Getting started on (or rebuilding) your resume for college students

A professional resume is an essential part of anyone’s job search, including college students. However, the process of creating one can be daunting.

First - it’s a weird document! It’s likely that no other writing you’re doing in school lines up with resume writing. Secondly, if you’re just getting started in school or if you don’t have a lot of experience, it can seem impossible to fill a page, let alone position yourself as a candidate folks want to hire.?

I have a few tips to get started (or to help rebuild) your resume. I look at a lot of resumes every day, plus I used to help students build resumes in my past roles, so I hope these insights will help you produce a resume you can be proud of.

1. Use a simple format

A highly designed, colorful resume can be distracting to recruiters and hiring managers who are making quick decisions about whether or not to move forward with your application. A well-designed resume should be easy for a person to scan and read to find the information they’re looking for. Odds are that your university’s career center has several templates you can utilize that are perfect (this one from Purdue University’s business school is a great start - this will automatically download a Word document template).

Bonus tips - stick with black, 10-12pt, basic fonts. Times New Roman, Cambria, and Arial are all awesome. Try to stick to one page if you are an undergraduate student. No pictures!

2. Don’t discount your experiences!

Odds are that no matter what stage of your education, you’ve done work worthy of inclusion on your resume. Class projects, extracurriculars, part-time jobs, volunteer work, and even athletics can all merit inclusion on your resume.?If you’re having trouble figuring out how to include something on your resume, start with this bullet point format:

• Start with what you were being asked to do (what were your job responsibilities, your class project prompt, etc)
• List at least one of the things you did to complete the task/project
• List at least one outcome of the above (what did the end project look like, what did you achieve, etc.)

It can be hard to sometimes think about non-work activities in a professional context. I highly recommend Googling sample resumes to find examples of how other people have written out these activities in a professional format, and then using that as a starting point to write your own.?

Bonus tip - Try to avoid using “Relevant Experience” and “Other Experience” as headers on your resume. You likely can find relevant points of experience in any role, and seeing an “Other Experience” section may make a recruiter wonder why you included it at all if it’s not “relevant.”

3. Lean on your education

Likely, if you are a current university student, the thing that qualifies you most for the jobs you’re applying for is your status as a student.?

List your education first on your resume so it’s as clear as possible where you’re going to school, what degree you are seeking, your major, and your graduation date (it’s OK if it’s estimated). You can skip high school education - even as a first-year student, the focus should be on your undergraduate education - but do include information on other institutions if you transferred to your current school.?

If you have above a 3.0 GPA, I would recommend including that on your resume as well if you are putting together a general resume. Definitely include your GPA if you are applying for a job that asks for it. Recruiters are normally looking for your cumulative GPA, not a major-specific one. If your GPA is lower or if you are a first-semester student at your institution (first-year or transfer), you can skip it.?

A relevant coursework section is another great way to highlight your education. You can find different examples of how to format this section on resume templates, but make sure to include your highest level coursework taken in your major. If you are still early in your education or haven’t taken major coursework yet, just list what you have and remember that this list can (and should) change over your career!?

There are many other things that make a great resume, but I hope these will help you get started on writing one that fits you and your goals. If you have any more questions about resume writing, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn!

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash