Alumni Career Services

Employers form first impressions of your resume within a matter of seconds. Employers should be able to quickly skim your resume, note critical qualifications and be interested in reading your full resume. If your resume is hard to read, inconsistent or contains errors, employers will likely struggle to find relevant information and simply move on to the next resume in the application pool.

There are consistent standards that most resumes should follow. Personal preferences and industry norms can also impact the style and formatting. At the end of the day, it is your resume and opportunity to show your skills and experiences.

Resumes differ by country, and the information discussed in this guide pertains to U.S.-style resumes. For instance, you would never include a photo on a U.S.-style resume unless you were auditioning for a performance role where appearance can be a hiring consideration (acting, modeling, etc.) although it is common in some other countries to include a photo. Sensitive information (e.g., Social Security Number or other governmental ID, citizenship, marital status, family information, health information, birthdate, age, financial information, etc.) should not be included on a U.S.-style resume.

As you develop your resume, ask for feedback from trusted mentors, career coaches, professors and professionals in your field. Use your judgment in assessing what may be a personal design preference such as liking the use of underlined headers and what are critical issues such as not including descriptions of your experiences.

Consistency

Consistency is key. Formatting inconsistencies may distract employers from your content or give the appearance that you did not take the time to proofread your document. Consider all elements on your resume whether the size of your font, bullet point shape, spacing, date formatting, use of abbreviations, etc. All your application materials should have a consistent look. For example, you would use the same font on your resume as in your cover letter. 

Emphasis

Use different forms of typographical emphasis such as bolding, italicizing, underlining and all caps to help important information stand out. When you overuse a form of emphasis for different types of information though, it no longer helps readers to identify key content.

Relevance and Order

Within each section, your experiences should be listed from most recent to oldest. Employers are most interested in knowing what you have been doing professionally in recent history. 

Your most important and relevant sections for the position you are applying to should be listed first. For instance, a new graduate would include their education section first as that is their strongest qualification, while someone mid-career would likely include their work experience before their education. When deciding on the types of experiences to include, think about your entire background including involvement, internships, jobs, volunteer experiences, academic projects, etc.  

Page Length

Resumes are typically one page although two-page resumes are acceptable especially if you have more professional experience or advanced degrees. You should not exceed two pages for your resume as employers are likely to not read past that point. Resumes are not autobiographies and should be tailored to showcase your most relevant and recent experiences, skills and qualifications for a specific position. For experienced professionals, accounting for 10 years of experience is typical.

If the application asks for a CV or a federal resume, more information needs to be included with those formats so there is greater flexibility with page length.

If you have more than one page, insert your name and page number on the subsequent page header or footer. This prevents any confusion when your resume is printed.

Margins

The standard size for margins is 1 inch on all sides to create visual balance. Margins can be adjusted if needed, but no less than .5 inch since information could be cut off when printed. 

Fonts

Any fonts you use on your resume should be professional and easily readable such as Times New Roman, Helvetica, Calibri, Cambria, Arial, Georgia or Verdana. Custom or non-standard fonts could impact how another person views your document. 

Main text should be 10-12 point size, with headers slightly larger to stand out. Your name should use the largest size font, so it stands out and employers remember your name.

Traditional resumes often use one font throughout the document. Some individuals choose to use two complementary fonts - one for their main text and one for their headers. It is not recommended to use more than two fonts.

Bullet Points

Descriptions of your experiences should be in bullet points to improve readability rather than a paragraph format. Keep each bullet point to one or two lines to maximize impact. Choose a standard bullet point shape as a custom shape or image may cause issues when viewing the document in other systems.

 

Resume norms can differ by industry. A graphic design professional may need a more creatively designed resume to show their design aesthetic and skills. More traditional professions like law or finance would likely be less enthused about a colorful or creatively designed resume.

Keep in mind the purpose of your document. A resume design might be beautiful, but ineffective if it does not clearly communicate your skills and qualifications to employers. Consider how your resume will appear both digitally and in print. A resume design that looks great on a computer screen might be hard to read when printed on a black and white printer.

Know Your Industry

Resume norms can differ by industry. A graphic design professional may need a more creatively designed resume to show their design aesthetic and skills. More traditional professions like law or finance would likely be less enthused about a colorful or creatively designed resume.

