purdue cco resume review

Career Planning; Resumes

By Amruta Inamdar

Center for Career Opportunities, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN

View Presentation

Additional materials available (4)

Licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 .

• Supporting Docs

Write a review

0 Like 0 Dislike

Zeyang Yu @ 12:06 am on 16 Apr 2024

5.0 out of 5 stars

This seminar, from Amruta Inamdar, provided an insightful and comprehensive guide to career planning and resume writing tailored for graduate students. She emphasized the strategic purpose of resumes - not just to list qualifications, but to secure interviews by effectively showcasing relevant skills. Inamdar introduced the "bullet formula" (verb + task + purpose/method/result), a methodical approach to compellingly articulating professional skills. The presentation was highly interactive, using true/false questions to increase engagement and simplify complex information.

In the seminar, key resources such as the myCCO portal and the Purdue Writing Lab were highlighted, providing students with practical tools to prepare for the job market. Inamdar addressed specific concerns of international students and provided strategies for personal branding and negotiating job offers. Overall, the seminar served as an invaluable resource for students looking to refine their resumes and effectively navigate the complex job market. I also had experience attending myCCO resume workshops and found it really helpful in terms of tailoring my resume for specific role I was trying to apply for.

Reply Report abuse

Please login to vote.

Yi Xie @ 12:32 am on 07 Dec 2023

This presentation clearly illustrates that what does CCO do in Purdue and how it can help students build the resume and provide other resources. For my personal experience, myCCO is very useful when I was seeking jobs. There are several opening jobs listed on CCO that we can apply for and these companies have the partnership with Purdue so that they are more tend to hire a graduates from Purdue.  

There are other resources that we can use from CCO website such as look for the list of companies that provide sponsorship to international students. I always go to the website and find the companies on this list and apply for jobs. I also got a job from the listed company. 

In terms of resume modification, I have made three appoinments with CCO, and it was very helpful. The students in CCO gave me very constructive advice on how to modify my resume. I also used CCO to have a job search strategy meeting, where I met the consular and she gave me many tips on how to find the right job for me. Overall, this is a very good presentation showing students the power of CCO and we should use it as a resource when we look for jobs. 

Hanlei Gu @ 4:09 pm on 05 Dec 2023

The seminar by Amruta Inamdar covered crucial aspects of resume creation, emphasizing its purpose as a tool to secure job interviews by showcasing pertinent skills and experiences.

When I create my own resume, I just downloaded some templates from websites. These templates look nice in chronological order. However, when I adapted it to suit my own experience, it looked empty. Mrs. Inamda pointed out that chronological format, with the most recent position listed first, suits individuals with a clear career path, while for a student like me, who does not have a lot of work experience, the functional format that emphasizes relevant skills and experiences, proves to be more beneficial.

Content-wise, the seminar stressed the importance of including only relevant information. Because my resume looked empty and pale with chronological order, I tried to spam as much information as possible, like course I have taken, project presentations. This information, as Mrs. Inamdar said, is not going to help me finding an interview; on the contrary, it may make the resume hard to read.

The Bullet Formula, comprising verb + task + purpose/method/result, was introduced as an effective way to structure accomplishment statements.

Overall, the seminar provided a comprehensive guide for crafting a compelling resume, empowering participants to present themselves effectively to potential employers.

Also, the seminar is very engaging, involving interactive questions and quizzes.

Joo Min Kim @ 12:13 am on 04 Dec 2023

Amruta Inamdar's seminar provided valuable insights into the resources offered by the Center for Career Opportunities (CCO), as well as effective resume writing techniques. She gave information on the CCO and its beneficial offerings, including GRIP and the Purdue Writing Lab, which are particularly helpful for graduate students starting on their job search journey post-graduation.

One of the informative elements of the seminar was the resume-writing, particularly the 'bullet formula'. This formula, which involves a combination of a verb, task, and the purpose/method/result, offers a strategic approach to articulate experiences in a concise and impactful manner. This method is especially useful for developing a strong personal brand and making a resume stand out.

Amruta Inamdar's presentation skills were great, especially in terms of audience engagement and clarity. The slides were well-organized and focused, making it easy for the audience to grasp the key points. The interactive elements, like the true or false questions, were not only informative but also effectively kept the audience engaged and involved. Overall, the seminar was well executed, offering practical advice and resources for students preparing to enter the workforce.

Joo Min Kim @ 12:11 am on 04 Dec 2023

Hyunseung Kim @ 1:47 am on 16 Oct 2023

This seminar(Career Planning; Resumes) gave me general information about what Purdue CCO does and how to improve my resume. First, the CCO helps with all aspects of career planning and exploration and work with students to identify students' strengths, interests, and career options. Secondly, concerning resumes, the seminar provided me with the understanding of their overall purpose, best practices in terms of formatting and structure, and the essential bullet point formula, all of which are key components in writing effective resume that resonates with potential employers. In summary, this seminar helped me refine my resume and learn about Purdue CCO. Moreover, the lecturer facilitated easy comprehension by incorporating communication methods like true/false questions and interactive activities with the students.

Gemma Rufina Kennedy @ 10:53 pm on 27 Apr 2023

The seminar, “Career Planning- Resumes” by Amruta Inamdar provides information about Purdue’s Center for Career Opportunities (CCO) and useful tips and suggested formats for resumes that would enhance one’s job search.

Amruta highlighted, though an interactive quiz, that the CCO at Purdue is not only open for undergraduate, graduate and Postdoc students but is also open to alumni. The Purdue CCO helps with career planning & exploration, helping students identify strengths, interests & career options. She shared the various resources that the CCO at Purdue provides- career appointments, mock interviews, workshops, career fairs, career closet and resume guidelines.

Some of the resume guidelines and tips that I found insightful are as follows:

• Employers look for candidates with transferable/soft skills like leadership, communication, and teamwork, more than technical skills.
• Resume format can be of 2 types- Chronological & Functional. The chronological format works well for candidates that have a straightforward path to their potential job role and is generally the format followed by most students. The functional format focuses on skills and experience more than chronological work history. This format is more suitable for candidates that have career changes or gaps in employment.
• Make the resume formatting simple- suitable font and font size with no color, and ensure that the resume is readable even from a mobile phone since majority of the hiring managers tend to review resumes via their phones.
• Resume is not a comprehensive list of one’s experiences. Only relevant professional experiences need to be included in the resume to show the employer that you are a streamlined candidate.
• The suggested resume order should have the most relevant & important information towards the top, and least on the bottom. Following this logic of drafting a resume would ensure to capture the employer’s attention right from the start.
• When using bullet points, following the Bullet formula- Verb + Task +Purpose/ Method/ Results would ensure that the most important and impactful details of one’s professional experiences are highlighted adequately.

Overall, Amruta gave multiple effective resume tips that are quintessential to a job search. One addition which would have made the session better- showing examples of chronological and functional format resume would have helped understand the significance of the formats better. Nevertheless, all of her tips were extremely insightful and helped outline the characteristics of a good resume.

Pranav Kumar Anandarao @ 8:04 pm on 25 Apr 2023

The presentation began by discussing the importance of having a strong and polished resume in today's job market, and emphasized the fact that employers often receive hundreds of resumes for a single job posting, and that a well-crafted resume can help a candidate stand out from the crowd. I liked how she then went on to highlight the services offered by the CCO, including resume reviews and critiques and also stressed the importance of taking advantage of these resources, and encouraged students to visit the CCO early and often during their college careers rather than at the last minute. The tips provided by this presentation were also very good, and had a lot of good intuitive reasons behind why we should be following them in our own resume. This included guidance on formatting, content, and language, as well as advice on how to tailor a resume to a specific job or industry. Overall, this presentation was very informative and engaging, and provided valuable insights into the role of the CCO in helping students create effective resumes. It highlighted the importance of taking advantage of the resources offered by the CCO, and provided practical advice that students can use to create resumes that will help them stand out in a competitive job market.

Abhinav Kaushal Keshari @ 11:50 am on 09 Apr 2023

The seminar was informative about the resources available on campus for career and some excellent feedback for resume writing. The speaker ensured the lecture was engaging and captivating throughout.

