How to Write Strong Descriptions
Formatting your resume and deciding relevant experiences to highlight takes time; however, effectively describing your experiences is the most important task. The descriptions you include on your resume provide the majority of the content and context for reviewers. It's these descriptions that set apart your resume from others.
We suggest using PAR statements as a framework for crafing these strong descriptions.
P (Problem)What is the Problem, Purpose, Project that you need to describe? |
A (Action)What Actions did you take to solve the problem? |
R (Result)What were the Results and outcomes from your actions? |
|---|---|---|
| After school tutoring | Met with 10 students weekly | Catered to their indiviual learning needs |
| Needed to market an upcoming event | Designed and printed a brochure | Attracted students to the event and increased attendance |
For each task or responsibility, what problem were you seeking to address? What action did you take to address this problem? What were the results of your action? Once you have determined these answers, you can summarize the content into one (or more) bullets. Below we've included some examples of "before" and "after" resume bullets to demonstrate this.
Before: Provided after school tutoring
After: Tutored approximately 10 students in chemistry, weekly, while assesing student needs to structure instruction
Before: Designed brochures
After: Designed student centered promotional materials which increased event attendance by 20%
We have also put together a worksheet to help utilize action verbs for your resume. You can click the box below to view or print for future use.