Undergraduate Resume Guide

Looking at hiring from an employer’s perspective is the first step in writing a strong resume and launching your job search. Consider the knowledge, skills, and experience a is looking for. Highlight these key words throughout your resume as they relate to the job description. Even without much work experience at this stage of your career, you have acquired valuable skills and experiences from your involvement in class, sports, volunteering, clubs, and part-time work.
Resume Format
The Freeman School has a standard resume format we recommend for all of our undergraduates. This means selecting an easy-to-read font (Times New Roman, Cambria, etc.) and font size (10-12 point), setting margins of no less than a half inch all around, and organizing sections with descriptive headings on a single page. Unless you have earned significant experience in a specialty area recruiters prefer only one page.
Resume Templates
To start, either select a Word template below.
Resume Sections
The HEADING section features your contact information. Include your name, email address, phone number, city, state, and a link to your LinkedIn profile. It is not necessary to include your full street address, but we do recommend including your city and state. If you are applying to roles in your hometown, this is will let recruiters know you are local.
The EDUCATION section lists both your university (Tulane University) and school (A. B. Freeman School of Business), what degrees you have earned (or will earn), when you graduated (or expect to graduate), notable coursework relevant to the position you are applying for, scholarships or honors, study abroad experience, and your GPA. It is okay to include high school if you are a first or second year student or if listing it gives you a competitive advantage with a company or recruiter (same high school, relevant location, etc.).
The EXPERIENCE section is where you describe your experience and accomplishments tailored to the job posting. Strong resumes use the STAR method to convey your value as a potential employee by providing a reliable format for showcasing your abilities.
- S = Situation. Describe a challenging situation that you encountered relative to a competency required in the job posting.
- T = Task. Describe the goal you were trying to achieve to overcome the challenge or situation. How does it relate to a quality described in the job posting?
- A = Action. What did you do to address the task, solve the problem or meet the challenge?
- R = Result. What was the outcome of your actions? Were your actions successful in helping you to obtain your goal and overcome the challenge? If the outcome was not what you or your organization expected, what lessons did you take away from the experience? Use numbers, dollars and percentages to quantify your achievements.
Add a LEADERSHIP or CAMPUS INVOLVEMENT section to demonstrate your leadership and involvement in campus organizations, sports, and clubs. You don’t have to have a leadership position in a student organization to list it on your resume. Tell us what you are
List any service projects or volunteer work in a COMMUNITY SERVICE section. Similar to your involvement in clubs and organizations, a lot of details aren’t necessary unless you were in a leadership role. You can also combine the leadership and community service sections into one.
In the SKILLS AND INTERESTS section on your resume, list technical skills like Excel or programming, languages you speak and the proficiency level, and interests that you have outside of school and work. Listing interests can make for an easy conversation starter during a networking call or interview and will show the employer that you are a well-rounded candidate with passions outside of just what you are applying to.
Next Steps
- Proofread
- Save your resume in PDF format and name the file using your first and last name. For example: Jordan McAlister_Resume.pdf
- Upload your resume to Handshake for review by a career consultant. Your resume needs to be approved by a career consultant before you will be able to use it to apply to roles in Handshake.
- Field test your resume with friends, mentors, family, and professors.
Additional Resources
- Shorten Your LinkedIn URL
- How to Format the Right Side Alignment Tabs
- Top 10 Resume Mistakes
- The Writing Center
- LinkedIn Learning Microsoft Word Courses
Resume FAQs
- Is it okay to have anything from high school on my resume? –> Yes. Especially okay for your first and second years at Tulane but as soon as you can replace an experience from high school with an experience from Tulane, make the swap.
- How do I get my resume to demonstrate interest and fit for an industry when I don’t have work experience in that industry yet? –> Through listing coursework relevant to that industry, getting involved in organizations related to that industry on campus, and demonstrating skills that are important to that industry in the bullet points for the experiences that you do have.
- Should I include both the Overall GPA and a Freeman GPA? –> If your Freeman GPA is higher than your Overall GPA, include both. If your Overall GPA is higher than your Freeman GPA, include just your Overall GPA.