What Should Be On A Resume For A College Student

Put Down Your Contact Information

Just like the name suggests, the first thing you add to your header is your personal and contact information.

Its the easiest part to get right, just keep it short and to the point.

In your contact information section, mention the following:

• First and Last Name
• A link to a professional profile or personal webpage

Make sure to use a professional-sounding E-mail.

I.e. something along the lines of

Youre sure to leave a wrong impression if you use an email you created back in preschool .

Pro Tip

Make sure to double-check, triple-check your contact information. After all, the recruiter cant contact you if you have a typo in your phone number.

Current College Student Resume Example

Now that we have discussed the nuts and bolts of a college student resume, lets look at an example of how its done.

Remember, every resume should be job-specific. So if you dont have the same background as the person depicted in this resume, keep searching for some examples and make sure to have the resume mirror your own experiences.

The last thing a hiring manager wants is to see the same resume copied and pasted offline, yet again. Make it unique. Use this example to help guide your writing your own resume.

With that in mind, check out this current college student resume example:

Prateek Student

YMCA certification expiration date August 2021

How To Write A College Student Resume: A Guide For Recent Grads

College student resumes differ from traditional resumes in that they lean heavily upon coursework, internships, and other college-level achievements to demonstrate a candidates value.

The objective of any resume is to demonstrate your skills, experience, and value to potential employers. This can be a challenge for college students who dont have much workforce experience. But dont worry! Employers dont expect recent grads to have a lot of work experience, and college student resumes are meant to look different than the resumes of seasoned professionals.

In this article, weve provided suggestions for what to include on your college resume, resume writing tips, and advice from our community of recruiters, hiring managers, and job coaches.

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Sample College / Entry

There are lots of possibilities for a college student or recent graduate’s resume. Let your qualifications and experience, as well as the requirements of the position, guide you in determining how to lay out your resume and what information to include. Browse the samples below for inspiration.

• Tutor Resume Example

High School Student Resume

There comes a time when nearly every teenage high school student will need to create a first resume but it doesnt need to be yet another chore.

• Begin by listing your various achievements either academic or otherwise and organize them chronologically.
• Add to this list any memberships youve had or associations youve been a part of, whether social, academic or athletic.
• Make a note of all your paid and unpaid or voluntary positions including other less formal work such as babysitting or menial work around your neighborhood.
• Add descriptions to each aspect of your student resume that explain your responsibilities and highlight any contributions or leadership roles taken.

And voilà, you have your winning teenage student resume to start job hunting, whether its for summer work, a part-time position or youre ready to get your career on the go.

Remember for an easy way to learn how to create a high-school resume, you can use a resume builder or try working from a student resume example.

But before you get sending, the most important thing is to review your high school student resume! Even the smallest mistakes can cost you big.

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How To Design An Eye

While the content of your resume is highly important, how that information is laid out can make a huge difference. If you have great experience but its buried in your resume, recruiters and hiring managers might not find it. Plus, a beautiful or interesting resume can grab attention and make people pause while considering your experience.

Thoughtfully design your layout.

Resumes should be skimmable. People reading them often have a stack to get through, so they dont have that much time. Break up your experience into sections, like those listed above, and use bullet points to highlight your responsibilities for each. You can also use white space and columns to add breathing room and draw the viewers eye down the page and to important information.

Pick the right font.

Another way to make it more readable is with the perfect font. A sans serif font can give your resume a more modern feel, while serif fonts can look more authoritative and professional. You may also want to use different fonts or styles for different parts of the resume. You can put the title of each section in bold, for example. Or put your graduation dates in a thin, nondescript font. Whatever you use, make sure its easy to read and doesnt distract from the content..

Use graphics and icons.

Consult sample resumes.

Make it personal and impactful.

Include Resume Contact Information

The first thing potential employers should see on your resume is a header at the top of your resume that includes your name, contact information and a link to your professional profile or website, if you have one. In this section, you should include:

• First and last name
• Current phone number
• Current and professional email address

Your name should be the largest heading on the page, with your contact details in a smaller font directly underneath it. Here’s an example of what your contact information section might look like:

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What Is A Resume And What Makes A Good One

A resume is a condensed list of your work experience, education, skills, and achievements. A college resume can be used to apply to college or an internship, in a job search for a part-time job or on-campus work opportunity, or even after graduation, as a record of what you did during school. Whether youre a high school student applying to college or a college graduate applying to grad school, you need a resume.

A good resume is all about what information to include and how you design and lay out that info. Resumes and cover letters are your opportunity to make a good first impression with recruiters or potential employers. A college resume is often a little different from a standard professional resume, mostly because students have less experience. To counter your lack of experience, you can highlight other benefits or strengths, like academic achievements, extracurricular activities. and community service.

How To Write A College Student Resume Objective Employers Cant Resist

The best way to write an objective statement for a college student resume or CV that will get the employers attention is to identify what they require for the job.

An employer needing college students to hire will certainly have a list of requirements that interested applicant must fulfil to be considered for the job.

This set of requirements can include skills, knowledge, abilities, experience, and/or educational qualifications, and are usually published together with the job description for the role.

If you know what the requirements are for the job that you are interested in and you meet them, then you can boost your resumes ability to get the recruiters attention by highlighting one or two, or a few of them and how they will help you to perform better on the job in your objective statement.

Now, here are some examples of objectives for a college student resume that you can study and/or use as a template in making a great one for your resume or CV and improve its effectiveness:

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What To Include On Your College Student Resume

College resumes differ from traditional resumes in that they lean heavily upon coursework, internships, and other college-level achievements to demonstrate a candidates value. Here are some suggestions for what to include on your recent graduate resume. Not all items are necessary, but any additions that can be leveraged to demonstrate your value as a candidate should be.

