Recent Graduate Resume Examples

Salary & Employment Rates For Fresh Graduates

First jobs probably arent going to meet the expectations you have of a great salary. But, theres good news! Salaries for new graduates have been increasing over recent years and have reached an all-time high in 2021.

The average salary for new graduates is $55,260, which is an 8.5% rise from the average salary of 2018 which was $50,944. From our perspective, this amount provides a solid foundational base to build on your career. And of course, those in technical majors will have above average salaries ranging between $60,000 and $90,000.

List of average salaries:

• Computer programming $86,098

How To Write A Summary For Your Resume With No Experience:

First, a resume summary is different than an objective. And its much better. Putting an objective on your resume is outdated and unnecessary.

Resume objectives are useless because they dont share anything the hiring manager doesnt already know .

So what were doing here is better and will help your resume stand out from people who simply put an objective.

Whereas, the resume summary gives a quick highlight-reel of your qualifications, education, and more.

If youre not sure what a resume summary actually is, check out this article on 10 resume summary examples.

And while its easier to figure out what to put if youve built up some work experience, you can still write an effective resume summary with no work experience whatsoever.

So in this article, Im going to show you how. What should go into your summary when you dont have any work experience?

Resume Summary With No Experience Example #: Economics Student

Enthusiastic, highly-motivated Economics student with proven leadership capabilities, who likes to take initiative and seek out new challenges.

In this example above, youre showing that you completed your Economics degree and have an interest in the subject, and youre mentioning leadership and making the reader want to learn more about this.

Youre also making yourself sound ambitious and motivated at the end, which is always a good thing .

Notice the format too. This is how I recommend phrasing it. Dont say I am a ___. Just start with the descriptive words.

This is a simple yet effective resume summary example for students OR recent graduates.

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Graduate Resume Model Resume Summary

A good resume summary should not do the following:

• Go into detail about the accomplishments
• Be more than one short paragraph.

Google qualified digital marketer with 9 months experience from an internship at a reputed local digital marketing company. Generated over 100 leads for multiple social media campaigns for projects I was co-running. A recent graduate from business college with a GPA of 3.5.I recently graduated from West Coast College after studying for 4 years in business. I attended an internship at Longway Marketing where I managed social media campaigns for 9 months. I graduated with a 3.5 GPA.

Structuring Your Job Descriptions

Without a good structure, your job description can look messy and overwhelming to anyone reading them.

Make it easy for recruiters to read your work experience by structuring your roles like this.

Job outline

Kick off each role with a high-level overview to summarize the focus of the job, what the organization/department does, and how you fit into the bigger picture.

Key responsibilities

Next, write up a punchy list of your daily duties and responsibilities, using short bullet points.

Describe how you apply your skills and contribute to the running of the employers business highlighting skills which are applicable to your target jobs.

Key achievements

Show employers the value you can bring to them by adding a few achievements to your jobs.

Whether youve saved the company money or improved an internal process, let recruiters know

Add some numbers to give readers a real scale of the impact, e.g. reduced call wait time by 10%

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How To List Your Work Experience As A Student

When applying for a job, the number one thing recruiters want to know is if you can really do it right.

And one sure way to check that is to look at your past experience.

But what if you dont have any?

Dont worry, well cover that below!

If you DO have work experience, heres how you list it on a student resume:

What Is The Hiring Process For An Internship

Companies will typically create an internship program to test potential talent or find talent from local universities. So they will have requirements set before the hiring process begins. Typically, they will follow a standard structure:

• Find interns through local schools or by advertising on job boards
• Review resume applications and conduct interviews by phone or in-person
• Select intern based on company requirements
• Inform the intern and share the agreement for the required number of months

Read Also: How To Put Work Experience On Your Resume

Write Your Resume Profile

Even though this section will be at the top of your resume underneath your name and contact information, writing it last may help because you can use the information from your other resume sections to help you summarize your experience and skills. Avoid overly used language, such as “ambitious,””hard-working,””motivated” or “successful,” when describing yourself. Here is a brief example of a compelling professional profile for a recent graduate:

“Honors graduate from leading university with extensive training and internship experience working with elementary students. Recipient of National Honors Society OPS award with endorsements in reading and ESOL curriculum seeking a position as a fifth-grade teacher at Sunnydale Elementary School.”

Use Keywords To Highlight Education Certifications And Skills

The valuable sections of your resume are your education, certifications and skills. Listing this information can help you highlight why youre qualified for your prospective role and showcase the college degree you earned. In a college graduate resume, you want to include each section with its own content in this order:

• Education: Include the degrees you completed and the academic institutions where you earned them.

