College, while it’s the time of your life where you get to meet new friends, go to bed and wake up whenever you want, eat pizza at 3 a.m. with your roommate and drink way more coffee than is healthy, is the transition period between being in the care of your parents and the real world.
The term “adulting” comes up often when thinking about taking on responsibilities that your parent or guardian usually did, such as grocery shopping and taking your car for an oil change.
One of the tools you need to be equipped with before you leave college is a resume. Many colleges such as Winthrop has a career service center and if you go and make an appointment they can help you customize one. But if you’re like me and don’t even have the time to shower let alone go to yet another meeting, then here is a guide on how to make your own kick-ass resume!
What to exclude:
When making a resume, try to keep it to one page and two pages MAX if you really feel like those details are relevant. But for a college resume, whether its applying for a summer job or a job upon graduation, there’s no need to include any details from high school. Whatever sports team or clubs you were in in high school can be ignored, focus on what you’ve accomplished in your several years at your university.
What to keep:
What kind of job are you applying for? If you want to work at a summer camp, include on your resume what nannying jobs your have done, and put all the people you have babysat for as references on a separate paper. Keep in mind that your references and your resume are separate! Now in my experience, I was applying to a summer internship at a web design company, so I included the fact that I had been the Public Relations Chair for my sorority. Keep what is relevant for the position you’re aiming for.
What are your skills?
Listing your skills may seem like a broad project, but only list skills that are relevant to the job you’re applying for. Yes, it may be fantastic that you can recite the alphabet backwards or that you’re ambidextrous, but those skills are not pertinent if you’re applying to work at a bank. You would want to list skills such as “Proficient in Excel, Word and Powerpoint”, or “Excellent grammatical skills”.
Education:
Going back to the exclude section, you do not need to state that you’ve graduated high school, if you are also including that you are attending college. It’s assumed that you graduated high school, and no you don’t need to leave it even if you graduated with honors–it’s only going to take up space! DO include your major, minor, any related coursework you’ve studied that applies to the job at hand and expected graduation date.
Contact information:
When I applied for my web design internship, my boss asked for all of my social media accounts on the application. If you’re applying for something in the social media/mass communication/design/technology field (that’s a mouthful), it may be helpful to list your Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook accounts. On top of that, include your full name, email address, phone number, website (if applicable), and address.
*Keep your social media appropriate! Many employers know you’re in college, but still try to avoid posting anything vulgar. If you don’t want your grandparents seeing it, you don’t want a future employer seeing it!
Profile: (Optional)
Say who you are, explain how you use your skills to effectively solve problems and execute tasks.
Experience:
What kinds of jobs have you had that are relevant? What kind of positions in clubs/organizations have you held that benefitted your skill set?
Leadership:
What kind of group settings or charity work have you been apart of? What have you done with taking charge in settings or team building. (Have you attended seminars, done community service, etc.)
Formatting:
If you are so artistically inclined, feel free to spruce up your resume by designing it in InDesign or Photoshop! By no means do you have to do this last step, but if you are entering a job that involves some type of design component, it may be a good way to stand out!
Happy resume and job hunting, Collegiettes!