I was recently asked by a friend for resume advice and a template, so I figured I would share my resume template, and some tips and tricks to writing an effective resume.
For people here to just looking for a template, the link to use my template is here. I am of the belief that early career people (such as graduate students), should still stick to a 1 page resume when submitting job applications. Locally, you can have a separate copy that is several pages long, but you should condense the resumes you hand out to be really tuned to what the hiring companies are looking for. A screenshot of my template is below
Obviously, every person has different experiences, so it hard to make an all-encompassing resume that works for everyone. Some people may have only research experiences and no work experiences, and vice-versa. This template is purely meant to serve as a base, and you can fill out whatever suits you. The advantages of my template being a word document is that all of the locations are stored in a grid layout, so it’s much easier to set the locations of the text. I would highly recommend using a table format in word to create your resume, as it is a lot easier to standardize and set placement of different pieces of text.
Writing Tricks for Creating Your Resume
- When staring at your resume, there should be an easy, logical flow between sections. Take advantage of things like capitalizing, bolding, and underlining to make it clear the differences between your education, work, and research
- For your descriptive bulletpoints, start with an action verb such as “created” or “developed.” A great list of action verbs to use in resumes can be found here: https://purduecco.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/power-verbs.pdf
- Your description of your work and research experiences must accomplish two things: 1. Explain what the project was 2. Explain how your contributions advanced the project. Focus on tangible outcomes (money saved, papers published, improvement upon the baseline state of the art).
Sydney Dolan 