Resume??

[Qwerty85]

Does anyone know where I can find a template I guess you could say of what a resume should generally look like??

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[GellaBella]

I don't have one but I'm sure you can find many different CV templates just by doing a google search.

 

[Angelo84]

In general you should have contact info, school info (what school, major/degree, GPA), work experience this can be broken into vet related and random other if you want, volunteer experience, awards/honors, hobbies.

If you search I am sure you can find examples. If you are still in undergrad I would recommend finding the school career center and asking them to help you with the resume--they might also have a packet/handout with samples.

 

[david594]

And limit it to 1 page!

 

[kayakman28]

And limit it to 1 page!

This is debatable depending on the purpose of the resume...

I definitely agree that for a "formal job", resumes should be limited to one page. When I was talking with admissions folks at various schools, however, they told me that resume length doesn't matter as long as it is well organized.

 

[VAgirl]

Unless you're doing a CV, a resume really should be one page. Even if there are exceptions, no one who is the average age of people on this board (~mid 20s) really has any business having a resume longer than 1 page. Just cut the fluff.

 

[aspiringDVM]

I agree with the one-page rule for standard job-application type resumes. You don't really need to include photos, your pets' biographies, and James Herriot exerpts to prove you REALLY want a job in a vet clinic 🙄.

 

[Ben and Me]

Mine was well over 1 page, but it was more of a CV--it had all my college info (GPA, relevant course work, etc) , GRE scores, and then sections broken down into vet experience, animal experience and other job experience (in that order). It was basically everything that I put on my VMCAS, except the honors and awards section was just a list (no descriptions there). I did have descriptions of my duties for each vet/animal experience though because I thought it was relevant.

Heading to career services is a good idea--they helped me come up with some more action verbs so it wasn't all the same standard words.

I also had a cover letter that I included too. I didn't send it to any vet schools though, just used it to try and find a job as a vet assistant. I can't say that it was too effective since I sent it to every vet hospital in the area and only got interviewed at 3, but in such a pre-vet saturated area, that may be the norm 🙂 And I did get a job so I suppose it worked out! All that GRE stuff may not have been necessary, but I figured I'd potentially be getting a letter of rec out of them and wanted them to know I was a qualified (and serious) vet school applicant.

 

[sumstorm]

My resume is 2 pages, but I am also nearing 30 with some odd experience. I went with 1 page until I had 3 different interviewers say that my resume didn't adequatly cover what I could bring to the table and that they couldn't see what to cut out.

My biggest hint is have white space. Use bullets, lists, etc. clear, concise points. get rid of words like 'very', 'much', etc. quantify if reasonable.

When I was going through resumes I had to deal with a minimum of 20 and generally more than 100. I weeded out anything difficult or bothersom to read. Resumes become dull reading quickly.

 

[Qwerty85]

thanks guys. how in depth should the description of duties (for animal experience, for example) be?? a few sentences?? also is it best to have complete sentences or just brief thoughts?

 

[VAgirl]

thanks guys. how in depth should the description of duties (for animal experience, for example) be?? a few sentences?? also is it best to have complete sentences or just brief thoughts?

Definitely bullet points, not complete sentences. Goes with the idea of making sure it's easy to read/scan.

 

[Angelo84]

I agree with the bullet points. As far as length I think if it is relevant it is okay if it is longer than one page. I have a variety of veterinary experience and if I wanted to list everything and keep it at one page I end up with a list of locations and dates. I decided to go with two pages and that has been fine. If you are going onto two pages and have work experience in there including scooping ice cream or baby sitting I would cut that to make it one page. Although the people skills from those jobs still hold true in vet med.

 

[Ben and Me]

Hi! I attached an edited copy of my resume/CV just in case you were curious. It is pretty long, but it goes in order of importance (in my opinion) and I did have a number of compliments about it from two of my employers/volunteer positions who pretty much stated that it was the reason I was asked to interview and/or chosen for the position.

There is so much about a resume that will just depend on the personal preference of the reader--some would prefer just 1 page while others might prefer a longer, more in-depth look.

 

[Qwerty85]

Hi! I attached an edited copy of my resume/CV just in case you were curious. It is pretty long, but it goes in order of importance (in my opinion) and I did have a number of compliments about it from two of my employers/volunteer positions who pretty much stated that it was the reason I was asked to interview and/or chosen for the position.

There is so much about a resume that will just depend on the personal preference of the reader--some would prefer just 1 page while others might prefer a longer, more in-depth look.

Awesome, that is so nice of you!! But kindof a stupid question - where do I click to see the attachment??

 

[Ben and Me]

Hmm...It should be down at the bottom of the post. It's labeled "Sample Resume" and if you click on that, it should download.

 

[Qwerty85]

Nevermind sorry. For some reason it didn't load the first time but I refreshed this page and found it. Thanks again!!

 

[sumstorm]

If you do go two pages, and even if it is one page, get the important stuff on there first. What is important varies from job to job. Often it is experience or degrees/certifications. If many of your jobs have had similar duties, it may be easier to list those under a category, then list positions. For example:

Husbandry Experience:
- Fed and turned out horses at 30 stall stable
- Groomed 6-12 coated dogs per 8 hour shift
- Assisted in restraining goats and sheep for hoof trimming.

Veterinary Experience:
- Administered vaccinations under indirect supervision
- Prepared dogs and cats for routine surgery, including anesthesia monitoring.

Employment:
Wild Zoo, Quincy, IL 5/81-8/85
Big Acres Farm, Farra, MN 10/85-1/90
Blessed Ones Animal Clinic, Daygo, MI 2/90-8/99

Also, don't go crazy with fonts and such, but a bit of bolding and/or underlining on category headings can help. If you are responding to postings/ads, give them what they say they want (tailor the resume.) If you are shotgunning, go for the big categories in that field.

 

[jglovicz]

All the above advice is good and I don't really have anything to add except this. In differentiating between a Resume and a CV. A resume should be selective and a CV should include "every time you go to the bathroom".

 

[DVMorBust]

All the above advice is good and I don't really have anything to add except this. In differentiating between a Resume and a CV. A resume should be selective and a CV should include "every time you go to the bathroom".

👍

Although I always heard "Everything including your kitchen sink"

 

[nyanko]

I'm actually on the fence about whether I should include GPA in my CV or not. I feel like if I do, I should include it for all of my schooling, and it's uhhh 👎 for some and 👍 for some. I don't want to only put it for the schools where it's good, so I should probably just leave it off, eh?

What about selectively listing relevant courses and my grades in them in lieu of this?

 

[StillDreaming]

my suggestion would be to do a google search and just look at a variety of templates. I created my resume in high school with a template my teacher gave me for a class project sort of thing, and have kind of just updated that everytime i apply for a new job or need to turn in a resume. For a couple years after I created it i did a google search and looked at examples to see what I like about each one and added they style or idea to my resume. Right now i'm pretty happy with my format and its just a combination of a variety of different templates and years of alterations.

Good luck!

 

[Medic_9]

The Microsoft office website has templates for multiple different resume types. I believe all of them are download then fill in the blank type. You can edit them to suit your needs.