Resume Writing

Your resume is a one-page advertisement of why an employer should hire you. The goal is not to simply summarize all of your activities and experiences, but to sell a product – you!

Get Started

Start with our worksheet to organize your thoughts

Resume Checklist

Go through our checklist to improve content and formatting

B101 Resources

Developing your first Gies resume? Check out this example.

Strengthen Your Resume

Utilize the SORR resume technique to create a powerful resume and review our action verbs to strengthen your bullet points.

Want to highlight your Gies Professional Pathway skills (these are the top skills employers seek!), check out this action verbs list.

Get your Resume Reviewed

Resume Template

Utilize this template to get you started.

Sample Resumes can be found here.

SEO for your Resume (YES!, your resume)

Are you sending out one job application after another, but not hearing back? Your resume may be the issue. As you've probably already heard, you've got about six seconds to catch someone's eye (or be passed over), so having a resume that tells a great story quickly is important.

SEO stands for search engine optimization, and it involves techniques to make a website appealing to search engine algorithms. Top websites regularly consider how to make sure they're noticed by the big search engines—and when it comes to your resume, standing out in a database of resumes (otherwise known as an applicant tracking system) is the only way to get noticed by a live human recruiter and to be considered for an opportunity.

Follow these 2 simple steps to maximize your SEO (for more details on writing an effective resume, review the SORR technique).

Use Relevant Keywords

• If your prospective employers are using an applicant tracking system (ATS) and most large employers are, keywords can get you past the machine and in front of human eyes.
• Today's sophisticated ATS engines search not only for keywords, but also scan for appropriate and relevant context.But even if your prospective employer isn't using an ATS, including clear, relevant keywords increases the odds that your skills will jump off the page to a recruiter skimming your resume for relevance.
• But even if your prospective employer isn't using an ATS, including clear, relevant keywords increases the odds that your skills will jump off the page to a recruiter skimming your resume for relevance.
• Not sure what are the right keywords to be using, start here.

Streamline Content

• Generic phrases like "excellent communicator," "results-oriented," and "self-starter" are not effective uses of space.
• Transition phrases like "was responsible for" for active words like "directed" instead.
• Next, remove the objective section. Don't waste valuable resume real estate on this—most readers will skip it.
• Finally, use numbers. Hard data (think: dollars and percentages) are easier to digest than text. So, instead of "top-seller," opt for "'more than 5k in sales" or "increased views by 20% ."