This guide explains how to write a resume for US policy roles (e.g. Congress, think tanks, state legislatures), including advice on resume formatting, content, and writing. Policy resumes generally follow standard resume guidelines but should emphasize policy-relevant skills—writing, research, project management, interpersonal skills, etc.—even if you don’t have prior policy experience. Unlike some private sector environments (e.g. tech startups), most established policy organizations maintain a traditional professional culture with formalized standards for applications and communications.

This guide doesn’t apply to federal agency roles (which require a specialized federal resume). 

Format: How to make your resume look professional

Reference examples (see here and here), and follow these guidelines:

• Use a standard template with only black text and standard fonts (Calibri or Times New Roman).
  • Make a copy of this template or see more downloadable templates in the footnote.¹
• Aim for a 1-page resume for early-career roles (extend to 2 pages for more senior roles if you have sufficient relevant experience). 
• (Optional) Use line breaks to separate sections and simple bullet points to list specific experiences/tasks under each role, but avoid other design elements. 
• List entries in reverse chronological order for each section (most recent first, oldest last).²
• Use bolding, capitalization, or italics to distinguish components of your entries, but don’t apply more than one or two of these simultaneously. For example:
  • EMPLOYER, City, State
  • Position Title
• Set the margins between 0.75” and 1” (ideal) and no less than 0.5”.
• Use size 10 or 11 font consistently throughout, except for headers (you can use a larger font for your name if desired).
• Ensure stylistic consistency (e.g. capitalization, punctuation, American English spelling). Follow AP Style for any spelling or grammatical uncertainties.
• Make bullets only one or two lines long (a rare three-line bullet is okay if needed), and generally include 3-4 bullets per experience.
• Export as PDF unless otherwise specified.
  • Give the file a simple filename for sharing (e.g. “John Doe Resume – June 2019”). Do this before hitting “Export to PDF” to ensure the PDF’s internal document title is professional and matches the file name.

Sections

At a minimum, include these sections: 

• Heading:
  • Name, phone number, and professional email 
  • Optional: City, State (not your full address) and LinkedIn
• Education: 
  • For early career professionals, education typically appears before experience. If you prefer highlighting your professional accomplishments more prominently (more common for mid-career professionals), consider listing education after experience.
  • For each postsecondary degree:³
    • Full university name
    • Degree(s) obtained (B.A., B.S., M.P.P., etc.)
    • Major(s) and minor(s)
    • Expected or actual graduation date
      • Optional: start-date
    • GPA (if 3.0 or above)
    • Optional: relevant coursework/research and major publication or academic outcome
    • Full university name
    • Degree(s) obtained (B.A., B.S., M.P.P., etc.)
    • Major(s) and minor(s)
    • Expected or actual graduation date
      • Optional: start-date
    • GPA (if 3.0 or above)
    • Optional: relevant coursework/research and major publication or academic outcome
• Experience:
  • For each position:
    • Employer/institution full name
    • Job title
    • Location
    • Dates of employment
    • 3-4 bullet points describing responsibilities and achievements (2 for less relevant/shorter roles)
    • Include multiple titles and responsibilities if you had multiple roles at one organization (in reverse chronological order)

Optionally, you can also include sections on: 

• Summary/objective section at the top of resume (more common for mid-career individuals)
  • Especially if you’re transitioning into policy, you can consider adding a 1-3 sentence summary to the top of your resume to convey relevant skills and communicate policy interests. Example: Biotechnology project manager with 12 years of experience overseeing clinical trials for genetic therapies, aiming to apply practical implementation knowledge to improve regulatory frameworks for novel biological technologies.
• Projects (independent projects not sponsored through work or school)
• Leadership & extracurricular activities
  • These are most helpful if they demonstrate interest or skills relevant to the position but can generally be cut otherwise (especially if space-constrained). For example, you might include participating in Model UN, writing for your school’s newspaper, serving in student government, or organizing a TEDx event. It’s generally worth including significant leadership roles in large and reputable student organizations, particularly if you graduated in the past 18 months.
    •  If the activity or event is unlikely to be known by the reader, include a short description. (The reader should easily and quickly understand your resume.) 
• Honors/awards
  • If you have 1-2 academic honors (e.g. Dean’s List), include these in your “Education” section. For 3+ honors or awards, consider creating a separate “Honors & Awards” or “Leadership Experience” section near the end of your resume, which can showcase competitive scholarships, student competition awards, publications, and other notable distinctions. For less-well-known awards, add a brief clarifying description (e.g. “Selected as 1 of 100 students nationally”).
• Skills, including languages (last section)
  • If you have policy interests not reflected in your resume, consider expanding this to a “Skills and Interests” section, where you can list policy-related interests and other well-regarded, professionally appropriate hobbies that could prompt enjoyable conversation in an interview.

