"Resumes are what people use to get jobs, right?"  Wrong!
A resume is a one page summary of your education, skills, accomplishments, and experience. The purpose of a resume is to successfully market yourself to employers for an opportunity to interview for jobs.

The time it takes to write a great resume is time well spent. It is an important life skill to master, as you will revise your resume throughout your life as your career unfolds.  Even if you stay with the same employer, you will want to be able to represent your accomplishments to get favorable performance reviews, win raises, receive promotions and compete for the best assignments.  Your updated resume can provide evidence of your value to a firm.

Unless you are a novice with Microsoft Word, we don’t suggest using resume templates.  Templates restrict the flexibility you have in organizing information, and give little opportunity for your unique qualities to shine through.

As much as possible, the information should be customized to the needs and skills of each job opportunity. Looking up job descriptions to identity the duties, education and experience requirements, skills and personal qualities is important. The best single source of job descriptions is the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Outlook Handbook. While you must always tell the truth and avoid exaggerating your qualifications, a resume is no place for modesty either. Employers will expect you to let them know  what skills, abilities, talents, traits and experiences you have relative to their needs.

Westchester Community College’s Career & Transfer Center has written Resume Guidelines 2009-2011 with community college students in mind. A hard copy is available for the asking, call 914-606-6760 or download it using the link above.

Resume Writing Workshop Schedules
For Workshop Schedules please see our calendar of events.

Questions? Please contact us.