College of Fine Arts Career Center: Drama

Scannable Resumes
Career Objectives
Alternative Headings
Action Words
Sample Resume

Scannable Resumes

The resume is the first impression an employer receives about a candidate and serves as a student's marketing tool. Students are encouraged to carefully write a resume that clearly and concisely describes pertinent information about skills, experiences, and career goals. This may include creating a few versions of a resume which are tailored to specific career areas. Since a resume is made up of sections that help employers learn about the candidate, please know that some sections are essential, while others are considered optional. There is no one exact way to write a resume. Even though you can get ideas from many people and many samples, you must decide what best communicates the most important information to an employer. Getting feedback from potential employers prior to the job search is recommended.

Content:

Keep it to one page in length if you can; advanced degree students and candidates who have worked for several years may require more than one page. If more than one page, make sure your name is at the top of the second page.
Include items that are most relevant to and supportive of a career goal.
Consider including a career objective to show self-awareness and commitment to a field.
Order items so that the most relevant items appear first.
Use action verbs and highlight achievements, quantifying results if possible.
Avoid abbreviating names of organizations, titles, and descriptors.
Include both campus and permanent address, if applicable, so employers can easily locate you.
Include e-mail address. You may include home page address if showing sample work, but be certain all aspects of your home page are suitable for employer viewing.

Format:

Be sure it is easy to read with clean, simple line and reasonable use of white space on the page. Artistic resumes should not be overdesigned, saving the portfolio for showing work.
Use light-colored paper, standard 8 1/2 x 11."
Print only on one side of paper if a two page resume.
Use font size that is readable, typically no smaller than 10 point or larger than 14 point (name may be up to 32 points, if desired.)
Use formatting, such as boldfacing, underlining, and italicizing sparingly. Do not use two special formats in one phrase.

Additional Tips for Computer Scannable Resumes:

Some companies are scanning resumes into a computer to create searchable databases. Whether you need to produce a scannable resume will depend on your employer targets. Some studies indicate that about half of mid-sized companies and most large companies use this type of system.

Use sans serif fonts (such as Arial and Helvetica).
Make sure your name is the first readable item on each page appears on its own line.
List your phone number on its own line.
Focus on nouns and verbs that describe your skills, experiences, education and professional affiliations. Computer scanners are programmed to search resumes for key words that describe the requirements for a job. You may include action verbs for sentence flow and human eyes, but make sure you have also included numerous key words such as writer, French (language fluency), BS, Java and Society of Technical Communications.
Use common headings such as: Objective, Education, Experience, Employment, Positions Held, Accomplishments, Skills, Summary of Qualifications, Strengths, Affiliations, Publications, Papers, Licenses, Certification, Examinations, Honors, References.
Use jargon and acronyms specific to your field.
Avoid italic, or underlined text. Capitalized words are okay as long as letters do not touch each other.
Avoid graphics, shading or reverses (white letters on a black background). Don't compress between letters.
Avoid vertical or horizontal lines as well as boxes. Avoid a two column format.
Avoid folding your resume or using staples. If folding is unavoidable, do not fold on a line of text.
Avoid using a type that is too light, dot matrix and low quality copies.

For a sample resume, please refer to the "Chip Designer" sample resume in this packet
Top of the Page

Sample Resources for Resume Development

Books:
Electronic Resume Revolution
The Resume Catalogue: 200 Damn Good Examples
The Adams Resume Almanac
Resumes for Science Careers
Resumes for Computer Careers
Resumes for Communication Careers
Resumes for Business Management Careers
Resumes for Scientific and Technical Careers
Resumes for Architecture and Related Careers
Resumes for Sales and Marketting Careers Top of the Page

Writing a Career Objective

This is usually the hardest part of resume writing. A well-written objective can give you an edge on the competition. A poorly written one can make you appear either indecisive or too specialized. You'll hear many different opinions on how to write an objective or whether one is even necessary. (Describing it in a cover letter is often cited as an alternative). As with the entire resume, it is a personal decision. The Career Center advocates having a career objective on your resume. You don't need to know exactly what you want to do in order to write one. A good objective simply reflects knowledge of your intended field, self-awareness, and some preferences in job functions.

Why have a Career Objective on your resume?

It makes the employers want to read the resume. You - probably more than other candidates - appear committed to their field of interest.
It can improve the body of your resume. By having a goal on your resume, you can make better decisions about which courses to list, how to order experiences, and what to highlight in descriptions.
It forces you to make some career decisions and focus your search. Anxiety may cause you to want to "keep your options open;" often what that reflects to the employer is "I'll take anything-please!" You're forcing the employer to do all the work of decision-making for you, that is if they make the effort. If you are pursuing too many career goals simultaneously you can't focus your search enough to really go after what you want; rather you get a little bit of everything that happens to come your way.
Preparing a targeted resume can help you prepare for your interviews. With this approach, you are more than writing down dates, employers and descriptions, you are beginning to analyze your skills and market yourself.

First, what it is NOT...

