For college students that want to maximize their chances of landing a great job, it’s important to get excellent grades, develop a strong network, and build the best resume possible.
Landing a job is a three-step process:
- If you network effectively, your resume will be seen by decision makers
- If your resume is strong, it will land you an interview
- From there, your interviewing and interpersonal skills will determine your fate
Simply put, your resume will either open or close doors for you in the job search process.
Four years in college may seem like a long time, but it flies by! I’m old now, so I know from experience.
The Best Resume Tips for College Students
Maximize your most important experiences
Since you’re a college student, your education section should be at the top. Below this, however, you should list the experience a company would value most.
Maximizing your most important experiences helps promote your strengths and future potential. As you probably know, the details of your past jobs/internships/activities should be done in bullets. Each experience should have 3 bullets at the very least. For the really good stuff, you should have 6 or 7 bullet points.
Use numbers to demonstrate your value
Writing a resume using generalities and subjective language is a complete waste of time. Businesses care about the bottom line – they want results. Quantifying your impact is the best way to demonstrate the value you’ll bring to an organization.
Need an example? Here’s what not to say: “Created engaging marketing flyers to improve monthly sales”. This is how you should do it from now on: “Created engaging marketing flyers which increased monthly sales by 15%”.
When it comes to hiring new employees, companies don’t like to make mistakes. Make their decision easier by telling them how great you are in a way that they’ll understand.
Find a format that’s clean and organized
The internet has tons of free resume templates for you to choose from. When making your decision, the one thing you need to focus on is readability. If the recruiter has a tough time digesting your resume, it only hurts your chances.
As you input your own information, pay attention to the spacing, margins, and overall consistency of the format. In this respect, your resume needs to be perfect. If your resume isn’t well organized, would you magically flip a switch when a company hires you? Unfortunately for you, they won’t bother to find out.
Be concise with your bullet points
In the business world, efficiency is king. Space is limited on your resume, so make each word count. A good way to develop this habit is to start each bullet with an action word.
If you’re questioning whether part of a sentence should be included in a bullet, it probably shouldn’t. Make sure your resume is filled with descriptive and action-based information that is focused on results. That’s the best way to create a winning resume in college.
Free Resume-Building Guide
Need a full resume-building guide, complete with tips, tricks, and a ready-made template? Try my FREE Resume-Building Guide today! It even comes with a big list of action words to use. Make the first step towards a better resume today and keep those doors wide open for your career.
Disclaimer:
All opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Home at 30 and are in no way affiliated with any other organization or institution. The purpose of this blog is to give general education and information about investing, wealth, careers, and college; It is not intended to be professional advice.
Author: Josh Ramos
Josh has paid off $130k in student loan debt in 4 years. By founding Home at 30, he wants to help end the student debt crisis by helping students and young professionals make decisions that will reward them for a lifetime.
