Employer Connection

Employers are looking to hire Senators that are career ready – that know how to use and articulate their talents, strengths and interests.

Explore the 8 Career Competencies
The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) has identified eight key competencies for career readiness.

#1 Critical Thinking

Analyze information. Find reasonable, optimal solutions. Demonstrate originality.

Evaluate Your Critical Thinking Skills
What skills have you already applied (through academics, work, and extracurricular activities)? Have you:

• Actively sought new perspectives, ideas
• Generated ideas and initiated projects
• Identified and solved problems
• Set realistic goals, priorities
• Thought creatively, on a deadline
• Made difficult, but informed, decisions
• Fed your curious, and are you willing to learn

Build Your Critical Thinking Skills
Ways to practice, fine-tune and sharpen your skills:

• Complete a diversity workshop
• Plan and implement a project or program
• Help solve an organization-related problem
• Apply math or statistics to a class project
• Set goals, prioritize, creatively complete on deadline
• Discuss a case study, and its possible solutions
• Present an in-depth analysis of a social issue

#2 Communication

Record thoughts, promote ideas. Present complex information. Speak effectively to groups.

Evaluate Your Communication Skills
What skills have you already applied (through academics, work, and extracurricular activities)? Have you:

• Spoken to groups, networked
• Explained goals, gave specific examples
• Defined, explained, or analyzed information
• Helped to promote or sell a product
• Written clearly, concisely, persuasively, creatively
• Critiqued, edited, proofread document
• Translated or interpreted another language

Build Your Communication Skills
Ways to practice, fine-tune and sharpen your skills:

• Refine proofreading, editing skills
• Collect samples of transparent, concise writing
• Clearly explain a complex topic, with specific examples
• Persuade, promote, sell on behalf of a group
• Use multi-media to create presentation
• Gain a lot of experience in public speaking
• Travel internationally, cross-culturally

#3 Teamwork

Work well in groups, build relationships. Embrace diversity of individuals and ideas. Focus on goals, manage conflict.

Evaluate Your Teamwork Skills
What skills have you already applied (through academics, work, and extracurricular activities)? Have you:

• Appropriately expressed feelings in a group
• Worked well with individuals, one-on-one
• Listened/understood perspectives of others
• Comfortably accepted differing opinions
• Dealt patiently with difficult people
• Succeeded in attaining a common goal
• Used tact, diplomacy, or discretion

Build Your Teamwork Skills
Ways to practice, fine-tune and sharpen your skills:

• Gain experience in group discussions
• Expose yourself to differing viewpoints
• Join a campus organization or teambuilding activity
• Train, advise, or support others
• Use any chance to strengthen interpersonal skills
• Practice dealing diplomatically with difficult people
• Make a quality contribution to a major group project

#4 Digital Technology

Keep technologically current. Use tech to solve problems, attain goals. Adapt well to future innovation.

Evaluate Your Digital Technology Skills
What skills have you already applied (through academics, work, and extracurricular activities)? Have you:

• Gathered, organized relevant information
• Directly surveyed, interviewed sources
• Conducted multi-source, online research
• Designed a flyer, brochure, or publication
• Written code for a computer
• Familiarized yourself with industry-specific software
• Conducted data analysis

Build Your Digital Technology Skills
Ways to practice, fine-tune and sharpen your skills:

• Write a paper, with at least 10 online resources
• Conduct, compile, and analyze an online survey
• Interview long-distance, by email or social media
• Learn, apply industry-specific computer skills
• Develop a budget or financial spreadsheet
• Design a PowerPoint, brochure, or web page
• Coordinate a group’s social media, run analytics

#5 Leadership

Move others toward common goals. Delegate duties, help colleagues develop. Possess exceptional interpersonal skills.

Evaluate Your Leadership Skills
What skills have you already applied (through academics, work, and extracurricular activities)? Have you:

• Taken the initiative
• Worked without supervision
• Organized others to achieve a goal
• Mediated or negotiated a difficult situation
• Hired, trained or supervised someone
• Decided a group’s course of action
• Written or presented a progress report

Build Your Leadership Skills
Ways to practice, fine-tune and sharpen your skills:

• Take the lead and coordinate a class project
• Note any job duties performed independently
• Look for opportunities to mediate group difficulties
• Watch a TED talk on Leadership
• Serve as an officer within an organization
• Supervise, mentor, train others
• Write an organization’s end-of-year report

#6 Professionalism

Improve professional image, time management. Be ethical and community-minded. Take responsibility, learn from mistakes.

Evaluate Your Professionalism
What skills have you already applied (through academics, work, and extracurricular activities)? Have you:

• Demonstrated ethical behavior
• Developed an attention to detail, and are you orderly, organized
• Multi-tasked well under tight time constraints
• Showed great attitude, excellent customer service
• Coordinated and followed through on projects
• Received and utilized constructive feedback
• Went above, beyond expectations, without fanfare

Become More Professional
Ways to practice, fine-tune and sharpen your skills:

• Manage a daily schedule, balance class, work, life
• Maintain high GPA, especially within major
• Work a part-time job on or off campus
• Volunteer in an area related to your career
• Coordinate, follow through with a major project
• Show positive attitude, impressive customer service
• Attend an ethics class or workshop

#7 Career Management

Recognize, promote qualifications and career goals. Maintain professional growth. Pursue opportunities.

