The Student's Guide to Building a Great Resume
Presenting Yourself Well in One Page or Less
Apr 22, 2009
Commencement is around the corner, and most grads couldn’t be happier about it. No more papers, no more dorms… it’s time for the real world! In such a difficult economic time, it is more important than ever to have a strong resume while you embark on your job search. The nice thing about a resume is that it doesn’t have to look like everyone else’s. You can make your resume unique and impressive by following these simple guidelines.
Tips for Writing a Solid Resume
- Think about your experience before you start writing. List every job or internship that you have held as well as any volunteer work, extracurricular activities, leadership activities, and honors and awards. Now think about what you learned from each experience. When you list out your responsibilities for each position held, try to go deeper. Instead of saying that you “served food to customers,” say that you “interacted with patrons and provided customer service”. Focus on transferable skills such as communication skills, computer skills, or organizational skills.
- Keep it to one page. There is a big difference between a resume and a CV (curriculum vitae, or “life’s work”). A resume should be a condensed list of the things that you have done, whereas a CV should be an exhaustive list of things. Not many recent grads even have enough to put on a CV. An employer will often not look at a resume if it is over a page.
- Organize Well. Employers take only a matter of seconds to assess a resume when they are looking to hire. By keeping yours in an easy-to-read format, you can ensure that the most important information is seen. The eye is naturally drawn toward the left-hand side of the page, so keep all important information like company names, job titles, and school name on the left side of the page. Be sure to format consistently throughout the resume. If you bold the name of a company you have worked for, be sure to do it on all company names. This helps to easily categorize things.
- Keep it professional. Only use black ink on your resume. You don’t have to use Times New Roman font, but keep it clean! Don’t use anything that is swirly or strange. If you are going to use bullet points, keep it to circles or squares.
What Should be on Your Resume?
Your resume should consist of multiple sections outlining your experiences. You should include the following sections if you can; however, it is not necessary to include any section that you do not have information to include in.
- Education – where did you go to school? What did you study? When did you/will you graduate?
- Work Experience – What companies have you worked for? What were your responsibilities?
- Volunteer Experience – Have you been involved with any volunteer programs? What did you do?
- Extracurricular Activities – What clubs or organizations did you belong to? Have you held any leadership positions?
- Skills – Do you speak any other languages? Can you use any useful computer programs?
Where Can You Go for Help?
It is important to have a strong resume when applying for jobs, so take some time to edit yours. Find out if your school’s Career Services office offers resume writing help, and take advantage of it! If your school doesn’t provide the service, swap resumes with a friend and edit them together. It always helps to have an outside opinion.
You can use a template from a word processing program on your computer to create your resume, or visit a website like CollegeGrad.com for some hints.