The content covered how CCO provides good help in resume writing/editing regardless of the period of your degree and helps career for different domains. The presentation pointed out the critical difference between a resume and a CV. It covers the idea that a resume is specific to a job and should be tailor-made for the role we are interested in. It also covers situations when someone wants to change a field of study and how the experience can still matter when we look at transferrable skills. It makes sure to point out that it's good to have bulleted information in the resume, with each bullet being a maximum of two lines and should be presented in a way which covers tasks and results. 

Lastly, the seminar discussed the benefits of engaging with CCO to build a resume as it helps build out the strengths required for a job. It also brings out the topic of engaging with faculties/past employers to formulate the results of the research or work done and thus also raises the question of CCO being confidential in this sense as it should be a healthy discussion on shaping a career when the senior people involved in working with an individual can help out with the results and impact to give better insights.

Ruoyao Li @ 4:37 pm on 05 Mar 2023

This lecture Career Planning; Resumes gave me a general idea about how to improve my resume.

First of all, CCO is an organization at Purdue University that can help with individual career appointments, finding job search strategies, and other information. From Amruta Inamda’s speech, we know that most employers looking for people who have the ability to communicate with people, who have the ability to work with a team, and the ability to solve problems.

The purpose of our resume is to get an interview by showing our skills and experiences that are relevant to the job we want. In research, many recruiters read resumes on their mobile screens, so it is important to make our resume easy to read, for example, we need to pay attention to the font size of our resume.

It is also important to have relevant information on the resume, such as internships, experiences, education, etc. That information is suggested as relevant to the job position. She also suggested the resume should follow the below order: Contact Information, Objective, Education, Patents, Skills, Experiences, Publications, and/or Honors. Here is another tip for the resume, the most relevant and important information towards the top and the least on the bottom!

Last but not the least, she suggested using a verb at the beginning of the sentence, and then telling the purpose or method, or result at the end.

Overall, this presentation was important to me and I know the direction to improve my own resume.

Harshini Budhi Lakshmanan @ 3:10 pm on 09 Dec 2022

4.0 out of 5 stars

I enjoyed this seminar a lot. This is because the presenter made the seminar very interactive and fun. There were a lot of pauses for the audience to participate and a lot of true/false questions, which kept the seminar very interesting. Apart from that the presenter also talks about how to write a resume in a methodical sense. She gives a lot of perspective from the recruiter's point of view which backs up why we are supposed to write the resume a certain way. She also explains the different services provided by the CCO and her friendly composure is allowing the students to approach her/CCO for future help. 

Zhaorun Chen @ 4:37 pm on 28 Nov 2022

I will be looking for a job soon and this seminar has been a very valuable resource for me. First of all, it made me realize the importance of CCO. In fact, I had no idea that CCO would do such a good job for students, especially when it comes to resumes. I am not a native English speaker, so CCO helped me a lot on my resume and let me know more about the US job market, such as communication skills and teamwork are very important qualities for employers to choose candidates. The most important part, and my favorite part, is the resume. The resume must have a clear goal, which is not only to demonstrate skills and experience, but also must be relevant to the job I want. A good format should focus on relevant skills and experience and be easy to read. It's not a good strategy to list all the skills that aren't relevant to the job you want. It's very important to list experience, not only to say that you have these skills, but also to convince HR that you actually have them. The speaker mentioned the "Big Four" - location, duration, organisation and location. Finally, the speaker gave calculus formulas for experience and writing skills. It really helps me a lot, it's easy to use, works really well, and it makes my resume clearer and neater. Special regards to Amruta Inamdar for a very good workshop that will not only help me but all the people watching this video.

Ebtehal Alenezi @ 4:00 pm on 27 Apr 2022

ECE694 class focuses on resumes a lot, in this seminar the presenter was very interacted. She backed her seminar with a lot of statistics. I like the way how she didn’t go over an old resume and fixed, rather than doing that she explained how to write the resume from scratch. The presenter talked about Purdue CCO facilities and how to take advantage of them since we are students here. The talk listed out all the services of CCO. Listening to how the presenter present why create a resume and in what order to present information in, also the format and how it looks, and finally the content that needs to be included in the resume. This seminar is a great place for someone to watch and start to write the resume when they have zero idea. Then build up the resume from there.

The presenter talked about the core four and it is a very interesting form to representation information. The bullet formula was useful. The formal way to write verb + task + method + result is an easy way for someone to understand what is being explained in the resume; this also helps with minimizing the sentences to describe a specific job or project. Finally, the speaker made the seminar vey fun and engaging and describes everything in an easy way for everyone to understand.

Ravi Abhishek Shankar @ 1:40 pm on 25 Apr 2022

The talk by Amruta Inamdar mainly briefs you about the various resources offered by the Purdue Center for Career Opportunities. The focus of the rest of the talk is mostly on resumes. Resumes are important, but the resume itself will not lead you to getting the job, it is only a step in the direction. The purpose of the resume is talked about from the perspective of the recruiter. Then she talks about the format and content. One may follow a chronological format, or a functional format, typically when one is changing their field of expertise. A formula is given for writing out the bullets in the resume, maintaining the format makes reading easier. Examples are presented wherever appropriate to drive home the point. One must consider readability on smartphone screens, which seems to be the preferred medium by recruiters on which to read resumes. This was not something I had considered when preparing my resume. In conclusion, the talk is fun and very helpful, especially if you are preparing your resume.

Fangrui Qin @ 2:49 pm on 21 Apr 2022

Amruta Inamdar's resume workshop was very well organized and useful, and she focused on two topics, CCO services at Purdue and resume writing. I think many students are not aware of the vast career opportunities offered by CCO services, and she clarified some misconceptions students have about CCOs, which can be very helpful.

The most important point that Ms. Amruta pointed out at the beginning was that CCO is a lifetime service, which means that it is available to everyone, something I never realized before. She also talked about the common concerns of graduate students and how to address them, and she did so in a clear and intuitive way, which would make her point quickly clear to the audience. And in the second half, Ms. Amruta focused on resumes, emphasizing the need for four core elements in a resume: position, duration, organization, and location. The richness of the resume content in this presentation was unparalleled, and it had many meaningful details.

 Ms. Amruta was very clear and pertinent, I agreed with her and she gave me a lot of insight. Her presentation was informative and there were mini-games in between to keep the audience engaged. All in all, it was a good seminar.

Yi-chen Lin @ 2:39 am on 19 Apr 2022

There are three main in this lecture: (1) what the point of view of the employer and candidate are, how to remark your strengths and the structure of a resume. (2) speaker mentions how the CCO can help you to improve your profile. The speaker uses an interactive example to see if a job attracts someone and explains what the employer is looking for in any candidate. (3) The speaker explains how importance resume is, gives a general structure of how it should be organized and what content it should contain. She emphasizes that there are many structures the structure she gives is not the only way and it depends on several factors like at what point of your career you are.

Overall, this presentation is very useful in future career. Moreover, I was quite attracting by the style of the speaker. It is a good way to make interactions with students by asking true or false.

Joseph Anthony Zullo @ 6:54 am on 10 Dec 2021

This was one of the best presentations I have seen in this series, and I think it's much better than the other resume segments. The speaker was very funny and presented in a highly engaging way. The presentation was extremely interactive, and the speaker was constantly interacting with the audience, reacting to everyone's responses, and checking in that everything made sense. The speaker is clearly very experienced as she lays things out clearly, has good hand and body language, speaks around the room, and uses helpful visuals. The information provided is very relevant and helpful and I will be able to design better resumes as a result. For anyone deciding between the various resume seminars, I would recommend this one out of the bunch. 

Kyeonghoon Son @ 6:10 pm on 08 Dec 2021

The seminar started with introducing what CCO (Center of Career Opportunity) is. Through true and false questions, it stuck in my mind that Center of Career Opportunity is not only for undergraduate, but also for graduate student, helps with all aspects of career planning and exploration, no limited value in visiting Center of Career Opportunity, work with us to identify the strengths and interests and kept in secret. Then, the presenter started to talk the resume such as purpose of resume, format of resume, content, order and etc... 

