This video discusses how to write a resume. To state the bottom line up front, a successful resume highlights the skills you have developed in all of your experiences, including paid work, student activities and clubs, and sometimes classes. You need to write a resume specific to the job you are applying for.
Format
First, let me note the proper format for a resume. You can find it on the VCU Career Services website. I strongly encourage you to use this format, not some template from Google Docs or that you found online. This is what employers are accustomed to seeing and its simple format ensures that any algorithm used to screen your resume reads the entire document correctly.
I’m not going to cover every detail here, but note that your experience should be divided into related and additional – you can and should include unpaid work and activities under “related experience” – sometimes they highlight skills better than paid work. Your experiences should be sorted in chronological order, with the most recent listed first in each category. You want your most relevant experience at the top of your resume.
Thinking about your goals
Before you write your resume, you need to spend time thinking about what your short term career goals are. What type of job you are looking for? Do you want a job that involves a lot of individual research or one that involves collaboration and communication? Are you interested in American policy or international? You’ll need to highlight different skills for different types of jobs, so the first step is to identify the types of jobs you are interested in.
As a side note, I often have students tell me they are interested in everything or don’t know what they want to do. Unfortunately, if you just want any job, you won’t get any jobs – employers want to know that you have the skills they are looking for and that you are interested in them, not anyone. You have to start by making some choices about what your interests are and what types of work you are best at. You don’t have to figure out your entire life right now, but you do need to be able to articulate your story – why you made the choices you have made so far and what you want the next step to be.
Thinking about your audience
The next step is to think through who will read your resume. You need to write to two audiences: the actual person who will make a decision about who to hire and the potential algorithm that may screen resumes for them. Not everyone uses AI in hiring – it is most likely with large employers and websites like Indeed – but that process is very opaque and it is good to be ready for it just in case.
To get a sense of what employers are looking for, find job announcements in fields you are interested in. These job announcements will say what the jobs require and what skills employers are interested in seeing in applicants. You should consider applying for internships and jobs where you meet most of the requirements – it’s okay if you don’t meet every criteria though.
Write your resume with those job requirements in mind – if the job involves managing logistics, make sure one of your resume points talks about your experience managing a project of event. If the internship involves data analysis, include information on how you have done this in the past.
Last note here is that the best way to manage AI algorithms is to use language similar to the terms listed in the job post. If the description says “Exhibit excellent verbal and written communication skills” then have a line saying “demonstrated verbal and written communication skills” followed by a specific example of this.
Thinking about your experience
The final step is to think about what skills you have and how to describe them.
The first key point here is that you develop skills in many ways. You learn research skills in classes that require papers, you learn communications skills when you give a presentation. You demonstrate organizational skills when you arrange an event for a club and customer service skills when you work as a server in a restaurant. You demonstrate professionalism by showing a work record where you have had employers hire you more than one summer in a row or that promote you, say from server to host. So don’t neg yourself – don’t be discouraged because you don’t have a resume full of internships. Your hard work in all forms is extremely valuable and employers want to hear about it. But you do need to tell them about it in the right way.
What is important is that you provide specific details on what exactly you did in each case. Don’t just say you provided customer service, try to quantify it – how many customers did you support each day? What type of writing did you do (memos? letters?)? How many people attended the event you organized? Providing specific detail makes the information you provide more credible to your audience. You don’t need to mention the same skills for every job – you can mention customer service for one server job and money management for another, but you don’t need to repeat yourself. This isn’t a quiz on what your job responsibilities were – it is you presenting yourself in the best light to a potential employer.
Last thing to note is that it is okay that you don’t have a lot of experience. You are in college or about to graduate – it is normal to have a short resume; employers don’t expect you to have a lot of experience. Highlight what you have, but it is also important to demonstrate your interest and commitment to a job in your cover letter – see my separate video on that. And there is still lots of time to develop skills in new areas – if you see an internship you are interested in but don’t meet most of the minimum qualifications, consider taking a class or joining a club that can help you do this.
I’d like to end this video with a few dos and don’ts.
Do: Take time on your resume. Write a draft, re-read it, and revise it. Have a friend read it and comment. Bring it to me or to Career Services to read. A good resume takes time and effort to prepare.
Because a huge Don’t is: Having typos. If you have a typo or improper formatting on your resume, it is usually immediately obvious to everyone except you and it tells the employer that you are not good at paying attention to detail. It really damages your application.
Do: Have multiple versions of your resume. Different employers will be interested in different aspects of your experience – you don’t need to include everything you have ever done each time. I usually have one really long version of my resume that I edit and send out to different employers.
But Don’t: Send your long resume out to everyone. As college students, you should not have a resume longer than 1 page. You just haven’t done enough to go onto a second page, and if you can’t be concise about your experience, you’ll have a hard time getting a job that requires writing skills. Older students with more than five years of work experience may want to have a longer resume – it’s fine once you have the life experience to justify it.
Many students have “Goals” or “Skills” listed on their resume and this is something I would put in the Maybe category. In general, I discourage these sections because they are repetitive – you should mention your goals in your cover letter and your skills in your description of your experiences. Usually, I recommend students just list computer and language skills in that section. But if your resume is a little short, it is okay to add a goal statement at the top. Just Don’t include really long lists – it is the quality of your skill development employers are interested in, not the number of things you write down.
Do: use formatting to highlight the most important things on your resume. Make it easy for someone to read it by highlighting job titles and organizations. Don’t have a resume so cluttered with text and columns, or play with the font to make things fit on one page. Complicated formatting makes it difficult for humans to see what is important on the page and also is known to mess up AI screening of your resume. The only time creative presentation or photos are appropriate are if they directly relate to the job – if you are applying for a job that requires graphic design skills, for example, you can demonstrate them on the resume itself.
A few last notes:
- Don’t save your resume with a file name like “Resume v. 3-2.doc” – give it a name that will make it easier for the employer to use. Include your last name in the file so that it doesn’t get lost when saved onto someone else’s computer.
- This goes without saying, but don’t exaggerate on your resume. If you make it to an interview for a job, you may get asked about the information on your resume and you don’t want to get caught in a lie.
- And be cautious about adding old experience to your resume. Once you are in college, you should remove most of your high school experience. The exception is when your high school or past experience is particularly relevant to what you are applying for. For example, if you are applying for an internship with a Delegate’s office and went to high school in their district, that is good to mention. But otherwise, you should cut it.
Last, I just want to say that it is okay to have a personality on your resume. Don’t express that with fancy formatting, but do mention your interests when appropriate. For example, if you are in the swim club or work at the student radio station, go ahead and mention that – you never know when someone shares your interests and it can open fun lines of conversation in an interview. Your resume should highlight who you are, not hide it.
I hope you have found this video helpful in writing a resume. If you would like further assistance, you can find sample resumes on the Career Services website, where you can also schedule a consultation. I’m also happy to talk with you – reach out via email (poliintern@vcu.edu).