Resume is the first step to a successful future
Guest post by Jessica Vainer
Creating a college student resume is one of the essential actions that need to be done as a college student, especially if you need to apply for various positions and job openings such as internships, volunteer opportunities, and other similar applications.
What is a College Student Resume?
A resume for college provides the relevant information that a prospective employer needs to know about your skills, abilities, education, volunteer work history, and also extracurricular activities you engage in as a student at a glance.
This means that there are certain features that are expected from whoever is going to view your resume and you have you make sure that these essential parts are not missing and your resume is well presented to meet up with expectations. Below, you will find a practical guide on what you have to include in your resume if writing one is your next task.
What are the Essential Features of a Resume?
The key features of what you need to write in your resume are constituted in the essential parts of the university student’s resume. Thus, in this section, you will understand the major aspects that your resume should have:
Education
The first feature of your resume is highlighting succinctly your educational qualifications that are relevant. The name of the university you attended whether in the UK or USA or anywhere you obtained your degree and the year they are obtained. This part of your resume gives a quick insight into your area of study, interest, and discipline to anyone who looks at your resume.
If you had awards in the uni which you got or an extra certificate you obtained in a course may be online or in any other way, a high GPA, major academic achievements such as being on the honors roll or even an award in Math and other related academic awards, here is the part where you need to display them.
Ensure that your information is stated accurately, this part is one of the most important to anyone who will be looking at your resume, hence you have to write it well.
Relevant Jobs
While the college student’s resume is not really expected to be colored with experiences you have obtained while working in top establishments and companies, it is required that you highlight a relevant history of places where you have worked or gained vital experiences and skills that are required for the job you wish to get.
If you’ve had an internship program or a volunteer experience in the past, you can add it in this part of your resume and this can be a booster to the quality of your resume.
Leadership Experience
There are ways to show your leadership skills even if you don’t hold a Msc in Leadership. If you have ever led a club or a team of fellow students, headed an association or a union, your resume is a good place to show off such experiences.
Leadership experience shows your capacity and ability to lead a team, to organize or coordinate a group of people. Employers look at this to know if a candidate is able to work well in a position or take a leadership role in their establishment.
Skills
Your resume should show what you are capable of doing, and your skills are a good indicator of what you can do. If I do my assignment online it could be a good indication that I have good use of the internet. Whether you are good with an assignment writing on Microsoft office tools, presentation, oratory skills, communication skills, negotiation, and other valuable skills someone has told you about before, your resume should also contain this.
Your skills advertise your abilities to employers if you are suitable for a position you are applying for and therefore you should list the skills that are necessary for the job you hope to get.
Extracurricular Activities
A college student resume is not just a place where you only show off your distinction and merits, but also a place where you can express how well you engage in other productive and extracurricular activities that is an impression of how well you can handle stress and balance your duties effectively.
Your extracurricular engagements can also fill in for job experience since you could have held a post such as a president, secretary, and so on in your association or club. And a community service which you volunteer in or a reading club which you are a member of can add to your extracurricular activities in your resume.
Top Tips for Writing your Resume
Since you have seen and understood the essential features of a college student’s resume, it is then useful at this time to highlight some tips that can give your resume a professional touch and transform it to a leading resume that will land you the employment you are looking for.
Spice up your resume with action words
Action words make your resume compelling and suggest that you are capable of handling tasks which you have mentioned that you have handled in your resume; include action words such as led, researched, created, engaged in your resume to give life to it.
Be Specific
Rather than explain what you have accomplished vaguely or with unclear words in your resume, include in quantity what you were able to carry out. If you have led a delegation of twenty students in your school to a conference, include this in the right number rather than just say that you led a delegation of students to a conference. Your objectivity is a good tool in your resume.
Edit and Proofread
Pic taken from Pixabay
Don’t be in a hurry to push out your resume to apply for an opening without editing it first. Having a flawless resume gives a professional impression to everyone who reads it. There are various tools that can help you to achieve this online; while some are free, you have to pay for some, but you can be assured of excellent services if you use them.
Conclusion
Now you know the essential things you need to write in your resume when you need one whether for an application or any other purpose. You should be aware that creativity and style are important tools to make your resume beautiful and impressive, therefore you should employ both when you are writing one.
Finally, your resume might not get perfect at once, getting a flawless resume written in an instance is almost totally impossible, hence, you should be ready to edit, proofread and add more details as much as you have to as the need arises.