Overall, the seminar was very helpful to me because I was not aware of the existence of CCO and by knowing the CCO from this seminar, I might be able to utilize that facility to develop my career plan. Also, information about the resume was very helpful and I would recommend other students to watch this seminar. 

Folk Narongrit @ 6:04 pm on 06 Dec 2021

This seminar is well-managed and effective because the speaker talks about CCO and resumes. All the common interests of graduate students are also mentioned in this video. She has engaged the audience to its fullest extent and grabbed readers' attention. She talks about the true and false exercises regarding resumes. The importance of a resume cannot be explained best than in this video. Overall, this is an excellent presentation that adds a lot of value to the lesson. The speaker knows and caters to the audience's requirements, while also engaging the audience to keep them engaged. I think this presentation most useful for graduates who already have experiences with resume writing. For students who may not have the experience, it may be wise for them to turn to Purdue's CCO.  I will highly recommend this seminar. 

Mustafa Goksu Ozlu @ 4:01 pm on 06 Dec 2021

This presentation mainly focuses on writing a resume and purpose of it. It starts with making some points clear about what it means and what it does not. It is underlined that a resume only gets you to the interview, it is key to get to the door, but you will get the job by showing skills and experiences, and performance in the interview. The format could be chronological or functional. You should make it easy to read no fancy formatting, not much colours, only include the things that are still relevant to the job you want.

Amruta also highlights some of the core things on a resume; each job experience should have four cores such as position, duration, organisation and location. The relevance of the experience should be given in bullets including verb, task and purpose/method/result. She also makes it very clear that content, and order are critical.

The rest of the talk is ornamented with questions, interactions, and questions and answers with the audience. She briefly talks about the career service and services they provide.

Swaathi Shri Thiruvallore Thattai @ 3:11 am on 06 Dec 2021

‘Career Planning; Resumes’ seminar by Amruta Inamdar was very well-organized and useful as the speaker talks about both CCO and resumes. She starts by introducing CCO, various services offered and resources available. She uses interesting True/False method of conveying useful information. She also talks about the common concerns of graduate students and how they are addressed. The speaker has included exercises which makes the seminar more interesting and keeps the audience engaged. Moving to resumes, the speaker starts with the purpose of resumes and how they are important to show the skills and experiences relevant to a particular job. Next important aspect is the format of the resume, that is chronological or functional, and how readable it is. She then covers the content of a resume and a suggested order for the same. It was very useful to know about the core four information that are to be listed for every experience and verb+task+purpose/method/result format. She concludes with more interesting True or False exercises about the resumes.     

Srinidhi Murali @ 12:56 am on 05 Dec 2021

The lecture on Career Planning Focus: Resumé S by Amruta Inamda mainly revolves around two topics, namely, CCO services at Purdue University and Resume writing.

CCO services at Purdue University offers a treasure trove of career opportunities while many of the students are unaware of it. Only through this presentation I got to know about some useful opportunities which I never knew before. The speaker presents few of the many helpful services of CCO in an interesting manner. She projected them in a true/false questions template. This way of presentation highlighted the general misconceptions about CCO services and clarified the same.

She moved on to present a chart on what employers look for in a candidate and rated the skills in order of importance as might be viewed by the employers. This was highly insightful as I understood that good communication was a major lookout for employers.

The next part of the lecture dealt about resumes. Her viewpoint coincided largely with Cyndi Lynch’s lecture on ‘Resumes Develop your message, tell your story’. This correlation further underscored key points like making information on resume relevant and crisp.

She winded up the lecture with a true/false template content on resume writing. I liked her whole idea of using true/false questions often to convey some commonly misconceived perceptions. I felt this was a much needed lecture for students especially in their initial years to be aware about early career opportunities and how to prepare for them.

Charulatha Narashiman @ 9:17 pm on 19 Sep 2021

The presentation on Career Planning by Amruta Inamdar is split into two parts, the first part on CCO and the second part on building a Resume. The interesting part of the presentation is that she starts off with True/False questions that made me realize that CCO is open to Purdue Alumni as well. The graduate student’s concerns she discussed clearly reflected mine. She portrays the expectations of employees and how CCO can help students in Mock Interviews, Classroom Workshops, and Job Search Strategy conversations.

Amruta follows that with how should graduate students prepare themselves in personal branding, networking, and market knowledge. She then focusses on the Resume, which is the most important section of the presentation. Six aspects encompass a Resume and they are Purpose, Format, Content, Order, Core Four, and Bullets Formula(skill statement). She then explains each aspect broadly with examples. She explains the importance of making a Resume readable and adding relevant details to it. 

Core Four for every experience must be put on Resume: Position, Duration, Location, and Organization. Bullets Formula includes the Verb, task, and purpose/method/result. It becomes very clear with the example she provides. I am definitely going to incorporate these two points in my Resume. Amruta again ends her presentation with questions and additional resources that students can look up to. 

Overall, the presentation was very useful and informative. 

Charulatha Narashiman @ 9:16 pm on 19 Sep 2021

Zian Wang @ 11:38 am on 30 Mar 2021

This presentation was done by Amruta Inamdar. In the first part of the presentation, the speaker introduces CCO and provides details on how the organization can help an individual.  She also talks about the most important skills that employers are looking for. The most surprising aspect is that most of the employees are looking for more communication skills and good relations compared to employees who can influence others. I always thought the two qualities were inseparable.

The second section which I considered as the most important in the whole presentation is the aspects of the resume. In this section, the speaker shares common thoughts with Mr. Luzader about the qualities of the resume in that it should contain relevant information rather than just a summary of your experiences. The order of resumes as discussed in this section indicates that resumes should contain four key aspects in the experience section. These are position, duration, organization, and location.  I always knew of the first three but I always ignored the location bit. According to Inamdar, a resume should contain nine key sections in the following order, heading, objective, education, certifications, skills, experiences, publications, and honors. It is worth noting that this order should be maintained for consistency in the flow of ideas in the resume.  These are key insights that graduates should be aware of when applying for new job positions.  This information will help me in reorganizing my resume and eliminate some of the irrelevant sections such as wordy content about experiences among others.  The speaker is conversant with the area of her presentation and engages the audience in a manner that keeps them entertained and contributes to the presentation.  The richness in terms of resume content in this presentation is unmatched.

RAHUL JAIN @ 2:56 am on 02 Dec 2020

This lecture contains two parts. In the first part Ms. Amruta gives an overview of the CCO services and in the second half she talks about resumes. The most important point she points out in the beginning is that CCO has lifelong services that means all can use it even alumni which most of the people don't know. She starts well by explaining the services that CCO provides, what is the right time to go etc and how and in what manner CCO can help an individual. She presents the weighted average rating of the skills that the employer looks for in the employee which is very informative and tells the importance of the skills. 

In the second half, After 20 minutes she talks about 6 aspects of the resumes that are Purpose, Format, Content, Order, Core Four  and Bullets Formula. She presents the order of the content that should be present in the resume starting from heading and ending to honors & professional associations. She explains most important information in making the resume and also the reasons why it is important.   

Ms. Amruta speaks very clearly and to the point. She engages the class well by funny questions and activities. Most important point is the slides which are clear and informative. Good use of the symbols etc on the slides. Overall the content was very informative and concrete and is helpful for both someone who already made the resume and someone who is starting to make the new one.    

Shenglei Mao @ 11:38 pm on 01 Dec 2020

I think this is a good lecture that describe what CCO can. It clarify some of my misunderstanding of CCO. And also I have learned a lot about what resumes need to pay attention to. Many of these are details, but the so-called details determine the success or failure, so it is very important for me to pay attention to details. This talk says that you don't need to be very specific, you need to use a lot of templates to create a variety of resumes, and the focus of or make it comply to the company or the job you're applying for. In addition, keep your resume in a clear and concise format rather than a fancy one. It's also said that resumes tend to have the most important things at the top and less important things at the bottom. Of course, the major take away from this lecture this is alumni can go CCO as well. This is a very helpful information since I am going to graduate soon. I checked the data of the video is 2016, hope CCO still open to alumni in 2020.

