Your resume is the first step in transitioning from an unemployed college student to a fully employed intern. However useful it is, to most college students, writing a resume is a daunting task.

Your resume is the first step in transitioning from an unemployed college student to a fully employed intern. However useful it is, to most college students, writing a resume is a daunting task. It can be an overwhelming idea that you need to list all your academic achievements, extracurricular activities and any jobs you’ve had in a way that makes an employer want to hire you, all while keeping it to one page!  But don’t freak out just yet.

Writing a resume can be fun if you look at it from the right perspective. Begin by not thinking about it as a detailed list of everything you’ve done, but rather a snapshot of your successes; a way to entice recruiters to interview you. A resume is a tool to start a conversation with a potential employer. It’s a way to get yourself noticed, and HAMNIC Recruiting is here to help! Here are a few things to make your resume a complete success:

Get some (free) help

Staring at a blank Word doc with a blinking cursor could spell your doom. Don’t start there. Instead, begin online by searching for resumes of positions you’d like to have one day. Use these resumes as a roadmap of how your resume should look. (But don’t copy them!)

Obviously, your resume needs to be of your accomplishments and skills, not a seasoned professional. However, by viewing these resumes’ formatting and vocabulary, you’ll have a better understanding of where to start.

Look at a couple of resumes, check out the formatting, and a pay attention to the action verbs used to describe their accomplishments. If you need more help, try Googling key phrases like: effective resumes, college student resumes, marketing intern resumes, etc.

If you prefer in-person than online, check out your campus’ career centre. They often have resume writing workshops you could attend, or you could schedule an appointment with your campus’ career centre representative for a 1×1 meeting.

Formatting, grammar and length are critical

After reviewing a few resumes online, take a stab starting to construct a resume. Start with the basic of all resume formatting:

• • Name (first and last).

• • Contact information (email address and phone number are enough).

• • Objective (typically a brief summary of who you are and what you’re looking for).

• • Education (list college name, major, the semester and year you anticipate to graduate. When applying for an internship, add your GPA).

• • Experience (have you worked before? Even if it’s at your colleges’ cafeteria, this is the area where you can show your positive indicators; such as trustworthiness, willingness to take initiative, or accuracy. When listing experience, write the name of the business, dates worked, your title, and give a brief description of what you did there. Items to mention could be handling $2,000 of cash sales daily, training new employees, managing a lab’s database, report writing, or organizing shipments).

• • Extracurricular activities (add clubs, sports teams, or organizations you belong. Put the dates you belonged and what positions you held. This is the perfect section for noting leadership qualities. We suggest refraining from adding any political or divisive associates).

• • Technical skills, soft skills and languages (add in any software knowledge, communication or language skills you have. Note the item you know and the level of proficiency you are, such as intermediate Java skills).

This format can vary, but generally all resumes have a section for each. One thing that can’t vary is correct grammar. Make sure your spelling and punctuation are correct. Ask a friend to proofread once you’ve finished for any fine-tuning needed. 

Unless you’re a PhD candidate, your resume should also be no more than 2 pages long with 11 or 12 point font. The font should be easy to read (i.e. Times New Roman, Calibri, etc.) and that’s what you want; an easy-to-read doc that gets a recruiter excited to contact you.

If you’re finding yourself writing a 3, 4, 5-page resume, take a break and come back to omit or summarize a few items. Recruiters probably won’t read past the second page, so try to condense.

Tailor it

Now that you’ve got a beautiful resume, you may want to start sending it out to hundreds of potential employers like HAMNIC Solutions! While we applaud your enthusiasm, the resume you just wrote is your template. That’s right, you’re not quite done.

The resume you’ve crafted is just a jumping off point for when you want to apply for an internship. When searching for an internship, read each intern job description carefully. When you’ve decided you have the skills necessary to apply, you need to tailor your resume for that job description.

By tailoring, we mean adding the keywords from the job description into your resume. These are often “power” verbs; like assist, deliver, direct, manage, maintain, prepare, process, supervise, test, update, etc. For each requirement, make sure you call out how you’ve demonstrated this in the past. It can be in your academic work, campus employment or sports activity. This relationship from your resume to the job description is key to getting a call back.

HAMNIC Solutions is here to support your graduate journey. Our professional writing and editing expertise helps you manage your academic workload, reduce stress, and focus on well-being for a balanced academic and personal life. Visit HAMNIC Solutions to learn how we can make your student life easier and healthier, enabling you to achieve your academic ambitions without sacrificing a balanced lifestyle.