Bio-Data

Resume or Curriculum Vitae (CV)

The Curriculum Vitae serves as a good supplement to your statement and other application materials. Here you can summarize all of your qualifications, honors, education and interests.

Before preparing your CV/resume, take some time to evaluate your skills and think about those skills you will want to highlight. Then make a rough draft. You can edit later. There is NO one ‘right’ way to construct a CV/resume. No matter how you do it, there is bound to be someone who would suggest a different approach. 

In this particular type the most reasonable format to use is Chronological Resume, which presents work experience/education in chronological order by listing most recent events first. The following are some general guidelines, please tailor them to your needs and create a resume which represents you in the best possible way.

What to Include?

Basic Information

  • Your name as you want to be referred to professionally (Jon Baker, Jonathon Edward Baker, Jon E. Baker)
  • Current address and phone number with area code (where you can be reached now!)
  • Your e-mail and web-page if you have one
  • It is not necessary to include other personal information such as Social Security Number or Marital Status

Objective

Including an objective in this type of resume is optional. Career objective should answer this question, “What do I want to do?” Some example objectives are:

  • Acceptance to graduate program in Physics
  • Research position in biochemical laboratory

Educational Background (for each degree conferring institution)

  • Institution
  • City, Country
  • Dates attended or graduation date
  • Degree or certification obtained
  • GPA (if proud of it)
  • Major/minor/emphasis area
  • Relevant coursework
  • Specialized instruction

Experience

This part of your resume may include several sections such as work experience, volunteer experience (internships, community service, student teaching), campus leadership and any other area in which you may have significant experience, such as computer knowledge.

Briefly describe for each position

  • Title, dates, organization name, location
  • Responsibilities
  • Use action words and verbs in active form to describe situations and achievements
  • Include scope of responsibilities
  • Concretely outline any outstanding results

Honors/Activities/Leadership/Special Skills

Front load these with those most important or most pertinent to your objective. You may want to use specific headings such as professional organizations, computer skills, and leadership positions. Include any honors, scholarships or recognition awards that you’ve received. If you were actively involved in any clubs, teams or committees while in college, those may be included also. The key to this section is keep it brief. If you feel you need more detail, use the guidelines for Experience and make it a complete section.

Interests

List some your interest which show you as an interesting and well-rounded person.

Layout

  • is limited to 1-2 pages, unless you have extensive work or educational experiences
  • uses white space consciously and balances words on the page
  • is laser printed on quality paper (20# white)
  • uses consistent visual elements to attract attention and emphasize highlights (bold, italics, underlining, font sizes, bullets)
  • use standard sans serif typefaces such as Helvetica, Futura, Optima, Universe, Times (not 10 pt.), Palatino and New Century Schoolbook, in size 10-14.

Writing quality

  • is clear and concise (easy to read and understand
  • is consistent, using similar style throughout
  • uses a variety of action verbs which describe situations and actions
  • is perfect! Absolutely no typos, spelling errors, or grammatical errors
  • uses appropriate tense (usually past, unless currently in activity)
  • avoids passive voice