Akhil Prasad @ 8:09 pm on 29 Apr 2020

The main focus of the presentation was the content of the resume. The speaker, Amruta Inamdar, started off the presentation introducing CCO and the services offered by them. The true/false sections of the presentation helped in keeping the audience engaged and so did the little game of guessing the job.

It was good to know that the CCO offered their services to alumni as well – this was something I was unaware of. Once again the importance of highlighting the skills learnt through various positions of responsibility was made clear in this presentation. Knowing the difference between a chronological resume and a functional resume was important and this poses an important question to be tackled – which kind of resume will suit me the best? The styles or plans of named – “Core Four” to present our experience and “Verb + Task + Purpose/Method/Result” to present our projects and accomplishments in bullet points – are valuable tools to be followed while framing our resume. The speaker ended with a second series of fun true/false questions and presented some additional resources which I could take advantage off to make myself a suitable candidate for the industry.

To summarize the presentation was informative and the little games in between kept the audience engaged.

Weicheng Wang @ 11:41 am on 20 Apr 2020

I like the lecture because it gives another view of how a resume is reviewed, and based on CCO, what is the most important part of a interviewee. The style and the format of the lecture is cool. By keep asking True and false questions to inspire the students and make them remember the important notes of the lecture and keep the students on focus.

To my personal opinion, I was shocked that the role of CCO is quite different from what I thought before. I thought CCO is an important role in a company who is responsible for hiring and recuruiting new employees. CCO may be very carefully involved in the hiring procedure and make sure everyone hired is in need. However, actually, CCO is more focused on the managing things, and most of their work is confidential. But CCO of course is not that far away to meet, the sooner we have discussion with CCO, we will benifit more.

Overall, I like the lecture very much. It has a really cool style and a lot of meaningful details.

Peyton Holm @ 12:33 am on 06 Dec 2019

This was a fantastic presentation by Dr. Inamdar. She spoke with great confidence, at a good pace, and was overall entertaining. The series of true/false questions, although sometimes the answer was intuitive, was a great way to keep the audience engaged throughout. 

Although the focus was on resume building, the most important part to me was the statistic in the beginning that showed what skills employers value the most. For most engineers, "relevant technical skills" is far and away the most important, since it's what we spend all of our time doing. However, this skill was towards the bottom, with communication and teamwork type abilities towards the top. This stat was for bachelor entry level jobs, so the results are a little different than what they would be for a graduate student, but the point is not lost. I need to focus much more on these other "softer" skills.

The resume section was helpful for fine-tuning a resume. Often times, they appear as a list of abilities and previous work, when this should not be the only goal. An emphasis was put on tailoring a resume towards a certain job, not only listing relevant experiences, but also the purpose of the work you performed.

Sudharsan Sundaram @ 11:34 pm on 04 Dec 2019

 A very good overview of what services the CCO provides the students. There are several misconceptions that are cleared in the initial part of the presentation, for eample, I had always thought CCO is for undergraduates, I came to know that is available even for our alumni. I attended the CCO and spoke with a consultant. The learning was enormous.  

Several points were highlighted in the presentation.  Resume has to be in a readable format and being fancy is not always the norm. The examples discussed in the presentation are very helpful. 

In the session, I got an individual focus from the consultant. They went through my resume and made great suggestions. I would like to point out some important suggestions. Edit your resume and personalize the content for different companies. The contents should be neither too specific nor too vague. I applied the formal verb+ task+ purpose method to write the bullet points. Include all the experiences in chronological order. Must visually appeal and easy to read in small screens. I am working on these ideas and hope I will be selected for an interview! 

Lucas Michael Cohen @ 4:40 pm on 24 Nov 2019

This was an interesting presentation by Dr. Inamdar.

She begins by introducing the Purdue CCO, which is helpful as I would assume most new ECE graduate students were not Purdue students and there probably isn't another avenue by which they could be introduced to the CCO than this. I was informed that the CCO holds programs for students to improve their professional profile as well as provide guidance in terms of career path and interviews. I will be sure to keep the CCO in mind when I begin looking for a job.

After the CCO introduction, Dr. Inamdar spends the majority of the lecture discussing misconceptions about resumes and things people have been doing wrong in the past. Specifically, she mentions that a resume is not just a list of your accomplishments. Rather, it should be tailored to include relevant experiences for the opportunity you are applying for. In addition, she mentions that there is a strong difference between a CV and a resume, and a resume should be only one page. She then explains how your information should be easily identifiable and lists some strategies regarding that.

Overall, I enjoyed this lecture - however, just beginning my graduate career - it is hard to find immediate use in structuring my resume. I am not planning on leaving graduate school anytime soon and plan on adding lots to my resume over the coming years.

Vianney A. del C. Filos-Gonzalez @ 11:23 pm on 12 Nov 2019

The format of the presentation was very interacting and easy to follow. The inclusion of the many True or False questions both at the beginning and end of the presentation made it easy to engage with the audience, and make sure that information had been understood. 

Some of the main take aways from the part of this presentation about resumes:

• Keep in mind that a resume is not a comprehensive list of your experiences, rather it is tailored towards the job/company you are applying to, though it is not necessary to have dozens of super specific resumes for every different job/position. 
• Keep the formatting readable over fancy.
• An objective, if included, should be concise and neither too vague nor too specific, you don't want to narrow yourself too much.
• When ordering, keep the most relevant and important toward the top, least at the bottom

The presenter also provided information on resources available through Purdue's CCO for resume building and job search advice, as well as additional resources available on campus. 

The one thing that I can't recall if it was emphasized at the beginning of the presentation, is that this suggestions and strategies with respect to resumes are particular to the U.S., and in an university with such a diverse international student population, they should be aware that things may be different in other countries. 

Matthew G Gaydos @ 5:44 pm on 24 Oct 2019

The presentation by Dr. Amruta Inamdar was delivered extremely well. She did a phenomenal job of engaging the class and ensuring that she consistently had everyone's attention by utilizing engaging questions, as well as asking us to compare our current resumes to several of the points she was making.

In addition to being engaging, Dr. Amruta also provided a wealth of tips for improving my resume. I realize now, after listening to her describe several of the common errors of resume, that I was in fact guilty of some of these issues. For example, I have my resume organized with far too broad of categories, and it would be wise to take her advice and split my resume into more specific sections. For example, rather than experience, I should perhaps create a category for networking experience, and a category for communications experience. Also, her bullet point guidelines are something that I would like to implement into my resume. By ensuring that each bullet point contains a verb, task, and a purpose, method, or result, I can effectively and tersely communicate to a recruiter the information I am trying to convey.

In addition to resume help, Dr. Amruta also provided a great overview of the services that the CCO offers. Although I have been a student here for quite some time, I was still not aware of several of the services the center provides. For example, I was unaware that I could go to the CCO and simply discuss options regarding what to do after graduation. This seems like a service I will likely make use of in the future.

Although I thought the presentation overall was great, I think that critiquing resumes of engineers, particularly graduate students, may be difficult for someone outside of even the discipline of engineering. There are so many specifics, and industry/academia may expect different levels of detail on the resume. Dr. Amruta touched on this, and mentioned that she recommended going to a faculty adviser or professor to obtain more information regarding specifics of formatting and details within your resume.

All in all, the presentation was still very beneficial, and I came away with several important lessons learned that I plan on using to improve my resume, as well as my time at Purdue via the CCO.

Juan Antonio Kim Hoo Chong Chie @ 10:02 am on 19 Sep 2019

Dr. Amruta Inamdar made this presentation very interactive, she shows that she likes to interact with people and she use this in a positive way. Thanks to this presentation I learned about CCO, which before this I didn't know it exists and I've been a Purdue student for a couple of years now. 

