Career Tips & Resources

Résumés

Even if you are applying for a position where there is a formal application to be completed, most of the information required will already be on your résumé making it a good starting point to assist you in providing the required information. Thus, not only should you create your résumé carefully, you should also continually update it so you have a record of what you’ve done to market yourself to prospective employers.

Of course, not everyone’s experiences follow the same path. Some of you are career changers and some of you are just beginning. Whatever the case, there is a format that will put your best foot forward in applying for that dream internship or job. Below is a link to an article I wrote for The New Social Worker with résumé writing tips along with examples to guide you.

Résumé Tips

Action Verbs for Your Social Work Résumé

Choosing the right résumé format with examples

Chronological Résumé

This is the most traditional of résumé formats and is most successful for people who have been working in the social work or related fields for a number of years.

Chronological Résumé Example

Skills Résumé

This résumé format is recommended for people who may have a variety of related social work skills but minimal social work experience. For example, this résumé is a good fit for students entering the workforce who have two social work internships and a variety of other types of jobs that helped them gain skills but are not related to social work.

Skills Résumé Example

Combination (Chronological and Skills) Résumé

This is a combining of the two aforementioned formats. This is an excellent choice for people who have years of work experience but are changing to a social work career or changing to a different area of social work—e.g., moving from clinical work to administration.

Combination (Chronological and Skills) Résumé Example:

Curriculum Vitae (CV) 

Those pursuing a PhD in Social Work should elect to use this format unless not applying for a position with an institution of higher education. The CV is meant to present an extensive record of your experience. When applying for an academic position, just as with the résumé, it should be tailored to the nature of the institution. For example, if applying to an institution with a research focus, research should presented sooner rather than later in the CV and vice versa for a teaching focused institution.

Typically, a CV will have the following sections though you may not just yet if you are just completing your PhD (order should be guided by the focus of the institution):

• Name, Contact Information (as with the résumé, this heading should be used for all correspondence to create consistency)
• Education: Degree Information
  • list all degrees in reverse chronological order
  • you may want to list licensures and certifications also unless you have several in which case it warrants a new section
  • it is customary to list the dissertation title here)
• Academic Appointments (list all in reverse chronological order)
• Professional Experience (list all Post-BSW and/or Post-MSW positions in reverse chronological order)
• Scholarship
  • Professional Publications (use APA formatting; bold your name; reverse chronological order) separated into the following sections as applicable:
    • Scholarly Journal Articles
    • Manuscripts in Revise and Resubmit
    • Manuscripts Under Review
    • Manuscripts Under Development
    • Book Chapters
    • Unpublished Report
  •  Professional Presentations (use APA formatting; bold your name; reverse chronological order
  • Grant Funding (you may want a section for funded proposals and proposals under review)
• Teaching
  • List courses taught noting titles (not just numbers as these are different across institutions) and formats (e.g., online, face-to-face, hybrid)
  • If you serve as a field liaison or academic advisor, you may want to list those here as well.
  • If you revise courses (e.g., develop in an online format) or create new courses, that should be highlighted here.
  • If applying to a teaching focused university, you may want to include a statement noting your average teaching evaluation scores. If you have made significant strides, you might also want to indicate your teaching evaluation score for the first course you taught and the last course you taught (only if it shows growth)
  • Once you serve on or chair dissertation and thesis committees, those would go in this section as well
• Awards, Fellowships, Scholarships and Honors (during or after PhD work)
• Current professional, academic, community-related, and scientific memberships.
• Service—This is typically divided into the following sections:
  • Academic Department
  • University
  • Community
  • Profession

Download an Example CV