        |
|
Job Candidates
Do you have a resume?
If not, begin here:
Create a resume following these steps: (For further information click on link.)
- Organize your résumé to highlight your qualifications
- Include specific, appropriate information about your qualifications
- Use dynamic, persuasive language that demonstrates what you can do
- Create an eye-catching, accessible design for paper résumés
- Use a simpler design for effective electronic or scannable resumes
Once you have created a résumé, you can either take it to a job placement center or you can email it to an employment service online. Listed below are some physical locations where you can take your résumé to find a job or internship at the University of North Texas. Following the UNT locations, online locations are listed where you can find job and internship information and post your résumé. Good luck!
Locations on UNT campus:
Cooperative Education and Internships
Chilton Hall, Room 204
http://www.unt.edu/coop
Student Employment & Career Services
University Union, Suite 320
http://www.unt.edu/secs
Online locations
Yahoo Hotjobs
Yahoo site provides job search, résumé posting, career tools, saved jobs
http://hotjobs.yahoo.com
Monster
Search jobs, post a résumé or application, get career advice
Monster.com
Careerbuilder
Find jobs, post résumé, personal profile, advice and resources
http://www.careerbuilder.com/index.htm
1. Organize your résumé to highlight your qualifications
Two things you need to consider:
1. Your overall organization of the major categories of information (education, work experience, skills, etc.)
2. Your local organization within these categories
You need to decide what category of information you want the employer to see first in the overall organization. Then decide how you want information within each category to be organized.
You can organize your local information either chronologically or functionally.
1. Chronologically-present your work experience and education in reverse chronological order
2. Functionally-present your most important accomplishments or skills early in the résumé (see example below)
Education
B.S. in mechanical engineering from University of Oklahoma
expect to graduate in August 2002
Dean’s list three semesters, Fall 2000, Spring 2001, and Spring 2002
GPA—3.2
Work Experience
Internship in robotics research lab (two semesters)
helped design robotics machinery for automated assembly lines
used CAD in refining designs
learned to work in a dust-free environment and to work as a team member
Trinity Pharmacy—pharmacy technician since October 1999
began as cashier and did general cleanup of sore
operate the cash register
enter prescription information into the computer system
help customers needing information about over-the-counter drugs and other items in the pharmacy
Lifeguard and swimming instructor—summers since high school
know CPR
certified Red Cross lifeguard at YMCA pool at home
received lifeguard of the month award four times (find out years and months)
certified Red Cross swimming instructor
taught private, semiprivate, and group swimming to children and adults through the YMCA
worked frequently with children with disabilities to help them learn to swim and to be comfortable in water
Skills
programming in C++ and Java
have designed Web pages for YMCA; however, not very experienced here
know computers, including statistics packages, spreadsheets, and CAD
people skills—have learned to interact with customers and to be a team player
work well with children
Activities
Mortar Board, senior year
American Society of mechanical Engineers
Swim team all four years—won district and national honors in platform diving
My Career Goals
to find an engineering position in robotics
|
|
2. Include specific, appropriate information about your qualifications
Highlight your qualifications to prompt employers to interview you in the following categories:
- Career objective
- Education
- Work experience
- Skills
- Specialized training
- Personal information
Career Objective-states the kind of work you are seeking in a brief phrase.
- Use brief, specific statements directly related to the specific job for which you are applying.
- State only the position, goals, or tasks specifically stated in the job advertisement.
- Avoid general, broad statements such as “a position where I can use my programming skills.”
Education-in addition to your degree, include information such as:
- Major and minor courses that qualify you for the type of job you are seeking
- Academic scholarships or fellowships that you received
- A high grade point average (above 3.0 on a 4-point scale)
- Academic honors or awards that you received as a college or university student
- Any outstanding accomplishments, such as special projects or research that you did as a student
Work experience-use reverse chronological order, beginning with your most recent experience and include:
- Name and location of the company or organization where you worked
- The years (or months if less than a year) of your work with that company or organization
- Your job title and verb phrases describing what you did (your job responsibilities)
Skills and specialized training-include only information related to the type of job you are seeking (see fig. Below)
Management skills
- Hired and supervised 14 employees in a $2.3 million catering business
Communication skills
- Trained new employees in a catering business
- Wrote performance evaluations, designed marketing brochures, and designed the Web site for a catering business
|
|
3. Use dynamic, persuasive language that demonstrates what you can do
Keep your writing style clear and uncluttered. Use dynamic and persuasive language for your résumé.
