Make Your Fact Sheet
Resumes are an early step in any hiring process. Begin by creating a master resume to track your accomplishments. When applying for a position with a specific employer, tailor the resume to your relevant qualifications.
Use this page to learn how to build a resume that succeeds in Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and human reviews.
Looking to work on your resume? Check out VMock through our Document Review service. Need details about CVs? Review our tips on Undergraduate Student CVs or Graduate Student CVs.
Review Example Resumes
Examples
To guide your resume writing process, we recommend that you review multiple examples to get familiar with their design, mechanics, and content.
Here are some example resumes to explore based on their key features:
Specialized Experience
Templates
Though resume templates can be an appealing way to produce a resume, we typically recommend that students avoid templates because they can be difficult to manipulate and may not comply with ATS.
If you are in need of a template, our first recommendation is to go to VMock and use the Smart Editor to select one of our templates that are optimized for ATS. This ensures that your resume is optimized for ATS and aligned with the resume strategies that we advise.
Should you need more templates, here are some additional sources that provide ATS-friendly options at no cost:
- Jobscan: Look for Chronological or Recent Grad Resume templates.
- MyPerfectResume: Look for the Professional, Modern, or Refined formats.
- HLoom: Look for the Refined or Traditional formats. The website will ask a few questions and then provide Recommended templates. We recommend that you do not not pick from these templates, and instead, choose from the Traditional tab.
Though these sources offer templates that are ATS-friendly, we encourage you to choose basic and traditional formats rather than colorful and multi-columned formats. Documents that include visual elements and complex formatting are highly discouraged, because they get rejected by ATS almost universally.
Take Action: Where to Go From Here
Suggested Steps for Success
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