Evaluate Your Career Management Skills
What skills have you already applied (through academics, work, and extracurricular activities)? Have you:

• Engaged in career exploration
• Completed a resume and an online job application
• Taken part in a professional job interview
• Have researched a specific internship
• Interviewed someone about their career
• Completed a Job Shadowing experience
• Thought about the future and fully documented future career goals

Build Your Career Management Skills
Ways to practice, fine-tune and sharpen your skills:

• Meet with a career counselor, find and set goals
• Learn to promote self, join a professional association
• Complete a resume and LinkedIn profile
• Attend career fairs, workshops, join
• Practice interviewing, in person or online
• Maximize use of social media in job search
• Network, informationally interview, find a mentor

#8 Intercultural Fluency

Value, appreciate diversity. Embrace openness and inclusivity. Respect, seek to understand individual differences.

Evaluate Your Intercultural Fluency Skills
What skills have you already applied (through academics, work, and extracurricular activities)? Do you:

• Appreciate the importance of diversity
• Take time to learn others’ backgrounds
• Champion the strengths, differences in us all
• Always improving your cultural competency
• Strive for a workplace that embraces diversity
• Treat others the way they want to be treated
• Never tolerate bullying or hateful behavior

Build Your Intercultural Fluency Skills
Ways to practice, fine-tune and sharpen your skills:

• Join a student organization tied to diversity appreciation
• Volunteer in areas helpful to specific populations
• Attend events sponsored by SDI, USAC, other groups
• Train for and join the University Alliance
• Mentor a First Generation student
• Continually improve your cultural awareness
• Stand up for justice—it’s the right thing to do

48-Hour Online Resume & Cover Letter Critique

A career counselor or adviser will be happy to provide online feedback for your resume, cover letter or other professional documents.

Then, for suggestions on how to improve your documents (in Microsoft Word format), simply fill out the form below and click submit!

You will receive a response within 48 business hours of submission (Monday – Friday).

For a more detailed discussion and review of your documents, please come see us for an in-person appointment. Call (304) 637-1316 to schedule an appointment today.

For Professors or Instructors: If your class is required to submit a resume, we encourage you to request a class presentation from our office, to provide best practices.

Davis & Elkins Resume Template

Davis & Elkins Teacher Resume Template

If your schedule cannot accommodate a guest speaker, please contact Chris Jones at (304) 637-1220 or JonesC3@dewv.edu, and he will help coordinate a timeline for your students’ submissions. Thank you.

You can schedule an appointment to go over these documents or talk about other career-related issues any time during our hours of operation.

The resume is your most important job search tool. Your resume should effectively summarize your education, experiences, and accomplishments in a way that demonstrates your qualifications for the position you are seeking. Your resume may have a variety of sections, but should at least include the following sections: Objective or Summary of Qualifications, Education, Honors, Work Experience and Activities.

In developing a resume, you are encouraged to:

• Pay careful attention to spelling, grammar, punctuation, and writing style
• Organize information in a logical fashion
• Keep descriptions clear and to the point
• Limit to one page if possible
• Use a simple, easy-to-read font

Use good, high quality, 100% bond paper that is white or off-white. Do not print on both sides of a page. Include your references on a separate page. Remember, your resume is your introduction to who you are and what skills you can offer an employer!

Download Resume Template (RTF, 29 KB)

Download Teaching Resume Template (RTF, 25 KB)

Building an Effective Resume

A resume is a professional reflection of you as a potential employee. The goal is to showcase confidence in your ability to fulfill the qualifications of the position for which you’re applying. Follow these eight steps to create a more effective resume:

Step 1: Getting Started

How do you get started? You should begin your resume with a heading that includes your name, address, phone number, and email address. You may want to include a permanent address and alternate contact information. Be sure to include a zip code and telephone area codes.

What is your objective? Prepare a brief, clear statement stating the type work you are seeking, the field in which you are interested, and the skills and strengths you bring to an organization. The Objective section is optional and may be omitted in some situations. Ask for guidance if you are unsure.

Step 2: Gather Information

What have you learned? The Education section highlights the knowledge you have acquired, and can include training, certifications, or licensure. List all degrees earned (or date to be earned), majors, concentrations, and institutions. List the degree title before the institution name. You may also want to include your GPA (especially if cumulative or major GPA is 3.0 or higher), relevant coursework, academic honors, and study abroad experience. The Honors section highlights Dean’s List, honor societies, and academic awards you have received.