The lecture can be divided into three major parts: what the point of view of the employer and candidate are, how to remark your strengths and weaknesses and the structure of a resume. In addition, Dr. Amruta mentions how the CCO can help you to improve your profile, regardless if you already graduated from Purdue. During the point of view part, she uses an interactive example to see if a job attracts someone and explains what the employer is looking for in any candidate. The last part, Dr. Amruta explains the importance of a resume, gives a general structure of how it should be organized and what content it should contain. She emphasizes  that the structure she gives is not the only way to use, and that it depends on several factors like at what point of your career you are. Moreover, she remarks that the content of the resume may vary from one job application to another, since the employers might be looking for different sets of skills.

But, since I watched Tim Luzander's lecture "Resume Writing Strategy" (found in: https://nanohub.org/resources/20346 ) before this one, I feel that Dr. Amruta's lecture share a same common deficiency: lack of multiple resumes examples. This is particularly true for Dr. Amruta's lecture since she also goes thru the process of career planning, not only resume strategies. However, after seen both lectures and comparing them, I can determine that the lack of multiples examples is due to the limited time they have to go thru all the material they need to show. In particular, this two lectures combined will give a valuable set of tools and concepts to write effective resumes.

Keshav Raheja @ 1:42 am on 06 Dec 2018

I liked the how Dr Inamdar presents the talk. It does look like a really engaging one. She starts with highlighting the roles and facilities at the CCO which quite frankly, I never knew spanned such a wide umbrella. The major focus however remains resume structuring. It is here I found most of my answers to resume formatting which were only mentioned in passing in the rest of the talks I had an opportunity to see. I got to experience an interviewer’s perspective and what it feels like to read tons of resumes. I really liked how Dr Inamdar brings out the sad truth that a resume only enjoys a minute of attention. So, it ought to be really good at capturing all our skills and experiences in a concise manner. I also realized the interviewer may be using a handheld device to scan through the resumes. So the resume should be easily readable on small screens. Many other pointers like highlighting text, using bullet points, efficient use of white spaces, were mentioned in order to make the resume visually appealing. All in all, it was a enlightening seminar.

Reshef Elisha @ 3:01 pm on 27 Apr 2018

Overall, this lecture is a very enjoyable watch and easy to folow. The presenter's energy and speaking skills are clear to see and very engaging.

I appreciated the fact that the beginning of the lecture brought up the Purdue CCO and its resources, with tips on how to make better use of them. I have found that many students, including myself, are not aware of the full extent of the resources of the CCO, and especially not to the extent which the speaker covered. As this talk is aimed at engineering students I'm sure I'm not the only viewer that enjoyed the fact that topics brought up were backed up by stats.

The topics covered in the resume section of the talk, in my opinion, are very much necessary to bring up and it is good that the speaker did so. Many resume talks get carried away trying to explain the basics of building a resume from scratch, wasting time talking about which experiences are good and which are unnecessary when building a resume. While the presenter did cover similar topics, she did so at a depth that allowed her to also speak of format and order of a resume, which are arguably more important than the content itself. Finally, I think it's very neat that she mentioned the "Why?" of writing a resume, or even edit an old resume.

Overall this is a fantastic talk and adds a lot of value to the class. The speaker understands the audience's needs and caters to them, while making sure to engage with the audience to keep them interested.

Qinghua Li @ 3:49 pm on 23 Apr 2018

This presentation talked about the resume, which is necessary in the career planning.

The first part of the presentation looked more like the advertisement of CCO. However, thanks to the advertisement, I know what I can turn to when I plan to schedule my future, no matter I am undergrad or graduate student. Furthermore, the CCO can help not only resume reviews, but also all other aspects of career planning.

Instead of teaching us how to write a resume from scratch, the second part talked more about how to polish a resume. For examples, how to rank all the experiences, how to select the useful ones, and what to include in each experience. I learned that I should put most relevant and important experiences at the top and that each experience should contain four core parts with a specific bullets formula.

I think this presentation is more useful for students who already have some experiences. For students whose background is not strong enough, it is better to turn to the CCO. As they said, they will help to identify a student's strengths, interests and career options.

Overall, this presentation is very useful in career planning. Moreover, I like the style of the speaker. It is a good way to make interactions with students by asking true or false. My only complaint is that the presentation didn't include enough professional examples for us to learn.

Ren Li @ 9:38 am on 16 Feb 2018

I really like this lecture, expecially the speaker. She is funny and interesting. The talk is full of humor.

The speaker used a section named "True or False" to start her talking. She asked the students to vote for the answer of the questions. This section plays an important role in the whole talk. It gives us a quick introduce of CCO and the topic of the lecture. From this section, I learned that CCO is not only for undergraduates but also for all students, it focuses on whole career planning, and your conversations there are completely confidential. What a clever advertisement for CCO it is.

The concerns she showed in the PPT are really what I care about, like "career options within and outside academia" and "how do I navigate the job market as an international students". This indicates that the speaker knows a lot about what we think as graduate students.

For the resume, several things I learned are: 1.Format: A chronological resume works well when you have a solid history or straightward pathto the job you are seeking. On the contrary, a functional resume is often used by entry-level workers or career changers or to explain gaps and employment. 2. Readability. We shiould make it easy to read. The fact, over 85% recruiters review resumes on tiny mobil screens, is pretty astonishing. Readabilty ia more important than "fancy". 3 Content. Do not make it a comprehensive list of all your experience. It is not a CV. The most relevant and important should toward the top; least on the bottom.

Now that the speaker said that CCO can do anything that you need for your job pursuing, self-knowledge/market knowledge, network, personal branding and negotiation, when I encounter some problem when preparing for seeking for a job, I will go there and find help.

Bharath Asuri Mukundan @ 1:33 pm on 07 Dec 2017

CAREER PLANNING; RESUMES BY AMRUTA INAMDAR

Bharath Asuri Mukundan (PUID:0029979690) 

The Lecture “Career Planning; Resumes” by Amruta Inamdar mainly focuses on Career Planning with particular focus on Resumes. It first goes on to list what exactly the CCO does and breaks few misconceptions like CCO works only on Resume review. She then goes on to instill confidence in students by stating that CCO is there to help everyone and the sooner we meet CCO the better it is for the candidate.

She starts off with an interesting activity to interact with students. Students are asked to say yes or no to the job offered at hand as she spells out the Job description. Based on the activity, she beautifully explains how peer pressure and other circumstances affect one’s choice.

Then she jumps to the section where the discussion is about what exactly are the recruiters looking for like people skills, willingness to learn and so on

This paves a good way to help students understand where exactly to begin and also give an overall picture of what to expect and what to improve to have a better career.

She then finally gets to Resumes and its contents

• Bullets Formula

She discusses clearly why one should write a resumes. Resumes are only to get the student to the interview. It is how we perform in the interview which matters the most. She then goes on to showcase how by showing skills and experiences that are relevant for the job wanted is important to impress the recruiter.

There are two types in here:

1. Chronological

2. Functional

Chronological : Easier to track work history and usually have a solid history

Functional: Focuses on skills and experiences. Used by people usually changing career fields.

Readability is important. Nowadays resumes are increasingly read by officials on Smart phones. So making it more readable is very important. These include appropriate font size, spacing etc.

Content should not be a comprehensive list of all our experiences. Only relevant information should be presented to the recruiter. Basically it should be resume and not an autobiography. It is okay to include Class projects, Internships (paid and unpaid) and other relevant experiences to the job we seek.

Heading and Contact info

Objective or professional summary

Certifications/Parents

Skill summaries

Experiences

Publications

Honors and Rewards

Usually the above order is followed in a resume. But deviation in some cases with genuine reasons are acceptable.

Position Duration Organization Location

Any experience or education should include these 4 core points. This will give a clear picture of what you were doing, when you were doing, where you were doing the task.

BULLET FORMULA:

Verb+Task+Purpose/Method/Result

All bullet points must follow the above rule. Starting with a verb and mentioning the task gives a vivid picture of what you were trying to accomplish in that particular duration. Finally Purpose/Method/Result tells about how and what you finally accomplished. All bullet points are preferably not more than a sentence but it is okay to have a couple of sentences but not more than 2 sentences.

