Every student will sooner or later write a college resume. Although there are countless perfect examples of college resume found online, it takes great effort to replicate them to suit your own situation. One of the difficulties is that your career goal might not be as defined as you will like it to be. Sometimes, you could get confused or uncertain about the industry you will like to work and you will also lack professional experience to back your goals. This is where getting your college resume right at first becomes very important.
It is important to use a very good format for your college resume. In a highly competitive environment, this can determine your success or failure. Use a functional resume format starting with a clear career objective while ensuring it is relevant to the position you are applying for. Next you list your educational attainment. Include your university name, location, year of graduation, subject you majored in and the grade of result if applicable. Do not forget to include your list of skills and competences. Rather than listing work experiences in order, it is advisable to use the required skill and competencies as sub headings.
Writing a college resume can be a daunting task especially for new college graduates or college students with little or no experience. However, following these simple guidelines will sure help produce a winning resume.
Step1The Purpose
1.Set Yourself Apart: Do not follow the crowd. Ensure that your resume is well crafted to put you on the spotlight especially as the competition gets higher.
2.Showcase Yourself: Your resume should highlight everything that makes you an ideal candidate. Advertise yourself in a way that shows your greatest strengths and hide your weaknesses. However, it is important to be careful doing this to avoid unnecessary repetitions which could be a turn off.
3.Open New Opportunities: For a college student, a good resume has the potential of attracting scholarships and internship.
Step2The Format
1.Start with Your Name, address, phone numbers, emails, school name, date of birth centered at the top of the resume. Ensure all information is current.
2.Consider an Objective: it is good to write a short paragraph about your intended achievement out of school. In the case of a new college graduate, it sets the path for focus
3.Set an Order: Always start with education first. You can always include extracurricular activities, leadership, sports, hobbies, employment, volunteer work and possibly internships. Ensure that you list them based on strength highlighting your greatest strength immediately after education. Then add your recent accomplishment especially from high school or college for recent graduates.
4.Set Margins and Fonts: Note that your margins should be 1” on all sides with line spacing enough to make it readable.
Step3 The Content
1.Avoid going into details of unimportant aspects especially when writing your achievement. Always make it straight to the point to keep the reader glued to it.
2.Do not lie. However ensure your resume draws attention to your accomplishments no matter how small it is.
3.Use powerful verbs and action word. Resumes with passive words are seen as weak and not even looked at. So be careful
4.Showcase your grade especially in the absence of tangible work experience. Include your GPA especially when it is high.
5.Do not forget to focus on leadership when writing your college resume. Highlight any leadership role you took at any point.
6.Show your special skills. It could be a foreign language or you have mastered a computer program. It is important to highlight all.
7.Finally, proofread your documents and ensure typographical errors and grammatical mistakes are removed.
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Ensure you gather all available information before starting in order not to skip some things.
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After proofreading your resume, it is advisable to ask for someone else to proofread the document so as to produce a near perfect resume.
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Take advantage of a career center available in schools to assist you in putting up a quality resume.
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