Resume structure

SB1512

So I just graduated last Thursday (yay!) with my Master of Public Health Degree.  This is hopefully going to result in a career change for me, and I'm wondering how to best structure my resume.  I remember when I was in undergrad and we worked on resume building, we were told that when you just finish school and are starting out your education should go first, since experience is probably limited.  I'm wondering if that same logic should apply now?  I do have some experience in the area I want to go into (research, I've done an internship and a grad assistantship) so I'm wondering if the limited experience should go first, or the education, since I literally just graduated.

s-aries8990

For my just-out-of-undergrad resume, I led with my skills, then my education followed by relevant experience, then other work experience. I put my skills first because they were gained through both internships, work experience, and academic experience. Here's the outline mine followed

Name
address, phone, email

Skills
skill skill
skill skill

Education
College, location
Degree, concentration, minor
GPA

Relevant Experience
Internship      dates
title
description

Internship   dates
title
description

related job    dates
title
description

Other work experience
Job     dates
title
description


I'd google image search for resumes in the field you are aiming for and model it after one of those.

MuppetFan

I do mine as:

Skills
Experience (in order that they occurred in time)
Education
Refs

My CV is the most important part of my application. Think of that as the 2 seconds you get to make an impression regarding whether they look at the rest or not. Make sure the most relevant details are highlighted there.

If necessary, I rewrite resumes tailored to the job I'm applying for and make all experience relevant. I will remove things from my job descriptions or rephrase them (provided it is all accurate). I be careful not to remove too much because some skills may not directly pop out as being job-related, but they might show that you are well-rounded and thoughtful and capable of making strong decisions etc...

I'm confident you'll be able to fill out the Skills and Experience sections. Go look up job descriptions and resume examples for positions you would apply for and write down all the things that apply to you for skills.

Then look at how they word the experience and allocate those things to what you've learned in each internship if they apply.

In college, and for a few years after that, I used to get paid to write resumes. There's a lot of ways to do it. I suggest following examples of how people in your specific industry do it. If you want my example, I will be happy to share my resume with you, just PM me.

ETA: just finished what I was writing, it submitted too early.

tiny speck

I think especially with a Master's you should put education first on your CV, with work experience and skills following that. If you have any publications, put that between education and experience though.

ETA: In academia and some fields where advanced degrees are required, education and research/publications should always go first, in my experience. You want employers to know you have a Master's, right? So put it right at the top. That's the logic behind it.

rel1988

Do you have any relevent internships/jobs? My resume is structed:

Name/Contact Info

Work History

Skills

Education

References

This is how we were taught in resume workshops as an underground, unless you don't have as much experience in which case you would put Education on top.

MuppetFan

tiny speck said:

I think especially with a Master's you should put education first on your CV, with work experience and skills following that. If you have any publications, put that between education and experience though.

ETA: In academia and some fields where advanced degrees are required, education and research/publications should always go first, in my experience. You want employers to know you have a Master's, right? So put it right at the top. That's the logic behind it.

That's a good point. I work in Sales. Degrees are less important in my industry than experience. I list my master's (in progress) below experience and it will stay there when I'm done, but I also have extensive experience and the only reason that master's is going to be necessary is if I go for advanced management positions...and it will be expected that I have it anyway.

tiny speck

MuppetFan said:

tiny speck said:

I think especially with a Master's you should put education first on your CV, with work experience and skills following that. If you have any publications, put that between education and experience though.

ETA: In academia and some fields where advanced degrees are required, education and research/publications should always go first, in my experience. You want employers to know you have a Master's, right? So put it right at the top. That's the logic behind it.

That's a good point. I work in Sales. Degrees are less important in my industry than experience. I list my master's (in progress) below experience and it will stay there when I'm done, but I also have extensive experience and the only reason that master's is going to be necessary is if I go for advanced management positions...and it will be expected that I have it anyway.

Yep, nothing wrong with that either Muppet. I guess it would help if we knew what kind of jobs OP is going to be applying for. Actually, in any case OP should see if her university careers counselors (or even some of her professors or advisers) can look over her CV and give her some advice.

MuppetFan

@stagemanager14 oooh love the new siggy.

SB1512

Thanks everyone.  My internship was research oriented at a planned parenthood, and in my grad assistantship I led both a quantitative and qualitative research study from start to finish (so IRB application, recruitment, data collection, data analysis, manuscript writing).  the research coordinator at planned parenthood restructured my resume based on what she prefers and had my education first, then my experience.  I'm applying for a lot of research jobs at one particular location (university and hospital) so I tailor my resume slightly for each position, but for the most part other than the department the position is listed under, the job description is essentially the same.