She then finally concludes by giving a small True or False exercise summarizing the whole lecture and presents more ways to improve resumes through CCO.

Pushyami Rachapudi @ 2:27 am on 07 Dec 2017

 Resume is the topic of focus in multiple presentations through this seminar. Although most of the content overlaps, there is something new to learn in all of them. Apart from the common elements such as what the CCO is, what the employers are looking for, this talk has a great structure which discusses about topics backed up with statistics. This talk lists out all the services of CCO which was not covered in others. 

Most of the talks assumed a resume was already created and how to improve it, but this one starts from scratch. From why create one, to what order to present information in, the format and finally the content. This talk is a great place to start with for someone with zero idea. And then build up the resume through other lectures in this seminar. Core four is a an interesting and precise form of representation of information. Also the bullet formula is extremely useful. The formal: Verb + Task + Purpose/Method or Result is a very effective way to explain projects especially technical ones in the fewest lines possible. 

I really like the way the speaker presented. She is engaging, funny and has great intonation. The talk has a good logical flow and was extremely easy to understand.

Yeshani Wijesekara @ 3:35 pm on 06 Dec 2017

The video as a standalone lecture was great. It contained lots of useful information. However, this video series has multiple videos by multiple speakers talking about the exact same content this speaker presents in this lecture. So if you have watched them, this isn’t a very useful video.

I like Amruta Inamder as a speaker. She is clear, concise and engaging. One of the two topics she covers in this lecture is about utilizing the resources offered by CCO to help us plan the career. Her advice is to come to Purdue’s CCO as sooner in your student career rather than later. They help students figure out what their skills/strengths are so the students can figure out a career path that suit them best. The second topic is resumes. She goes over why resumes are important, what to include in them, formatting, order, core four (Position, Duration, Organization, Location), and the bullet formula.

Something I found interesting was that according to the statistics she showed, technical knowledge related to the job and proficiency with computer/software programs are not among the top five things that recruiters look for in a candidate. This may not be true for master’s or PhD’s but it was still amusing to see that for bachelor’s degree holders. She also mentioned that over 85% of recruiters read resumes on smartphones. This made me rethink my resume’s format because it will have to be adjusted to be more readable.

Qixin Deng @ 9:10 pm on 25 Jan 2017

I am now actually looking for a job and this seminar is a really valuable source for me. First it let me know how important CCO is. Actually I did not know CCO will do such a great job for students before especially on resume. I am not an original English speaker, so CCO helps me a lot on my resume and I gain more information of job market of America, such as communication skill and teamwork are very important qualities for employers to select candidates. The most important part and also my favorite part is Resume. Resume should have a clear purpose, which is not only to show the skills and experience, but also should relevant for the job I am looking for. A good format should focus on the relevant skills and experiences and easy to read, listing all of skills which is not related to the work you are looking for is not a good strategy. List the fact of experience is very important, not just say you have the skill, but also convince the HR that you really do. The speaker call the ‘core four’ – Position, Duration, Organization and Location. Finally the speaker gives bullets formula for writing experience and skills. That really does a great help for me, it is easy to use and really work nice, it makes my resume looks more clear and tidy. Thank Amruta Inamdar, this is a very sweet seminar and it will not only help me but also help every one who watches this video.

Rasika Kalwit @ 4:38 pm on 09 Dec 2016

3.0 out of 5 stars

I liked the way presenter interacted in this seminar. The resume writing topic is already covered twice in this series but this seminar had lot of audience interaction and I wished I could have attended this lecture to participate in the interaction. The presenter brings out a good point that in a survey from job recruiters ‘resume’ did not get that much importance in hiring process. Being said that resume is the only way to present you as a suitable candidate for the job position. I never realized that usually recruiters use their mobile phone devices to look at the resumes. So the resume should be visually easy to read on small screens. The presenter also provided information about Purdue CCO facilities and how one can take advantages of those facilities. Since I am graduating this semester I have used most of the facilities provided by CCO. I think the bullet formula for sentence structure in a resume is useful and it actually makes it easier for reader to understand your responsibilities in the job position/ project. Overall, it’s an informative yet fun seminar.

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Introduction to and Expectations for Résumés

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

What is a résumé?

A résumé is a brief document that summarizes your education, employment history, and experiences that are relevant to your qualifications for a particular job for which you are applying. The purpose of a résumé (along with your cover letter) is to concisely share relevant experiences and skills with a specific audience in order to obtain a role to which you are applying. This audience might include a potential employer, a graduate program admissions committee and, a committee for a scholarship or fellowship, among others . Given this, your résumé must be user-centered and persuasive.

What should it look like?

A general résumé should be a brief summary of your experience, so it should be as concise as possible—no shorter than one full page and no more than two pages (some specific kinds of résumés can be longer). Résumés differ from letters and papers in that they are written in a concise style using bullet lists rather than long sentences and paragraphs. A résumé is designed to be skimmed quickly. You should look at as many résumé examples as possible before writing your own. You can check our samples to see several different formats.

Though you may maintain a general résumé, you should tailor your résumés to fit the needs and expectations of each company and job position. To help tailor your résumé, collect as much information as possible on the organization and its mission/goals. Then collect information on the people who may read your résumé: human resources, decision makers, potential boss, etc. Finally, collect information on the job position and its requirements. When you know about the company, the audience, and the position, you can match your training and experience to their needs and expectations. Some people even choose to bold key words and phrases to draw the eye and emphasize words they feel the audience may be most interested in. This could be a software program or a soft skill, among others. However, don’t bold too many words, or it doesn’t become that emphasis and can be overwhelming. Please see the Audience Analysis page for details on collecting information on readers.

What should it include?

There are several sections that almost every résumé must have, including education, relevant experience, and contact information. Outside of these primary sections, though, the specific format and content of your résumé can be very flexible. The most important consideration when deciding on the format and content of your resume will be your intended audience .

What are the expectations for a résumé?

Readers have expectations about how a résumé should look. This allows for quick scanning, as many times your audience has seen many resumes.  For instance, your name typically appears at the top of the résumé and is usually the largest item. In addition, headers usually categorize the various sections of the text. Also, readers expect the information in your résumé to be accurate and correct. While it can be tempting to add the experience you think they want to see, it’s most important to be honest and explain how these experiences provided you with transferable skills.  Finally, your résumé should meet audience expectations for grammar and spelling and authentically express your understanding of your relevant experiences, keeping clarity and readability in mind. . Know that your résumé should be easy to read quickly and contain all necessary and pertinent information. The persuasive quality of your résumé depends on its usability.  You can make choices outside of the genre expectations, but know that this is a risk. If you want to be more creative, you may find that some audiences respond positively to your approach, while others do not.

Recommended Sections CONTACT INFORMATION

The contact information section is where you detail how potential employers can get in touch with you. Make sure all information is accurate and current. You should, at minimum, include your name, email address, and phone number. Many people also include a personal website and/or a LinkedIn profile. It is in your best interest to make sure your potential employers can contact you, so just be sure to provide contact information through which you can be most easily contacted. Physical addresses are less and less included for a variety of reasons including communication now takes place digitally and it can create unnecessary socioeconomic or cultural assumptions. 

Please see the Résumé Section pages for more specific information about each of these sections.

In the education section, state the highest degree you have earned and provide the following details.

• Institution where the degree was granted
• Date of graduation (If you haven’t graduated yet, it is common to put “Expected,” “Expected Graduation,” or “Graduating” before the date)
• Level of degree (B.A., M.A., etc.) and field (Electrical Engineering), any minors(English), and your GPA. You are not required to state your GPA, but it can provide your audience with a quantifiable assessment of your performance in college. Especially for current students, a strong GPA can go a long way for internship applications, research assistantships, and other entry-level roles. However, if you feel that your GPA doesn't accurately reflect your accomplishments in college overall, then consider omitting it. It is not a necessary component of every résumé , and tends to become less relevant over time .
• You may also choose to include accomplishments directly tied to your educational experience such as Dean’s List, study abroad, prestigious scholarships, prestigious honor societies, or any Greek honorifics. 

