How a Great Resume can Help New Grads Score their First Job
You have spent the past four years living off Ramen Noodles and driving a ten year old rust bucket just to ensure that you reach the point you are at now – a new college grad ready to enter the workforce, shiny new degree in hand. You got good grades and all your professors loved you – so why aren’t prospective employers clamoring for your services?
Your resume may not be helping. The problem is that employers want to know what you can do for them and are just not all that interested in what you did in school, so you need to tailor your resume to convince them that all that experience you gained in school and all that knowledge really does transfer to the workplace. Some tips:
State your Goals – As a new graduate your resume has to feature a good, targeted objective statement. Whether you add a formal objective section or reference it in a qualifications summary is up to you, but whichever you choose avoid the kind of flowery jargon laden nonsense that too many new college grads tend to use. Investing a few dollars to have a resume writing service come up with a good one for you is a wise move if you are not sure how to put your aspirations into words.
Highlight the Positive – If you have little in the way of real world work experience your academic achievements should be highlighted in as positive a way as possible. And that doesn’t just mean stating your GPA, or mentioning the fact that you made the Dean’s list (although that certainly won’t hurt) Did you do an internship while you were in school? If so make sure you mention it. Did you win Employee of the month at the restaurant you were waiting tables at to pay the bills? Mention that too. Although the job duties may not be related to the job you are chasing now such things do go some way to demonstrating your worth as an employee in general.
Pick the Right Format – A traditional chronological resume format, which emphasizes employment history, rarely works well for a new college graduate. A functional resume, which highlights all those academic achievements and unique skills that you can bring to the table will be far more successful. Again, if you are not sure that you have done a great job by yourself consider hiring someone to do take your rough draft and polish it into a resume that will really help you land that all important first job.
10 Resume Mistakes
There are several schools of thought on the best way to write a resume that is right for today’s business climate but there are some things that the vast majority of hiring managers from all industries agree should not be on a good resume. The top ten?
- Spelling and grammar errors – Do not be careless enough to send out a resume with spelling errors and grammar faux pas. Attention to detail is essential!
- Canned opening objectives – Using a generic objective will most likely be ignored – the hiring manager has seen it already.
- Listing personal attributes – Some people still insist on including things like their height, weight and other personal information. Unless you are a model or an actress such things should never, ever be on your resume.
- Interests and hobbies – Unless they pertain to the job you are being interviewed for leave these off.
- The minute details of every job you ever had – Hiring managers are looking for a brief synopsis of your experience not a blow by blow account of your days as a cashier.
- Too much bragging – Listing your accomplishments is important but if the wording goes over the top and starts to sound like you are bragging it can be a huge turn-off.
- Outdated information – If it has been more than 15 years since you left a job you should might wan to leave it off your resume. Assuming it is not very relevant to the position you are seeking now.
- False information – Stating you have a BS when it is really an Associate’s degree may seem like just a little white lie but making false statements on your resume can blow up in your face. Most employers these days do background checks and if you are exposed as a liar you can instantly kiss the job goodbye, even if you have already received an offer letter.
- Unexplained gaps in work history – Many people have these but they are something that most hiring managers notice right away. Choose your words carefully in explaining them on paper though. The hiring manager does not need to know specifics right now. If you state “left for personal reasons” they can then ask for more detail later if they need to.
- Lack of professionalism – Brightly colored or patterned paper, cutesy fonts and silly childish email addresses all turn hiring managers off right away. The chances of it getting read all the way through are slim.