Keep in mind the purpose of your document. A resume design might be beautiful, but ineffective if it does not clearly communicate your skills and qualifications to employers. Consider how your resume will appear both digitally and in print. A resume design that looks great on a computer screen might be hard to read when printed on a black and white printer.

Color

It is traditional to use all black, but some choose to incorporate an accent color or two. Colors should be visually appealing and easy to read. For instance, a light yellow would be hard to read on a white background while hot pink is likely to be too vibrant.

Layout

Resumes are limited in length so make that space count. Simple and traditional formats are often easiest to read. Columns, tables and graphics are usually more challenging for Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to accurately parse. 

Templates

There are plenty of resume templates available, but many do not follow standard resume writing principles. Create your own document as templates are often difficult to edit and may not use space in the most effective way. Choosing a common template is not a choice that will help you stand out in a positive way since employers are likely to see those templates used frequently. Show your uniqueness through your experiences not your format.

File Type

Depending on your expertise and field, you might design your resume in programs like Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher, Adobe InDesign or Adobe Illustrator. Ensure that you have a working file that you can edit as well as a way to save to a common format to upload for applications. PDFs or Microsoft Word documents are the main file types preferred by employers. Other file types may not be viewable in certain ATS.

When preparing a resume, everyone will have different skills, experiences and knowledge to emphasize. Your contact information, education and experience are three must-have content sections to include in your resume.

Contact Information

Employers need to know who you are and how to easily reach you if they’re interested in interviewing you.

First and Last Name: 

Make your name stand out and use a font size slightly larger than everything else on the page. You want a prospective employer to remember your name when they’re selecting their top candidates.

City and State: 

You do not need to list your complete mailing address. City and state of your current location is sufficient for the employer to determine if you are in the area or would need to potentially relocate.

Phone Number: 

Include one phone number, with area code, that you answer regularly. Make sure that a prospective employer can reach you by ensuring that your voicemail is set up, that it isn’t full and that your voicemail message is professional.

Email Address: 

Include one email address that you check regularly. It should be a professional email address (personal or Webster) that contains some version of your name. Avoid any kind of unprofessional email addresses such as crazycatlady@emaildomain.com, bballnick@emaildomain.com orvaping247@emaildomain.com. 

Optional Information: 

If you’d like prospective employers to view more information or samples of your work, you can include links to your online portfolio, professional website or customized LinkedIn URL.

Education Section

Outline your educational experiences and list relevant academic information including degrees, certificates and licenses you may have earned.

• List the type of degree, major, month and year of graduation, educational institution and location.
• Degree and major (e.g., Bachelor of Science in Political Science)
• Month and year of graduation or expected graduation (not the dates of attendance)
• College or university (e.g., Webster University) and location (e.g., St. Louis, MO)

You can highlight specialized knowledge that you’ve obtained through coursework, projects or other academic endeavors.

You can add optional information such as grade point average, academic honors, scholarships, long- or short-term study abroad experiences, relevant coursework, research projects, certifications or trainings to showcase academic proficiency or knowledge related to your career of interest. As you apply to jobs or graduate programs, you can change and customize the courses, projects and other academic experiences you include on your resume to reflect academic training specifically related to your target audience.

Multiple Institutions: For individuals pursuing a bachelor’s degree, the bachelor’s degree and any higher degrees are typically listed. Earlier education such as K-12 is not necessary unless it is particularly relevant such as wanting to return to teach in your home school district.
 
For those with multiple degrees, list the degrees starting with your current institution or the most recent school attended. If you attended but did not earn a degree or certificate from a prior academic institution, you do not need to include it on your resume.

Experience Section

Employers post job descriptions that list the skills and qualifications they’re hoping to find in an ideal candidate. Your responsibility as a candidate is to show how you’ve developed those skills and qualifications through your experiences up to this point in your career. Like other sections, experience is listed beginning with the most recent experience first.

• Consider which of your experiences relate best to the job description. Common sources of experience include:
• Full-time employment
• Part-time employment
• Internships
• Military service
• On-campus student employment
• Major class projects, papers or performances
• Significant involvement in student activities or community organizations
• Committees
• Athletic leadership roles
• Independent or collaborative research
• Freelance work
• Volunteer positions

Content Organization

Organize your experience into different categories as relevant. For example, you might use headers like Relevant Experience and Additional Experience or divide by type of experience such as Finance Experience, Customer Service Experience, Volunteer Experience, etc.

