Make Your Resume POP

[Graphic: Make Your Resume POP]
(Student) / Putting a resume together is really difficult. It’s like a puzzle.
(Student) / It’s very difficult and it’s time consuming.
(Student) / I definitely had many high school activities that I know would not be appropriate on a college level resume.
(Student) / So making that first impression in those couple seconds are crucial to how they perceive you.
[Graphic: WRITING BASICS]
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Amber Goreham
Career Services Director
University of Central Missouri] / I think the biggest thing for students to consider when developing their resume is the format and the layout, and we all know that employers don’t spend a lot of time looking at that document.
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Sarah Raymond
Career Services Director
Montana Tech] / You want to keep the font so it’s easy to read, so a font that is good-looking, easy to read is the best.
(Amber) / It’s very important for students to get that relevant information, what’s in it for the employer right there on the top half of the resume.
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Carla Rinde
Career Services Director
Ursinus College]
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RESUME BASICS:
*Have chronological format
*List most recent FIRST
*Keep to one page (this may change over time)] / So what’s most recent appears first. That’s why I prefer for a new college grad to have a chronological format, what they are doing most recent is most often times the most important. I think it is important for a new college graduate to keep it to one page, very few have enough information to fill two pages.
(Sarah)
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RESUME BASICS:
*Avoid using I’s
*Don’t use complete sentences
*Focus on action verbs
*Keep in present or past tense] / Avoid using I’s on your resume, Don’t use those complete sentences, focus on those action verbs, keep it in the present or the past tense, people when they are reading those active verb tenses, see that job and it connects it to you.
(Carla)
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SPELL CHECK] / Two important words: spell check. Too many students put together a resume and either forget or don’t really get another set of eyeballs on that resume. It’s really important to make sure it’s error free.
[Graphic: YOUR EXPERIENCES MATTER]
(Carla)
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WHAT TO INCLUDE ON YOUR RESUME:
*Internship/Co-op
*Activities
*Academic organizations
*Sports teams
*Greek organizations
*Volunteer work
*Leadership roles] / If a student has had an internship that is related to what the position is they are going for, obviously that would be something that would be really want to stand out on the resume. But a lot of times you can take activity, membership in academic organizations, or participation in a sports team, or even a Greek organization, and if you’ve had a role in that organization either building membership, or being a captain or a co-captain, or having a role, some of thoseexperiences can illustrate behaviors that you might want your employer to know.
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Keira Mann
Career Development Coordinator
University of Central Missouri] / What they don’t understand is that they really need to take that time and that space, and use that resume as valuable real estate to really explain their experiences, really explain their skills, really explain the impact of their education.
[Graphic: STAND OUT TO EMPLOYERS]
(Keira)
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Step outside yourself
See skills & qualifications from viewpoint of employer] / The hardest part for students when creating a resume, especially that first professional resume, is being able to step outside of themselves and see their skills and qualifications through the viewpoint of an employer.
(Amber)
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Job seeker’s job: make connection for employer.
Make sure your resume is easy to read.
Make sure resume is targeted to audience.] / They’ve got to make that connection for the employer. It’s not the employer’s responsibility to make those assumptions about them as a candidate; that’s the job seeker’s job in order to be able to do that. So I think it’s really important for students as they are developing that document to make sure that it is easy to read and make sure that it is really targeted to their audience.
(Carla)
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Resume should speak to job description.
Use key words, phrases, thoughts, skill sets
Mimic on your resume] / A resume should speak to a job description. So there are in a job description probably key words, key phrases, thoughts, or skill sets that are required, that if you can throw back and mimic on the resume and speak to it on the resume then I think that’s really key, and that makes it so that your resume becomes relevant.
[Graphic: USE YOUR CAREER SERVICES CENTER]
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Ayana Brown
Student] / They give you a resume packet with sample resumes, and it really helps to fill in the action verbs. It really helps to fill in the skills, the experiences, the summaries, the objectives. It helps with everything.
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Dominique Saturno
Student] / It was a lot better than I thought it would be. I thought it would be a little bit scary, but everyone throughout the process was helpful and very informative and made me feel comfortable when writing my resume.
(Amber) / That document is really important, and you want to make sure you have a variety of people take a look at it to make sure that there aren’t any grammatical errors, and that the information really is presenting yourself and selling yourself in a positive way.
(Carla) / You have 4 years generally speaking to build a resume. So my advice to students is to take a big bite out of the college experience and develop as much experience as they possibly can so that they can eventually market themselves better and have a much richer resume.
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Diane Mathew
Student] / If you come to the career center,they are more than willing to help you. They will help you find out things about yourself that you didn’t even know that were unique to yourself
[Graphic: RESUME SUCCESS]