Style and Formatting

• The format and style of your resume is just as important as the actual content. Recruiters or hiring managers spend at most 6 seconds looking at your resume, so it’s important that your information is easy to find.
• Before submitting your resume, check the following:
  • Spacing - The rule of thumb is to have 1 space after periods and columns and 2 spaces after colons.
    • Add a space between each section (e.g. Education, Skills) and projects.
  • Indentation - Make sure your bullet points and dates to the right side align.
  • Readability - Make sure your resume isn’t too cluttered. Use a font size of at least 11. When we’re skimming, we tend to gloss over large blocks of text.
  • Each bullet point should begin with an action verb. NO complete sentences!
  • 2-3 bullet points per experience or project and 2-3 lines per bullet point.
  • Your resume must be 1 page!
• Don’t include a headshot in your resume to prevent bias.
• Don’t include an address for privacy concerns.
• While it’s great to bold things for emphasis, be strategic. Don’t bold every single language/framework/number.
• Include your name in the name of the resume file. This makes it easier for the recruiter or hiring manager to find.
  • ❌ Resume, ✅ John_Jackson_Resume
• Before submitting your resume, check if the file is correct.
• If you’re going to include hyperlinks to a LinkedIn profile or portfolio, test and make sure the links work.

Heading and Contact Information

• Use your personal email, NOT your school email.
  • When you graduate, you will most likely lose access to your school email, so to avoid missing notifications for internships or for job opportunities in the near future, use your personal email, NOT your school email.
  • It may also not be a bad idea to make a separate email account for job applications, as long as it’s not tied to an organization or institution.
• Include your phone number.
  • From the recruiter’s perspective, if they have some urgent news to deliver whether it’s a status update or a verbal offer, they need to be able to call you, so make sure you include your mobile number.
• If you’re applying to technical roles, hyperlink a GitHub profile or portfolio website.
  • If you’re targeting a software engineering role or any role related to tech, employers want to see examples of your work to get a feel of what it’s like to work with you on the actual job.

Education

• Don’t just put a date such as May 2025 next to the name of your university.
  • ❌ May 2025, ✅ Expected May 2025
  • If you just put a date, it’s hard for someone to immediately know what that means. Do you finish university at that time, start? To make it clear, add the keyword Expected.
• Consider putting your GPA if it’s at least a 3.5. Otherwise, leave it out.
• Don’t include your start date, since that could lead to some bias pertaining to how long you have been in college, which plays a critical role in eligibility for many internships and early career roles.
• AT MOST 2 lines of relevant coursework. If over, choose the most relevant to the current role.