2019 Resume Workshop

September 30 & October 1, 2019

Importance of a Solid Resume

Companies usually use

technology to filter out

resumes that lack key

words/phrases

Recruiters spend an

average of 6 seconds

reviewing a resume

Resumes usually guide the interview

General Tips: Format

• One page long• Consistent margins & fonts• No large blank spaces• 10-12 pt font• “Quadrant Rule”: If you divide your resume

into 4 equal quadrants, there should roughlybe the same amount of blank space and text in each

• *Typically the top right quadrant is the culprit of an unbalanced resume

General Tips: Content• Contact information: email, phone number,

permanent address (unless your permanent address is outside of the US)

• Effective, concise bullet points:• What you did• How you did it• Why it matters

• Varied, strong, past tense action verbs• Relevant information

• *Unless you are a freshman, minimize or exclude material from high school

General Tips: ResumeCritique Comments

• Keep a reasonable amount of bullet points. 2 to 4 bullet points is the standard (1 is too little, 5 is too much)

• There is a difference between hyphens (-), en dashes (–) and em dashes (—). Also, be aware of spacing on either side. Keep it consistent.

• Don’t do: Jun 2019- Aug 2019or Feb 2018 —present

• Keep date abbreviations consistent• Don’t abbreviate “Mar” but not “June”

• Use a professional email address

General Tips: Firm Rep Comments

• Make sure there is some white space to make your resume readable

• Clearly mark your graduation date• Helps firm representatives identify those

looking for internships or full-time offers• Avoid generic, qualitative characteristics (e.g.

“hard-working”, “motivated”)• Those characteristics should be assumed

by your bullet points• Spelling errors/formatting mistakes

Education• Include:

• Expected graduation date• Previous college if transfer

student• GPA if over 3.0

• Do NOT include high school or high school GPA (unless you are a freshman)

Exam Section• Place either right before or right after

education section• Include month passed• Scores 8 and above may be included if you

wish (usually doesn’t matter, but some employers might care)

• Make sure sitting exams are valid (exam and date coincide)

• What is wrong with “Sitting for Exam P Dec 2019”?

• What is wrong with “Sitting for Exam FM Mar 2020”?

• Do not list exams too far in the future• E.g. “Sitting for Exam FM Oct 2020”

Professional Experience• Include:

• Company name (brief intro for smaller companies)

• Title• Timeline• Location

• Format consistently for all work experience• Strong bullet points!

• More on this later

Leadership/Extracurricular Section

• Focus on two or fewer organizations that you are actively involved in

• Any more, you may not have space for actuarial related experiences

• Showcase different skills and interests

• Display wide range of experiences• Does not have to be actuarial—any

leadership is helpful!

Additional [Skills] / Technical Section

• Good place to showcase technical skills, programming languages, software, etc.

• List skill level if applicable• Do not waste space saying you are

proficient in Microsoft Office, Word, Powerpoint, etc.

• Excel: There’s a big difference between being able to do basic tasks (VLOOKUP, PivotTables, etc.) and mastering the software (e.g. VBA macros)

• A line of interests is a good talking point for interviews

A Guide to Strong Bullet Points

Think from a recruiters

point of view: What can this person bring

to my company?

Start with strong past-tense action verbs (and try to use different

ones each time)

General structure:

What you didHow you did it

Impact

What you didHow you did itWhy it matters

Weak:Used Microsoft Excel to calculate rater

Stronger:Developed driver assignment and driver averaging raters by calculating a Driver Age factor from log-linked GLM relativities

Strong:Developed driver assignment and driver averaging raters by calculating a Driver Age facto from log-linked GLM relativities in order to evaluate effectiveness of the rating structure

Tab Stops: How to Right- Align Dates

Always send as a PDF

Watch for spelling/grammar errors

Keep information relevant

Format consistently

KEEP IN MIND

Always a Work in Progress

Write

Revise

Repeat

Brainstorm

Questions?