Ahh, the sweet smell of internship season. This is the time in which you can look back on everything you’ve learned in your college courses and finally take the initiative of putting those skills to the test. And what better way to do that than with a summer internship? Of course, for some collegiettes, finding the perfect internship is slightly more difficult than it’s cracked up to be. There’s choosing the one that’s best for you, making sure you can benefit from it, and then there’s the dreaded resume. Resume-writing can be a little overwhelming, which is why so many students like to avoid writing them for as long as possible. As time-consuming and sweat-inducing creating it can be, a resume can, sometimes, play a role as the one thing standing in between you and your dream internship. So, behold lovely collegiettes! Just remember these tips and you’ll be on your way to writing a stellar resume.
- Don’t sell yourself short! Remember that time when you were president of the Thespian Society? And when your soccer team made it to the championships? These are great things to point out on your resume. Every experience that you have in college- leadership experience, extra-curricular activities, part-time jobs, etc. – it all counts! Let your desired employer know that you’re great at working with other people and that you’re a team player.
- Be professional. When including your personal information on your resume, such as a phone number, email address, or your permanent address, make sure you stay professional. Email addresses such as strawberrysaucy@yahoo.com or darkangel93@email.com may have sounded cute when you were 13 but, let’s be honest, these email addresses don’t exactly scream “hire me”. Make sure your email address is mature enough not to distract your employer from all of the great things that you want them to know about your experiences, because a ridiculous email address is one of the best ways to kill a resume. Also, when giving out your phone number, make sure you have an appropriate greeting for your voicemail messages in case you miss the call.
- Format, format, format! Try and use only one font and size for your whole resume, excluding your name. Everyone knows Microsoft Word has some of the cutest and most interesting looking fonts, but make sure the font that you choose is simple and easy to read. Particularly a font with serifs, the tiny lines that stem from the upper and lower ends of the letters, they make a lot of fonts less difficult to read. Also try to make a lot of the necessary things in your resume stand out by using bold, italics, and underlining. Just make sure not to go overboard so you don’t confuse your employer.
- Short and Sweet. Generally, resumes should only be one page long. As college students, it is usually said that we don’t have enough full-time experience to even have to make a second page, so try to keep your resumes short, sweet, and to the point.
- Visit the Career Center! The Career Center is an office that helps students, grad and undergrad, continue to reach their goals and successes on and off campus. Located on the 2nd floor of Clark Howell Hall, the Career Center holds events, at least twice a week, concerning everything from finding the perfect part-time job to mock interviews. Every now and again the Career Center holds a resume-critiquing workshop, in which student resumes are read and critiqued by professionals and students are then given the opportunity to make any type of corrections to their resumes before sending them off to their desired employers. For a full calendar of upcoming events for this semester, check out the Career Center website, career.uga.edu.