• Prepare each experience entry with the following pieces of information:
• Company/Organization Name (e.g., Enterprise Holdings, The United Way of Greater St. Louis)
• Location of Company/Organization (e.g., St. Louis, MO)
• Position Title (e.g., Special Events Marketing Intern, Staff Accountant, Data Scientist)
• Duration of Employment (e.g., March 2018 - Present; June 2017 - April 2020)
• Several bulleted descriptions that briefly state your accomplishments and impact in each role. Begin each bulleted description with a past-tense action verb. Add quantifiers when possible. 

There are a variety of additional content sections that may be used as relevant such as
summary of qualifications/objective/profile, study abroad, professional licenses and certifications, technical skills, awards, honors and professional involvement.

Objective Statement, Summary of Qualifications or Profile

It is the first content section of your resume beneath your name and contact information. Only choose one of those for inclusion in your resume.

An objective statement is a brief statement no more than 3 lines. It should be specific and tailored to allow the employer to have an idea of the type of position you are seeking and the unique skills you have to offer. This is more commonly used by professionals who are changing careers.

A summary of qualifications or profile is a brief, block style paragraph or 3-5 bulleted statements that summarize your education, experience and skills relevant to the position you are applying for. This is likely to be used by individuals with more professional experience. 

Professional Licenses and Certifications

If you have a license or certification that is required or preferred for the role you’re applying to, it should be listed on your resume. You might consider making a “Professional Certifications” or “Licenses” section if you have multiple. You could include them in your “Education” section if you have only one or two to list.

For each certification and license include:

• The full name of the certification (any common abbreviation can be included in parentheses)
• The issuing organization or state
• The date you earned the certification or the timeframe it is active
• The location (if applicable and not implied by the issuer)
• Additional details as needed

Skills

Showcase key skills by listing them in a dedicated skills section. Focus on tangible or technical skills like language proficiencies, software programs, equipment, etc. If you want to qualify your skills, use common terms rather than graphics to rate your skills. For instance, noting your Spanish proficiency as Fluent is more helpful than listing 4 stars. 

Avoid listing transferable skills such as communication, organization, leadership, etc. on your resume. These skills are better demonstrated through your experience bullet points.

Awards, Honors, & Recognitions

List any awards, honors orrecognitions that you believe will add value to your resume. Focus on those that are most related to your career goal or the most prestigious.

Include the issuer and name of the recognition, and the month/year awarded in reverse chronological order. For example:

• Employee of the Month, UNCOMN, March 2025
• Leigh Gerdine Scholarship for Academic Excellence, Webster University, May 2023
• Distinguished Student Award, St. Louis Regional Chamber, April 2022

Professional Affiliations or Professional Development

You can list membership in multiple professional organizations that are related to your career goals. You could use Professional Development as a header if you wanted to list memberships as well as other information such as conferences attended, professional presentations you’ve conducted, etc. 

Include the name of the organization, title of the program if needed, and dates. For example:

• Best Practices for Recruitment, Society for Human Resources Management National Conference, July 2024
• National Association of Colleges and Employers, May 2023 - Present
• American Marketing Association, April 2022 - Present

 

Examples

A cover letter is a one-page business letter often submitted as part of an internship or job application. In a cover letter, you introduce yourself to an employer, express your interest in the organization and/or specific opening and explain your strongest qualification(s) for the position. In combination with your resume, a well-written cover letter may prompt an employer to invite you to interview for the opening in order to learn more about you and your potential fit with the organization.

Customize Your Letter

• Adjust and update your cover letter for every application you submit.
• Review the position description for a clear outline of requirements and ensure your letter directly addresses the qualifications needed for the position.

Proof read

• Review your document and ask others to review as needed until you are confident it is error-free and an honest, accurate reflection of your skills and abilities.
• Remember that spell check may not find a word that is spelled correctly but is misused (there vs. their, for example).

Focus on the Reader

• When writing cover letters, writers often overuse the word “I” and focus on what they want from a company or job instead of how they can contribute to the organization.
• Reword sentences to eliminate excessive occurrences of “I” by using “my” and “me”, adding transition words orflipping clauses. For example, “I have enclosed a copy of my resume” becomes “Enclosed you will find a copy of my resume” and "I contributed to quarterly reports as an intern" becomes "As a finance intern, I contributed to quarterly reports."