It is not what you want out of the positions, but what you can offer to the employer. Avoid phrases like "an opportunity to develop my skills..." or "to gain experience in the field of..."
Avoid what is too general or vague. How do you want to "work with people"... collaborating, servicing customers, public speaking? Even "management trainee" by itself is vague. Do you prefer to manage data or supervise people? What type of industry, product or service interests you?
Leave out clichés that say nothing, i.e. "challenging work," "position of responsibility." Do you think someone would define a college-level vacancy as "unchallenging with little responsibility?"
Listing a string of diverse fields in one objective can reflect indecision or desperation. It is acceptable to have two resumes with two different objectives. You may find that the content even changes in order to better support the objectives. You are probably spreading yourself too thin if you have more than three.
It probably should not reflect long range goals, particularly if it is not a common next step in the career ladder of the employer. Otherwise, the employer will unnecessarily anticipate a move out of the organization, or figure you are hoping for your potential supervisor's job.

Elements of a Career Objective

The key to a good objective is to find the delicate balance between being so vague or diverse that you show indecision or being so specific that you eliminate good options. The most specific term that exists is a job title - what one particular employer labels a specific job. Another employer may label the same tasks or functions differently, so make sure the terminology you use is general enough that it has meaning to several potential employers. A good career objective should contain a few of the following elements:

Job Function - Whether you work for an arts, service, financial or scientific organization, the tasks performed will involve some of the following basic functions:

Production of goods or services
Research and Development
Management/Administration
Finance and Accounting
Sales and Marketing
Technical Service

These are general types of activities, and are often reflected as different departments in an organizational structure. The important question is "What will you be doing with your body of knowledge or skills?"

Occupational Field or Title is a more specific label of what you want to do and communicates something about the content of the work. Examples: biologist, writer, illustrator, banker, public relations, social worker.
Specialty Areas could describe a specialized function within an occupational field (i.e., advertising is made up of creative, media, research, and account services subfields); or it can describe a specialized body of knowledge that you want to use in your field (i.e., among the areas in which a biologist could specialize are molecular, genetical and physiological content areas).
Type of Organization - Small, medium, large, local, national, international, private or public sector.
Industry (products or services) - Computer equipment and software, education, electronics, entertainment, government, health and medical services, insurance, printing and publishing, social services, telecommunications, etc.
Functional Skills - An ability or expertise that is significant to the career. Examples are supervisory skills, creativity, attention to detail, knowledge of HTML, familiarity with statistical packages, communication skills, analytical skills, etc.

Sample Objectives

The following are sample career objectives that you can use as guidelines in preparing your individual and unique statement:

Permanent position in the management information systems field. Areas of interest include applications programming and system analysis and design.
To work in the field of industrial design using a modern approach to create new products.
A position in the health field using experience in organizing groups, clarifying ideas and problems, making public addresses, and writing reports and newsletters.

Research responsibility in a public affairs area of a corporation.
To obtain a position as an engineer in the field of structural engineering, stress analysis, or civil engineering.
A position as an assistant in product marketing, development or general research.

Experience

Name and describe paid employment, internships, summer jobs, field study, and/or project work.
(Project work can also be listed under "Education" or under a separate section such as, "Academic Experience," "Project Work.") Traditional resume formats begin with present/last position and record information in reverse chronological order. However, your most important and relevant experiences should ideally appear first. If you have had nonrelevant work experience after a more relevant experience, try creating more specific categories such as "Relevant Experience, Writing Experience, Computer Experience, Work Experience" and list experiences accordingly. Usually, listing experiences in these types of categories will naturally result in a reverse chronological order within each category. Include the following:

Employer Name		City, State/Location
Job Title/Position		Dates of Employment/Experience

Skills

Refer to any distinct skills specific to your field. List computer skills and foreign language proficiencies.

Honors

Special Awards, Dean's List, Scholarships

Achievements

Shows, Exhibits, Publications (can also be listed in a separate section)

Activities

Campus/Community Activities, Leadership and Volunteer Positions (can also be listed under "Experience" if relevant to objective), Hobbies/Interests (optional)

References

It is optional to indicate that references are available upon request. It is suggested to mention that items such as portfolio or writing samples will also be furnished upon request.
*NOTE: The appropriate way to write Carnegie Mellon is without a hyphen. Also "CMU" is an abbreviation often used within the university, but should not be used when writing resumes, cover letters, and other official documents.

Top of the Page

List Of Alternative Headings For Resumes

Current Address:
College Address, Local Address, University Address, Telephone Number, Email Address, Homepage Address

Home Address:
Permanent Address, Forwarding Address, Telephone Number

Career Objective:
Professional Objective, Job Objective, Professional Goal, Objective, Short-Term Objective, Long-Range Objective

Education:
Educational Background

Relevant Coursework:
Relevant Courses, Courses, Course Work, Project Courses

Employment:
Work Experience, Full-Time Employment, Part-Time Employment, Professional Experience, Experience Highlights, Work History, Related Experience, Summer Work, Career History

Skills:
Special Skills, Capabilities, Abilities, Special Training, Language Proficiency, Artistic Skills, Computer Skills, Technical Skills

Achievements:
Accomplishments, Scholastic Achievements, Exhibits

Honors:
Awards, Honors/Honoraries, Scholarships

Activities:
Campus Leadership, Extra-Curricular Activities, Volunteer Work, Community Service

Professional Organizations:
Professional Affiliations, Memberships

Research Projects:
Publications, Presentations

References:
Furnished Upon Request, Available Upon Request

Sample Resumes

Please consider skimming resume samples beyond your current academic college. You can get many ideas of alternative headings and formatting. Additional resumes will be added to this site on an ongoing basis. If you would like to submit your resume for consideration, please contact us at career+@andrew.cmu.edu .