WGU Career & Professional Development
Resource Library
Resumes
Your resume is a living document that you will update and share with employers and connections throughout your career. Our goal is to educate you on strategies and best practices in resume development, equipping you with these critical lifelong career skills.
We’ve created several resources to support you as you develop and refine your resume. Each step builds on the knowledge and skill acquired in the previous step, so please follow these steps in order.
**Note: Teachers College Students: For resume resources to apply for a teaching position, visit the Teaching Resources page. To build your field experience resume, view the FE Resume Best Practices Workshop or visit the Field Experience Resource page.
To request resume review from a career advisor, you must follow the steps outlined below.
Step One: Understanding Resume Foundations
First, complete our Developing an Effective Resume tutorial.
Note: Completing this tutorial allows you to request a written review of your resume by a career advisor. To request a review, complete the Resume Self-Review document found on the “Additional Resume Resources” page in the final module of the tutorial and email your resume and completed self-review form to careers@wgu.edu. Students who request a review without completing the tutorial will be directed back to the tutorial.
Summary
This tutorial is appropriate for job seekers of all levels as it covers fundamental resume best practices as well as how to take your resume to the next level by customizing it for the role you are seeking.
In the tutorial, you will learn about the following topics:
- What a resume is and how it’s used by job seekers and employers during the hiring process
- Basic components of an effective resume and best practices for each component
- Resume formatting and design guidelines for creating a polished, recruiter-friendly document
- Customizing your resume for specific industries and job opportunities
Supplemental Resources
Use this resource and resume templates below to create a draft or further develop your resume:
Resume Samples & Templates
Please note that you must be logged in to WGU to access the links below. Download and save the resume sample to your computer for editing.
Step Two: Applying Your Learning
- How to Build a Strong Professional Profile
- Resume Action Verbs
- Accomplishment Statement Worksheet
- Questions to Ask to Create Awesome Accomplishments
Note: You must be logged into your WGU Student Portal to access the links above.
Step Three: Targeting Your Resume
Most employers use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) for their hiring. Applicant Tracking Systems scan resumes for keywords and skills from the job description and assign each resume a match rate. Recruiters use this match rate to determine which resumes to review. It is critical that you customize your resume for each role that you apply to.
Once you have refined your resume and practiced customizing a resume in a Resume Lab, use the resources below to tailor your own resume for the role you are seeking. It can mean the difference between a recruiter offering you an interview or not reading your resume at all.
Supplemental Resources
- O*Net-SOC AutoCoder - Instantly provides a high-quality occupational classification based on your resume or job description, identifies key words critical to include on your resume, and confirms that your resume is targeted toward your career goal/s.
- TagCrowd - Use your resume and a job description to create your own word clouds to visualize word frequency and ensure your resume aligns with the job description.