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Your Resume Goals in College

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Soon many of you will be starting or returning to college. Your first priority is to concentrate on your studies, but one of your other priorities should be looking ahead to when you join the workforce. This day may arrive earlier than you expect if you are working your way through college, taking required or independent internships, or hoping to serve as a teacher’s aide or laboratory assistant.

Regardless of how closely your current work (if any) relates to your future career, you want to start thinking about how you will present yourself as a valuable employee after you graduate college.

In terms of your resume, you should try to build credentials in the following areas:

  • Work Experience: If you can find employment that relates closely to your future career, grab it. However, any work experience is valuable because it shows your discipline, teamwork, and value to a previous employer.
  • Achievements: Keep track of your college achievements, especially completion of a presentation, practicum, thesis, or project related to your field. Also keep note of any awards or scholarships you receive. They help to differentiate you from the crowd of job applicants. Team projects are just as valuable as independent projects.
  • Leadership and Teamwork: Join and participate in a campus organization. Try for a position on a board, committee, or executive council, to hone and demonstrate your leadership skills.
  • Knowledge and Skills: Keep a list of the college courses that relate most directly to your future career. You want to show on your resume that you come with knowledge in your field and have met the educational requirements.
  • References and Referrals: Talk to your professors and your current employers. They are excellent sources of references and may also be excellent sources of referrals—if they know you.

When it is time to write your resume, remember that your college’s career office is focused on creating resumes for on-campus recruiters. In the wider world, those resumes are inadequate at best because they do not account for the hiring procedures at companies (such as the use of electronic Applicant Tracking Systems). Please contact Robin’s Resumes® for help with your resume.

The Ten Big Do Not’s of Resumes

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This week’s blog is a list of resume Do Not’s. Next week we will list the big resume Do’s.

  1. Do not use the words “I” or “me” or “my”—they can be used in the cover letter, not in the resume.
  2. Do not lead with a goal in your resume (“to find a job that will engage my talents…”)— lead with a summary of your accomplishments and skills.
  3. Do not write your life story. You can summarize jobs that are more than 15 years old (“Earlier experience includes:”) and drop those that have no relevance at all (“delivered newspapers to local residents”).
  4. Do not give excuses for leaving a job (but if the company was bought out and you were retained for a while, you might want to mention that—it shows your value to the purchasing company).
  5. Do not worry about keeping to 1 page. As long as the information is relevant and tightly written, your resume can be 2 pages or more.
  6. Do not write your resume for “any job.” You aren’t qualified or interested in every job in the world and your job search becomes totally unwieldy if you search for anything and everything. Focus.
  7. Do not say “references on request.” It’s a waste of space.
  8. Do not give information about health, family, hobbies (unless they are relevant to the job), religion or politics (again, unless you’re apply for a job in a church or for a political organization).
  9. Do not proofread online; proofread on paper. Make sure you look especially for punctuation errors, inconsistencies, missing or duplicate words, and misspellings. Ask someone else to proofread if you can.
  10. And most important: Do not seek resume advice from every family member and friend. They will contradict themselves, and you will never finish.  At some point, your resume has to leave your house whether everyone approves or not.

So where do you find advice you can trust? At Robin’s Resumes® we have more than 12 years of experience, industry certifications, a BSChE from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and national recognition (including speaking and teaching engagements). Contact us today.

“References on Request”

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Modern resumes avoid stating the obvious, such as “references on request.” But sometime during the interview process, you will be asked to provide references. You need to prepare for that moment.

Do not rely on your current company or manager to give you a good reference. Many companies, in their fear of lawsuits, have prohibited their Human Resource department and managers from providing details on any employee’s performance.

  1. Make a list of both personal and professional references from among your friends, coworkers, vendors, suppliers, community contacts (for example, civic leaders), educational contacts (for example, professors) and similar sources. Leave family members off the list. You need a short list of perhaps three personal references and three professional references.
  2. Make sure the references are comfortable with referring you. Do not assume they are. Verify their contact information and their preferred method of being contacted (for example, some references may not want to receive phone calls at work).
  3. Give your references plenty of advance notice. A company might contact a reference without notifying you first.
  4. Send a copy of your resume to each reference person. You want to prepare your references to answer questions and to support you appropriately in the career you have chosen.
  5. Check out what your references are saying about you; you may be surprised. Be sure they speak positively of you. You can use a company such as Allison & Taylor  for checking what folks say about you online.
  6. Send references a thank you once your job search has ended, whether or not they were contacted by a company. Show your gratitude for their willingness to support your job search.

Like the companies you apply to, your references need a resume that is clear, accurate, and up-to-date and that highlights your achievements. To make sure your resume is fulfilling all those criteria, please email Robin’s Resumes®.

Past Employers: How Much Do You Say on Your Resume?

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When you describe your past employers in your resume, make it easy for hiring managers and recruiters to understand who you worked for, where and when.

Resumes written to apply for federal jobs must include full contact and reference information for each past employer; but for all other resumes, the name of the company, its general location and the years you worked there are sufficient. For example:

ABC Corporation, St. Louis, MO     (1999-2004)

Except for federal resumes, do not include contact information for your past supervisors; you can provide that information later, when the company you are applying to expresses real interest. In the meantime, your supervisors do not want to be interrupted by dozens of requests for information.

Perhaps the company’s name does not clearly explain what the company does; or perhaps details about products and services are important in your industry. In that case, you might want to add a few words to identify the company. For example, in the fashion industry you might want to say, “Specialists in plus sizes in men’s, women’s and children’s outerwear.”

You should not include your reasons for leaving a previous position. There are a very few exceptions. For example, if a buyout occurred and you were retained for even a limited time by the new owners, your retention is a tribute to you and your abilities.

At Robin’s Resumes®, I specialize in knowing what to leave in and what to leave out on the perfect resume. I’m ready to do the same for you.

References: “Works Well with Others”

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Good references are important to any job search; but you need to know when and how to offer them.

In the United States, references do not belong on a resume. First, you want to protect the privacy of your references; resumes go out to the world. Second, you want time to alert your references to the call or email they may receive. If your references are listed on your resume, you lose control.

Employers assume you can give them references if they ask. So your resume should not include the phrase “References available upon request.” It is not necessary and it takes up valuable space on a resume better used to show your accomplishments.

That said, as part of your preparation, create a list of references to have ready when needed. The list should include each reference’s name, title, company name, address, phone number(s) and email. In addition to professional references, you may need a few personal references. Contact all your references to make sure they are willing to speak well of you and to alert them to your job search. Your references need to know they will be receiving a legitimate request for information by a company you’re interested in.

You can ask a company not to contact your most recent employer. Companies realize you may want to keep your job search confidential until you have a definite offer. Besides, current employers are often limited in the information they are allowed to share.

Make sure you have some references who will gladly speak well of you! One of the most damaging references you can get is, “I’d rather not say.”

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