Resumes are one of the most important aspects when applying for a job, fellowship, certain scholarships, etc. As an undocumented person, how do we create resumes? What types of experiences can we put down? This document will answer these questions and give you the resources to create and finalize your own resume.
Resumes: what are they?
- A resume is a formal document that provides an overview of your professional qualifications, including your relevant work experience, skills, education, and accomplishments
- The purpose of a resume is to show employers you’re qualified for a position and convince them to offer you an interview.
- Scholarships may also ask you to provide a resume as part of their application process.
- A resume is made up of the following five parts:
- Contact details
- Introduction / resume objective (optional)
- A resume objective is a short heading statement in your resume, where you describe your professional goal and aspirations.
- Educational background
- Work history/Projects/Extracurricular/Volunteer Work
- Relevant skills
Resumes Do’s
- Read the description of what you are applying to. Resumes are living documents which means they will slightly or dramatically change depending on what you are applying for.
- Highlight key words in the job description that you want to make sure are included in your resume.
- Ensure your work work history/relevant skills match the job description. For example, if you are applying for a social media position where they ask you to create visuals, give examples of where you have done this.
- Get creative! How can a babysitting experience relate to the social media position?
- Instead of saying you babysit 3 kids, say “Designed flyers to promote babysitting services on Facebook and Instagram”
- Get creative! How can a babysitting experience relate to the social media position?
- Be consistent in format and content
- Spacing, underlining, italics, bold, and capitalization for emphasis should be the same throughout your resume
- Make it easy to read and follow, balancing white space
- You do not want your resume to be so busy to the point where there is no white space on the page. Give the reader’s eye a break
- List headings in order of importance
- Three common resume headings are:
- Educational background
- Work history
- Relevant skills
- If you are a high school/college student, the educational background heading should be first since that is the most important one in your life at the moment.
- If you graduated college a while ago, your work history heading will have more importance than your educational background. Make sure to list it first.
- Three common resume headings are:
- Within headings, list information in reverse chronological order (most recent experience first)
- For example:
- Work Experience
- Marketing Intern September 2022 – Present
- Assistant Store Manager October 2020 – May 2021
- Math Tutor January 2019 – December 2020
- Work Experience
- For example:
- Keep your resume to one page
- Since you are making sure your resume matches the job description, not all of your experiences might make it into your resume. Only include the strongest ones
- Recruiters say that they spend anywhere between 8 seconds – 15 minutes reviewing a resume.
- Be sure your formatting will translate properly if converted to a .pdf
- If you write your resume on google docs, make sure it looks exactly the same when you download it as a pdf
Resumes Don’ts
- Do not use personal pronouns (such as I)
- Do not abbreviate
- Instead of saying SA-Z, say ScholarshipsA-Z
- Do not use slang
- This is a professional document and some people might not be familiar with the slang you are using
- Do not include a picture
- It could distract the hiring manager from what’s most important (your skills and experience)
- It could lead to bias or discrimination and result in not being offered an interview
- It could make your resume seem cluttered
- Do not include your age or gender
- Including this information could lead to bias or discrimination
- Do not make it colorful
- Keep it simple to black and white, adding colors could make it hard to read, specially if your reader has trouble seeing certain colors
- Do not use a ton of different fonts
- This ensures consistency
Top 6 Resume Mistakes
- Spelling and grammar eros
- Missing email and phone information
- Using passive language instead of action words
- “A promotion to team leader was awarded to me after only six months of service” vs “Promoted to team leader after only six months”
- Not well organized, concise, or easy to skim
- Not demonstrating results
- For example: you list too many skills rather than concrete examples of how you have those skills
- Too long
Resume Language Should Be:
- Specific rather than general
- Implementing numbers is the easiest way to make a bullet point go from general to specific
- Start with an action verb
- Written for people who can scan quickly
- https://capd.mit.edu/resources/resume-action-verbs/
Preparing to Start Your Own Resume
- In this resume data dump you will add all the information you can possibly think of related to your education, experiences, skills, etc. When applying to multiple jobs, this document will be helpful because it will be easy to know what experience to include in each resume you will be creating.
Remember that any and every experience is valid! Here are some examples of things that can be a part of your resume
- Babysitting
- Mowing lawns
- Translating documents for parents
- Pet sitting
- Tutoring
- Being a part of the Immigrant Scholarship Hustle and Undocumented Youth Empowerment Initiative
- Hobbies: photography, foreign languages, sports
To get your own editable version of this document:
- Click on the link Resume Data Dump
- Click File → Make a copy
Resume Templates
Resume Examples
HES Resume & Cover Letter Guide – Harvard FAS | Mignone Center for Career Success
Resources for Undocumented youth