To create a targeted resume, first identify your job target. If you’re unsure, work with one of your designated career advisors to clarify what path, career, or industry you’d like to pursue.

Avoid using a broad, generic resume as this will not effectively market you to potential employers.

Instead, your resume should:

• Highlight your skills and abilities for a specific job rather than serve as a chronological list of all your experiences.
• Selectively showcase previous experience that is aligned with you targetted job.
• Use bullet points to detail accomplishments in volunteer roles or leadership activities
• List the most relevant duties first within each position you include on your resume.
  • For example, if applying for a writing position, emphasize writing tasks even if they were minor.
• Avoid copying job descriptions; instead, focus on tangible accomplishments, such as saving money or improving efficiency.
  • This shows potential employers how you can bring value to their organization.

When first putting together or editing your Curriculum Vitate (i.e., C.V.) there are several common categories that are included.

Common CV categories

Contact Information

List your name, address, email address, and telephone number, institutional address, and current department address where you are working or completing your degree on your CV to demonstrate your continued affiliation with the university.

Bonus Tip: Include your name at the top of every page. That way, individuals reviewing those materials will easily remember who it is they are reading about for a potential position.

Education

For graduate students and PhDs with less than two or three years of experience beyond your degree, your educational background comes next because it is your primary qualification.

Then list all other degrees in reverse chronological order.

Dissertation

Include the topic of your dissertation, and a two to five line description of the work, and the name of your advisor and the members of your thesis committee if appropriate.

Honors/Awards/Fellowships/Grants

List your awards in reverse chronological order.

Publications, Presentations, and Folders

List your awards in reverse chronological order.

Professional Licenses or Certifications

Organizations where you are a member and offices or committee memberships if any.

Teaching Experience

You may wish to add some specific detail about your teaching experience, including:

• If you ran sections or labs associated with a course.
• Grading experience and course assignments you developed.
• Lecture experience (including guest lecturing).
• How much you contributed to the syllabus if you were assisting rather than leading the course.

Research Interests

These should appear in reverse chronological order.

• Works in Progress: Projects or research you currently worked on that is not ready to send out for publication.
• Research Interests: Areas of interest and future research topics.

Professional Affiliations

Any organizations, offices, or committee memberships where you are an active member.

Professional Training

Courses or seminars attended on topics such as pedagogy, quantitative methods, computer applications, or other areas related to your work.

Other Professional Experience

Include additional experience if it is somehow related to the desired position.

Professional Service

List committee assignments, appointed or elected academic positions and other service organizations or groups you participated in.

References

Use a separate page, and include all useful contact information: address, phone, and email.

The type of letter you write will be directly related to what you are hoping to accomplish.

If you are writing a cover letter for an opportunity you learned about through a contact at the company, then will need to construct a Prospective Cover Letter.

If you are writing a cover letter for an online job, internship, or co-op applicatio, then an application letter is more appropriate.

When job searching, in addition to cover letters, there are several other pieces that are often included in your job searching package (depending on if you are looking to work in academic or industry).

This can include things like; Letter of Inquiry, Informational Interview Request, Thank you/Follow-up Letter, and more.

There is no one way to build your network, and that’s because your network will likely not all come from the same place. Rather, there are several tools and locations graduate students can use to build their network here at UMass Lowell.

Students can also work on building their network at professional conferences, events, and resource organizations

Interviewing is an important skill that is often learned and practiced over time.

While a resume can land you an interview, a great interview(s) is what gets you the job.

There are many things you can do before, during, and after an interview to successful present yourself as a candidate.

Outside of job specific questions, there are some common questions that graduate student may encounter during the interview process, including sometimes questions that are illegal that you do not need to answer.

In situations where students are interested in learning about a particular role or company where they may or may not have a previous connection, using the process of an “informational interview” can be quite effective.