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE

There are multiple ways to frame one’s “experience,” and the appropriate frame for you might vary based on how far along you are in your professional career. If you are a senior in high school, a freshman in college, or a young professional at the very start of your career, you may find yourself with a limited amount of “work” experience, and this is okay. Depending on the role to which you are applying, volunteer experience, unpaid internships, research, and paid work can all serve as equivalent experience if they are all relevant to your desired field. If you find yourself with ample volunteer experience but little paid employment experience, for instance, you might consider framing all of your relevant experience under one single section head (e.g. “RELEVANT EXPERIENCE”) rather than dividing these different kinds of experiences into separate sections (e.g. “WORK EXPERIENCE” and “VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE”).

On the other hand, if you’re further along in your college or professional career and have a great variety of experiences to pull from, you might consider using more descriptive section headers. For example, if you have worked in a number of academic research roles and industry roles, you might consider highlighting this breadth of experience by including both “RESEARCH EXPERIENCE” and “INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE” sections. Other kinds of experience for which you might create a separate section include LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE and PROJECTS, depending on your background. These more descriptive section headers may also vary according to your intended audience, so it’s always a good idea to read through the description of the role first to see what kinds of experience are valued most.

For formatting, the  experience sections are usually broken down by organization or position. For each, provide the following:

• Name of the organization or project
• Location (example: Spokane, WA)
• Position title (examples: Intern, Research Assistant, Sales Associate)
• Responsibilities

Each role you apply to might require you to frame your experience in slightly different ways by emphasizing different skills, knowledge, or accomplishments you gained through your past roles. Even for past roles that may not seem directly related to your desired role,  you may want to emphasize transferable skills that you developed through the experience. In general, it is essential to keep your desired audience in mind as you develop your résumé, which may require you to create multiple versions through the application process if you apply to multiple roles at different organizations.

PUBLICATIONS & PRESENTATIONS

For a Curriculum Vitae (CV), publications and presentations are often seen as a premium because of their relative value within academia. Even beyond the CV, though, these products are desirable because they represent original work you have produced (or contributed to) and disseminated to a broader audience. The specific placement of these accomplishments within your résumé might vary depending on your intended audience. However, if you have published work, conference presentations, and/or other similar products that you have presented to an audience outside of the classroom or workplace, consider showcasing them with a specific section.

Optional Sections

In addition to the recommended sections, you may also want to include other relevant sections to provide a more accurate representation of your skills, knowledge, achievements, and credentials. These might include the following:

• Software Skills
• Soft Skills
• Honors, scholarships, and/or awards
• Languages (with proficiency level)
• Certifications and licenses
• Volunteer and/or service experience
• Study abroad
• Professional memberships
• Research Experiences
• Extracurricular activities

Objectives, Summaries, and Areas of Interests

Many summaries like to have a brief section below the header, before education, experience, and other pertinent sections. This can provide the reader with an even more parred-down section, encouraging them to read on. These are most effecitvely used when customized to the job. However, they are not necessary and do not necesarily make a document more successful. These sections come in three unique forms: Objectives, Summaries, and Area of Interest. 

Objectives have been around for quite some time and may be becoming less common. Thi is a brief statement that discuss who you are, what you offer, and what your goals are. It should be one to three sentences and give the employer an idea of your motivation. 

Summaries are short descriptions that highlight your most valuable skills and experiences. Instead of focusing on long-term goals and motivations, this highlights the most relevant experiences, qualities, and skills to showcase your strongest assets immediately. It is similarly one to three sentences. 

Area of Interests are most often used in higher-level positions and highlight specific areas within a field that you are most interested and/or experienced in. This emphasizes your specializations and unique takes on broader disciplines. This is sometimes written in prose form like the previous two, or sometimes written as a list, often formatted with semicolons between interest area titles. 

If you believe there is unique information about you that your audience needs to make an informed decision, you may create a section on your résumé to showcase that information. That being said, it’s important to keep in mind the other documents that you might be submitting for a role, like cover letters, transcripts, statements of purpose, etc. All of these documents, along with your résumé, work in conversation with one another to give a more comprehensive representation of you and your work. So, if you can’t find the space to put specific information in your résumé that is important to you, think through how you might represent it in those other documents. 

While the résumé is a highly formatted document, it should reflect what you think will convince your audience that you are well-suited for the role.

Accessibility Considerations

• Use sans serif fonts that are easy to read and place them on a white or cream paper/ background. Do not use a font size smaller than 11 point. 
• Provide digital copies so that they can be read aloud by software
• If you have any images, tables or graphs (these are extremely uncommon), make sure you have an alternative text that explains these for visually impaired readers. 
• You may consider submitting both a typical and large-print version

Tips & Advice

After creating a draft of your résumé, keep the following in mind as you work through the revision process:

• Verb use: Use strong, descriptive action verbs. Make sure to use past tense verbs for past roles, and present tense verbs for ongoing roles.
• Subordination: make sure the organization and formatting of similar information is consistent and logical across each section. For example, if you decide at the start that you want to list organizations/employers in bold and position titles/roles in italics, make sure to stick with that convention throughout each section. Your font styles should clearly convey the logical relationship between each piece of information within a section, so using these styles consistently is key.
• Spacing: Try your best to create a sense of spacing between each section. This will facilitate readability and allow your audience to easily locate the major components of your résumé quickly and easily.
• Concision: as a general rule of thumb, try your best to keep bulleted information to a single line, and make sure to only write one sentence per bullet point. See the Purdue CCO's "Writing the Resume" resource for a helpful, concise model for developing strong bullet points.

Job seekers at Purdue University may find value in the Purdue career Wiki here .

Go to the OWL homepage and select Professional, Technical, and Job Search Writing to find other cover letter and résumé resources.

For more information about how to develop a résumé, visit these OWL resources:

• Résumé Sections
• When to Use Two Pages or More
• Scannable Résumés
• Résumé Workshop
• Résumé Design
• Résumé Presentation
• Job Search Documents for Working Class Positions