Create a Theme

• Your cover letter should complement your resume both with the formatting choices as well as the content.
• Your application materials should consistently emphasize your most relevant skills, qualifications and experiences for a particular role.

Formatting and Content Guidelines

Both how you format your cover letter and the content you include are important. 

Block-Style Format

• The block-style format is the most frequent format with text aligned to the left and single spaced.

Limit Your Letter to One Page

• Write clearly and concisely.
• Margins should be no less than .5” and font size should be no smaller than 10 point.

Vary Your Sentence Structure

• Vary your sentence structure to create a more interesting and effective letter. Offset long sentences with shorter sentences and use transitional words and phrases to help ideas flow together.

Consistency

• Use the same font in a similar size as used on your resume for a consistent, professional look.

Include Relevant Content

• Your cover letter should contain accurate, specific information relating to your professional qualifications for an internship or job.
• Address the most important qualifications from the job posting so that readers can quickly understand that you are a strong candidate for the role.
• When highlighting accomplishments, avoid using language that appears more opinion based. For instance, "In 2024, I was recognized as the top salesperson at the St. Louis office for that fiscal year." instead of "I was the best salesperson at my office."

Your Contact Information

• Your contact information should be included at the top of the letter. This is traditionally aligned to the left or can be the same as your resume header.
  Include your name, location, phone number and e-mai
• Date:
• Insert the month, day and year the cover letter is being submitted on the left-hand side.

Organization Contact Information

• While it is less critical to include this content when submitting applications online, it is still traditional to include the contact information for the person or company you're writing to.
• List the name and job title when submitting to a specific individual if known.
• Include the organization, street address, city, state and zip code.

Greeting 

• When possible, address the letter to a specific individual using their name, title (Dr., Ms. Mr., etc.) and/or position with the organization (Director of Human Resources, Principal, etc.).
• If a contact person is not listed in the job description and it is difficult to identify the contact via the company website or through networking, use an opening like “Dear Hiring Manager.” Avoid overused or outdated openers like “Dear Sir/Madam” or “To Whom It May Concern.”

First Paragraph

• State the specific position for which you are applying and indicate where you learned about the position if it is relevant such as from a networking connection at a career fair or a referral from a current employee.
• Describe who you are (academically and professionally) similar to a brief summary.
• Explain why you are interested in the position and why you want to work for this organization. This is a great way to show that you have done some research on the organization and stand out from other applicants.

Middle Paragraph(s)

• Outline your strongest qualification(s) as they relate to the company and position description.
• Describe specific accomplishments, examples orskills you have developed through work experience, coursework, campus or community involvement or other activities.
• Since a cover letter is more of a narrative format, make use of that to go more in depth with your content than simply restating your resume.
• Depending on your writing, you may find a natural break to divide paragraphs or break up the content by theme. For instance, you might focus one paragraph on your customer service skills and another on your technical skills.

Final Paragraph

• Thank the reader for their time.
• Reinforce your strongest qualifications in a sentence or two in the conclusion.
• Suggest what you want the reader to do or what action you plan to take if applicable.
• Repeat your contact information (preferred phone number and e-mail address).

Closing Examples

• Use a closing like "Sincerely," or "Best Regards," as you would when writing a professional letter or email followed by your name.
• For your signature, you can type your first and last name in the same font as the rest of your letter or in a more cursive-like font. You could also include your handwritten signature by adding an electronic signature or scanning a signed printed copy of your letter. However, it should be clear and readable if included. A pixelated image that is hard to read will not enhance your letter.

Samples

Networking involves connecting and interacting with individuals to form professional relationships. It can be a valuable strategy to potentially provide you with professional insight into your field, information about job opportunities and awareness of professional development activities. By engaging your contact network, you may discover potential  new opportunities or may be considered more closely as a referred candidate. Networking should be a mutually beneficial relationship as you may also possess valuable information, insight or knowledge that can help others achieve their goals.

Opportunities to network exist both in person and online. Common face-to-face networking opportunities include professional association meetings, conferences, academic events, Webster Alumni Association events and  community meetings, but nearly any situation in which you are interacting with someone is a potential networking opportunity. Use online resources such as WebsterLinks, the LinkedIn Alumni Tool and Handshake to find events and contacts.

