Resume Guide

Whether you are seeking a job, switching careers, or entering the workforce, a resume represents the initial step to obtaining an interview. It is often the first item a hiring manager sees, and you have mere seconds to set yourself apart. In addition to visual attractiveness, an effective criminal justice resume must persuasively convey your credentials, training, and experience. Because criminal justice careers are so diverse, your resume should be specific. Law enforcement officers can emphasize their physical fitness and knowledge of police protocols and governmental policies. Forensic anthropologists can showcase their research background, investigative skills, and attention to detail. This guide reveals how to create an application that showcases your unique expertise.

How to Write a Criminal Justice Resume

Do Your Research: An effective criminal justice resume shows that you possess the designated skills, training, and experience. Analyze the job description carefully, noting required and preferred qualifications. Research the employer’s website and social media platforms, looking specifically for current goals and projects, and how you may assist. As you gain a better picture of the job and work environment, reflect on whether the position aligns with your professional goals.
List Key Points: Jot down points that respond to specific qualifications. These may include a minimum number of years in the criminal justice field, a level of academic credential, and licensure or certification. Next, create an outline. To ensure you make the right impression, find ways to connect with the reader. Employers want candidates who demonstrate professional accomplishments and can transfer these successes into their new job. Finally, discuss your weaknesses honestly and how you actively work towards improvement.
Format Your Resume: Expand the outline into complete sentences, organized under logical and straightforward headings. To get a hiring manager’s attention, keep it distinct and accessible. Do not use complicated templates and fancy fonts or coloration. One of the best ways to stand out is through a concise statement of your professional objectives.

Types of Resumes

A criminal justice resume represents a snapshot specific to the individual and desired position. Three main resume formats exist: reverse chronological, functional, and combination. Candidates should use the one that best highlights their professional credentials, work experience, and personal characteristics. However, these resume types, at best, provide a malleable framework. Criminologists should adapt these formats in ways that help them stand apart.

Reverse-Chronological

This resume type emphasizes work experience, making it ideal for criminal justice professionals with extensive and relevant work experience. The drawbacks of this style includes gaps and frequent employment changes.

Functional

This format prioritizes skills, education, and professional training over employment history. It best suits candidates with limited work experience in the criminal justice field, such as recent college graduates and career changers. Most employers recognize it as a way to minimize lack of relevant experience.

Combination

Also known as the hybrid style, this resume allows professionals to craft an application that effectively showcases skill, training, and employment history. It offers the most flexibility, but it is also the most difficult to write, requiring candidates to choose information and display elements wisely.

Required vs. Preferred Qualifications

The criminal justice field encompasses such occupations as police officers, private security professionals, cyber security analysts, and corporate loss prevention specialists. Job descriptions vary and include both required and preferred qualifications. The former represents skills, work experience, and academic and professional training a candidate needs to be considered. The latter consists of qualifications that benefit the position, but are not absolutely necessary. While applicants with preferred qualifications do not automatically earn a hire, they stand a better chance of obtaining an interview than candidates who only meet the required criteria.

Employers generally review applications holistically. Criminal justice professionals who do not possess preferred qualifications, or even all the required ones, should apply for a job if they believe they can impress in the cover letter and during interviews. The resume should include all required qualifications and as much of preferred criteria as possible while maintaining a concise form that highlights keywords valued by an applicant tracking system (ATS).

What Should I Include on a Criminal Justice Resume?

Education and Training

List your education starting with the highest degree. For each credential, detail the specific field of study, including concentration. Omit high school information if you have a college degree. If you are currently enrolled in an academic or professional training program, state that the credential is in progress. Omit graduation dates to avoid age discrimination. Your GPA is generally not worth mentioning unless you graduated in the past three years and obtained at least a 3.5. You may also include general academic accomplishments, such as dean’s list.

Experience

List your current experience and work in reverse chronological order, noting employment dates. One of the best ways to create a persuasive criminal justice resume is to connect with the reader. Use action verbs and positive adjectives to describe job duties. Power words emphasize your professionalism and specific knowledge and also work well in ATS screenings. Employers want candidates whose knowledge and skills result in demonstrable or quantifiable success for themselves and their organization. Include such details as what was done, how it was done, for or with whom, at what responsibility level, and under what conditions.

Criminal Justice Skills

Tailor your skills to your desired position and use appropriate keywords. Cybersecurity or information analytics professionals should emphasize training in crime data visualization and statistics and SAS and SPSS software. Most criminal justice careers value skills in clear writing, technological application, research proficiency, and the ability to apply ethical standards to all aspects of the work. It is also helpful to note any unique skills, such as foreign language or combat training.

Licensure and Certifications

These credentials can be voluntary or perfunctory. Police officers must earn state certification through specialized training programs, while forensic pathologists can choose to obtain American Board of Pathology certificates as reflection of their professional expertise. Fully detail your licenses and certifications, including identification numbers and expiration dates. Avoid acronyms even if they seem obvious in the field.

Awards, Accomplishments, and Affiliations

Frame your successes to demonstrate your professionalism and ability to perform in diverse work situations. Recent college graduates can detail relevant academic accomplishments such as departmental recognition for a remarkable thesis or dissertation. Finally, note membership in professional organizations, such as the National Criminal Justice Association or Alpha Phi Sigma, the field’s official honor society.

