Résumé & Cover Letter Guide
A résumé is a document that is used as a personal marketing tool to convey your relevant skills and experiences to a particular audience. You will use a résumé at all different stages of your collegiate career including applying to part-time jobs, on-campus leadership positions, internships, graduate school programs, full-time jobs, and more. If you do not have an intended use for a résumé at this time, it is still recommended you create one as early as possible in your college career. Doing so will allow you to use it as a road map that can help identify skills you already have and which ones you want to develop throughout your time at UConn.
Use the links below as a guide to building or revising your résumé as well as tips on how to construct your cover letter and tailor it to your audience.
Types of Résumés
There are different life stages of a résumé and no two résumés will ever look the same. So how do you know where to begin? By understanding your audience and making your document appeal to them.
Types of Résumés
Constructing a Résumé
A typical reader only spends about 10-15 seconds skimming a résumé. Therefore, it is important to make sure your résumé looks polished, presentable, and emphasizes the most relevant content in a way that best grabs your audiences’ attention.
Construct Your Résumé
Demonstrating Career Readiness
Your résumé should show the reader why you are the best fit for their opportunity. This includes demonstrating your level of career readiness as well as the transferable skills you possess.
Let’s talk about career readiness
Writing Bullet Points
Bullet point statements serve as personal sales pitches or impact statements that help a reader understand how your individual skills and experiences relate to the opportunity they are looking to fill.
How to Construct Bullet Points
Action Verbs
Action verbs are the part of a bullet point statement that demonstrate your transferable skills and career readiness aptitude to the reader. Effectively demonstrating your competencies and skill sets through carefully chosen action verbs can help set you apart from other applicants and increase your odds of being considered for an opportunity.
Lights! Camera! Action Verbs!
Résumé Templates
Choose a template that best fits how you’d like to organize the information on your résumé and enter your own content.
Résumé Templates
Applicant Tracking Systems
Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are software programs used by companies to expedite the recruiting process. ATS serve many functions but are primarily used to scan applicant résumés and highlight the most qualified candidates based on relevant key words, skills, experience, location, and more. The way you write and format your résumé can have a big impact on how successful your résumé will be at passing through.
Optimizing Your Résumé for ATS
Writing Your Cover Letter
A cover letter is a document that serves as an introduction to your résumé and provides the reader with additional context about your skills and qualifications when considering your application. Not only does it reiterate your enthusiasm and qualifications for the opportunity, but it also serves as mini writing sample which can be extremely helpful when applying for a position that requires strong written communication skills.
Constructing a Cover Letter
Résumé Sample Binder
The résumé sample binder contains sample résumés organized by content area and career interests. This resource also includes an undergraduate majors and corresponding degrees cheat sheet for résumés.
View the Binder
