It can be a “chicken or egg” question deciding which should be listed first – your experience or your education.  Play your strongest card first.  If you’re qualifying for this next opportunity on the basis of your education, that section should be first.  Otherwise, if your experience is the trump card, play that one and follow it with education. 

When listing your education, list each degree, educational institution, city, state, and month and year that the degree was earned or is expected to be earned (in that order) chronologically backwards.  Therefore, your degree program at Walden should be listed first with the month and year you expect to earn your degree.  Include significant projects, research, publications, and accomplishments for each higher education program.  Omit high school unless your high school would be of interest to your audience.

The experience section should list the following information chronologically backwards from most recent position to oldest: your job title, employer, city, state, and dates of employment.  Under each position, list your skills and accomplishments.  Focus on describing past job activities that highlight the skills most desirable to your potential employer.   

As employers often give resumes a very quick glance, bullets are excellent for easy readability.  Compose phrases using key action verbs and terminology used in the job description.  List current activities in strong present tense action verbs.  Former activities that have ended should be stated in the past tense.  Internships and volunteer work can be included in the experience section or listed separately in another section, depending on their significance.  Generally, employers focus on the past ten to fifteen years of experience as the most relevant.  Beyond that, you may elect to give a very brief summary of your work history.

Accomplishments

The goals of your resume are to introduce you to an employer and secure a job interview.  Often, employers assume the best predictor of future performance is past performance.  Therefore, be the star that you are and showcase your accomplishments on your resume!   Remember those 3 qualifications you pinpointed at the start of drafting your resume?  Prove them in your accomplishments and “show me the money.”

There are three parts to writing your accomplishments:

• Challenge – What was a problem you identified and addressed?  What was the context of the issue?
• Action – What did you specifically do to solve the problem?
• Result  - Who or what was impacted and how?  Quantify your results – i.e., how many people were assisted or how were resources developed, saved or acquired?