Resume
Development
Whatever your job goal may be, your résumé is the crucial factor for the hiring
process.
What
is a résumé’s purpose? A resume simply describe your education, work
experience, skills, and other important achievements that distinguish you from the
crowd of applicants. Developing a nifty résumé is easy in terms of getting your
information on the paper. What most people have difficulty in doing, however,
is how much information to include:
1. Too much,
and you have lost your future-employer’s attention and will to read your long,
meticulous résumé.
2. Too succinct,
and you will come across as a simplistic inexperience college grad who solely
has textbook know-how.
3. Just right,
like the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, having enough to make your
point and eliminating the unimportant details like “I was a four year karate
champion for Ernie Reyes during high school” is what résumé’s turns out to be.
Sure, your karate connoisseurship was hard-earned and definitely
prestigious, but if you’re applying to a summer research internship with the
National Institute of Health, your roundhouse skills are of less importance.
Generally,
for most college grads, a two page résumé should be the limit. Keep the
formatting consistent, simple, yet attractive to the reader. Here are some
unique tips:
1. List coursework that
matters to the job you are applying to!
2. When describing skills,
do not just write, “Able to use analytical and problem-solving techniques.”
Instead, briefly describe a situation where you had to use these skills and
quantify them: “Teacher Assistant for General Chemistry Labs: develop and
implement novel labs for students”
3. Don’t focus on the
numbers of activities/events in your life. Focus on quality. Take the time to
write short descriptive phases under each volunteer position you held and
describe what skills or leadership assets you developed.
4. Mention foreign
language fluency: surprisingly, this can make or break your job application for
corporate companies and government agencies that require international
communications or domestic immigrant language problems.
5. Specify your
“Objective” line if you use one, rather using the something vague that says, “I
just want a job to make a living.”
6. CHECK SPELLING AND
GRAMMAR. Even the minor mistake can jeopardize your eligibility and
accountability for any job you are applying to.
7. Have someone else
read your résumé. Like your college essay applications, having others read your
résumé offers an important perspective that may undermine problems that you
neglected to see.
8. Begins phrases with
action verbs such as “developed,” “initiated,” etc.
Not
“I initiated the XYZ fundraiser,” just “initiated the XYZ fundraiser.”
9. Be truthful about
your accomplishments. Just do it. Regardless of where you are applying, being
hired for your actual abilities and achievements is much more self-rewarding
than lying and deceitfully getting a job (plus, there’s no risk of getting
caught).
10. If you are a college graduate
with only “textbook experience” don’t elaborate to the two-page limit. Keep it
one page. Let your employers know that you are newbie—sometimes, that is the
best way to go.
Cover
Letter
The
cover letter was originally meant for high-density applicant jobs. For example
IT positions in corporations usually have more than 30-40 applicants for one
job, all of the applicants have excellent college backgrounds, most have
professional experience beyond you, most are old and instrumental beings in the
IT business world. Employers do not want to read 40 résumés for a single job
opening; they read your cover letter. Literally about two paragraphs worth of
information professionally pleading for someone to review your résumé—you have
to sell yourself in the cover letter.
As
a college student, always send a cover letter regardless the “density of
applicants” because it shows that you really care about working with that
specific company. The cover letter is your opportunity to explain special
circumstances (family economic history, passion in the sciences, etc.) and
other information you could not normally mention or elaborate on in the résumé.
Some tips:
1. Write an original
cover letter for every job you apply to and tailor it according to the
employer’s/job requirements and how those uniquely align with your passion
2. State in the first
sentence why you are applying.
3. Demonstrate originality
and enthusiasm.
4. No more than 1 page.
5. Make points short and
sweet.
6. Match job
requirements to previous history of experience (i.e. accounting and finance
requirements can be met with previous work at Investment Management Group with
Wells Fargo). Make a list like this.
7. Show that you have
done your “homework” and read about the company its mission goal.
The
résumé is going to be essential throughout your life as an adult. It is best to
start off now and keep honing and improving it regardless of whether you are
applying for a job or not. If your cover letter hooks them in, average
employers spend only 10 seconds looking at a résumé and finding something
interesting. Crafting a résumé and cover letter becomes easier and more
rewarding as you gain experience.
Angie
Picardo is a staff writer for NerdWallet. Her mission is to help consumers stay
financially savvy and save money with NerdWallet's cash rewards credit cards.
