Academic Advisor Resume: Samples and Writing Guide

What’s the secret to a great academic advisor resume? You’re already sending enough job applications to clog a student union. Why don’t they answer? It’s enough to make you toss your sheepskin in the trash. How can you prove your skills are Dartmouth-level so administrators pick up the phone?

You’ve come to the right place. Your resume for academic advisor jobs is almost there. You just need some help with formatting and picking Yale-worthy accomplishments. Don’t worry. With the right moments from your past, you’ll be helping to guide young lives in a few weeks.

You’re about to see an academic advisor resume example you can change to fit any academic advisor position. You’ll also get easy steps to write a resume for academic advisor jobs that’ll land 10x more interviews than any other.

Here’s an academic advisor resume example made with our builder.

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Sample Academic Advisor Resume (Text Version)

Here’s how to write an academic advisor resume step-by-step.

1. Start With the Right Format for an Academic Advisor Resume

Here’s the nightmare—nobody wants to hire an academic advisor who comes in late. If the school thinks you’ll slack off on course recommendations or student progress tracking, they won’t want you. Their biggest clue? Sloppy resume formatting.

So—

Here’s how to format an academic advisor resume template:

• Format: the reverse-chronological resume format works best. It puts your Ivy-league achievements up top.
• Fonts: use resume fonts like Verdana or Trebuchet for a clean look.
• Font size: 11–12 point text with 13–14 point resume headings.
• Line spacing: 1 to 1.15.
• Layout: for a clean resume template add white space between sections.
• Resume margins: 1 inch on sides, bottom, and top.
• File type: send PDF resumes unless the job ad bans them.

Include these parts of a resume:

• Header: with correct contact information.
• Summary: a fast intro to your resume’s best bits.
• Experience: your best academic advisor achievements.
• Education: schooling and relevant coursework.
• Skills: just the ones the job posting likes.
• Other sections: add conferences or volunteering to your resume.

Pro Tip: Each job you list should have 3–6 bullet points. Put more bullets in your latest job and fewer in your oldest one. Admins care more about your recent work life.

Unsure about the chronological resume format? See our guide: How to Pick the Best Resume Format

2. Add Experience to Your Academic Advisor Resume

Worried they won’t hire you? They won’t—if you’re just trying the academic advisor life on for size. Show you’ve got more skills than Temple Grandin with a robust work history. But there’s a trick to it. Add advisor accomplishments in the right layout, and your resume for academic advisors will shine.

To customize your resume:

• List your newest job title first.
• Add the school name, years, and months.
• Create a short job description (1–2 lines).
• Make bullet points that show your best work achievements.
• Tell a story with the PAR (Problem-Action-Result) formula.

See these academic advisor resume samples:

Academic Advisor Job Description for a Resume

Pass, meet fail. The first example has a clean layout that’s easy to read. It shares your job duties. But—it adds numbers like 50, 20%, and 33% to show you made things happen. The bad resume example just gives a list of duties. Nobody knows if you excelled or barely made it.

In an entry-level academic advisor resume, add non-advisor jobs. But there’s a special way to show them. Let’s say you were a line cook. You can use that job to show teamwork, efficiency, communication, or other transferable skills. It’s all down to which accomplishments you choose to share.

See these entry-level academic advisor resume examples:

Academic Advisor Resume With No Experience

Oh, wow, what a difference. But that’s the same advisor in bothexamples. It all rests on which achievements you decide to list.

Pro Tip: You can expect to make about $56,310 a year as an academic advisor. But those are median figures. A targeted resume can net you almost twice as much.

When making a resume in our builder, drag & drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building a professional resume template here for free.

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When you’re done, Zety’s resume builder will score your resume and tell you exactly how to make it better.

Why list a key achievement? See our guide: How to Show Experience on a Resume

3. Make Your Education Section Count

You need education in an academic advisor resume. But don’t make the rookie mistake of only showing dates, school name, and degree on your resume. That’s like having a Harvard diploma and using it as a bookmark. To get the most from your pricey education, add achievements from your school years.

See these academic advisor resume examples:

Academic Advisor Resume Example [Education]

Sooo much stronger. Your goal with writing a resume for academic advisor jobs? Get the school administrator to slow her roll. You want her to stop, think, “Hey—that’s cool,” and realize she’d better save your contact info.

Pro Tip: Does every advisor resume need accomplishments like that? Nope. If you got your sheepskin before the elective system, show a few more work accomplishments instead.

What if you have more than one degree? See our guide: How to Put Your Education on a Resume

4. Put the Right Skills in Your Academic Advisor Resume

There’s nothing worse than failing for some minor reason. Want to know why 99% of academic advisor resumes wind up in the trash? Because they do a great job of proving the wrong skills. Don’t let that happen to you! Take the time to zero in on the perfect skills to make the hiring manager notice.

Start with this list of skills for academic advisor resumes:

Academic Advisor Resume Skills (Hard Skills)

• Administration
• Curriculum Design
• Student Assessments
• Mentorship
• Student Engagement
• Monitoring Student Progress
• Student Guidance
• Helping At-risk Students
• Teaching
• Coaching

Academic Advisor Skills (Soft Skills)

• Interpersonal Skills
• Active Listening
• Teamwork Skills
• Verbal and Written Communication
• Time Management
• Attention to Detail
• Problem Solving
• Organizational Skills
• Efficiency

But which of those will get you hired?

Here’s how to pick the best academic advisor skills:

1. List out the academic advisor skills in the job advertisement.
2. List your academic advisor skills.
3. Circle the matches between both lists. Those are your job-getting resume keywords.
4. Cite those skills in your resume.
5. Prove those skills in your bullet points.
6. Use soft skills and hard skills to stand out like Stanford.

