Resume organization

[loulou29]

Hello all,

I will be applying for a Masters in Urban Planning this fall and I am debating what is the best way to organize my resume. Option 1 is the usual, education, honors/ awards, work experience, skills. One of my friends mentioned that it also common to put education last and work experience first.

What are your thoughts/ suggestions?

thanks in advance!

[butterfingers2010]

Well considering you are applying for an academic program, you should probably put the "Education" category first. On my resume, I split up the work experience category into "Relevant Experience" and "other experience", with "Relevant Experience" first. I like this approach because it lets the reader ponder your strongest qualifications first and all the experience related to the job/program is in one easy to read category. Sometimes it is preferred that you just list your jobs in chronological order, usually by employers who like to easily infer that there are no "gaps" in your resume. For the purpose of graduate school though I like these two separate categories the best. I also included a "hobbies/interests" category. This wouldn't be considered normal for a job application but I think grad schools like to have this information about you to see that you are a well-rounded person with a personality outside of your professional role.