Resume Tips for College Students and Recent Grads

Resume Tips for College Students and Recent GradsResume Tips for College Students and Recent GradsWhen you are a college student seeking an internship or a job your resume can look just like everyone elses and that can make your job search a challenge. How can you get your resume noticed when all the candidates are basically equal when it comes to their educational background? Its important, in this competitive job market, to have more than your education on your resume. A college degree in and of itself isnt enough. Every college student should find time, even though time can be hard to find, to do as many internships as possible, to volunteer, to work on college projects, participate in clubs and organizations on campus, and to participate in activities which will not only help your resume stand out from the crowd, but will provide you with the opportunity to explore options and career paths for the future. The next step is to make your resume shine. The time you spend on extra-cur ricular activities will be time well spent. Youll have more information to include on your resume than just your education. The key to success is to properly present your experience so it will impress your prospective employers and help you get invited for an interview. Heres a list of skills college students can include, listed by major. Helen Zucchini, Director, Career Connections at Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado at Boulder, share her tips for how to create a resume that will distinguish you from the competition Details Count- and Your Gut Is Usually Right Make aya the formatting is consistent and text is aligned. Ive seen resumes where the formatting was all over the place. Or fonts that just dont look right, colors that are off. Check grammar and spelling (the kind of stuff that spell check doesnt catch)- theyre vs. their- herd vs. heard - I see this all the time. Most of the time, you know it in your gut. So listen to your gut, and also run it by fr iends and tell them they HAVE to be brutally honest with you, to look at it from the perspective of hiring you- not the perspective of going out for drinks with you later Maybe Youre Special, but Make Yourself Extra Special Despite what your friends and family say- youre not that special. Or maybe you are, but youre competing with a lot of other special people. Tough love? Absolutely. So when preparing a resume, highlight specific results you achieved. And make sure those are the results that matter to the person whos going to be interviewing you. And show that you understand the job is about doing something for the company, not the company doing something for you. Your passionate interest in becoming an ad executive isnt enough to make you a great candidate for the job. Solve Problems and Set up Some Stories Employers want to hire people who can demonstrate they are problem solvers. Create your resume with specific scenarios that demonstrate how you solved a problem, whethe r its with internships or college projects. Dont just write what you did transform that into how you did it and show how the way you think can help the organization with which youre interviewing. Another tip setting up your resume like this will give you interesting, compelling things to talk about with the interviewer. Stories and projects are way more engaging than a list of duties. It will make you feel more comfortable, and it will make the interviewer more interested. The Critical Element of Resume-Writing Getting It Read You can have the best resume, but when its stacked with hundreds of others it needs to get noticed. In other words, your resume, no matter how good, wont do all the work on its own. You put the time in to make it great, now make sure you also make it seen. So network. Networking also takes work - but its much easier than fruchtwein people think. People are always surprised at how many friends and neighbors have great contacts, and how many of those contact s are perfectly happy to chat with you. Also ask your career or alumni office, friends, parents, and professors to introduce you to people in your area of interest (marketing, banking, energy, etc.) and tell them you are astudent wanting to learn more about what they do, how they got into their industry. Offer to buy them a coffee - people love talking about themselves, and this is a great way to get in front of key decision makers while also learning about the industry or career.