Content: What experiences to include

Prioritize relevance to policy work: Include experiences demonstrating analytical, research, communication, leadership, or other skills transferable to policy roles—even if not directly policy-related. If space-constrained, exclude roles that are outdated, redundant, or less aligned with policy-relevant skills. 

Focus on recent and full-time work: Focus on more recent and full-time positions over older or part-time roles (omit high school achievements unless you’re very early in your career with limited experience). Allocate more space to recent work (3-4 bullet points for current/recent positions, max. 2-3 bullet points for older experiences).

Tailor experiences to specific policy roles: Emphasize different skills based on the position—for example, you might focus on research, analytical, and writing experience for think tanks; stakeholder engagement and communication skills for legislative offices; coalition building and campaign work for advocacy organizations. Similarly, offer details on the subject matter and stakeholders you worked with to the extent it is directly relevant to the role you are applying to.

When to include non-policy experiences: If you already have policy work experience, that should likely be the main emphasis in your resume, but you might also include non-policy work when it demonstrates exceptional achievement, shows specialized knowledge relevant to specific policy areas, fills employment gaps, or demonstrates a commitment to public service or community engagement.

Writing: How to draft strong bullet points

Write sentence fragments using this format: Action + Task + Result. For example: 

• Choose a strong action verb
  • Use past tense verbs for completed experiences, present tense if ongoing
  • Vary your verbs throughout (e.g. led, managed, oversaw)
• Proofread: Typos can ruin your resume, so take the time to proofread
• Provide clear, relevant context
  • Mirror words or phrases closely or directly from the job description when possible 
  • Eliminate unnecessary words like articles (a, an, the)
  • Quantify scope with specific numbers (budget size, team members, attendees, timeline)
  • Include illustrative examples, especially those relevant to the job description
  • Avoid jargon, technical terminology, abbreviations and acronyms (unless widely known)
  • Use adjectives sparingly, if at all
  • Aim to keep each bullet no longer than 1-2 lines
• Demonstrate measurable impact
  • Describe direct results of your work—show, don’t tell
  • Quantify achievements with specific metrics (percentages, numbers, dollar amounts)
• Tailor detail level to your audience: Adjust the specificity of your experiences based on the hiring manager’s likely familiarity with your field. Include precise terminology and organization names when applying to roles within that domain (e.g. you might mention that you “conducted research supported by DARPA” for a defense or technology policy position), but opt for broader descriptors when applying to positions where such specifics might be unfamiliar (e.g. “conducted research funded by a Department of Defense research agency”). Aim to be specific enough to demonstrate expertise but general enough to ensure comprehension.

Resume bullet examples

• Managed research project evaluating the impact of tax incentives on small businesses, findings published in [X] journal/school newspaper and cited in legislative hearings
• Led stakeholder engagement for youth education programs, conducting community surveys with over 300 residents and preparing communication briefs
• Drafted comprehensive reports on urban food security programs, influencing nonprofit funding decisions totaling $100k+
• Conducted statistical analysis of survey data from over 2,000 respondents for a Texas Politics Project report examining voter attitudes on school choice policies, informing legislative briefings ahead of [X] state legislative session

Using AI to improve your resume

Software tools like ResumeWorded and Grammarly and AI models like ChatGPT and Claude can significantly aid your resume writing by proofreading, reviewing, drafting strong bullet points, and tailoring content to specific job descriptions. (Though always carefully review AI outputs, and use these tools to supplement your judgment).

When working with AI models, consider uploading your resume, the job description, and this resume guide (or other guides/example resumes) using prompts like:

• How can I tailor my resume to this job description? What skills should I highlight?
• What keywords from this job description should I include in my resume? 
• I just completed an internship/job [describe position]. How can I describe this on my resume?
• Help me condense my experience to fit one page while maintaining the content most relevant to the job description.
• How can I showcase my transferable skills from [previous industry/role] to this new position in policy?

Further resources

• Resume Guide, Princeton Career Development
• Resume Formatting, Georgetown University Cawley Career Education Center
• Resume Guide, UT Austin Liberal Arts Career Services
• For current students: See if your school’s career services offices or writing center offers resume review sessions.

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Footnotes