28 Stanford Career Center
RESUMES/COVER LETTERS
TIPS FOR CREATING A SUCCESSFUL
RESUME
Do’s
• Do design your descriptions to focus on your accomplishments,
using action verbs to clearly indicate the skills you’ve used. See
Sample Action Verb list on the next page.
• Do try quantifying results in your descriptions, such as
“Created marketing campaign that increased club membership
by 25%.”
• Do keep your resume brief enough to fit on one page (or two
pages if your experience is extensive).
• Do print your resume on good quality bond paper, either white
or conservative tones. If printed on plain computer paper, copy
onto good quality bond paper.
• Do accompany your resume with a cover letter in most cases.
• Do have others look over your resume for content and
grammar. Career Counselors are available at the career center
to critique your resume.
Don’ts
• Don’t make your margins and font size too small: margins no
smaller than one inch and font size no smaller than 10 point.
• Don’t include personal pronouns (e.g. I, me, we).
• Don’t include personal information, physical characteristics, or
photographs on your resume. However, individuals from other
countries may include these on their resumes.
• Don’t include the last line: “References available upon
request” (see Sample Reference List on page 45).
Other Tips
• It is more appropriate for freshmen and sophomores to include
high school experiences. However, important high school
experiences that have some relevance to your job objective
may be appropriate for upper classmen.
• For International Students it is sometimes a disadvantage to
include your non-immigrant visa status or permanent address
(if outside the U.S.) on your resume. Usually your visa status
should be discussed later during the interview. If you have
obtained permanent residency or U.S. citizenship, it might be
to your advantage to list the information on your resume.
RESUME FORMATS
There is no single way to format your resume. The format you
choose should present your strengths clearly. See sample formats
and layouts on pages 30 - 43.
Chronological Format
This format is most familiar to employers and most commonly
used by Stanford students. This style of resume presents your
experience and education in reverse chronological sequence,
starting with the most recent. Date, job title, organization’s name,
location and a description of your activities are listed as part of
the experience section. This format is simple, straightforward,
and especially useful for anyone with a history of directly relevant
experience.
Functional/Skills Format
This format focuses on areas of skill and can be effective in
conveying your strengths to an employer, although many employers
are not as familiar with this format as with the chronological
or combination format. This style of resume draws attention to
accomplishments and highlights your skills by function rather than
your work experience and is more commonly used by people with
very little formal work experience or are returning to the workplace
after being away or otherwise involved.
Combination Format
This format is appropriate when you have relevant work
experience for each of several skill areas and combines both the
chronological and functional formats. This style allows you to group
your experiences or key selling points together by functional areas
(such as Research Experience and Teaching Experience), and then
list those experiences in reverse chronological order within each
section. It is also a familiar format to employers.
SUBMITTING RESUMES VIA EMAIL
Send your resume as an attached file and paste the text into the
body of the email. Having your resume in the body of the email as
well as an attachment gives the employer the opportunity to see
your resume in the event they cannot open your attachment or do
not take the time. Use a simple format for the resume you put in the
body of the email: left justified, no bold, no italics, no underlines,
no tabs. See Sample Electronic Resume on page 44. Don’t forget to
include a cover letter in the body of the email too. If you have your
resume in a PDF file, you can also attach that with your email. The
PDF version will allow the employer the opportunity to see your
resume in an attractive format, utilizing bold and underlines.
When emailing resume files, name them so the employer can
easily identify them as your resume. Last name, followed by first
name and the word “resume” is most helpful.
RESOURCES
Titles available in the Career Resource Center:
• From College to Career: Entry-level Resumes for Any Major,
Asher
• The Google resume: how to prepare for a career and land
a job at Apple, Microsoft, Google, or any top tech company,
McDowell - electronic resource: searchworks.stanford.edu/
view/9240697
• Knock’em Dead Resumes: Smart advice to make your online
and paper resumes more productive, Yate
• Vault Guide to Resumes, Cover Letters, and Interviewing cdc.
stanford.edu, click on “Career Resource Center/Vault” and
select “Vault Careerinsider”