Individuals such as friends, family, alumni, professors, neighbors, members of your religious community, classmates, current or former co-workers and others may all serve as networking resources. Keep your network updated about your qualifications and career goals in case they have suggestions or referrals for you.

A networking pitch is a brief and thoughtfully prepared message about your academic and professional self. The purpose of your pitch is to share just enough information to engage in a mutually beneficial conversation with your new connection and provide some direction to the conversation. It tells your audience who you are, what you do and where you're going professionally. 

You may want to discuss your relevant skills, achievements, notable projects you have worked on, your current role or current career goals. Consider who you will be engaging with and what information you want to share about yourself as you modify your pitch for different audiences. While you don’t need to memorize your introduction, you should practice your pitch to feel comfortable discussing yourself and your accomplishments. You have a limited amount of time to create a strong first impression with your listener, so keep your pitch under one minute.

Example:

Hi, my name is Sara, and I am a PR manager, specializing in overseeing successful initiative launches from beginning to end. Along with my 7 years of professional experience, I recently earned my MBA. I find the work your PR team does to be innovative and refreshing. I’d love the opportunity to put my expertise to work for your company and share my experience building consumer trust and retention. What advice would you have for being successful at Company X?

Informational interviewing is a networking technique where you can gather insight and advice from professionals in your field. This is a great way to learn from professionals and expand your network.

Be clear about your intentions when reaching out to contacts whether through email, LinkedIn message or phone call. Include the following key pieces of information when you request an informational interview:

• Who you are
• What you're seeking to understand about a career, industry or organization
• How you identified the potential interviewee (if you have common connections or found them through a particular group)
• The elements of the potential interviewee's background that made you want to contact them
• A request to schedule a brief meeting (in-person, phone, and/or virtual)

Example Request:

Dear Mr. Jones,

As a fellow Webster University School of Communications alumni, I'm interested in speaking with you to learn more about your own career path transitioning from the non-profit to corporate sector. I see that you're an Advertising Account Manager at ABC Company and would appreciate your insight as I seek to pursue a similar career in advertising after several years working in education. Would you be available in the next few weeks to meet in-person or virtually for a 30-minute meeting? Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Melanie Bompart

Treat the informational interview like you would a job interview by researching, preparing questions in advance, arriving slightly early, dressing professionally and finding an appropriate place to connect whether in-person or virtually. Ask specific questions to learn about their path in the field, what they enjoy or find challenging about their work, trends and outlook in the field, skills or characteristics to focus on and other career advice. 

Send a thank you email after the interview to show your appreciation for their time and expertise. Stay in contact as appropriate such as through LinkedIn or notifying them after completing a recommended certification. While informational interviews should not be expected to lead to a job referral or offer, sometimes additional connections and referrals can occur if the relationship is mutually beneficial. 

Professional associations are organizations that serve as a gathering point and information source for individuals involved in a particular profession or industry. Professional associations, which may have national, regional, local, and/or university-based student chapters, offer a variety of benefits such as industry resources, networking events and conferences, certifications, journals, job boards and more. Do your research before joining an organization to determine if the organization seems to be fairly active, offers resources appropriate to the membership cost and fits your level of career experience. Most associations offer some level of public content even if it doesn’t make sense at this time to join. If you are currently employed, your employer may cover these costs as part of their professional development funds.

Complete all applicable profile sections. Having a more thorough profile can be helpful as you build your network and as recruiters view your profile. 

Be sure to include:

• An up-to-date headshot
• Brief and useful headline mentioning your current job title, area of expertise or career goal
  • Examples:
  • Financial Analyst – Edward Jones
  • HR Consulting Services
  • Seeking IT Internship
• Customized url to make it easier for others to find your profile
• Concise professional summary using first person language that mentions your current career goal if job searching and helps others quickly understand your level of experience and areas of expertise
• Experiences with descriptions about your key accomplishments and responsibilities
• Degree information
• Relevant technical skills

Enhance your profile by adding links to relevant examples of your work (non-proprietary information), completing skill assessments, making posts and commenting on articles or posts. Review privacy settings and make changes as needed. Making at least your profile photo and some profile sections viewable by LinkedIn members is recommended for building your network.

