What Should A College Resume Look Like

Consider Adding Additional Sections

Adding additional non-work-related sections after the skills section on your college resume can help you stand out from other applicants with similar educational backgrounds and skill sets.

Here are some examples of sections you could add to the end of your resume:

An activities section is ideal for students or recent grads who have limited to no prior work experience. Listing relevant activities gives you the chance to show where and how you developed certain skills outside your education. Just make sure your activities reflect the type of work you’ll be doing in the position you’re applying for.

You’ll want to list any academic-related honors and awards you’ve received in your education section. If you’ve earned any honors outside your college experience that are relevant to the job, you can create a separate section that briefly explains the significance of each award.

If you’ve received any training and/or certifications that prove you have specific skills or knowledge relevant to the position, put these in a separate section.

Those applying for a job that requires experience with specific software, digital tools, or web languages should include a digital proficiency section at the end of their resume to prove they’re technologically qualified. You could also include this section in place of a standard skills section if digital proficiencies are more relevant to the role.

Skills To Pay The Bills

When you’re building your skills section it can be tempting to list any and every skill you know. You’ll have to resist his temptation.

Before a human reviews your resume, an automated system called an Applicant Tracking System will score your resume based on whether or not it includes the “right” keywords. These filters are largely screening for specific skills.

Doesn’t this mean that you should include as many skills as you can to beat the ATS? Unfortunately, after the ATS a human will look at your resume.

Nothing is a bigger red flag to a hiring manager than a candidate with a laundry list of skills! You’re much better off focusing on 3-5 skills you’re an expert in than including 8-10 skills you kind-of-know.

As a rule of thumb: if you wouldn’t be comfortable being interviewed on a given skill, don’t include it on your resume.

Maybe You’re Special But Make Yourself Extra Special

Heres how Helen Zucchini suggests you can rise above your competition:

Despite what your friends and family sayyou’re not that special. Or maybe you are, but you’re competing with a lot of other special people. Tough love? Absolutely. So when preparing a resume, highlight specific results you achieved. And make sure those are the results that matter to the person who’s going to be interviewing you. And show that you understand the job is about doing something for the company, not the company doing something for you. Your passionate interest in becoming an ad executive isn’t enough to make you a great candidate for the job.

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How To Format A High School Resume

Lets start with the basicsformatting your high school resume. The good news is, you dont have to start from scratch. Weve created a modern high school resume template for you thats perfectly suited to showcase your skills and experiences at any level. And if youre a creative type looking to add extra personality to your resume, you might consider exploring the high school resume template options on sites like Canva.

What makes a good high school resume template, anyway? Here are a few of the most important formatting rules your resume should follow:

• Limit your high school resume to one page.

• Ensure your resume is skimmable by using big headings, bullet points, and plenty of white space.

• Use classic and easy-to-read fonts, such as Cambria, Calibri, Georgia, Helvetica, or Garamond, to name a few.

• Save your high school resume as a PDF file so the formatting wont change when someone views or downloads it.

Once youre set with a great high school resume template following these guidelines, your first step is to add your contact information. Here are a few tips on what to include:

Once youve expertly added and arranged your contact info, youre ready to move on to the next part of the high school resumeyour objective statement.

Each Employer Has A Company Description

Help employers get a better understanding of the industries and work environments you were exposed to by including a line that describes each company with which you held an internship. If you’re tight on space, feel free to eliminate this information for your summer jobs that aren’t related to your current career goals. You can also omit this information from your internships if they were all held at companies with big, well-known brand names.

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Create Multiple Master Resumes

As a recent college grad, you may not know exactly which field or industry to target at the beginning of your job search. This is especially common for graduates with more general degrees like Business Administration or English. While youve no doubt acquired many new skills during your college career, they may not be specific enough to pave a solid path toward any one job.

In these cases, you can create master resumes for multiple career paths. For example, a Communications major could have a Journalism master resume and a Digital Marketing master resume that looks completely different.

College Resume Template For High School Students

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Lastly Are There Other Reasons For Creating A Resume

Yes! For example, if you are:

• Applying for outside scholarships: When applying to scholarships from 3rd party organizations, many require resumes in addition to essays.

• Applying to jobs or Internships: If applying to either of these as a high school student or college freshman, it would be easy to tweak your college resume and gear it towards specific internships or summer jobs.

• Attending an interview: If you have college interviews with alumni or for jobs or internships, it might be a good idea bring a copy of your resume to provide some talking points during your interview. They may have seen it already, but it never hurts to be prepared.

Read on to part 2 to see how to turn your Common Application into a simple and clear resume for your university admissions application and see two more awesome sample college resumes.

It Includes A Customized Link To His Linkedin Profile

Not only is LinkedIn a great place to build your professional brand and make connections, but recruiters also expect to find you on there. In fact, a survey found that more than 90 percent of employers use LinkedIn to search for and evaluate job candidates. Make it easy for them to find you by including the link to your profile at the top of your resume. Take it a step further and so it matches your brand and fits nicely on your resume.

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Tips For Transfer Students:

As a transfer student, you are in a unique position. If you have completed an associates degree, it is perfectly acceptable to list only the institution from which you graduated in your education section. If you have not yet graduated with an associates degree, or are transferring before you will graduate, you should include both your current institution and your high school. If you studied abroad, that should be listed as well.

If you are transferring into a specific program , consider listing any completed coursework relevant to your prospective degree. You can then continue to add to this section as you progress through college and use a similar version of the same résumé when applying for early career opportunities. You may choose to list an objective as well, but it is not necessary. If you dont have enough room for your other activities, skip it.

For reference, here is a sample college résumé. This blog evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of two college students résumés and offers advice on how to make them stronger. Depending on how far along you are in school and how many activities you participate in, you may want to model your résumé off of either Student Caffés college or high school example.

