The purpose of a resume is to outline your professional skills, experiences and accomplishments. Your resume should provide a summary of who you are professionally and should entice employers to learn more – think “impressive snapshot”, not “autobiography”. A well-written resume will use strong, unique action verbs to highlight accomplishments and skills.
Resume Content
There is a large variety of information that you can include in your resume. Standard sections of a resume include:
- Contact Information
- Education
- Experience
- Skills
‘Experience’ could include work, volunteering, independent or academic projects, and other types of experience.
Additional resume sections may include:
- Awards and Honors
- Certifications
- Professional Affiliations and Activities
- Leadership
- Presentations
- Research
- Projects
ATS Compliance
An important consideration when writing and formatting your resume is ATS Compliance. The way that you write and format your resume can have a significant impact on your job search. ATS stands for Applicant Tracking System. These software systems are used by many employers to screen resumes for relevant keywords and qualifications.
If your resume is not ATS compliant, the ATS may be unable to read your resume. This could result in an automatic rejection when you submit an application!
To ensure ATS compliance, we recommend using a resume template from Skills First, which you can access using the ‘Career Tools’ tab on the Taubman College Career Network. All resume templates on Skills First are certified as ATS-compliant.
If you prefer to create your own resume, these are the best practices to ensure ATS compliance:
- Optimize your resume with keywords.
- Avoid the use of images, charts, or graphics.
- Use a simple design.
- Avoid 2-column formatting.
- Use a standard file format – generally, a .PDF or .DOCX file format is preferred.
When your resume is finalized, you might consider using an ATS Resume Scanner to ensure your file is compliant before you submit it. There are several free resume scanners available, like Resume Worded, that can be used to ‘score’ your resume.
AI for Resume Writing
AI can be used to enhance and customize your resume for each job or internship you apply for. One way to align your resume with a job or internship is to identify keywords. You can copy/paste the job description and add your resume to the AI platform to see how they are aligned. Some example queries are listed below:
- Could you help me to identify the top 10 keywords from this job description?
- Which of these keywords is missing from my resume?
- Could you suggest bullet point revisions to get me credit for [MISSING SKILL]?
Remember to write your resume in your own words – employers can use AI to determine if your resume was written using AI. Learn more about applications of AI tools and ethical best practices for using AI in the career process here.
Samples + Reviews
Sample resumes can be viewed below. Students can learn more about resume writing by attending the workshop series events hosted by the Career & Professional Development team. If you have questions about resume writing or would like to have your resume reviewed, please schedule an appointment with the Career & Professional Development team.
