Making a Resume -

Making a Resume

Thank you for your interest in applying to a graduate program in the Graduate College at Hampton University. Some applications to main campus graduate programs at Hampton University require a Resume.

According to Cornell University’s Graduate School, “In the United States, most employers use resumes for non-academic positions, which are one or two page summaries of your experience, education, and skills. Employers rarely spend more than a few minutes reviewing a resume. Successful resumes are concise with enough white space on the page to make it easy to scan.”

Here are some resources on resume writing provided by Hampton University’s Career Center. The Career Center recommends that you research what a resume looks like in your particular field or industry (e.g. Counseling, Sports Leadership).

In general, however, as Shayna Joubert of Northeastern University advises, your graduate school resume should “use crisp language to describe your experiences, present a clean and organized layout to make it easy to read, and make sure it’s free from typos and grammar errors.” Graduate school resumes, according to Joubert, “should emphasize your education, work and volunteer experience, and specific skills relevant to the particular program you’re applying to.”

The five tips Joubert offers are worth considering:

Tailor your resume to your program. Make sure your resume highlights relevant experience and education that make you a good fit for the graduate program.
Highlight all relevant experience. All means all: just because you don't have professional experience doesn't mean that you can't highlight volunteer work, internships, and other kinds of experience that make you a strong candidate for your degree program.
Showcase your skills. "Your resumé should include a skills section that highlights technologies, skills, and other competencies relevant to the graduate program you're applying to."
Include professional achievements. "In addition to your experience and skills, admissions committees are interested in the professional certifications you earned, professional training you've completed, professional organizations of which you're a member, and any instances in which you've been published."
Keep it clean...and short. Your graduate school resumes should be concise, well organized and well formatted, easy to read, and free of typos and grammatical errors. Resumes rarely go over one page.

Above all, your resume should demonstrate a commitment to personal, professional, and academic integrity in alignment with Hampton University’s Code of Conduct.

For additional guidance, please see the resources below and contact us with any questions.

Resources for Making a Resume: These are just a few of the many resources out there on writing a personal statement. Our best advice: use what works best for you.