- Keep the information and language simple and direct.
- State your information or qualifications directly; omit any unnecessary information.
- Use dynamic action verbs (i.e. saved, created, supervised, directed, and designed.)
- Use specific language that emphasizes you’re accomplishments and what you can do.
- Use verb phrases, not sentences.
Examples:
| Not Dynamic/Persuasive | Created a computer program for students logging into the lab |
| Dynamic/Persuasive | Designed and programmed software that reduced the number of employees needed in the student computer labs and saved the university $16,640 annually |
|
| Not Dynamic/Persuasive | Regional sales manager for 4 years |
| Dynamic/Persuasive | Regional sales manager for 4 years with a telecommunications company. Led my region to win the top sales award for 3 consecutive years. |
| Not Dynamic/Persuasive | Was responsible for designing and installing custom equipment and upgrading machines. |
| Dynamic/Persuasive | Designed and installed custom equipment and machine upgrades that reduced the manual labor required by $100,000 annually |
|
The language and design of your resume should give potential employers a positive first impression of you.
4. Create an eye-catching, accessible design for paper résumés
Design your résumé so an employer can quickly get a good idea of your important qualifications. To help employers find information, create visual categories with white space, headings, type sizes, and bulleted lists. (See example below.)
Follow these tips for designing effective paper résumés
- Use headings and subheadings to create visual categories
- Surround the headings with enough white space for employers to easily see the headings
- Use bulleted lists instead of paragraphs
- Use only one typeface
- Use 8.5 x 11 inch white bond paper
- Proofread; then proofread again!
C. Randall Harrison
310 North Edna
Lewisville, TX 75057
(972)555-7893
| Objective | An engineering position requiring creativity, equipment design expertise, and knowledge of manufacturing methods.
|
| Experience | Texas Instruments, Inc. Dallas, TX
Manufacturing Facilitator (2000-present)
- Led screen printing team to win Gold Teaming for Excellence Award
- Converted coating system to low VOC formulations that comply with existing air-quality standards.
Reengineering Team Leader
- Reengineered screen printing work flow to eliminate non-value added effort and reduce task handoffs from one person to another.
- Received Site Quality Improvement Award two consecutive years (1999 and 2000) for reducing cycle time and improving quality
|
| Education | Master of Science in Agricultural Engineering (1993),
Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas
Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Engineering—Magna Cum Laude (1989)
Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas
|
| Special Training | Business Process Engineering (Reengineering)
Statistical Process Control (Design of Experiments and Six Sigma Quality)
Structural Steel Design
|
| Personal | Work with local chapter of Habitat for Humanity to build homes
Avid “do-it-yourselfer” with my own woodworking and metalworking shop
|
|
|
5. Use a simpler design for effective electronic or scannable résumés
Include the same information in an electronic or scannable résumé as you would for a paper résumé. However, focus on nouns rather than verbs. (See example below.) Also, follow these tips:
- Include keywords an employer might use to search for qualified job candidates
- Include nouns as keywords and align all information on the left margin
- Use a 10-12 point sans-serif typeface for a scannable résumé
- Use ASCII text for an electronic résumé
- Use a line length of no more than 70 characters and use spaces instead of tabs
- Open your résumé in a text editor, such as Notepad, or e-mail your résumé to yourself before you send it to an employer
Leigh Andrea Thomas
204 Oak Street
Denton, TX 76205
(817) 555-2858
lthomas@twlab.unt.edu
Objective
An entry-level corporate position in technical communication
Education
University of North Texas, Denton, TX
Bachelor of Science in English
August 2002
Grade Point Average: 3.5/4.0
Advanced courses
Online Documentation
Designing Technical Proposals
Software Documentation
Work Experience
University of North Texas, Denton, TX
Assistant to the Director of Technical Communication
October 2001 to present
Assisted Director in writing proposal that resulted in a new Master’s in Technical Communication and the potential of 50 new graduate students each year.
Designed a new brochure for the Technical Communication Program
SWB Telecommunications, Dallas, TX
Technical Communication Intern
May 2000 to September 2000, May 2001 to September 2001
Developed a Web site describing wireless services offered by SWB
Assisted senior technical writer in designing and testing online documentation for switching equipment.
Organizations
Society for Technical Communication
The Freshman Council (a leadership organization)
Baylor President’s Council (a leadership and service organization)
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
