Resume Checklist

Before printing or uploading your resume, use this checklist from ODU's Career Development Services to review it. 

Overall

  • Is your full name at the top of your resume in a larger and bolder font than the rest of the text?
  • Is your address, phone number, and e‐mail address current and correct?
  • Is your e‐mail address professional and is it one you check frequently?
  • Is your resume well laid out (i.e. not too many while spaces, but not too crowded either) with at ¾” margins on all four sides?
  • Have you used a consistent and conservative font throughout your resume?

Education

  • Have you placed your Education at the top of your resume under the Objective if you are a recent graduate?
  • Did you include your degree including major, your college or university, the city and state of the university or college, and the month/year of your degree completion?
  • Have you listed your GPA if 3.0 or above?
  • Have you listed academic honors‐Dean’s List, Scholarships, etc.?
  • Have you listed relevant/related classes and/or computer skills?
  • Have you included work on class projects, study abroad, etc.?

Work Experience/Employment History:

  • Have you considered a Related Experience section for positions applicable to the one you are applying for?
  • Have you listed job positions in order of relevance to the employer?
  • Did you list your position title, employer, city and state, dates of employment?
  • Did you use bullets to make important points and did you begin each phrase with a powerful action verb describing your accomplishments?
  • Have your included only skills important or relevant to the type of position you seek?
  • Could an employer quickly scan your resume and find a number of key words and action verbs to easily grasp a picture of you as a worthy employee?

Skills

  • Have you considered including computer or language skill section if applicable to the position?
  • Have you included any certificated that are applicable to the position?

Honors/Awards/Activities/Volunteerism:

  • Have you included those that demonstrate important abilities or characteristics in the workforce?
  • Did you remember to prioritize (by dates or by relevance)?
  • Have you included leadership positions?
  • Have your included work on club projects and expressed your participation as you would a job?

Is your resume?

  • Free of typos, spelling, and grammatical errors?
  • Organized and prioritized to demonstrate the skills employers need?
  • Full of appropriate action verbs and work specific nouns?
  • Easy for an employer to visually and electronically scan (no major underlining, no odd symbols)?

Does your resume?

  • Match the specific qualifications stated by the employers in the job description?
  • Focus on achievements, particularly on these directly related to job specific skills and qualifications?
  • Emphasize your education, internships, relevant work experience, course projects, community service, leaderships activities, professional affiliations, and/or technical skills?
  • Use bold and all capital letters appropriately to emphasize your name, headings, job titles, and contact information?
  • Have personal pronouns or “I” statements? (i.e. “I assisted…”, “I developed”) If so, remove them.
  • Make you proud to show your resume to everyone?

Next Steps

  • Have CDS staff review your resume.
  • Print clean/clear copy on Professional resume paper.
  • Include references on a separate piece of paper, using the same heading found on your resume.
  • Upload your resume to Careers4Monarchs.