It’s officially the season for summer internship applications. This means long hours of sore fingers poking at letters on a keyboard, commonly accompanied by exhaustion and climbing stress levels. As I send in applications for countless jobs, my tailored resume stands at the forefront of my future. According to Indeed, a resume is the first point of contact between an employer and a potential employee. Here are some tips for making your resume the best that it can be!
- Craft a Personal Statement
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Writing a personal statement can be so simple, yet is commonly overlooked. A few sentences can open a hiring manager’s eyes to your personality. Try to craft a statement that exudes YOU!
Here’s an example: Highly motivated aspiring editor with demonstrated histories in writing, editing, and team leadership. Passionate about collaboration and aims to connect through the written word. Eager to utilize skills and past experiences to learn in the field of media.
- Network With a Professional
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Attending a university is a major asset in the world of networking. I suggest proceeding over to LinkedIn and finding your university. From there, you can search for individuals that studied similar things to you. These people are not only a resource for professionalism, but they’ve also probably applied to these jobs at one point or another in their lives too! Ask them what their resumes looked like. You never know what you may find!
- Include a Hobbies Section
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Employers are also people! They want to know what you do for fun!
- Do NOT Put Your Education First
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After an informative conversation with professional Michael Mejias, I immediately moved the Education section of my resume to the bottom of the page. As he noted, education proves important, but experience trumps all in the application process.
- Add Some Color
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Most resumes are black, white, and grey. In order to stand out, balance your resume with a pop of color! Consider adding a green, blue, or purple to your resume’s color scheme.
- Revisit
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The whole thing should not be crafted in a single day. A goal of getting everything done as quickly as possible can be counter-productive. Fresh eyes can recognize strengths and weaknesses of the document that you may not see otherwise. I suggest spreading out your work over the course of a few days or weeks.
Wishing you the best of luck on your application journey!