Admissions Tips: Resume and Work Experience

Many incoming applicants to Harris have questions on how their work experience will be viewed, the level of importance placed on having significant work experience, and the length and format of their resume. We see students who have a variety of professional backgrounds. Many of our students have a few years of work experience in a particular field, while others have recently graduated and have not yet begun their professional careers but typically have had some internship, volunteer, or extracurricular experience while pursuing their undergraduate degree. Others have significant work experience and have concluded that pursuing a graduate degree will allow them to advance to the next level in their field or allow them to change careers.

When reviewing your resume, we aren’t looking for a particular format, the resumes we receive are as diverse as the students applying to Harris. While it may be appropriate for some students to have lengthier resumes to detail their professional and, if applicable, research experience, other students may have more brief summaries of their experience. Some students prefer to submit chronological resumes while others prefer to format their experience according to relevance to policy or the program for which they are applying. Again, we are not looking for one format or a limited set of professional careers and we encourage you to submit a resume that you believe best supports your Harris application.