Volunteer Work

Include relevant unpaid positions if they relate to the criminal justice field. Volunteer work is especially relevant to recent graduates because it demonstrates that, though you are new to the field, you possess drive, a professional network, and some relevant field experience.

What Should I Put on My Resume If I Don’t Have Any Criminal Justice Experience?

A statement of professional objective that details your individual aims and institutional goals is helpful

Recent college graduates or those who lack criminal justice work experience should construct a resume using the functional or combination format. This enables you to structurally focus on skills, education, and licensure/certification. However, minimizing employment means exposing a weakness that you should address in the cover letter. You can partially make up for this lack by demonstrating that you understand job criteria and also know and respect the employer. A statement of professional objective that details your individual aims and institutional goals is helpful.

Relevant work experience does not need to directly relate to the criminal justice field. As long as a prior position includes duties and accomplishments that transfer into the one in application, you can include it. For example, a professional seeking work as a police officer can include their security experience to demonstrate physical acumen, knowledge of organizational protocol, power of observation, and effective management of high-pressure situations. Volunteer positions also benefit you in this way and should receive their own section.

What Is A Resume-Reading Robot?

What is ATS?

Employers often receive hundreds of resumes in response to a single job posting. To save time, many organizations use an ATS. Like a hiring manager conducting a preliminary scan, the ATS ranks resumes by how many designated keywords they contain. Theoretically, this streamlined process filters resumes with generic filler content, a red flag for a candidate’s lack of qualifications. However, the ATS works through algorithms, which disadvantages candidates who do not explicitly employ the right terms and phrases. Writing an effective criminal justice resume necessitates an understanding of how to work within and overcome the ATS process.

Tips for Outsmarting an ATS

Simple Headers: Use “Skills,” “Professional Experience,” “Education,” and other headings that often appear in keyword searches. Also include your location (city, state, and, if outside the U.S., country) because employers usually set up their ATS to vet applicants by location.
Clean Format: The standard ATS cannot process complicated formatting, graphics, or unusual fonts. A simple and accessible layout, such as a plain text/ASCII format, works best. And in general, Tahoma, Verdana, and Arial at the 10.5 font size or above registers well with the ATS.
Keywords/Phrases: You can discern keywords by analyzing the job description. In the criminal justice field, popular phrases include “situational assessment,” “crisis intervention,” and “operational guidelines.”
Industry-Specific Jargon: ATS keywords are meant to reveal a candidate’s familitary and experience with the criminal justice field. The more specific your terms, the more effective your resume.

Resume-Writing Tips for Criminal Justice Professionals

Tailor Your Resume
A police officer’s resume differs from a forensic investigator’s. Analyze the job description and research the employer’s institutional goals and philosophy to construct a resume that directly responds to their criteria.
Save Your Resume Under a Professional Name
Every step in the application process should emphasize your professionalism and uniqueness. Make it easy for the hiring manager to differentiate and retrieve your resume with a format such as “Firstlast_specialty_resume.doc.”
Make it Easy to Read
When constructing your criminal justice resume, prioritize accessibility over fancy fonts and multiple color schemes. While standing out is important, the most visually engaging resumes employ clean formatting that empowers the content.
Include a Cover Letter
A cover letter enables you to elaborate on valuable skills, accomplishments, and work experience through quantifiable details and anecdotal evidence. The document also lets you discuss weaknesses and how you plan to improve while on the job.
Keep it to One Page
Employers view bloated applications negatively. Unless you possess more than 10 years of work experience and qualifications directly relevant to the position, a resume should be one page. You should concisely and creatively employ only the most pertinent information.

Common Mistakes Criminal Justice Professionals Make on Their Resumes

Typos

When writing a criminal justice resume, objectives include presenting a clean, well-formatted document. Sloppy typos work against this goal, and employers rightfully perceive them as indications of your lack of professionalism and competency.

Including Personal Information

These items consist of your full name, phone number, and professional email. Do not include a full home address; city, state, zip code, and, if you are living outside the U.S.

Including Salary Information

Unless an employer explicitly asks for it and you work under a penalty of omission, do not include salary details. This hampers you during the interview and subsequent negotiations. If pushed, speak in terms of benefits, career advancement, and flexibility.

Using Nicknames

Generally, if the nickname appears on an official document (such as state I.D.), you can use it. This may include a shortened version or a middle name in lieu of a first. Above all else, be consistent.

Using an Unprofessional Email Address

A Gmail account formatted with a version of “firstname.lastname” is marginally acceptable. Likewise, some employers do not mind a current work email, while others deem it unprofessional. To cover all your bases, get an inexpensive professional domain.

First-Person Pronouns

An effective criminal justice student resume should be no more than one page. Do not waste precious space by using “I” needlessly. The reader understands that you speak through the narrative voice.

Unprofessional Voicemail

A professional voicemail must be concise (20 to 25 seconds) and convey a courteous tone. In addition to introducing yourself and inviting the caller to leave a message, include information on when they can expect a response from you.