Resume Review Checklist - Student Teaching Candidates
BEFORE submitting your resume to the Career Design Center, have you done the following?
General
- Reviewed the resume resources provided by The Career Design Center, including resume samples, slides, and video clips
Contact Information
- Included your name, address (city and state ONLY), phone number, e-mail address, and customized
Certification
- Listed your anticipated certification area as the first section on your resume (after contact information and before education)
- Noted that you are a "candidate for" this certification area since you are still working to fulfill the requirements
- Verified the wording of your anticipated certification area based on the degree you are working toward using the »Ê¹Ú²©²ÊÍøÖ· Education Certifications and Degrees chart on The Career Design Center website
Education
- Included institution name, location, degree, anticipated date of graduation, major/minor/concentration
- Considered adding GPA, honors, awards, accreditation, study abroad
- Verified the wording of your anticipated degree/major using the »Ê¹Ú²©²ÊÍøÖ· Education Certifications and Degrees chart on The Career Design Center website
Experience
- Grouped related and relevant experiences near the top of the resume to gain notice
- Included your teaching experience prominently (i.e. observations, practicums, etc.)
- Divided your experiences appropriately using relevant category headings
- Organized your experiences in reverse chronological order (most recent first) within each category
- Included the name of the organization/school district, specific school title, location (city and state), position title/grade level, and dates for each experience
For example:
York Central School District, Restof, NY (Fall 20XX)
3rd Grade, York Elementary School
- Used bullets to describe experience in a specific and concise way - showcasing skills, results/accomplishments, and supporting details (i.e. what type of classroom management strategies did you use, what were the specific topics of the ELA lessons you taught, etc.)
- Started each of your bullets with a strong action verb and used a variety of action verbs throughout - see Career Design Action Verbs (pages 9-11) for ideas
- Listed the most relevant action statements first for each experience
- Wrote the bullet in past tense (i.e. taught) if the experience is complete or present tense (i.e. teach) if still involved in the experience
- Used jargon of your field (i.e. differentiated instruction, IEP, inclusion, learning standards, etc.)
Skills
- Incorporated only certifiable, testable, or measurable knowledge or skill sets like language proficiency, computer programming, teaching technology, etc. within the skills section
- Demonstrated non-quantifiable skills like teamwork, time management, leadership, etc. within experience bullets rather than listing in the skills section
Overall Presentation
- Reviewed your resume for grammar/spelling errors
- Reviewed your resume for consistent formatting and layout throughout:
- Is the space filled without feeling crowded?
- Are tabs and margins consistent and aligned?
- Are font size, bold, italics, underlining, spacing, etc. coordinated?
- Used a header indicating your name/page number on only the second page (if resume is longer than 1 page)