What have you done? The Work Experience section highlights your (paid or unpaid) work-related accomplishments. Employers want to know what you have done and what experience you have that is worthy of consideration. Experience includes full-time jobs, academic research projects, internships or co-op positions, part-time jobs, or volunteer work. When describing each experience, give the position, title of organization, city, state, and dates employed. Use action verbs to begin each statement describing your accomplishments and duties in the job. Quantify people, products, and profits if possible.

Step 3: Identify Your Skills

Skills and competencies can be included in your Summary of Qualifications. These should be supported by the Education and Work Experience sections. There are three different types of skills you can include in your Summary of Qualifications.

Technical/Professional Skills: Skills performed in a job, task, or class, acquired by reading, training, or education. For example: “Proficient in Unix, Oracle, Oas LAN.”

Functional Skills: Skills related to people, information, or things transferable from one field or occupation to another. Be able to identify several strengths in the categories of data (organizing, problem-solving, creating), people (communicating, supervising, teaching), and things (maintaining, operating, coordinating).

Personal/Adaptive Skills: Skills that represent your style of working coordinated with your personal traits. For example: “Patient, creative, persistent, and energetic employee.”

Step 4: Match Your Experience and Skills with an Employer’s Needs

The content of your resume will change with applications to different jobs. You should mention skills that you possess that are required for the particular job to which you are applying. Additionally, change the wording of experiences and skills to match the type of position for which you are looking.

Step 5: Organize Your Resume Effectively

Organize your resume in a way that reflects your qualifications and skills for the job you are applying for. Name and objective should always be first; however, you should organize what is the most important to your targeted employer from the top of the page down. Keep in mind that additional categories can be created to represent your various strengths. Some additional sections include: Leadership Activities, Relevant Skills and Experience, Special Interests, and Accomplishments. If one area outweighs another as an asset, it should come before other sections.

References should always be presented on a separate page and not included with the resume. Prepare the reference page with the name, title, name of organization where the reference works, address, telephone number and email address of each reference. Make sure that your references are aware that you have included them on your list. On your resume, you can indicate References Available Upon Request.

Step 6: Creating Your Draft

Length: Your resume should be easy to read; if it is too lengthy or jumbled, your potential employer may disregard it. Most undergraduates should keep their resume to one page, but a two-page resume is an option for job seekers with more experience. If you are leaving out vital information because you want to keep your resume to one page, add a second page. Be sure to include your name on the second page.

Format: Balance the layout by making all four margins equal. Your resume should be visually pleasing at first glance. White space helps important information stand out to the reader.

Production: Use good quality 100% bond paper in a conservative in color such as white, gray, or beige. No unusual fonts.

Verbs: Describe your skills, abilities and accomplishments using action verbs. Use present tense for current duties and past tense for prior tasks. Do not include first person pronouns like “I” or “my.”

A few useful action verbs can be used to describe an abundance of job skills:

Management Skills

administered assigned attained delegated developed established executed improved increased oversaw produced supervised

Communication Skills

addressed composed directed explained formulated mediated negotiated promoted reconciled resolved translated wrote

Research Skills

analyzed clarified conducted diagnosed examined identified investigated organized researched reviewed solved surveyed

Technical Skills

adapted applied calculated designed devised fabricated maintained operated repaired solved upgraded utilized

Teaching Skills

advised coordinated enabled encouraged evaluated explained facilitated guided informed instructed stimulated tutored

Financial Skills

administered allocated appraised balanced computed estimated managed marketed planned projected reconciled reduced

Creative Skills

created composed founded initiated integrated introduced originated performed revitalized shaped

Helping Skills

advocated aided assisted demonstrate educated expedited familiarized motivated referred represented resolved supported

Administrative/Clerical or Detail Skills

approved arranged compiled distributed executed generated implemented prepared processed retrieved tabulated validated

 

Step 7: Ask for Feedback on Your Resume

Always get a second opinion on your resume. You know your intentions, but your wording might not be clear. In addition, a second opinion can help you correct mistakes and errors in format. Second opinions can come from an online critique through Career Services or from a personal appointment with a Career Advisor or Career Counselor. A friend, advisor, employer, or professor can also offer comments on your resume.

Step 8: Final Review

How does it look? Here is a checklist to help you evaluate:

Content

• Content is directly related to the position you are applying for
• Name is at the top of the page and highlighted by large font
• Descriptions are action verbs with a consistent verb tense; current job is in present tense while past jobs are in past tense
• Work experience shows results of task performed
• Measurement: Do your best to quantify your work experience
• with results from your tasks
• Repetition of words or phrases is kept to a minimum
• Capitalization, punctuation, and date formats are consistent
• There are no typos or spelling errors and grammar is correct
• There is a rationale for each piece of information included

Organization

• The best assets – whether education, experience, or skills – are listed first
• The document is easily reviewed; categories are clear and text is indented when needed
• The dates of employment are easy to find and are in a consistent format
• Listings in different sections run from most recent to least recent

Format/Design

• Bold text and capitalization are used minimally and consistently
• Margins and line spacing keep the page from looking too jumbled or crowded
• Spacing and font size are consistent
• Font is easy to read and no smaller than 11 point size