Write a Psychology Resume
A resume is a written compilation of your education, work experience, credentials, and accomplishments. Most professional positions require applicants to submit a resume and cover letter as part of the application process (Doyle, 5/14/119). A psychology resume is specifically for a job in the psychology department so they will look a lot different than a resume for any other job. Their resume should mostly include things that only involve psychology.
Steps
- Design your psychology resume. Your resume should be one to two pages long, have two main colors, include section/subject dividers, headers, diagrams, and symbols.
- Know what should be included in your resume. Subjects that should be included in your resume include your profile, work experience, education that qualifies you for a psychology job, skills that relate to psychology, any volunteer hours, certificates, achievements, and publications.
- Consider your audience. The audience of these psychology resumes are the people that potentially might hire someone if they like their resume. There are a lot of different jobs someone can apply for in the psychology field. Some examples are recreational therapist, school career counselor, career counselor, sports psychology, special education teacher, forensic psychology, and correctional psychology.
- Knowing that there are so many jobs that someone can apply for this means there are many different places they might be applying to. The order of things listed in someone’s resume may change based on the place they are applying to. For example, if someone is applying to a big corporation then they might list that they are a published writer and then their community service. But if someone is applying to a small psychology clinic in their hometown, they will want to list their community service before their published books. A small clinic will care more about the community, while a big corporation will care more about things like published books.
- Consider the purpose (rhetorical situation) of your resume. The rhetorical situation is to persuade your reader to hire you for the job you are applying to. Bitzer defines a rhetorical situation as “the context in which speakers or writers create rhetorical discourse.” To successfully do this, you should provide all the work experience that will make you a perfect candidate for the psychology job you are applying for.
- You should not include any information that would be useless to your potential employer in the psychology field. For example, do not include your previous experience in the cosmetology field because this would not relate to the job you are applying to.
- Include emotive language in your resume. Use emotive language in your resume because the information you include is supposed to make the reader feel a certain way. You should not write a resume with any other purpose than to persuade your potential employer to hire you.
- Finished.
