Sample Resumes

Undergraduate Students Just Getting Started

Haven’t yet participated in an internship or other experience related to your career field of interest? Consider going into greater detail about related courses, academic, volunteer experiences and/or leadership opportunities. The following example showcases the student’s project experience from a campus program as well as on-campus leadership experience.

Advanced/Later Stage Undergraduate or Master’s Students

Once you have accrued internship or other related experience, you will want to be thoughtful as to how you best fill the limited space on your resume. This example effectively highlights 3 internships as well as leadership experience.

Graduate Student Resume

If you are in a graduate program, you likely have more experience to share on your resume. You may have either a curriculum vitae (CV) or shorter resume depending on your career goals. CVs are used when applying for research related and faculty positions in academia while resumes are typically used when applying for jobs in private industry and nonprofit organizations.If you plan to construct a CV, you will want to reach out to faculty in your program for a strong sample of a CV in your specific field. The following example demonstrates how a graduate student can create a shorter, 2-page resume.

Veteran or Adult Learner Student Resume

If you are a career changer and/or have served in the military, you will need to think about how to market transferable skills from your previous career along with the new skills you are picking up through your studies at the university level. For veterans, it's important to avoid military acronyms and jargon as much as possible and pull out examples of transferable skills applicable to your new career field of interest. Quantify your accomplishments whenever possible and consider listing some related coursework from your current degree program, if applicable.

Sample Industry-Specific Resumes

It is important to research the field you hope to enter as some industries may have differences in terms of what is common on resumes and other application documents.  A few examples are included below:

Arts, Communication & Design

In many of these career fields, it is becoming increasingly acceptable and even advisable to add design elements to your resume.  Consider adding a pop of color, logo or other unique components to your resume. Having such a resume can further showcase your stated skills in using design software. Graphic design/art students may want to create a heavily designed resume, while students in public relations/media/advertising may opt for a lightly designed resume.   Despite the design elements, the same basic components of the resume are still very important: Use strong action verbs, quantify your results and focus on relevant experience first. The following 2 examples show how an art major and a communication/public relations major have effectively shared their unique skill sets by adding design elements to their resumes.

Performing Arts

Theatre, dance and music students interested in applying for performance-based roles may want to use a performance resume, which showcases previous acting, dance or music performance experience. For dance positions, height/weight are not necessary unless a specific height range is sought, in which case a dancer could just list their height. If you are majoring in the performing arts but interested in other industries (including arts management roles), you may want to check out the Beginning/Early College or Advanced/Later College resume samples instead. 

Federal Government

If applying to the Federal government, you will use a different format that is more extensive. The following example demonstrates some of these important differences. In many cases, you will build your resume into the resume builder on USAJobs.gov. 

Health & Sciences 

When applying for science-related positions, it can be important to clearly demonstrate specific technical skills in a section closer to the top of your resume. Depending on your background, you may want to highlight specific lab skills, computer programming languages or software skills you possess. This resume provides an example of how to leverage these skills on your resume.

For health students, you will want to highlight your related experience, which may include clinical experience and/or volunteer experience in the local community. You should also connect with the Reed-Yorke Health Professions Advising Office on campus to better understand the application process to premed and allied health graduate programs. The following example may give you some ideas for how to share this experience on your resume.

Technology & Data

For some fields, highlighting technical/programming/computer skills will be important. If you haven't had an internship yet, you want to make sure you still show your technical skills through relevant projects, whether they were independent or class projects.