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 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, or 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

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College Student Resume Example

Here is an example of a college student resume, based on the tips above:

Horatio HillerCollege Town, NY I 917-555-1234 I

OBJECTIVEI am a creative and highly motivated student seeking a part-time internship where I can lend my knowledge of digital advertising to help your organization improve profitability and grow my industry experience.

EDUCATIONNew York UniversityMajor: Advertising I GPA: 3.8 – Expected Graduation Date: May 2022

Relevant Coursework:Media Planning, Psychology in Advertising, Communication LawClubs:Ad Club, Student Newspaper, Students for Environmental Action

EXPERIENCEGrey Media Agency | New York, New YorkDigital Advertising Intern, May 2019 August 2019

• Served as lead advertising intern as part of a summer-long apprenticeship program
• Assisted in building, launching and managing Google AdWords campaigns for leading clients

• Successfully grew client ad spend return-on-investment more than 30% quarter over quarter

Student Newspaper | New York, New YorkAdvertising Sales Representative, August 2017 Present

• Act as the primary point of contact for a subset of publication advertisers
• Scout new advertiser opportunities and build relationships with local businesses

• Helped newspaper increase annual ad sales nearly 20% from 2017 to 2018

SKILLS & ABILITIESTeam leadership I Verbal and written communication I Time management I Problem-solving I Adobe Creative Suite I Google AdWords Certified I Fluency in English and French

AWARDS & ACHIEVEMENTS

Tips For High School Students:

Your résumé is unlikely to have too much on it because you havent had much time to build up experiences. You may choose to add an objective to your résumé, stating the purpose for which it was written. This will change if you are applying to college, your objective could be something like to be accepted to a research university with the intention of studying chemistry. If youre applying for a scholarship or a job, your objective should be tailored to reflect that adjustment.

Instead of going back a decade , only list extracurricular activities, community service, jobs, and awards from when you were in high school. If there is an activity that you participated in during middle school, and you have continued your involvement through high school , you may also choose to list that activity on your résumé.

For reference, here is a sample high school résumé. This blog post also offers a look at two high school students résumés and shares advice on how to make them better and more appealing to an admissions officer.

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Solve Problems And Set Up Some Stories

Employers want to hire people who can demonstrate they are problem solvers. Create your resume with specific scenarios that demonstrate how you solved a problem, whether it’s with internships or college projects. Don’t just write what you did transform that into how you did it and show how the way you think can help the organization with which you’re interviewing.

Another tip: setting up your resume like this will give you interesting, compelling things to talk about with the interviewer. Stories and projects are way more engaging than a list of duties. It will make you feel more comfortable, and it will make the interviewer more interested.

Highlight Your Creativity And Passion Projects

Im obsessive about looking for personal projects that an applicant includes on a resume. I find these examples illustrative of an individuals creativity, attention to detail, and also self-motivation in many cases. Im less wowed by a project that was obviously part of a school curriculum requirement than one that was created through an applicants personal interest in a subject. I believe examples of an applicants approach to such projects provides an invaluable insight into how they handle professional tasks in the future.

Zack West, Hiring Manager at

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Things To Put On A College Resume With No Experience

• How to Get a Job With a Weak Resume

Getting a college degree is a great way to help your career, but with your degree in-hand, you still need to get your foot in the door for an interview. That’s where a solid resume comes in. As a recent graduate you may not have any experience, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have relevant skills. Highlight the skills you do have to show employers your value.

Provide Detail Whenever Possible

The details are what set a resume apart from a list of extracurriculars on a standard college application. For example, when describing your involvement in the French Club make sure to include:

• your role
• school years/hours per week you participated
• specific contributions
• leadership roles
• unique details that will make you stand out

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Action Verbs Are Used To Describe His Work Experience

Notice how the bullets under Nicholas’ roles begin with an action verb? This information focuses on how Nicholas contributed to an end result. When you’re new to the workforce, you may not have many major accomplishments and contributions to include in your resume however, use action verbs to describe your activities.

Highlight Your Work Experience

Now, if youve spent your summer holidays working any type of job for teens, that means that you also have some work experience under your belt.

Although work experience is not necessary when youre applying for college , it does help to include it if you have it.

Heres how to list work experience in your college application resume:

• Start with the company name , your job title, and the period you worked there.
• Put your job title first if you worked, say, as a high-school tutor or camp counselor.
• Include 1-2 of your main responsibilities in bullets. If you have achievements to show for, however, make sure to put them first.

Lets see how that works in a practical example.

Correct Example

• Awarded employee of the month for 3 months straight
• Fielding customer complaints and questions
• Maintaining good customer service and speedy delivery

Even if the above position isnt related to the students desired field of study, the work experience still highlights some of their skills such as commitment, time management, effective communication, and motivation.

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Nicholas Didn’t Include His Coursework

If you’ve held at least one internship that’s relevant to your degree and career goals, there’s no reason to also include a list of the courses you took. Employers will value your internship experience over the stuff you learned in the classroom any day of the week. However, if you did not intern, include a list of the 400-level courses you took that are most closely tied to your job goals to show hiring managers what subjects you’re familiar with.

Do My Schools Even Want Me To Send Them A Resume

Find out by checking each university admissions web page or logging onto the Common App to see which schools include a place to upload a resume. Each school has a different policy on whether or not to submit a supplemental resume and its usually a good idea to follow their instructions. #Sarcasm

The University of Virginia says clearly that they do not want students sending additional resumes. Other schools like Brown University, Boston College, and Carnegie Mellon provide space for uploading optional resumes in the Common App, whereas some schools like the University of Texas – Austin say that submitting a resume is strongly recommended. i.e. You should probably do it.

In short, look at what each school requires.

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