FUNCTIONAL RESUME
This format highlights your skill areas and emphasizes what you have done rather than when and where you did it. By beginning with a section of your most impressive skills, abilities, and accomplishments, the resume immediately places the emphasis where you want it, on how you best fit the job. This section is followed by an employment history section, written in the chronological format, that supports the statements made in the previous section

COMBINATION RESUME
This format combines the benefits of both the chronological AND the functional formats. By beginning with a section of your most impressive skills, abilities, and accomplishments, the resume immediately places the emphasis where you want it – on how you best fit the job. This section is followed by an employment history section, written in the chronological format, that supports the statements made in the previous section.

ELECTRONIC RESUME:
This format is the best resume format to email potential employers. By adding a keyword section, and utilizing a san-serif font, this alternate electronic resume format – often referred to as a Scannable format - is suitable for submitting to organizations that use scanning software to review resumes.

GATHERING INFORMATION
The Career Center has excellent resume guides for you to view to get ideas.
Come in today!
Print out the job description or posting of the job/internship you want.
Locate any of your past performance reviews
Locate your most current resume (if you have one).
Print out your most recent class list or transcript.

ORGANIZING YOUR JOB HISTORY
Make a chronological list of the jobs you have held
Make a list of your training and education relevant to the job
Identify and create action verb statements for the best of your
past job duties, relevant coursework and volunteer experience
(see Action Verb Statements section)

APPEARANCE
Preferred front size is 10-12 point; Your name should appear larger (14-16 point)
Choose a natural tone paper, white or off-white is best
One page is strongly preferred
Use standard fonts: Helvetica, Times, Palatino
Make effective use of spacing, margins, bolding on your page
Emphasize points with bullets, UPPER CASE, bold, Italics, and underlining.
Final copy shouId be laser printed

TIPS
Make good use of blank space - it can help isolate an important point you wish to emphasize
Select the format that highlights your strengths
Use present tense for current responsibilities; past tense for prior activities
Spell out the names of organizations and clubs
Write action verb statements to highlight your successes (see Action Verb Statements section)
Resumes should never be written in the first person, such as "I supervised and trained 2 employees"
Avoid using slang or trite expressions

PROOF IT
Use the spell checker on your computer to read for spelling and grammatical errors.
Such errors are the number one reason why a resume is thrown out.
Have your resume reviewed by another person.
(Career Center counselors, friends, family members, faculty, and staff)

DO NOT INCLUDE
Personal information (age, height, weight, sex, health status or personal photo)
Names of references or salary history
Falsified or inflated information

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COMMON QUESTIONS

How do I write a resume if I've never had any work experience?
Don't under estimate the value of your educational experience!
Create an effective resume by highlighting your academic experiences and achievements. Your degree and related coursework are important qualifications that can meet the requirements for many entry-level professional positions. Activities might include related coursework, projects, presentations, volunteer experience.

I haven't worked because I've been so busy with my on campus activities!
Great! These activities count as experience, too. In fact, most of our On Campus Interview program recruiters tell us they look for extra-curricular experiences in a candidate. Your resume will focus on your accomplishments and responsibilities in your club or organization. On campus activities might include: student government, athletics, resident advisor, campus ministry, student newspaper, academic or cultural clubs, sorority or fraternity.

I went to SFSU and I have four years of volunteer experience but no REAL experience!
A paycheck is not proof of related experience. Your demonstrated skills and experience as a volunteer count just as much as any paid professional job. Help the reader to understand your responsibilities, as well as the impact, results and the contributions, you made in the volunteer positions(s) you held. Your volunteer experiences can usually be included under the Work Experience section of the resume. In turn, both unpaid internships and volunteer experiences, on or off campus, should be included on your resume.
Examples of such experiences are: Habitat for Humanity, Big Brother/ Big Sister,
American Red Cross, Associated Students, International Business Club, etc.

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To write an effective action verb statement, follow these three steps:

PROBLEM, ACTION, RESULT (PAR)

1.PROBLEM or SITUATION: Identify the problem or situation that needs to be improved.
2.ACTION: Describe the action you took and what skills you used.
3.RESULT: Describe the result. Whenever possible, quantify your result with a number.

The following is an example:

Coordinated a walk for breast cancer which raised over $2,000

The action verb statement is effective because it identifies the situation (Breast Cancer Walk), it describes action (coordinated) and it describes a quantifiable result (raised over $2,000).

Examples of other action verb statements:

Designed homepage and electronic mail distribution list for local club and increased member participation at club events by 20%
Managed retail outlet and increased sales volume by 25% in the first six months
Promoted from sales associate to assistant manger within five months of initial hiring

For a (pdf) Action Verbs List click the link

A reference can come from a favorite professor that you have had and received a good grade from in his/her course, from a university staff member that has mentored you, a current or previous work supervisor, or a coworker that has experienced what it is like to work with you in a school or volunteer project.

You would need to include the following:
1. Mr./ Ms. Name of reference, Title
2. Company/Organization
3. Street Address
4. City, State, Zip Code
5. Phone number
6. Email

Add a brief description of your relationship with the reference and in what capacity he/she would be able to speak to your relevant past performance.

Example of reference:

Mr. Jack Brewer, Director of Customer Support
Jack Brewer Corporation
1000 Van Ness Blvd, SF, CA 94122
(415) 555-1212
Jack@brewer.com

Mr. Brewer was my direct supervisor at Jack Brewer Corporation. He can attest to my customer service skills and interest in continuous learning. Be sure to touch base with your references regularly throughout the job search process. Let them know what type of position you're aiming for as well as the organizations you have in mind. Help them think through what they should highlight about your skills and accomplishments so that it's clear that you fit the bill for the job you're interested in. Don’t forget to let your references know of your successful outcome and be sure to thank them profusely! References play a critical role in a successful job search.