William & Mary – All about resumes, cover letters, C.V.s and your online profile

Upcoming workshops

It is very important that you target your resume to  the specific job/internship or at the very least, to the industry/career field.  Additionally, your resume should emphasize results and accomplishments, not simply list tasks and duties.  These resources will help you.

Résumés

• Build your targeted résumé (accessed through your Vault account)
  • Here is a quick 30-second overview of the info above
• This is a useful list of action verbs to use to describe your experiences; focus on outcomes, results, successes
• Use this checklist to prepare your résumé for review during our walk-in hours
• Sample résumés
• After you’ve used these resources to build your résumé, bring it in for a critique during our quick-question drop-in hours here at the Career Center:

 Cover Letters

• How to write and use effective cover letters (accessed through your  W&M Vault account)
• Cover letter checklist and sample (pdf)
• Template for a ‘cold’ letter of interest (pdf)

How to build and maintain your online profilesYour online presence is as important today as your résumé, if not more so.  Take the time to craft your reputation, or brand, professionally.  LinkedIn.com is the primary tool, but use other social media outlets, too.  

• LinkedIn Checklist  and  9 things to avoid
• How to maximize your LinkedIn account
• Twitter is also an increasingly useful tool to use for building your online reputation. 
• How Blogging can help build your online reputation/profile.
• Using Facebook professionally
• More Advice :   AC Online: College Student Guide to Professional Social Profiles

Create an academic C.V.

Some employers use the term ‘C.V.’ interchangeably with ‘Résumé.’ Unless you are applying for an academic-type of position, you should use the résumé writing guidelines above.  If you are applying to graduate school or to an academic-type of position, this is how you do it:

Creating a  European-style C.V.

The term ‘C.V.’ is often used in other countries instead of ‘Résumé,’ but they mean the same thing. The formatting is quite different, though, and you should research the norms for the country in which you are applying to see what information is expected.  Here is how to write an E.U.-style C.V.

Browse through the profiles of W&M alumni in  LinkedIn to identify skills and qualities to highlight in your resume, cover letter and online profile