It’s become a running joke that every entry-level job seems to require 3-5 years of experience, so it’s no wonder that people with little or no work experience feel anxious about how to fill up a resume when it comes time to seek an internship or job. Fortunately, there are legitimate ways for new job seekers to compile a curriculum vitae that communicates their experiences, strengths, skills, and abilities in ways that can entice and reassure hiring managers. This post will offer insights about how the right blend of formatting and content can help soon-to-be professionals build a document that portrays their professional preparedness and projects their personality.
Consider the Template
When applying for business school, applicants are advised to submit a professional resume that looks something like this template provided by Michigan State University. However, the beginning of one’s career is the perfect time to utilize a creative resume template. These formats offer several features that help fill up the page and add personality (if that’s something you’re looking for), including columns, photos, section headers, and icons. Remember that the primary goal of this document is to convey your academic and professional aptitude, so it is advisable to avoid some of the more vague aspects of creative resumes, such as pie charts or bar graphs to indicate skill levels – more on skills below.
Be Intentional with Your Style
In most cases, bullet points and sentence fragments dominate resumes. However, writing in complete sentences to describe experiences and project work is an option. You may opt for some or all of the sections of your resume to utilize complete sentences if it helps to explain your experiences. Leading with an objective statement or Summary section and explaining project work in complete sentences are natural-feeling ways to stretch out your content.
Make Your Objective Known
While not required on a business school resume, leading with an objective statement to describe your intentions and background can be a useful way to introduce oneself. An effective objective statement will express the applicant’s professional goals, both the big picture impact and those directly related to the role being applied for. Be sure to lead with your most important strengths, point to a connection between your education and the role, if relevant, and state how you can bring value. Here are a couple of example objective statements:
Recent university childhood education graduate seeking a teaching position where I can utilize my passion for education and dedication to student success to create engaging and effective learning experiences.
Seeking a Phlebotomist position with an emphasis on cancer treatment that offers opportunities for professional growth and skill development in areas such as specimen processing and laboratory operations.
Separate Education Experiences
Separating university-level learning experiences beyond one’s undergraduate education is a way of highlighting certificates, international exchange, and specialized study. Make it clear if you have had special or intentional study related to your area of interest or career goals. Some applicants even choose to list a few relevant courses. For example, if you are applying for a business analytics master’s program but did not take many data-related courses in university, you may wish to highlight data-oriented courses taken outside of school.
Celebrate Project Work
From a content perspective, sharing work on significant academic projects is a great way to communicate specialized knowledge, skill use, problem-solving, and teamwork abilities. Be sure to clearly state the project objective and your role, pointing to team success and personal contributions. Some applicants might explain a project in 2-3 sentences and then list the skills used or developed in bullets below.
Describe Your Skill Levels
When including a skills section, it is recommended that skills are listed specifically, often indicating the level of aptitude one has with each skill. A clear indication of a skill level could include a certification, such as the N1-N5 scale for Japanese language studies. Alternatively, it is also acceptable to indicate a self-assessment of your level, such as listing data skills followed by a level, like this: SQL (Basic), R (Advanced), Python (Intermediate).
Highlight Social Impact
Regardless of whether you are a fresh graduate who needs material for their resume or a seasoned professional, sharing volunteer experiences is an important opportunity to showcase your values, skills, and commitment. On their own, social impact efforts can indicate dedication to helping others, a moral position on contributing to society, and time management ability. By taking an intentional approach to writing descriptions of community involvement, applicants can also point to leadership, teamwork, project management, or mediation experience as well as skills growth.
[Conclusion]
By incorporating the points discussed in this post, any applicant will be able to produce a resume that summarizes their qualifications and provides proof points to support their profile. Above all, your resume should uniquely encapsulate what distinguishes you from other professionals.