Constructing an Effective Resume for the New College Graduate
Aug 10 '06 (Updated Aug 24 '06)
The Bottom Line First time resumes are often lacking in work skills but with some effort, they can still be effective for landing a new job.
You are about to graduate from college and you are worried about landing that first job. You have some work experience but not enough to impress the managers and business owners of the world. You need something that will help earn you an interview and, hopefully, achieve the goal of obtaining a job offer and starting your new career. But with little or no experience, what is a new college graduate to do?
The key to getting interviews and job offers comes down to selling yourself to a prospective employer. And the most critical tool is your job resume. Let’s talk about some of the essential elements that combine to create an effective resume for the new college graduate:
What Should I Include on my Resume?:
New college graduates should include the following on their first resume:
Identification- This one is pretty obvious. You need to indicate your name, address, and phone number. It is also a good idea to include other contact information like a cell phone number and e-mail address.
Objective- What exactly are you looking for in a career? What are your career goals? What is your ideal job environment? These and other questions should be answered as part of your individual objective.
Education- Here, you should list your educational background. Your major field of study should be indicated, along with you minor field, if you had one. You should also indicate the name of your school and the year you received your degree.
Work Experience- Any recent jobs should be listed, with an emphasis on those that have relevance to your intended area of employment. Those who had an internship should highlight this experience, since it has high relevance and since it often gives a new graduate a competitive advantage.
Other Things to Mention:
After the most critical items (those described above) have been discussed, it is time to add some additional personal facts to your resume. These can include items such as:
Academic Achievements- Perhaps you had a high grade point average? Maybe you made the Dean’s list several times? Perhaps you had a high ACT or SAT score and received an academic scholarship? Any of these can and should be mentioned somewhere on the resume since they are solid selling points.
Special Skills- Are you an expert at using specific types of software? Did you take classes for Microsoft related software, like Word, Access, Excel, PowerPoint, etc? If so, then it makes sense to list these skills in your resume.
Organizational Memberships- If you were an active member of different clubs, you might want to make mention of them. This is especially true if you held an officer or leadership position within the organization.
References- It is often a good idea to close out your resume by including a list of personal, professional, and/or academic references. Three or four is a good number to include.
Final Thoughts:
Organizing your qualifications together and constructing a resume is one of the most important tasks for the college graduate. I can remember when I wrote my first resume. I knew it was important to my future but I wasn’t sure what to say and what to leave out. I sought the help of people on campus to fill in the blanks and make it more effective.
What is most troublesome for new college graduates is the fact that, typically, most have little or no relevant job experience. There is likely some job experience, but it usually involves working around campus and performing various odd jobs. It is fine to include some of these, particularly if the position held was leadership oriented (for example, a student supervisor in one of the campus cafeterias). But most “odd jobs” should be left off in order to make room for other material. Interns have the advantage here because their internship was, most likely, at a place of employment that is directly related to their career objective. But even those who have little job experience should have at least one or two job positions for this part of the resume.
In the absence of job experience, new college graduates must rely on other achievements, activities, and successes to fill the gaps on their resume and sell themselves to a potential employer. Experts and non- experts alike often disagree on what should be included and what should not. Without a doubt, academic achievements, high grade point averages, scholarships, and other similar items should be included because these show discipline, ambition, and achievement on the part of the student. Student organizational involvement should be included also, especially if a leadership role was held.
With ordinary club memberships and other campus activities (non- leadership in nature), the decision to include this information on a resume is open to debate. Some people say that any membership or activity should be mentioned because it shows that the student was involved, open- minded, and is socially competent. But others say that irrelevant memberships should be excluded since they have nothing to do with a student’s career path. For a first resume, I think it is ok to include these “extra” activities, but I would place them near the bottom of the resume since they are less important. However, I would be careful not to include too much irrelevant information. As new college graduates, we often feel the need to make our resumes as long as possible and we feel that we must fill in as much space as we can in order to look more experienced than reality dictates. Too much material, however, can be worse than too little because it gives the impression that the former student hasn’t accomplished anything significant. Oh, and I think it is best to limit a college graduate resume to a single page. Sort out the information you have, condense it down by focusing on what is most important, and cut it off after one page.
Another important item to always include with a college graduate’s resume is an obvious one but it is often overlooked: A Cover Letter. It is important to write a convincing cover letter to accommodate a resume because it is here that the new college graduate can elaborate on skills, goals, and achievements. The absence of a cover letter is often viewed as a sign of laziness and some employers will immediately toss these applicants’ resumes directly into the trash. Cover letters are not as critical for experienced workers who can often let their resume itself do all of the talking. But they are very important for a new college graduate and they aid tremendously in the selling process.
If a former student is still having trouble deciding how to write a resume or cover letter, there are often many resources to use and most of them are free of charge. One place to visit is your university career center. The people who work here are trained to help student’s find jobs and many of them can also provide handy tips on resume and cover letter writing. Students who have some spare money might also consider purchasing the services of a professional college graduate resume writing service. The internet is also a good resource since many sites exist that offer tips on resumes and cover letters at no charge.
College graduates are often worrisome when it comes time to seek employment and resume composition is often one of the greatest fears. With a little work, a solid resume can be constructed that lists a former student’s positive selling points like academic achievements and organizational leadership positions. Work experience may be minimal, but a good, convincing resume can still be crafted with a concerted effort. The point is to sell yourself to a prospective employer and a resume is your first line of offense to achieve your career goals.
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