Resume Help Blog

We asked three college recruiters what they looked for first when reviewing resumes. All three represent major companies and look over countless pages of resumes every year. Some of these come on expensive bond, some on plain copy paper. In the end it doesn’t matter, it’s what is on the paper that counts.

One college recruiter represents GTE Corp. in Irving Texas and tells us that he looks at the education portion of the resume first. He tells us that he looks at the degree, the major, the graduation date and of course the GPA.

Another recruiter is a college relations manager at J.C. Penny. Inc. in Dallas, Texas. She says she looks at the experience section first. She is looking for retail experience and then adds that her next look is the GPA and the graduation date.

The third recruiter we asked is the corporate staffing manager at America Online out of Fairfax, Virginia. This recruiter looks first for skills and experience.

They all agree that a resume should contain the skills and experience as well as the education. Your resume must communicate those elements clearly and be free from glaring grammatical and spelling errors.

Getting Started

If you’re just beginning the process of building your resume, you’ll need to construct a framework first.

“A resume is like a final term paper,” says Jeff Nardo, career services coordinator at Coastal Carolina Community College in Jacksonville, North Carolina. “You have to put in the same energy, attention to detail, and focus.”

Your resume should begin with a heading that includes your name, address, telephone number, and, in most cases, e-mail address. If you can make it look like professional stationery letterhead this is always nice.

If you’ll be leaving campus soon, be sure to provide a way for employers to reach you. If you’re not sure where you’ll be living, it’s best to include both your campus contact information and contact information for your parents. If you don’t have an email address you can sign up for a free one at Yahoo, Hotmail or Google.

Objectively Speaking

Write your objective that clearly tells the employer the sort of work you’re hoping to do. Avoid writing grandiose “philosophy-of-life” objectives.

Employers like to see some kind of objective or summary statement. The more specific it is, the better. Then they are able to route the resume to the appropriate people.”

Tailor your objectives to each employer you are targeting-and to each job they’re seeking.

The objective is like the thesis statement for a term paper.  In it, you’re trying to prove your knowledge of a particular area.”

Education

Tell them what you have learned. You may also want to include related course work in that category or in a separate section directly beneath it.

At minimum, the education section should include your degree, when it was earned or is expected, and what college or university you attended or are attending. Be sure to include your GPA.

You should also include in this section if you’re on the dean’s list or have received other academic honors.

For most students, the education section should precede the experience section.

Be descriptive in what your work experience actually was. Don’t just say, ‘rang up sales and talked to customers.’ In other words, don’t generalize, be creative.

Students are way too negative about their fast-food experience. It’s how you position it that matters. Customer service is a wonderful training ground. Try to identify how what you did fits into the corporate world and play up that experience. Again, be creative. Emphasize the ‘customer service’ angle. Also list any promotions you received and if it was in a short timeframe make sure to brag about that. For instance, ‘promoted to Assistant Manager after 3 months.

Describe a fast food job like a work experience. “But be honest about what it is. You don’t want to snow someone into thinking it was a full-time job for two years.”

One counselor who often counsels students transitioning from other careers or returning to the workplace after raising their children, says that sometimes volunteer and home-management activities can be used as experience.

Other Categories

Recruiters and career counselors agree that not every resume needs to look exactly the same. Different people need to emphasize things in different ways.

You could also include a key skills or special competencies section, to be placed high on the resume, usually just below the objective.

Special skills, such as fluency in a foreign language or proficiency in specific computer programs, can be placed beneath the experience category as well.

Putting It On Paper

No matter how you plan to submit your resume, make sure that you’ve proofread it carefully and asked several other people to do the same.

It’s really important to remember that spell check does not work for grammar, the same holds true for homonyms. “If you have ‘their’ instead of ‘there,’ it won’t come up on spell check.”

Make sure you have spelled everything right, especially the company’s name. And keep in mind what a resume is: a summary of your job qualifications.”