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Tailor Your Resume To The Job Description

Tweaking your resume so that it aligns with the position is vital. Start by carefully reading the job description to identify keywords and key phrases. Next, insert these terms throughout your resume wherever applicable. Most hiring managers will search for keywords related to critical skills, even if the resume is processed through an applicant tracking system.

If you’re having trouble finding keywords, you can run the job description through a word cloud generator, which should help you identify prominent words and phrases. Once you’ve finished crafting your resume, run it through that same generator to see whether its keywords align with those in the job description.

How To Write A Resume With No Experience

Its time for your first job hunt!

You need to write a resume, which can be nerve-wracking if you dont have any real-life work experience.

You dont know where to start, what to include, or which resume format to choose.

On top of that, most advice you find online isnt relevant because it focuses on emphasizing professional background.

Chances are, youre straight out of college with no experience to speak of.

Or maybe you’re a high-school student applying for a part-time job.

Whichever the case may be, youre probably having trouble filling in the blank space on your resume thats supposed to be the work experience section.

Worry not, though. In this guide, were going to help you create an AMAZING resume, no work experience is needed.

Youre going to learn:

• How to format your resume with no work experience
• 4 sections to replace work experience
• 2 no-work experience resume samples

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Student Resume: Interests And Activities

Interests and activities go a long way in a student resume.

Being a part of the sports team can show you as a team player.

Taking music lessons for a long period of time could show passion and dedication. Being active at chess often shows an upper hand in strategy.

Similar to the other sections, again, you must mention:

• what you did
• how long you did it for
• what were your achievements in the same
• any related qualifications

In case you did not have much work history to list, you could add relevant details about skills related to your interests and activities.

Further, the interests in a college student resume can include:

• Sporting or community club participation
• Odd jobs or volunteer activities
• Practicing Yoga or Gardening
• Painting, Cooking or Stamp collecting
• Travelling, Photography or Wildlife conservation

Resume Objectives For College Students

Before we dive into this subject more let’s get some definitions out of the way to set the stage:

• Resume objective: A statement of your qualifications, interests, and skills that make you a good fit for the role you’re applying for.
• Resume summary: A summary of your past experiences detailing your high level accomplishments and projects.

When you’re applying for a job or internship as a college student you likely won’t have extensive work experience to draw on so I recommend you include a resume objective instead of a resume summary.

The goal of your resume objective is to set the stage for your resume. It should highlight your skills applicable to the job at hand and it should be specific for each job you’re applying to.

95% of resume objectives are boring and generic. By taking the time to craft a customized and effective resume objective you give yourself a big edge over other applicants and increase your chances of getting an interview.

Before we dive into the rules for creating a strong resume objective let’s look at some examples. If you’d like more inspiration we compiled 101 resume objective examples to help guide you.

Sample college student resume objectives

You can see that all of these resume objectives specifically mention the company that the student is applying to . This is the golden rule of resume objectives! Here are the other rules:

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Start With The Right Format

Of the three most common resume formats, a combination resume, works for most college students. Heres the rundown:

• Chronological: For students with minimal work experience, a chronological format is usually not the best choice. This format presents a detailed work history, shining a light on lack of experience.
• Functional: College students may be drawn to functional resume formats, which emphasize skills and abilities and downplay chronological work history. This could be a mistakehiring managers know this format is used by job seekers trying to hide something. Skills are typically provided without context, making the content hard to follow. Functional resumes dont play nicely with applicant tracking systems.
• Combination or hybrid: This format combines elements of a chronological resume and functional resume and is a smart choice for both traditional and nontraditional students. A combination resume allows you to demonstrate your most marketable qualifications, skills, and abilities, while still documenting professional experience.

Why Were Resume Objectives Popular

When you’re a college student, it’s likely that you don’t have much professional experience in the field you’re interested in, but a college student resume objective helped to show that you still have the skills needed to perform the job.

Resume objectives were all the rage for decades because they were typically tailored to the skills and requirements of each specific jobusing a standard objective statement for every resume you sent out could look amateurish. Before writing a resume objective, applicants would check out the job description to get clues on what a company was looking for in an employee. The perfect objective targeted the job and the company you wanted to work for. Tailoring an objective would help hiring managers see you as more than just your job history .

Keep this advice about tailoring in mindits definitely still applicable to the personal summaries of todays resumes.

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List Your Education After Your Summary

Your education section is where youll demonstrate to employers that youre learning skills you can apply on the job. Consider featuring it as one of the first sections on your resume.

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Even if what youre studying may seem unrelated to the professional world, your commitment to education can demonstrate a will to continually improve and showcase a strong work ethic. Take this opportunity to list relevant coursework youve completed, your GPA and key areas of study. Your education section should include:

• The name of your school
• The location of your school
• The degree you are pursuing
• Your field of study
• Your graduation year
• Your GPA

• Any relevant honors or academic recognition, coursework, activities or other achievements obtained during your education

Here are two examples:

Bachelor of Arts in PsychologyBusiness Essentials Certificate, Terry Scholar

Example 2

University of Virginia May 2019Alpha Phi Omega The largest collegiate fraternity in the US, coed and with a focus on community service.

Pro Tip: If you have not graduated yet, include your anticipated or expected graduation date. Include only the month and year, no need to include the dates you were enrolled.

Example: Expected graduation May 2022

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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