Set yourself up for success starting with your resume!
I recently met with the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism Career Advisor, Pam Garcia-Rivera, to discuss and edit my resume. Through meeting with her, I gained some tips on how to make my resume easily readable, organized and current.
1. Remove all high school positions and information
Resumes should be no longer than one page, meaning that once you’re in college, the high school information is just taking up space! Most employers value current information and positions over those of the past. Knowing this is also encouragement to continue getting involved with different clubs, organizations and jobs as you get older.
2. Be consistent!
Organizational and design consistency throughout a resume is extremely important in making them readable. To make your resume look clean and organized, Garcia-Rivera mentioned using the same font and formatting throughout. By doing this, you are showing employers you pay attention to how information looks on a page and show attention to detail.
3. Expand descriptions
Expanding the descriptions of important work experience and internships gives readers a better idea of what tasks you have completed in your jobs. You should expand your descriptions while still keeping short, active sentences. Short, simple sentences are straightforward and easy for employers to read. While short, the sentences can create a detailed description of the tasks you completed and skills you used while performing your job.
4. Create categories
Sorting information and positions into different categories also adds to the consistency and ease of reading. By categorizing jobs, there will be more structure and organization in the resume. Employers will value the clarity of your resume when they can easily see the different types of work you have done.
5. Leave contact information
Ensuring that readers have a way of contacting you if they are interested is extremely important! You may be the perfect candidate for a job, but if employers cannot reach you, there’s no way of informing you! Making sure to have a phone number and email address near your name on your resume is key.
I learned so much about resume building and editing through my advising meeting. I will continue to take the information I learned and use it in the future as I add and update my resume.