Use the advanced search filters, the people tool on company profiles and the alumni tool on the Webster LinkedIn page to connect with alumni and other professionals. The alumni tool on university pages also provides ways to identify common employers, locations and professions. Join groups related to your career, industry, university and professional associations to increase your network. When requesting to connect with an individual on LinkedIn, personalize your message by navigating to the individual’s profile and then connecting. This is particularly important to indicate why you are interested in connecting with someone if you have not interacted with them before.

While there are plenty of legitimate opportunities, be aware that fraudulent companies and job scams exist and tend to increase in more challenging job markets. It is better to be cautious than to fall victim to a scam if something seems off or too good to be true. Be aware of some common red flags such as lack of information, inaccurate information, negative information and unprofessional behavior.

• No mailing address, an address that appears to be a private residence or only a P.O. Box
• No specific job title or company listed in the job posting/message
• No company reviews or negative reviews on sites like Google, Glassdoor, Yelp, etc.
• Negative news articles about the organization
• Minimal description of job responsibilities and focus on how much money you could earn
• Inability to answer common questions about a job, organization or hiring process
• Contact information that does not match or is not professional such as using a personal email domain like Yahoo or @websteru.com instead of the real @webster.edu
• Unprofessional communication such as multiple grammatical errors, texting you from a personal phone late at night or scheduling an interview at a personal residence or unrelated location like a coffee shop
• Asking for sensitive information like your social security number or financial information
• Wanting you to work “under the table” or without appropriate work authorization if you are not a citizen/permanent resident
• Not completing a standard hiring process with a formal application and interview
• Random unsolicited message or job offer

Job scams often involve requesting money or sensitive information such as asking you to cash or deposit a check or money order for them, provide bank account or credit card information, pay some kind of fee in gift cards or pay a fee under the guise of training costs, new uniform, placement services, office equipment use, etc.

Scammers will exploit a false sense of urgency and will not allow you to take time to consider an offer. Legitimate employers should give you at least a few days to think before accepting or declining the offer.

If you are unsure about an opportunity, do your own research rather than trusting links sent to you. Flag or report the email or job posting as if it seems like a scam. Learn about common job scams, recommended steps to take if you were scammed, and how to report a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission.

Setting goals and clarifying your career values will help you keep on track when job searching. When determining your employment goals, consider these key factors:

• Company culture
• Supervisor and team dynamics
• Opportunity for growth
• Pay and benefits
• Job security
• Level of responsibility
• Work/life balance
• Geographic location and commute

Keep your short-term and long-term goals in mind. For instance, a lower-level position at a company with a generous tuition remission policy may be worth it if you want to get a graduate degree in the near future. Taking an offer with a higher base salary may be the best move if you know raises or promotions are limited in your field.

Timelines

Start your job search early. 3-6 months is typical for a job search, but it could take longer depending on the labor market, your search parameters and your competitiveness as an applicant.

If you’re not experiencing much success in your search, consider the following strategies.

• Enhance your application materials to focus on your most relevant experience and accomplishments in an ATS friendly format.
• Expand your geographic radius.
• Apply for related positions or positions at a lower level.
• Polish your interviewing skills and practice responses.
• Build your network and conduct informational interviews to gather advice from those in the field.
• Consider what you can do to continue building relevant skills such as pursuing a certification, increasing familiarity with a software platform, completing projects, etc.

Though many employers are more holistic in their approach since the pandemic, gaps of 6+ months may be a question or concern for employers. For longer employment gaps, it may be worthwhile to indicate what you’ve done recently even if it is unrelated work, volunteer experience, projects, education or other involvement. 

Find Job Postings

Handshake is Webster University’s online career management and recruiting platform for students and alumni. Find internships, full-time and part-time openings.

Common general job boards include LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor, ZipRecruiter, etc. The majority of positions in the federal government are posted on USAJOBS.

There are also job boards that are industry specific, through professional associations and regional. Check out different job boards to find out which have more postings of interest for you and a better user experience. Organizations will typically post in multiple places, but applying through a company website is the most direct. Avoid using easy apply options that auto-populate your information in a preset format rather than use your thoughtfully created resume where you can ensure the most relevant information is presented first.

Apply to Openings

Employers typically spend less than 10 seconds to form an initial impression of your resume. It is critical to have a well-formatted resume that clearly outlines your relevant skills and accomplishments. If you are applying to different types of roles, you will likely have several different versions of your resume to emphasize different points.

