At the beginning of this quarter, I realized it was time to update my resume. As a graduating senior, I was worried that my resume wouldn’t stand out among the sea of resumes that employers receive – so here are a couple of tips for sprucing up your resume for that potential job or internship.
1. Add a pop of color to your resume or change up the font.
The traditional resume is written in Times New Roman 12-point font and is strictly black and white. A subtle way to catch the hiring manager’s eye is to include a little bit of color in your resume and a readable font that isn’t Times New Roman. When I updated my resume, I used blue lines as dividers between the different sections. It’s a small change, but details are important!
2. Use action verbs.
I’ve had many people look at my resume and the first thing they tell me is to change verbs like “is” to action verbs that specify what I have done. Rather than saying “Is responsible for making spreadsheets,” say “created spreadsheets.” The sentence usually ends up being shorter and a stronger one that allows you to elaborate on your experiences.
3. List your projects.
If you’re lacking in the experience section of your resume, include the projects you’ve worked on in college. For example, if you’re a computer science major, include that minesweeper final project you worked on in ECS 30! Specify the language it was written in and your proficiency in that language. Nothing says experience like tangible projects, whether that be an individual project or group project. Those projects count as experience if they are relevant enough to the position you’re applying to.
4. Tailor your resume to each position.
If the positon you’re applying to requires specific skills or qualifications and you have them, be sure to include them on your resume! If the job ad says, “must be fluent in Spanish,” make sure to list “fluent in Spanish” as a skill. Make the recruiter’s job easier by including buzzwords they might be looking for.
There are probably many other ways to fix up your resume, but here are just a couple of good places to start if you’re overwhelmed by the resume editing phase. Good luck job and internship hunting Aggies!