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Resume Guidelines

The document provides guidelines for writing an effective undergraduate resume, emphasizing the importance of a clear contact section, a concise resume objective, and a detailed education section. It advises including relevant work experience, job-related skills, and extracurricular activities to enhance the resume's appeal to potential employers. The guidelines stress the need to tailor the resume for each job application and include keywords to pass through applicant tracking systems.

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Mudit Gupta
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4 views

Resume Guidelines

The document provides guidelines for writing an effective undergraduate resume, emphasizing the importance of a clear contact section, a concise resume objective, and a detailed education section. It advises including relevant work experience, job-related skills, and extracurricular activities to enhance the resume's appeal to potential employers. The guidelines stress the need to tailor the resume for each job application and include keywords to pass through applicant tracking systems.

Uploaded by

Mudit Gupta
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Resume Guidelines

How to write an undergraduate


resume
Getting hired isn’t easy for most people, and finding a good job is
especially difficult for recent college graduates.

As of December 2020, the unemployment rate for recent college


graduates was the highest it’s been in a decade. What’s more, 40% of
recent graduates in the workforce are employed in positions that don’t
require a college degree.

Being able to write a great resume as an undergraduate student has


never been so essential to landing the job you want out of college.

Here’s everything you need to know about writing each section on your
undergraduate resume:

1. Clearly state your contact information


Put your name, email, phone number, address, and relevant social media
profiles in the header of your resume.

Adding contact information may seem self-explanatory, but here are


some tips to help you avoid common mistakes:

 Your name should be readable at the top of the page (use a bigger
font).

 Use a professional email address. If you don’t have one yet, make a
new Gmail with your first and last name, or initials, with periods or
hyphens mixed in.
 Adjust your social media privacy settings in the event you have any
less-than-professional photos or videos floating around.

2. Open with a convincing resume objective


A resume objective is a brief 2–4 sentence resume introduction that
provides an overview of your most notable qualifications, skills, and goals.
Your objective is an essential part of your undergraduate resume,
because it lets you explain why you’re qualified despite having limited
work experience.

Here are some points to remember when you’re writing a resume


objective for your undergrad resume:

 Keep your objective short. Hiring managers read resumes quickly, so


it’s important to communicate your qualifications concisely.

 Write (or at least adjust) your objective each time you send out a
resume. Target your objective to the job you’re applying for, referencing
the job requirements the hiring manager wrote in the job ad.

 In the last sentence, state your interest in the job and note how your skills
and career goals make you a good fit.

3. Write a detailed education section


As a recent college graduate, you probably don’t have a long work history
to include on your resume. To impress employers, you need to draw their
attention to the accomplishments you do have.

To highlight your most important achievements, list your resume


education section before your work experience (you’ll switch the two
sections on resumes later in your career).

Your education section includes the following information:


 The name of your school

 Your area of study

 Your graduation date (or expected graduation date)

 Any honors you received

 Your GPA — but only if it’s 3.5 or higher.


Also, use your education section to highlight any relevant coursework you
completed that showcases valuable hard or soft skills. If possible, use
hard numbers to demonstrate your value.

4. Add relevant work experience


You may not have a laundry list of jobs to put on your resume, but you’ve
probably worked summer jobs or part-time gigs when you were in high
school. Put any jobs you’ve held in your resume’s work experience
section, as long as they’re relevant to your target job.

For instance, if you’re applying to an entry-level sales position, mention


your upselling success rate when you were a waiter. If you’re going into
graphic design, write about the time you designed posters that grew your
babysitting business by 80%.

Your work experience section is also where you can list your internships
or volunteer experience.

5. Include job or field-related skills


The late-night study sessions, presentations, and group projects from your
college days are about to pay off. Whether you know it or not, all that
work has given you a valuable set of hard and soft skills that employers
want to see on your resume.

Some soft skills you likely developed while at college and should add to
your resume include the following:
 Teamwork

 Time management

 Communication skills

 Organizational skills

 Interpersonal skills

 Written communication

 Open-Mindedness

 Self-motivation

 Brainstorming

 Critical thinking
Hard skills picked up in college vary depending on your area of study. For
example, a software engineering major exits school with technical
skills like fluency in multiple coding languages, while a graphic design
major would list Adobe Photoshop as a hard skill.

But even if you received a bachelor’s in general studies, chances are you
have a few of the following hard skills:

 Computer skills

 Microsoft Office

 Google Docs

 Google Sheets

 Google Calendar

 Language skills

 Research skills

 Writing and editing

 Research

 Presentation
Additionally, including the skills mentioned in the job description is critical
to your application’s success.

Many companies use application tracking systems (ATS) to review


applications. ATS software automatically deletes applications that don’t
include the skills the employer requires. So even if you wrote a creative
masterpiece of a resume, it won’t reach the hiring manager’s inbox unless
you include the skill-related keywords they’re looking for.

6. List related extracurricular activities


If your undergraduate resume has too much blank space at the bottom,
fill it with relevant extracurricular activities.

Joining optional groups like fraternities or sororities, and taking part in


various events indicates you’re self-motivated and work well with others.
Also, if slam poetry or comedy open mics are where your passions lie, list
them — performing arts require creativity and public speaking, skills that
employers love to see on a resume.

If you can use hard numbers to quantify your extracurriculars, do it.


Writing “performed in annual talent shows” is much less impressive than
“performed for crowds of 2,000+ students in annual talent shows.”

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