The spring semester is always a busy time for students, regardless of their class year. The pressure to land an internship, a post-graduation job or an acceptance to graduate school may be weighing most of us down. But to help you relieve some stress, here are five tips to help you craft a professional resume that could help you land your dream job!
Utilize verbs in your bullet points – Underneath your job title, you should include three to five bullets describing what your work position consisted of and start these descriptions with a verb. For example, “Researched trending topics in order to pitch a successful marketing campaign to clients.”
Try to showcase your soft skills like public speaking, attention to detail or time management within your points, so you don’t need to include a separate section for them. Furthermore, it is important to make sure all of your verbs are in the same tense throughout your resume.
Quantify as much as you can – Resumes should be easy to skim, and numerical figures draw the readers’ eye right away. Try to avoid words like “many,” “a lot,” “numerous,” “several” or “multiple.” Be as specific as you can when describing quantifiable information. For instance, you could write, “Tutored over 50 students at the Writing Center during the Fall 2020 semester.”
Use keywords – Each job posting includes a qualifications section. Make sure to include some of those buzz words within your resume to ensure you’re considered a sufficient candidate for the position. If a job description calls for someone who is proficient in Microsoft Office, you could include that you have utilized Powerpoint or Excel in one of your sections.
Be sure that you are catering your resume to each job you are applying for. Although it is tedious, it could be the difference between moving on to the interview process or being thrown into the rejection pile.
Don’t be afraid to get creative – Depending on the company you’re applying to, don’t be afraid to let your personality come through on your resume. This includes adding colors to your header, switching the fonts or reformatting the page to look more creative. If you are applying to Spotify, for example, you could make all of your titles green and use their font for your bullet points. You could even include the company’s logo next to your header.
Relevant experience should be at the top of the page – Your most relevant experience should be at the top of your resume. Once again, your resume should be easy for the hiring manager to read; they should be able to decide that you’re qualified for the job quickly while reading through the professional experience section. Underneath this, they can read through your extracurriculars to see how well-rounded you are.
If you follow these tricks and tips, there’s no doubt you will land an interview. However, if you still need someone to take a look at your resume or have any specific questions, you can contact your school’s career counselor at the following email addresses:
- College of Arts and Sciences: cascareers@fairfield.edu
- Charles F. Dolan School of Business: dolancareer@fairfield.edu
- School of Engineering, Marion Peckham Egan School of Nursing and Health Studies: careers@fairfield.edu
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