As the fall semester picks up, our minds are usually focused on three things: midterms, thanksgiving break, and finding an internship or job. As our campus is flooded with information sessions, career fairs, and recruiting events, we begin to wonder, ”How do I land my dream opportunity?” This larger question leads to further inquiry: “What do I say to recruiters? How many events should I attend? How do I make an overall good impression?” Though these are all very important questions, before you reach this stage, you have to be extremely confident with one thing: your resume.
A strong resume should be the foundation to your job and internship search. Being composed of generally three main parts, it is the space you have to demonstrate your work and academic achievements, leadership, and other relevant skills. Just as you would strive to impress a person early on in a first meeting, you want your resume to make a positive and bold statement in just a few seconds. Here are a few golden rules that should be followed:
1) Be consistent with formatting. Studies show that recruiters spend an average of six seconds looking at a resume for the first time. Therefore you want to make it easy for them to pick up the pattern and easily scan your resume. In other words, if you bold a company name, you have to do it every time you list a company. If you choose to abbreviate a date, all dates need to be abbreviated, and so on.
2) For every skill you describe under an experience, start with a strong action verb. The action verb will introduce the skill you wish to highlight when describing your experience. Avoid repeating the same word multiple times, and look for strong words that reflect the relevant skills recruiters are looking for.
3) Quantify and qualify whenever possible. Vague statements are rarely impactful, so be as specific as possible when describing an experience. For example, if one of your experiences involved teaching, write how many students were in your classroom during your lesson. If you raised money, indicate what the ending figure was. By giving specific numbers and examples, the recruiter can understand the magnitude of what you achieved, thus making you a memorable candidate.
Starting or drastically editing a resume can feel overwhelming, but Barnard has some amazing resources to make the process as painless as possible. You can drop in to the Career Development Office (located in Elliot on the 2nd floor) and have a Peer Career Advisor assist you. These students are professionally trained by the Career Development staff to help students with resumes, cover letters, job and internship searching and interviewing preparation. They are available Monday through Friday from 10am to 5pm, and no appointment is needed. Additionally, the Career Development website (www.barnard.edu/cd), has a student section with resume samples and resources that are also a great way to get started. Job search, interviews and info sessions can take up a lot of time from your schedule. For this reasons you always want your resume to be updated and readily available when communicating with recruiters. After that, just make sure you are comfortable and confident when talking about what’s on it. Good luck with recruiting season!