• Certifications:Add any professional certifications youve earned. This can help you validate your skills and technical knowledge, and compliment your academic credentials.

• Skills: Choose hard, soft and technical skills that highlight why you are a good fit for your prospective role.

To increase your chances of getting noticed by both recruiters and bots, it’s important to consider what keywords you should use when you write your entry-level resume. Use words that match the job and industry. One way to customize your resume for each job you apply for is to study the job description and use the same keywords.

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Recent College Graduate Job Application Tips

Now that you know what to include on your resume, its time to learn how to write it effectively.

Here are three expert tips for assembling the perfect job application as a recent college graduate:

1. Highlight your experience as a student

As a new graduate, your college education is your biggest asset in entering the job market.

Employers understand that earning a degree requires a variety of marketable skills. However, its your responsibility to demonstrate what those skills are and why theyre valuable.

To do this, include a detailed education section. Mention your GPA on your resume , honors or awards, and your major/s and minor/s. Also, include any study abroad programs you completed as a separate entry in your education section

Additionally, you should highlight extracurriculars or relevant coursework on your resume as entries in your experience section. These experiences help fill in the gaps on your resume if you lack formal work experience, and demonstrate the valuable professional skills youve picked up through your academic career.

2. Emphasize your soft skills

Soft skills, such as communication, team management, analytical skills, and interpersonal skills, are always in high demand from employers. For many entry-level positions, hiring managers consider them to be even more valuable than hard skills, because soft skills are notoriously difficult to teach.

3. Write a convincing cover letter

Resume Skills For A College Graduate

There are 2 different types of skills to put on your college graduate resume, hard skills and soft skills .

Both are of great importance since skills can make up for the lack of work experience on your college graduate resume.

Hard skills, or technical skills, refer to your ability to perform a task, and they can be easily measurable. Indicate your proficiency in them on your college graduate resume, so the recruiter can easily understand your value.

Hard skills for a college graduate resume:

• Foreign languages

• Time management

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What Makes An Excellent Recent College Graduate Resume

Being entry-level applicants fresh off your college career, acing your resume should be first in your priorities. As the world experiences the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic, some experts have sought for ways to help those looking for jobs, mainly recent college grads. For example, Business Insider lists the top entry-level jobs in to consider under todays new normal. All of these bring us to the question: What are the factors of a strong recent graduate resume? Heres a list of the 10 things you should consider when writing yours.

Cover Letter Examples And Tips For Recent Graduate

Jamie Birt is a career coach with 5+ years of experience helping job seekers navigate the job search through one-to-one coaching, webinars and events. Shes motivated by the mission to help people find fulfillment and belonging in their careers.

After graduating from college, you can apply for entry-level positions in the workforce or pursue additional education in a master’s degree program. Your ability to write an effective cover letter as a graduate can affect the number of professional opportunities you receive right after college. By reviewing graduate cover letter examples, you can determine the best methods for displaying your qualifications to employers or admission officers.

In this article, we define what a graduate cover letter is, review why it’s important to write a good graduate cover letter, list how to write a cover letter as a recent graduate and provide multiple examples to help you get inspiration for your cover letter document.

Related:

Related: How to Write a Cover Letter, Job Search Tips + Who’s Hiring?

Jenn, a career coach at Indeed, takes a deep dive into strategies for the job search, switching careers, and writing a standout cover letter.

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What To Include In A Student Resume

First things first, lets talk about which sections to use on a student resume.

The essential sections for a student resume are:

• Contact Information.
• Work Experience

If you dont have much work experience, you can also use the following optional sections to stand out:

• Hobbies and Interests

Of course, you dont have to include ALL of these sections, just the ones that are relevant for your resume.

Now, let’s dive into all these sections one-by-one, and explain how to do each right.

Summarize Your Coursework Experience And Relative Skills

Because you just graduated from college, you should emphasize your college coursework, internships and other experiences that show your employability. For instance, “During my time at XYZ University, I took a variety of courses that helped me develop an understanding of nutrition and how our diets affect key biological processes. These courses included microbiology, anatomy, food science, nutrition and mental health and sports nutrition.”

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College Graduate Resume Template

Heres a recent college graduate resume template that you can paste into Microsoft Word or Google Docs and fill out. It includes an outline for each resume section you should include, and what information you should list to best emphasize your strengths.