• Skip to Content
• Skip to Main Navigation
• Skip to Search

IUPUI IUPUI IUPUI

• Why Biomedical Engineering at IUPUI?
• What is Biomedical Engineering?
• Is Biomedical Engineering Right For Me?
• Undergraduate
• BME 500-Level Course Schedule Rotation
• Faculty & Staff
• Student Achievements
• Contact BME
• Faculty Positions
• CGT BS Plan of Study
• scott-devine
• marc-dittmer
• matt-eckert
• tom-kraemer
• kevin-marshall
• rita-marley
• frank-murphy
• dan-sawatsky
• branden-stall
• shane-trowbridge
• tom-johnson
• amber-tansy
• mike-flaherty
• theron-skees
• monica-humphrey
• daniel-mastropietro
• nate-mcWilliams
• kasey-allen
• Laptop Program
• CIT BS Plan of Study
• Web & Software Development
• Data Management
• Networking Systems
• Information Security
• Cybersecurity BS Plan of Study
• 5-Year BS / MS in CIT
• Certificates
• Minor in CIT
• CIT Programs for Informatics Majors
• PoS MSCyber
• Plan of Study
• MS Technology: Flexible Option
• Grad Course Schedule
• Industrial Advisory Board
• Neil Program
• Stay Up To Date with CIGT
• Global IT Citizenship: China
• Global IT Management: India
• Course and Student Outcomes
• Folder Name
• What is ECE?
• Awards & Honors
• Advisory Board
• Undergraduate Computing in ECE
• ECE international students
• Artificial Intelligence
• BS/MS in ECE
• Purdue University Masters Program application for Admission
• Purdue University PhD applications, Indianapolis
• Graduate Certificate in Digital Signal Processing
• Graduate Certificate in Hybrid Electric Vehicle Technology
• Graduate Certificate in Power and Energy Processing
• Graduate Student Funding Resources
• Information & Forms for Current Students
• TOEFL OR IELTS Grades
• ECE Graduate Student Seminar
• Jafari Graduate Assistantship
• Minor in ECE
• Special Programs
• Student Employment Opportunities
• ECE Academic Policies
• Scholarships, Assistantships & Awards
• Student Organizations
• Student Advisory Committee
• Data Science in ECE
• Advisory Boards
• Industry Advisory Board
• Construction Management Certificate
• Medical Device Cybersecurity Certificate
• Biomedical-Related Program Names
• Minor in INTR
• Certificate in INTR
• Student Achievement Data
• Examples of Student Work
• INTR Laptop Program
• MET Laptop Policy
• MSTE BS Plan of Study
• Technical Electives
• Certificate in MSTE
• MSE- Motorsports Major
• Lean Six Sigma
• MS in Facilities Management
• MS in Engineering - Motorsports Major
• Non-Thesis Graduation Checklist
• Thesis Graduation Checklist
• MEE PhD Graduation Checklist
• MEE Overview
• Alum Testimonials
• 5yr_bseen_bsme
• APPLY BSEEN/MSME
• BSEEN/MSME Curriculum
• EEN BS Plan of Study
• Job Opportunities
• Is Energy Engineering Right for Me?
• EEN Student Resources
• ME BS Plan of Study
• BS/MS in ME Curriculum & Plan of Study
• Apply to the BS/MS in ME
• BS in Interdisciplinary Engineering
• BS in ME / BS in MSTE
• System Engr Certification
• Hybrid Electric Vehicle Tech
• Energy Mgmt and Assessment
• Computer-Aided ME
• Design Innovation ME
• MEE Advising
• Dean's List Policy
• Guidelines for Report Writing
• FE Exam and PE Licensure
• ME Student Resources
• Research Area
• Upcoming Research Seminars
• Recent Research Seminars
• Ph.D. Minor
• Curriculum and Plan of Study
• Required Courses
• International Leadership Certificate
• Leadership Studies Certificate
• Sustainable Technology Certificate
• Human Resource Management
• Honors Minor in OLS
• MS Tech - Human Resource Development
• MS Tech - Organizational Leadership
• Graduate Certificate in HRD
• Certificate in Engineering Leadership
• Project Management Certificate
• Certificate in TCM
• 5 year BS/MS
• Graduate Certificates
• MS Tech - Technical Communication
• Study Aboard
• Credit by Exam
• ePortfolio Option
• Exam-based Professional Certifications
• Military Transcript Review
• Prior Learning Assessment
• Graduate Research
• TCM Adjunct Faculty
• Ols Adjunct Faculty
• MS in Engineering
• MS in Technology
• Degrees Awarded
• Schedule an Appointment
• Transfer Students
• Incoming Freshmen
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Interviewing
• ET Careers-Handshake and Purdue CCO
• Internships and Co-ops
• Career Fairs
• Negotiating Offers
• Report Your Offer
• Graduate and Professional School
• Sponsorship Opportunities
• Hiring International Students
• Intern Program Best Practices
• Post A Position
• Mobile Device Security Standard and Safeguards
• Security of Data Classified as Critical Policy
• Disposition of Electronic Media
• Incident Response Policy for Information and Information Systems
• How to map a network drive
• Student File Storage
• Purdue School of Engineering and Technology Unix/Linux Resources
• Graduate Student Info
• 2024 Commencement
• 2023 Commencement
• 2022 Commencement
• 2021 Commencement Program
• 2020 Commencement Program
• Conference Travel Grant Information for Students
• Study Abroad Travel Grant Information for Students
• Students: Reserve Space
• Faculty and Staff Reserve Space
• 3D Printing: Reserve Time
• NEIL Program
• PLTL Courses
• Contact Us About PLTL
• PLTL Resources
• Petition for Readmission
• Scholarships & Awards
• Engineering and Technology Student Council
• Study Abroad
• TCM Writing Center
• University Library
• High School Students
• Adult Learners
• Home School Students
• International Students
• Veteran Students
• Scholarships & Aid
• Meet Our Students
• Women in Engineering
• Graduate Programs Information
• PhD Applications
• Doctoral, Master's, and Graduate Certificate Applications
• Faculty Research
• Certificate Students
• Butler University
• University of Tehran
• Atlanta University Consortium
• Salary Statistics
• Request More Info
• Schedule A Visit
• Centers and Institutes
• Initiatives
• Faculty Labs
• Student Projects
• Office of Development
• Youth Programs
• Project Lead the Way
• Dean's Welcome
• Vision & Mission
• Strategic Plan
• Dean's Industrial Advisory Council
• Annual Report
• Visitor Information

Purdue School of Engineering & Technology

• Student Services
• Career Services

Your resume is a marketing tool designed to land you an interview.  Make sure it does its job well by reading below and by watching this two (2)  minute video to learn the basics of resume making.

Resume Reviews are a Necessity

Have your resume reviewed by professionals!  Engineering and Technology students can have their resumes reviewed by the Office of Career Services in multiple ways. 

• The fastest way to have your resume reviewed is to stop by the  Technical Communication Writing Center located in ET 199D to have your resume reviewed on the spot. 

We have drop-in hours on Mondays and Thursdays from 11AM-1PM and Wednesdays 11AM-2:30PM.  Stop by ET101 with a copy of your printed resume and we will give you instant feedback. 

• Crafting a Resume
• Action Verbs for Resumes
• Sample Resume Template
• Finally, you can email your resume to [email protected]  and we will respond with feedback within two weeks. 

Click here for our favorite resume advice

Resume Samples by Major:

Biomedical Engineering

Computer and Information Technology

Computer Engineering

Computer Engineering Technology

Computer Graphics Technology

Construction Management

Electrical Engineering

Electrical Engineering Technology

Energy Engineering

Healthcare Engineering Technology Management

Interior Design Technology

Mechanical Engineering

Mechanical Engineering Technology

Motorsports Engineering

Music Technology

Organizational Leadership and Supervision

Technical Communication

Cover Letters

Should you submit one? YES!

Cover letters give you a chance to introduce yourself, briefly explain why you want to work for the company and more importantly, why they should hire you.  It also reflects your communication ability and serves as a writing sample.  The cover letter should interest the employer enough to want to continue reading your resume.  You should submit a cover letter with your resume except for in-person events like a career fair.

• Keep it short. No more than one page and 3-4 paragraphs.
• Make it specific. Employers do not want to read a template. Tell them why you are a fit for that job at that company.
• Include a header and a signature. Match the header from your resume and include a signature line with your name and contact information at the end.
• Stay professional. Avoid the temptation to be cute or gimmicky. Professional and polite always wins.
• Market strengths and fit. Use keywords from the job description to show them you are a good fit for the position. Lead with your strengths and highlight them.

State the position you are applying for and where you found the posting.  Express your interest in the opportunity and any specific reasons for your interest. 

If someone within the company told you about the opportunity, this would be the place to mention their name.  Just make sure they are okay with you doing this!

What would the Hiring Manager want to know if you only have five minutes of their time? 

In the body of your letter, you need to tell them why you are a good fit for the job and the company.  Emphasize specific examples of your education and experience that relate to the job description.

This is the time to sell your skills and abilities and tell them what makes you professionally unique from the other candidates. 

Be sure to include details from your background that apply most to the position. 

The Closing

The closer paragraph should be strong and short.  Reiterate that you feel you would be a good fit for the position and that you would love to discuss the opportunity further.

Tips and Advice

• Proofread so that there are ZERO grammar/spelling errors.
• Have Career Services review your cover letter.
• Save the cover letter you use for each position so you can refer back to it if needed.
• Use keywords in your cover letter that will show you have the skills they are looking for.
• Don't regurgitate your resume. Highlight the most important and relevant parts for that particular job or company.

Click here for a cover letter example

During the interview process you may be asked for your references. Click here to see best practices.

Thank You Letters

After you interview, you should plan to send a thank you note. Click here to find out more.

Curriculum Vitae (CV) Assistance

Sometimes you will be asked to submit a CV. Typically these are used for careers in higher education or when you apply to positions in other countries. Click HERE  and scroll to the bottom of the page for details on how to write them. 

Schedule an appointment

Purdue School of Engineering & Technology social media channels

Additional links and resources.