Resume Content
Resumes should be strategically organized to highlight your most significant qualifications and experiences. The following are typical categories you may use to organize your resume:

Identifying Information
You must provide your full name, address, phone number and email address at the top of your resume. If you have ONE address, it should be centered at the top of the page. If you have two addresses during the year (i.e. school and home or permanent) they should both be listed at the top (see sample resumes for formatting suggestions). Be sure to remove the email “hyperlink” on your printed resume.

*IMPORTANT*: Make sure that any answering machine or voicemail greeting is concise and professional – an employer doesn’t necessarily want or need to hear a minute of your favorite song or some other “inappropriate” greeting. Make certain to make any changes necessary to your greetings prior to submitting your resumes. Also be careful with any “signature files” on your email account – again, better not to have one than to have something which might reflect poorly upon you, or cause an employer to question your professionalism.

Also, make sure that your email address is professional. Using your school address will ensure this. Or, if you have some other form of web-based or provider-based email address, make sure that it is appropriate. For example: john_student@yahoo.com or pjs2323@msn.com are good examples of “appropriate” email addresses, while 2cute4u@hotmail.com or ptstud@aol.com are examples of the types of email addresses NOT to use.

Objective
Your resume should begin with an objective statement. This is the guiding statement that assists them in directing your resume to the appropriate person and helps them to understand your resume. This should be a short and succinct description of the type(s) of positions you are seeking. It is important to assess your own goals and make sure that they are well defined enough for an objective. Be careful to balance your statement between being too specific and too broad.

State the field(s) of work you wish to be considered for, you can be specific in job function (i.e. pharmacist, researcher, administrator) or by work area (i.e. physical therapy, clinical, research, retail)

Examples (full-time positions):

1. To obtain a position as an analytical chemist

2. Seeking a position in a retail pharmacy setting

3. To obtain an entry level research position

Examples (internships):

1. Seeking an internship in which I can develop my skills as a pharmacist

2. To develop my skills in biomedical writing through an internship
or part-time work experience

If you are distributing your resume at a job fair, you can make the objective statement a bit more broad, as you will be applying for multiple types of positions. If you are having a difficult time writing you objective statement, please come to Career Services for assistance.

Education
If you are still a student, or have recently graduated, you will probably want to list your education after the objective. Your education should be listed in reverse chronological order (most recent first) and should only include those schools from which you received or are planning on receiving a degree. You can also list your high school information if you are a traditional 1st year – 3rd year student.

Example:
University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia College of Pharmacy
Doctor of Pharmacy, May 2007
GPA 3.3/4.0

(GPA should only be listed if it is 3.0 or higher on a 4.0 scale)!

University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
Bachelor of Science in Health Psychology
Anticipated Graduation: May 2006

Experience
You can include employment, internships and academic credit experiences and even relevant volunteer experiences in this section. You can group your experiences by relevance (utilizing different section headings):

Pre-professional Experience

Experience

Additional Experience

Your experiences must be listed in reverse chronological format (most recent first).

It is recommended that you use bold-facing and italics to highlight you experience section, making it easier for employers to skim through.

Example:
Pharmacy Technician, June 2002 – August 2004
Eckerd Pharmacy, Sherman, IL
• (text describing duties)
• (text describing duties)
• (text describing duties)
Please see sample resumes for more examples.

Describing your experience – You want to tell employers what you did, learned and accomplished in your work experiences. SHOW the employers what you have done, don’t just TELL them. “Showing” is an active process using succinct phrasing that gets right to the point. Utilize “action words” as often as possible; this is a much more effective way of communicating what you have done. Please see the list of sample “action words” for examples.

Use a bullet format as opposed to paragraph descriptions. It is easier for employers to read and pick out relevant information when this format is used.

Example:
Research Assistant January 2003 - Present
University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
• Assisted faculty member with ongoing research project
• Prepared and set-up equipment in laboratory
• Maintained laboratory equipment

Skills/Accomplishments
In this section you should list computer skills, language skills (fluency in a second or even third language) and any specific technical, lab or instrumentation skills that you would like employers to be aware of. This section can also list accomplishments such as presentations or published material.

Selected Course Work
Here you can list any specific coursework that might not be implied by your major (do NOT include entry-level or general education courses that most other students have also taken). This is a good option of any special courses you have taken are directly relevant to the position for which you are applying.

Professional Affiliations
List any memberships in professional organizations such as APhA, APTA, etc. (nationally or state-wide recognized professional organizations who have a student chapter here at USP)

Honors and Activities/Extracurricular and Community Involvement
This can be a combined section or two different sections depending on how much relevant information there is. In this section(s) include academic honors (i.e. Dean’s List or USP Merit Award) and activities that you have been involved with. You should also list volunteer activities and community involvement in this section.
Only list those activities which show evidence of leadership, show communication skills and/or are relevant to your field. Try to avoid listing any organizational involvement which indicates religious and/or political affiliations (i.e. Campus Crusade or College Democrats) UNLESS these issues are directly related to a position for which you are applying. This might wind-up being off putting to a recruiter who does not share your views.

Other Information
The following items can be included in the resume if pertinent:

1. Foreign language ability
2. Military experience
3. Awards/achievements (may be included under Activities)
4. Publications, patents held or pending
5. Professional associations
6. Personal background
7. Personal attributes

Include these only if they are really relative to the job you seek. Remember, you want the employer to focus on your qualifications.

Resumes should end with a statement indicating "References Available Upon Request." Do not include names and addresses of references in the resume unless a job listing requests them

Career Services Department - Division of Student Affairs
University of the Sciences in Philadelphia
4140 Building, 600 S. 43rd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Phone: 215-596-7494/Fax: 215-596-7582