1. Resume Heading

FIRST AND LAST NAME

Most Recent Job Title or Project Name

Employer or School Name / Location / Start Date End Date

• Include a bulleted list of your accomplishments
• Make sure you quantify these bullet points

Earlier Job Title or Project Name

Employer or School Name / Location / Start Date End Date

• List key accomplishments from an earlier position, internship, or project
• Assuming you no longer actively perform this job or project, make sure you use past tense verbs to describe your experience

5. Skills

Highlight your relevant professional skills. If you dont know what the hiring manager is looking for, try reading through the job requirements and pairing your own abilities with ones in the description.

6. Additional Resume Section

Heres where you can add any other information relevant to your background.

This section could highlight publications, languages, volunteer experience, community service, professional associations you belong to, or any training or certifications.

Resume Sample: New Graduate With A Finance Degree

• Post authorBy Erin Kennedy

When Landon M. Jones entered college, he knew he wanted to get a degree in business but wasnt sure what area of business.

In addition to getting counseling from his academic advisor and at the schools career center, he decided to get some real-world experience to help figure things out.

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Demonstrate Your Interest In The Position

As part of your introductory statement, also make a brief statement about why you’re applying for the position. This can help employers determine your genuine interest in the job. There are a variety of ways you can convey your interest in the job position and the company you’re applying to. One example is “Having reviewed the job description and learned more about your company’s mission and values, I am eager to learn more.”

Example : Recent Graduate Seeking Job Outside Of Degree Field

Dear Hiring Manager,

I am applying for the entry-level travel agent position at Flight Travel Agency. When I saw your job listing for a travel agent with international travel experiences, I was eager to learn more. I am extremely passionate about traveling and I have been to five countries including Ireland, Spain, France, England and Italy.

I recently graduated with a bachelor’s degree in finance from Auburn University. During my time there, I took a variety of courses related to budgeting, taxation and international finance. I also developed valuable skills including attention to detail, problem-solving and bookkeeping, which I think could help me when listening to clients’ travel needs, scheduling trips and recording expenses.

I look forward to learning more about the position.

Thank you,

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Recent Graduate Resume Sample

In 2015, about 2.8 million recent college graduates entered the workforce in the spring. That number may be spread out across hundreds of industries, but it doesn’t change the fact that among this demographic, competition is fierce.

What can you do to set yourself a part from the other college graduates you’re competing against? How can you ensure your resume and cover letter impress a hiring manager when you’re stacked against so many other resumes? How can you best leverage your resume and cover letter as tools to get your foot in the door?

A resume and cover letter done right can set you up for success after college graduation. The key is having the right combination of formatting, keywords, language and structure. Your student resume needs to make it through Applicant Tracking Systems and catch the attention of a hiring manager, and with help from TopResume, it can. It all starts with having a recent grad resume sample you can use as the basis for your resume makeover.

Education: Highlight Your Knowledge

Your education is one of the biggest selling points you have as a new graduate. Especially since you will have little to no professional experience, you need to detail your education to show employers that youre interested in the field youre applying for.

Heres what you need to include:

• The name of your college/university
• Location of the college
• Graduation date

This is an example a recent college graduate should use:

• Creating and managing social media campaigns for 3 clients
• Collecting and analyzing data to identify consumer trends
• Preparing marketing proposals and presentations as per company requirements

Key achievements:

• Generated over 100 leads for 5 social media campaigns that I ran

The above graduate resume sample clearly states where you worked, for how long, and what you were directly responsible for. It also highlights what you were able to achieve in that period.

Bad sample college graduate resume

I was an intern for 9 months at Longway Marketing and these were the responsibilities I held:

• Managing social media campaigns

• Assist in the office helping to make them more organized and run in an efficient manner
• Teach English and Math to the students
• Involved in daily activities such as helping with homework or engaging during playtime

This example states clearly what the experience was, what you did, and how long you were doing it. At a glance, employers can get the gist of the experience, which is what you should be aiming for.

Bad example of a Graduate Resume

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Choosing The Best Resume Format For A College Student

The most commonly used chronological resumeformat is designed as a straightforward way for job candidates to organize their experience and qualifications below employer headings and dates, in order from most recent to earliest. But for college students or recent graduates who lack work experience, other resume formatsmay be more suitable.

Like every consideration when preparing your resume, the format you choose should depend on the type of job and industry, and how best to present yourself as an ideal match.

In cases where specialized knowledge and skills are just as important as where you have worked until now if not more so a functionalresume may be your best bet. It offers greater flexibility to emphasize your most relevant strengths up front in a section labelled Experience.

A hybrid, or combination, resume format offers even more versatility. Job seekers can integrate chronological and functional elements in the most applicable manner, and perhaps even put their education section higher up on the page.

Other resume examples

For more ideas and inspiration, check out these writing guides and resume examples from the related educationcategory: