Dont: Write A Long Generic Personal Summary
Nothing wastes more of that valuable 1-page space than starting your resume with a paragraph long objective statement/professional profile/personal summary. A hiring manager wont be impressed by a long story about how youre a creative thinker or passionate about keeping a daily planner and always punctual. These qualities are expected of any person looking to make a positive, professional impression, and will come off like youre just trying to fill up space.
Remember To Take Breaks
Taking a break is not a bad thing. After all, we all need a break after dedicating such a long period of time and energy to our studies. After college, many people opt to travel the world before immersing themselves totally into the workforce, while some decide to take a break overall. Nevertheless, it is okay to take a break, but if you are taking a break, ensure that you have a plan.
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.
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Create A Written Career Plan
You dont plan a cross-country road trip by getting into your car and following the sun and stars you use a road map or GPS system based on your specific trip plan.
After you graduate and while youre looking for your first job, simultaneously start working on a written, long-term career plan. Do you want to be a director of an IT department some day? Do you want to be the chief financial officer of a large business? Are you interested in launching your own company, using the skills youve developed working for others?
Create a detailed, long-term career plan that includes dates for completing each task in your plan, recommends Plan My Career Path. This will help you find out what skills youll need to develop, certifications youll need to earn and what soft skills youll need.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook provides detailed job descriptions of thousands of jobs you can review to learn how to prepare for a specific job. You should also visit job boards and look at the desired skill sections of jobs youll want someday.
Even if youre not looking for a new job, or wont be qualified for a specific job for several years, now is the time to start researching that job. You dont want to find out when youre ready to apply for these jobs that most need a certificate, expertise in a particular software program or app, or other type of specific skill that will take months or years to learn.
Thoughtful Ideas For What To Do After Graduation
Graduation is usually a thrilling time as students get to choose a life path. While getting an entry-level position in a relevant field is sometimes the popular choice, there are various ways to use your time after graduation. Knowing what to do after graduation and the various available options can help you make better decisions and improve your chances of personal and professional fulfillment. In this article, we explore your post-graduation options and highlight 15 amazing ideas for how to spend your time after you graduate.
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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.
Formatting And Organizing Your Resume
Having strong content on your resume is important, but so is formatting and organizing it correctly. Even if your resume is well-written, the wrong format may cause a recruiter to reject you outright. But the right resume format can help highlight your strengths while minimizing your weaknesses, in addition to catching the recruiters eye.
There is no universal format that will work for everyone, regardless of personal history or what theyre applying for. Even if youre applying for a scholarship and include similar information, a study abroad program, and a part-time job, they each require a different kind of resume to be as effective as possible.
As a college student, these alternative resume formats may work in your favor more than a traditional one does, as they work to emphasize other aspects of your experience and education than your employment history. This can be highly beneficial if you are applying for academic programs or other opportunities aside from employment.
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Sample Resume For Recent College Graduate For Internship
RESUME OBJECTIVE
Recent Political Science graduate with 7 months experience conducting public polling research while interning at Top Seat Strategies. Seeking to leverage my data analysis expertise to obtain the political research assistant position at Win Blue.
SKILLS
Problem Solving, Collaboration, Adaptability, Critical Thinking, Strong Work Ethic, Leadership, Time Management, Leadership, Handling Pressure, Collaboration, Problem Solving
EXPERIENCE
Create A Professional Profile
TC created a qualifications profile for Beth “that set the tone for the rest of the résumé,” Augustine said.
“The professional title clearly states Beth’s current job, leaving no room for ambiguity,” Augustine said. “However, the word ‘manager’ in the title can be swapped out at any time to reflect whatever specific position Beth is targeting.”
Below that, TC included Beth’s professional summary, which Augustine said gives the reader a sense of Beth’s most marketable soft skills and hard skills and the extent of her experience.
“While you might be able to get away with omitting a professional summary from your entry-level résumé, you must include something at the top of your mid-level résumé that summarizes your goals and value proposition,” she said.
“Think of it as the place where you incorporate your elevator pitch into your résumé,” Augustine said.
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What Are Your Post
Upon graduating, there are various choices you can make about how you want to start this next part of your life. It’s common to relocate, often back home, sometimes to new provinces, or even to an international destination. If you’re ready to begin your career, you can apply for an entry-level role in your preferred industry. Or you can consider other opportunities like volunteering at an interesting organization to gain unique experience and transferrable skills is a less conventional way. Regardless of your decision, ensure you consider your interests and options when choosing a post-graduation path to ensure it aligns with your passion and benefits your career.
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Experience Is Often More Critical Than A Degree
Many jobs look for experienced individuals for higher positions. After graduation, you will often hear, Do you have any experience? Or, on the job description, you may see that experience is required. Do not allow this to get you down if you just dont have a lot of experience yet. By accepting an entry-level job and excelling very early in your position, you are bound to climb up the work latter very quickly.
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The New Grad Resume Guide: Everything You Need To Get Started
How to approach a resume as a new graduate, with everything you need to get you started.
Ready to show your future employer what you can do?
Theres no better way to do it than with a neat, concise, strongly written resume that clearly lays out your accomplishments, accolades, and skills for competitive employment. As a recent grad looking for work, there are certain attributes youll want to prioritize on your resume, especially if applying to an entry level position that focuses heavily on educational requirements and graduation dates.
Update Your Resum In Under 60 Minutes
Procrastination: We all do it. But in todays competitive job market, where 43 percent of jobs are filled within 30 days of being posted, it pays to be prepared. Having an up-to-date resumé on hand will enable you to be much more responsive when your dream role hits the job boards.
How many times has a great opportunity passed because you were underprepared? Think about it: An email pops into your inbox announcing a job alert. Good news, your interests match the criteria for a new role at your dream company. You immediately bookmark the page, thinking, Ill come back to fill this out later. But then you remember, you havent updated your resumé in ages. In fact, youre pretty sure the last time you touched it was during your last job hunt.
You realize not only do you have to add your most recent work history, but the prospective job is much different than your previous one, meaning youre going to have to do some major tailoring. And how are you supposed to fit this all on one or two pages? Add in writing a cover letter and reaching out to your professional references, andyoure overwhelmed just thinking about it.
So if youve been procrastinating, follow these simple steps to update your resumé in less than an hour and start competing for that opportunity you deserve.
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If Youre Taking A Break From College
If youre taking a break from college for a year or less, youre still a student. List your unfinished degree on your resume the same as you would if you were still attending college.
Just remember, its important to be upfront with your potential employers about resuming your studies. An employer wont be thrilled if they hire you for a full-time position only to have you leave 6 months later. In your interview, make sure to bring up the topic of your education and discuss the possibility of accommodating a more flexible or part-time schedule for when the time to finish your degree comes.
Sample Resume For College Graduate With No Experience
RESUME OBJECTIVE
Recent college graduate with a degree in Political Science. Designed and led a state-wide polling project in New York to gauge public opinion on tort reform. Seeking to leverage 3.8 GPA and data analysis expertise to obtain the political research assistant position at Win Blue.
EDUCATION
NYU / 2019
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What To Include In Your Student Resume
As a college student, you may have some trouble deciding what to put on your resume. You may be worried about not having any previous work experience or how to look professional enough to catch the recruiters eye. As you begin to think about what skills and experiences you want to highlight, you might wonder what information even belongs on your resume. But no matter what youre applying for or your level of experience, there are several sections and pieces of information every resume should include to make it as strong as possible.
Stick With Action Verbs
Many resumes are littered with the same trite words, which is why you should make an effort to switch up common words and phrases with stronger action verbs. This is especially important when writing the first word for each bullet point in your work experience section, as you want to immediately catch the hiring manager’s attention.
Use verbs such as “converted,” “analyzed,” and “composed” to portray your achievements in a more engaging manner. You might even consider using a thesaurus to help you find stronger synonyms for common words, or referring to this list of action verbs created by Harvard.
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If Its Not Relevant To The Position
If your area of study was unrelated to the position youre applying for, then you dont need to include much detail. You can simply list the college and years attended.
If you excelled academically, include your academic achievements such as a high GPA, inclusion in the Deans List, or other academic awards or scholarships.
Heres an example of how to list an unfinished degree on your resume:
SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY Syracuse, NY2017-2019
If you took some courses related to the job, include those under your university information. You can list them by individual courses taken or by number of credits earned in a certain area of study.
Heres what that looks like:
SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY Syracuse, NY
Relevant coursework: Data Driven Inquiry, Big Data Analytics
Options For Listing Education On A Resume
Not sure how to list your college degree on your resume? How should you list your expected graduation date if you’re an undergraduate student? What if you didn’t go to college? How about if you’ve already graduated? Alternatively, what do you do if you haven’t yet graduated but intend to complete your degree at some point in time?
Even if you didn’t graduate, there are options for presenting your educational background in a positive manner. An entry-level resume will often present more educational or training information than would a resume for someone who has been in the workforce for many years.
If you dont have a lot of work experience to prove your skills and capabilities on the job, it can be important to list any relevant college coursework, even if you didnt graduate with a degree.
Here are a few options for including your education, as well as for mentioning credit you have earned for college-level work on your resume even though you didn’t graduate.
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Add Links To Social Media
TC added a link to Beth’s LinkedIn page, while Beth made sure her other relevant social media accounts, such as her Twitter account, were linked to her LinkedIn profile.
“While it’s important for most candidates to add LinkedIn to their résumé, it’s even more so for Beth, since she is in PR, and social media is a critical area of expertise for her career progression,” Augustine said.
Experiential Learning And Internships
Part of a college education is the opportunity to have learning experiences outside the classroom even when it is part of a course. Ideally, each of these experiences is an item you can list on your resume as related experience. This could include class projects, internships, field study, competitions, mentored research, and more. Whether the work was paid or unpaid, it is a valuable steppingstone that will help you transition into the professional world.
When listing a learning experience on your resume, think of it in terms of what you were hired to do. Consider the following:
Depending on the nature of your experience, it may even count as job experience. For instance, if you completed project work or had similar duties to entry-level staff members at the same organization, that internship is functionally and essentially a job. This can be important if you are hired because you may be able to negotiate a salary that is a little higher than what they would pay an entry-level employee.
This isnt to say that academic or research-based experiences are not valuable they are but they serve a slightly different purpose. Instead of counting as job experience, they will emphasize the depth of your knowledge in a particular discipline and also demonstrate that you have vital soft skills, such as the ability to take initiative, overcome obstacles, and complete a project. All of these competencies prove a strong work ethic and that you will make you a great employee.
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Tips For Writing An Effective Resume For A Recent College Graduate
Emphasize education. As a recent college graduate, your education is one of your strongest assets. Include an Education section towards the top of your resume. Include the college you attended, your graduation date, and your major and minor. If you have a strong GPA, include that as well. You might also include any study abroad experiences. Most employers see a well-traveled student as a plus.
Highlight any related experience. If you have any work experience, include this. However, you can also include any other relevant experience. This might include volunteer experience, unpaid internships, or positions in school organizations. Even if these are unpaid positions, they can still display the qualities that will make you a strong candidate for a job opening.
Use resume examples. When writing your first resume out of college, it can be hard to know where to start. Examples can give you ideas on how to structure your resume and what kind of language to include. Check out these student resume samples, as well as the sample below. However, make sure to always revise an example to fit your own background and experience.
Edit, edit, edit. Thoroughly proofread your resume for spelling and grammar errors before submitting it. Also make sure your format is consistent: for example, you should use the same size bullet points throughout your resume. Ask a friend, family member, or college career counselor to read through your resume as well.
Do Not Be Afraid To Fail
Failure is not always a negative thing. Failure sparks new opportunities the opportunity to learn and start over. New things are encountered after graduation, and because it is unknown territory, failure is bound to occur. But it is important that if you fail, you get back up. There is no need to fear failure. some of the most successful people in the world today first failed, but the difference that they made did not come because they were afraid to fail. Instead, they were open to the opportunities that came with failure.
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