Not everyone gets a job in college and that’s okay, but there is no excuse to ignore your resume. It’s something you desperately need for jobs, scholarships, internships, transfer applications and various other things during and after college. So you need to add to it constantly.
Every semester – whether you know it or not – you have learned a skill. For example, most math classes in college, or base level science courses, will give you a crash course in Microsoft Excel. You can add that to your resume list of skills as “excel proficient.” While that may not seem like something you need as an English Major, it could be the reason you get hired later on (because it’s one less skill you have to be taught).
Did you join a club? Did you play a sport? Did you do volunteer work? It’s alright if you’ve volunteer six months at the UN Club and filed their paperwork. You can say, “I was part of the club’s administration.” Boom. Instant credibility. If, by some bizarre chance, you have not gained a skill, then submit something to the school paper or literary journal and get published. Submit a written work, a picture, art, (anything really) and keep submitting something until you get published. It’s a great addition to your resume and will make you feel a lot better when you look back on things and realize that you don’t have to struggle to fill up the experience section.
If you join a club, keep track of the dates you started and ended participating. If you volunteered more than once for an organization – keep the month and year. Keep the month and year you were published in the school’s publication(s). All of this can be added to your resume and will only help you later on.
It’s a great thing to have ready when you need it, and it’s a lot easier to fill out along the way than trying to remember six months after a class ended what special skill you can add when filling out an application. Just about every semester, you’ve learned a new skill that could be invaluable to a potential employer.
Always save the date!
Skills that might not seem important to you specifically, are lifesavers. Even hobbies! Photoshop? Add it. Microsoft Word? Add it. Leadership Experience? Add it! I’m an English major, and I learned excel in my Statistics class a few years ago. When I applied to a Summer editorial internship, I had no idea that having that skill would be so useful to the position (or that they might have been looking for someone with that particular skill set). I used it almost once a week and some of the other interns used it everyday, which means that it was likely on their checklist of things to look for in an applicant.
So, if you haven’t already, I recommend you invest a little bit of time at the end of each semester adding to your resume.