks, MAT Lab, Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.Programming Languages: Python, C Foreign Languages: Fluent in Spanish, Native MandarinTechnical SkillsAdditional InformationThis section summarizes your concrete technicalknowledge, some of which you should mention in joband project descriptions, as well. It is a simplified listingof specific software, technical tools, equipment, labtechniques, Microsoft packages (list out applications),and any other relevant technical skills. Divide your skillareas into appropriate categories and list the itemshorizontally from most to least relevant. You do notneed to indicate

resume to cdc@wpi.edu or you can schedule an appointment with a staff member using your . See the list of action verbs later in this handout on Page 13 for . double major, you should have different versions of your