See this academic advisor resume example:

Pretend the company wants transfers, grant objectives, and registration.

Academic Advisor Resume Examples [Skills]

Those bullet points sell your academic advisor skills. Notice we used resume power verbs like aided, collaborated, and surpassed to drive the points home. And don’t miss those numbers. They show you didn’t just “succeed.” They show how much, how many, and how long.

Pro Tip: Sometimes the job offer won’t list all the skills they want. Do some informational interviews to bone up on the best skills to target in your resume.

Need more skills for your academic advisor resume? See our guide: +30 Best Examples of What Skills to Put on a Resume

5. Add Other Sections to Your Academic Advisor Resume

Why do you need more than education and experience? Because you want your academic advisor resume to get you hired. Have you got certifications in curriculum design or mentorship? Did you attend NACADA or volunteer in the BSA? Your non-work accomplishments can get you noticed and hired.

Choose from:

1. Resume Licenses & Certifications

Certifications aren’t a must in a resume for academic advisor jobs. That said, they do help entry-level resumes. If you’ve got the certs below, list them in a special section.

• Administration
• Curriculum design
• Student assessments
• Mentorship
• Student engagement

2. Languages on a Resume

Are there lots of ESL students at the school? If so, and you speak their language, that could be your ticket to the interview.

3. Professional Associations

Association memberships in NACADA and TEXAAN can get you noticed. They’re a double career booster because they also give you intel about good jobs. If you’re in one, add it to your resume.

4. Conferences

If you’ve been to the NACADA Annual Conference or the CAA Biennial Conference, consider listing it. Con attendance proves you’ve got skin in the game.

5. Resume Volunteer Work

Advisors who find extra time to help others probably help their students. Show your heart and competence with Habitat for Humanity gigs or hospital volunteering.

See these academic advisor resume samples:

Academic Advisor Resume Examples [Other Sections]

Pro Tip: How many pages should a resume be for academic advisor jobs? Write a one-page resume. Long resumes get skipped, and short ones look lazy.

You can add hobbies to a shorty resume. See our guide: List of Hobbies & Interests for a Resume or CV

6. Write an Academic Advisor Resume Objective or Resume Summary

Here’s a fun little nightmare—you write the best academic advisor resume in the stack. But they don’t read it. They glance, then ditch you for a less-qualified applicant. That happens more than it should. But you can slam the brakes on it with a well-crafted resume objective or resume summary.

Here’s how to write a career summary:

1. Start with an adjective like motivated or compassionate.
2. Add your title (academic advisor).
3. Share your years of experience (1+, 5, 7).
4. Hint at what you’d like to do for the school (raise retention, etc.).
5. Include the school’s name.
6. Add the finest highlights of your resume.

See these examples:

Academic Advisor Resume Summary

Argh! That second sample is death-by-adjective and death-by-vagueness. Not a number in the bunch, so how do we know you did your job well? But that first example—winner! We know how long, where, what, and how many. That will make the phone ring.

But what’s a career objective? It’s almost the same, but it’s for entry-level academic advisor resumes. It won’t show achievements from advisor jobs, but it must show your most Princeton-style accomplishments. Did you work as an early childhood assistant? Or did you get a fellowship at school? Share it.

See these examples:

Entry-Level Academic Advisor Resume Objective

Major difference. “Yeah great—but I never got employee of the year.” True. But you did get some kind of transferable achievement. You just need to pick the best one from your resume.

Pro Tip: Your resume needs to turn heads like a 4.0. There are a few key ways to make a resume stand out. One of them is reframing your achievements in concrete terms.

Writing a first resume? See our guide: First Resume with No Work Experience

7. What About an Academic Advisor Cover Letter?

Do academic advisor resumes need cover letters? Every time. HR statistics show that half of all recruiters and hiring teams ditch resumes without them. On the flip side, cover letters are a great way to double your chance to get the interview. But there’s a trick. Stock yours with passion and personal achievement.

To write a cover letter:

1. Format your cover letter first.
2. Start your academic advisor cover letter with the hiring manager’s name.
3. Write a cover letter first sentence that makes the grade.
4. Use your middle paragraph to show you understand the job.
5. Tout a few skills-accomplishments.
6. At the end of your cover letter, offer the school something.

See a dedicated cover letter sample for academic advisors here: Academic Advisor Cover Letter Example

Pro Tip: Does the layout and color of a resume matter? Absolutely. But don't get too fancy. That gets you noticed in a bad way, and it cuts your hiring chances.

Want your academic advisor resume and cover letter to pass muster? See our guides: How To Write A Cover Letter in 8 Simple Steps and How to Make a Resume: A Step-by-Step Guide

Plus, a great cover letter that matches your resume will give you an advantage over other candidates. You can write it in our cover letter builder here. Here's what it may look like:

Create my cover letter now

See more cover letter templates and start writing.

Key Takeaway

Here’s a recap of how to write an academic advisor resume:

• Format your academic advisor resume template in reverse-chronological order.
• Find academic advisor skills in the job posting online.
• Write your experience section first. Target it like a fellowship with some hand-picked accomplishments.
• To drop jaws like an MIT researcher, add numbers.
• Put school successes in your education section.
• Put a NACADA membership or volunteer work near the bottom for extra punch.
• Write an academic advisor cover letter to double your chances.

That’s it! Now, we’d love to hear from you: 

• What’s the worst part about writing an academic advisor resume? 
• Are you suffering with trying to use an online template?
• Is writing a cover letter the bane of your existence?

Let’s chat below in the comments, and thanks for reading!