CAA Members,

This spring/early summer CAA conducted a resume review program to give members an opportunity to have their resume seen with fresh eyes. We had 27 resumes submitted and 15 CAA members volunteer to review those resumes! Ranging from students to seasoned archivists our resumes were as varied as our members and luckily our reviewers were just as diverse.

We wanted to share a few common themes our reviewers found in the resumes:

• Keep your most pertinent archival skills and knowledge at the top of your resume, either with a skills/professional summary section or by listing your archival work first.
  
• Be as transparent as possible. Add in metadata, cataloging, and description standards. List systems, software, hardware, programs, etc. that you use by name.
•  Show your impact by adding metrics! We tend to downplay the work we are doing, but we work with collections of all sizes, with LOADS of patrons, and we deliver projects, research, reports, finding aids, and assets daily. Make sure to assign numbers, even if you think it isn’t impressive, it is! 
•  List internships, volunteer opportunities, and practicums if you are just out of school! These are all work experience!
• Consider using a sans serif font for a crisp resume and make sure to save space by not allowing orphans, widows, and runts in your text.
•  Remember the audience. Tailor your resume’s words, key phrasing, and metrics based on what sort of archive or job you are applying for.

Thank you all for participating this spring!

You can reach out to me at any time with questions at heather.mcgowan14@gmail.com

Wishing you a job filled summer!

Heather McGowan, CAA Programming Subcommittee