Business: Approved Resume Format
Does Your Resume Follow the G. Brint Ryan College of Business Resume Standard?
The Wilson Jones Career Center, with extensive feedback from employers and in collaboration with the Ryan College of Business faculty, has established a resume standard that we strongly advise students to utilize in the application process for internships and full-time jobs. We regularly receive strong, positive feedback from employers who hire our students about the professional format and readability of our standard. The resume standard is also designed to take advantage of the “key-word” driven approaches that are extensively used by both humans and machine bots to data mine their applicant pools. We strongly recommend that students adhere to this standard.
Following is the Resume Standard for all Majors with the exception of Accounting (see examples below)*
Overall
Is the resume in the approved G. Brint Ryan College of Business format? Is resume one page?
Does resume contain all applicable sections in proper order?
Is the resume formatted in 10-12 point either Times New Roman or Arial font?
Is all content correctly aligned according to format, dates are formatted and properly aligned?
Header
Is name bold and font size 14 or higher?
Does resume list your city and state, phone number, and a professional/student email?
Does resume include customized LinkedIn URL? (LinkedIn is optional but highly recommended)
Professional Profile
Does resume contain a strong professional profile that highlights personal and professional strengths and (~3 sentences)?
Does Professional Profile include the following sentence: “Seeking a ____ positions starting ____?”
Have personal pronouns been eliminated from resume?
Core Competencies
Does resume list at least 3 core competencies (soft skills) in the correct format using vertical | separator?
Technical Skills
Does resume list at least 2-3 technical skills in the correct format using vertical | separator?
Optional: Language Skills
Does resume list language skills (if applicable) as a separate section following technical skills?
Education
Does resume include official degree name (Bachelor not Bachelors) and major?
Is resume formatted: Name of Institution, city and state?
Does resume only include institutions that you have a degree from?
Are dates in reverse chronological order?
Is GPA listed if 3.0 or higher?
Professional Experience
Preferred Format is Chronological: Professional experience includes company, job title, and dates in reverse chronological order. Include 2-3 strong bullet points describing job responsibilities under each job.
Do bullets begin with action verbs followed by “what + why” format?
Have personal pronouns been eliminated?
Alternate Format is Functional: 2-3 professional skills are listed and include 2-3 STRONG examples of times you have used that skill. The bullets should support the skill. Employment history includes position title, company name, city, state.
Leadership, Campus and Community Involvement
Does Leadership and Involvement include position, organization, and dates?
No high school experience except for freshman
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Examples – Approved Resume Format for G. Brint Ryan College of Business
G. Brint Ryan College of Business APPROVED Resume Format (all majors EXCEPT Accounting)
The APPROVED resume format is specifically designed for RCOB students. It’s major focus is to help students build a personal algorithm that will be a close match for employer search algorithms and result in more requests for students to interview. The format is Applicant Tracking System Parsable which is important because online submissions are often read by machines and this format is specifically designed to be “read” by automated systems and passed along to the actual recruiter. The RCOB Career Center staff strongly recommend that students use this format (unless an Accounting major. See the information below for the Accounting Resume format).
*G. Brint Ryan College of Business APPROVED Resume Format (Accounting majors)
- BS / MS Accounting Resume Format
- BBA Accounting Resume Format
- BBA (with MS) Accounting Resume Format
This resume format is REQUIRED by the UNT Accounting program for all Accounting majors. This is the format that recruiters have approved and expect from UNT applicants.
Please consult with a staff member from the Wilson Jones Career Center before using this format.
Next Steps
- After drafting a resume, we strongly recommend setting up a time to talk with a Wilson Jones Career Center staff member to work on improvements. In addition, you can use the Resume Review Request Form to submit your resume for review. In most cases, the review will be completed within 3 business days except for University holidays.
Upload your resume in the approved format to Handshake using the instructions found here.