Applying to job openings can be a bit of a numbers game—the more often you put yourself out there, the more likely you are to get an interview. Find a balance between quality and quantity though. Sending customized applications will have a greater chance of success than clicking apply on any job posting in your field. Creating a regular schedule for yourself to work on job applications will help you stay consistent.

Following up with recruiters and connections can be an additional way to stand out. Regularly check your email and voicemail so you can promptly respond as employers contact you.

As you are contacted for interviews, gather as much information about the interview as possible including the date, time, time zone, format (in-person, phone, virtual, one on one, panel, group, recorded) and location. Review the position description and practice responses sharing examples that meet the specified requirements and job responsibilities. Examples can be from your past work, academic, extra-curricular or volunteer experiences. 

Research the organization through news articles, reviews, the organization website and other resources. Information that may be helpful to research includes:

• Mission, values and culture of the company
• Company leaders (CEOs, directors, department heads, staff in similar roles)
• Your interviewer(s) professional bio
• Main functions, services, and/or clients
• Organizational structure and functions of your prospective department
• Recent organizational news
• Public impression on social media

Select your interview attire by dressing professionally within the standards of the organization. Check that your outfit fits well and is comfortable enough if you were given a tour of the organization as part of the interview. A general recommendation is to dress a step above the daily dress code. For a business casual environment, wearing a suit or other business formal attire to an interview would be typical.

Practice Interview Responses

Listen and answer the question being asked. It’s fine to take a few seconds to think before starting to speak. Maintain an even tone and use a medium rate of speech. Throughout your interview, project positivity, confidence and openness through your non-verbal communication. 

In order to understand your professional identity and motivation, interviewers will likely ask basic questions about your professional background, strengths, weaknesses and interest in the position and organization. 

Behavioral interview questions focus on situations from your past experience that show certain skills that are important for your prospective job. These are easy to recognize and often have openings like “Tell me about a time when…” or “Describe a situation…” The STAR method is a structured way of responding to a behavioral interview question by discussing the specific situation, task, action and result of the situation you are describing.

• Situation: Set the scene and give the necessary details of your example.
• Task: Describe what your responsibility was in that situation.
• Action: Explain exactly what steps you took to address it.
• Result: Share what outcomes your actions achieved.

You may be asked about your weaknesses or challenging situations in your past. For these negative questions, discuss what you learned, what you’ve improved or what you would do differently next time.

It is possible that you may be asked an inappropriate or discriminatory interview question. Choose whether you answer the question, ask for clarification about the relevance or decline to answer. There are federal laws to protect employees against employment discrimination. You are protected as an employee of a company and as a job applicant although there may be some exceptions to regulations such as very small employers. If you have experienced discrimination in an interview, there are several steps you can take. You can report this to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the appropriate state agency, and/or the human resources department of the company.

Wrap Up the Interview

Have several questions prepared to ask at the end of the interview to show that you’re interested in learning more about the role and the organization. These sample questions should be adapted to the specific industry or organization for which you’re interviewing. 

Here are some examples of general questions to ask an interviewer:

• How does this position fit within the organization’s structure and/or mission?
• What are some of the biggest challenges facing this position/department/organization?
• How is performance evaluated for this position?
• How would you describe your leadership style?
• What can you tell me about the team dynamic?
• How long have you been with the organization and what do you enjoy most about working for this organization?
• What is the expected timeline for hiring and onboarding for this role?

Always send a brief thank you email after an interview to show your appreciation and interest. Personalize the note by including information about specific questions they answered or information they provided that was helpful. 

As you receive offers, consider how each offer fits your career values and personal circumstances. Consider factors such as the compensation package, workplace culture, responsibilities of the role, professional development opportunities, work schedule flexibility and location. If you need more information, conduct research by talking to current or former employees, a human resources representative, your potential supervisor or a contact from the hiring committee. Some information can be researched online in the employee handbook, the human resources webpage, company website or company reviews on sites like Glassdoor.com or others. Keep in mind what themes or patterns you notice. Ultimately, you want to make the best decision with the information you have available. No job is perfect, but stay true to your values and factors that you consider most important. 

Make your decision within the allotted timeframe and notify the organization as soon as you have made your decision. If you decline a job offer, be courteous and thank them for the opportunity. If you choose to provide a reason, be tactful and brief. Avoid burning bridges.