Psychology majors need to be able to tell their own story, and a well-prepared resume is a key tool in your storytelling toolkit. There is pressure to make that quick, positive first impression, varying from 10 seconds (Toorenburg, Oostrom & Pollet, 2015) to 10-20 seconds (Rockport Institute, 2015) to 25 seconds (Borysek, 2011). Thus, your resume needs to be great from the start. Additionally, creating a resume is part of your professional development. In fact, Goal 5.5E of the APA (2013) Guidelines for the Undergraduate Psychology Major, Version 2.0 is to “create and continuously update a curriculum vitae or resume” (p. 35). Below I offer three themes for creating the best resume possible.
1. Your resume should be completely honest and accurate.
Be exact in your descriptions of your work. For example, if you have submitted a proposal for a poster presentation to the Midwestern Psychological Association convention in 2016, be sure it is listed on your resume as “poster submitted for presentation.” Do not list your work as if it has already been accepted by the conference. The same is true for your undergraduate date of graduation — use the term “expected” or “anticipated,” as in “Anticipated May 2017.” I like the advice offered by Rockport Institute (2015) regarding a different way to think about two key sections of a resume — the assertions section and the evidence section. In the assertions section, you list and describe your knowledge, skills and abilities. In the evidence section, you follow up the assertions section by providing the supporting documentation about how you acquired and honed the knowledge, skills and abilities you possess. Providing the evidence demonstrates an honest presentation and an accurate depiction.
2. Your resume should be user friendly; think about the convenience of the reader.
Create your resume with the reader’s comfort and convenience uppermost in mind. Use a combination of keywords and action verbs. Keywords will be critical if your resume is scanned into a database (large companies often do this), because matching keywords may help your resume get noticed at the first level. But at that next level, the traditional action verbs that help describe your knowledge, skills and abilities will be important to the human reader (CareerPerfect, 2015). If you are using bulleted, short descriptions as your evidence in your resume, try to start each bullet with an action verb. It is much more informative to read “organized and provided leadership for the Psi Chi induction ceremony held off-campus for 26 inductees” as compared to “I was the Psi Chi induction committee chair.”
Strive to make your resume readable and inviting, including white space with wide margins (Borysek, 2011), use of a clean and clear typeface, and bullets to provide details about accomplishments. Ask yourself this question when preparing your resume — what would make a person the perfect candidate for this job (Rockport Institute, 2015)? Then, try to deliver that information in the form of your resume if the position fits you.
3. Your resume should be representative of your professionalism.
If you are fortunate enough to have submitted some of your undergraduate work to a scholarly journal, be sure to be completely honest about its status (i.e., “submitted”) and also present that item on your resume using APA style and format. Although you might not have one-inch margins and you certainly won’t be using double-spacing, follow all the formatting rules for manuscripts submitted for publication. It will help show off your knowledge of how psychology professionals present their work.
Even details such as the professional appearance of your email address can make a difference. In a study utilizing human resources specialists as participants, Toorenburg, Oostrom and Pollet (2015) reported that an informal email address (e.g., luv_u_sanne@hotmail.com) was just as detrimental to a job applicant as spelling errors on the resume. Make sure you have a professional-looking email address.
In closing, remember resources are available that present well-prepared examples of the undergraduate student resume, and some are even psychology-specific (see Landrum, 2014). Another idea you might consider is taking a career development course (for credit or not) — there is evidence that such a course can lead to significant improvement in resume quality and interviewing skills (McDow & Zabrucky, 2015). The resume is a key method for showing the potential employer you are a qualified candidate (Akpan & Notar, 2012). Be sure to rely on your mentors/advisors/trusted faculty members for feedback on your resume, and good luck.
References
Akpan, J., & Notar, C.E. (2012). How to write a professional knockout resume to differentiate yourself. College Student Journal, 46, 880-891.
American Psychological Association. (2013). APA guidelines for the undergraduate psychology major, Version 2.0. Washington, D.C.: Author. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/about/psymajor-guidelines.pdfopens in new window (PDF, 447KB).
Borysek, M. (2011, March). Six tips for writing an effective resume. American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Retrieved from https://www.asme.org/career-education/articles/job-hunting/6-tips-for-writing-an-effective-resumeopens in new window.
CareerPerfect. (2015). The keyword resume explained. Retrieved from https://www.careerperfect.com/tips/resume-writing/keyword/opens in new window.
Landrum, R.E., & Davis, S.F. (2014). The psychology major: Career options and strategies for success (5th ed.). Boston: Pearson.
McDow, L.W., & Zabrucky, K.M. (2015). Effectiveness of a career development course on students’ job search skills and self-efficacy. Journal of College Student Development, 56, 632-636.
Rockport Institute. (2015). How to write a masterpiece of a resume — part 2. Retrieved from https://rockportinstitute.comopens in new window.
Toorenburg, M. V., Oostrom, J. K., & Pollet, T. V. (2015). What a difference your e-mail makes: Effects of informal e-mail addresses in online resume screening. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 18, 135-140. doi:10.1089/cyber.2014.0542.
About the Author
R. Eric Landrum is a professor of psychology at Boise State University, receiving his PhD in cognitive psychology from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. His research interests center on the educational conditions that best facilitate student success and the use of scholarship of teaching and Learning strategies to advance the efforts of scientist-educators. He has presented at more than 375 conferences and published more than 25 books/book chapters and 75 professional articles in scholarly, peer-reviewed journals. He has worked with more than 300 undergraduate research assistants and taught more than 13,000 students in 24 years at Boise State. During summer 2008, he led an APA working group at the National Conference for Undergraduate Education in Psychology that focused on the desired results of an undergraduate psychology education. During the October 2014 Educational Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C., Landrum was awarded a presidential citation from then-APA President Nadine Kaslow for his outstanding contributions to the teaching of psychology.
Landrum is the lead author of “The Psychology Major: Career Options and Strategies for Success” (5th ed., 2013). He authored “Undergraduate Writing in Psychology: Learning to Tell the Scientific Story” (2nd ed., 2012) and “Finding a Job With a Psychology Bachelor's Degree: Expert Advice for Launching Your Career” (2009). He co-authored “The Easy Guide to APA Style” (2nd ed., 2013) and “You’ve Received Your Doctorate in Psychology—Now What?” (2012). He is the lead editor for “Teaching Ethically—Challenges and Opportunities” (2012) and co-editor of “Assessing Teaching and Learning in Psychology: Current and Future Perspectives” (2013). Landrum serves as one of the inaugural co-editors of the new APA journal Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology. He served as vice president of the Rocky Mountain region of Psi Chi (2009-11). He is an APA member and a fellow in APA’s Div. 2 (Society for the Teaching of Psychology). He served as Div 2’s secretary (2009-11) and as the 2014 president. Landrum is the president-elect of the Rocky Mountain Psychological Association.