Résumé Formatting

Step 1: Header

• Make your name stand out; you want the employer to remember you. Your name should be in bold and in a slightly larger font than the rest of the résumé.
• Below your name, list your current mailing address, phone number, and the email address you most frequently use. You may use your permanent mailing address if you wish.

Step 2: Education

• Always list your most recent education first. Indicate your university, your school (e.g. Georgetown College), major, minor(s), and graduation year.
• Include your GPA (optional, see “Dos” above); you may also include your GPA for your major and minor if you wish, especially if they are higher than your total GPA.

Step 3: Experience

There are three main formats for summarizing your experience: Chronological, Functional, and Combination. You will find Chronological and Combination summarized below, as these are the most commonly used and preferred by most job applicants and employers. Remember that relevant experience can include jobs, internships, volunteer experiences and coursework.

• Chronological is most commonly used by college students. This format lists your experiences chronologically and is familiar to (and often preferred by) employers. This format is the best way to showcase your experiences while highlighting all of your assets.

1. List experiences, starting with your most recent position.
2. On the first line write the name of the company, location and the dates you worked.
3. On the next line write the title of your position.
4. Include three or four sentences describing what your position entailed. Think about what you actually contributed to the job or organization and how your role was significant. The use of bullets makes the résumé easy to read. Refer to the attached “Action Verbs” sheet for help in choosing energetic verbs; try to avoid using “responsibilities include” and “did.”

• Combination (of Chronological and Functional formats) allows you to highlight your experience in specific fields. Work experiences are listed chronologically under functional categories (e.g., Financial, Legal, etc.).

1. Create categories based on skills that are most important to the job field (e.g. Financial, Education, Research, Technology, etc.)
2. List work experiences under each category starting with your most recent position.
3. Follow steps 2 to 4 as outlined under the Chronological format.

Step 4: Activities

• This is the place to list your extra-curricular activities, such as sports, on-campus involvement, volunteer experience, etc. You may provide a brief description of accomplishments and responsibilities for each if you wish.

Step 5: Skills

• Important skills to include are:

• Languages (Basic, Intermediate, Advanced or Fluent)
• Technical skills; list specific software with which you are familiar (e.g. MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, WordPerfect, Adobe Photoshop, etc.)
• Any specific training or certification programs you have completed that would be relevant to the job for which you are applying.
• You may list these under two separate subtitles (“Extracurricular Activities” and “Skills”) or one (“Skills & Activities”) if you need to conserve space.

View sample résumés on our Types of Resumes page.