Recruiters often only look at a resume for 30-60 seconds. You must be able to get across who you are, your skills and experiences, and what you can offer to an organization in that short amount of time. You don’t want a recruiter to pass on your resume because you use a format that they are not used to or one that they can’t easily find information that they are looking for. Because of these reasons, we have one resume format that we recommended for all students in the A. B. Freeman School of Business called the Freeman Format.
The Freeman Format is a standardized, professional, one page, black and white resume format. We use this format because it closely matches the resume format of our peer business schools, it is the format that recruiters and hiring managers have told us that they prefer, and it is optimized to be ATS-friendly. An ATS, or an applicant tracking system, is software that companies use to collect information on candidates when they apply and evaluate them for their candidacy. Some of these ATS’s “read” your resume and the more clear and standard of a resume that you use the higher your chances are of moving forward for an interview. Additionally, sometimes employers ask us for a book of resumes to help them find candidates that match what they are looking for and making sure your resume is in the Freeman Format makes sure that your resume will be included.
Learn how to make a Freeman Format by using the Undergraduate Resume Guide or the Graduate Resume Guide. After you have made a resume in the Freeman Format, please upload your resume to Handshake for review by a career consultant (Click on your initials in the top right and then My Documents). Your resume needs to be approved by a career consultant before you will be able to use it to apply to roles in Handshake.
Occasionally there is room for flexibility in a resume format. Maybe you have many years of experience, have published a lot of research articles, or a company specifically asked for a different format of a resume. In that case, meet with a career consultant to discuss other format options.
