BY JENNY BRAVO
Together, CxC and Career Services are helping you spot and fix all your resume blunders! If you missed the recent seminar on resume creation, here are some of the top hints the experts shared:
- There are very few hard and fast rules when it comes to resumes, so you need to edit your resume each time you apply for a different job.
- The most important aspect of a resume is your contact information. Include your name, address, phone number and email. For emails, make sure your username is professional. Also, update your voicemail from that prank message to something simple and suitable.
- Keep your objective statement short. Use the format: “To obtain X position with Y company using Z previous work experience.”
- Experience can come in many forms: class projects, extracurricular activities, internships ,or volunteer activities, for example. If an experience makes you more marketable to a company, it is probably worth including. Focus on things that you’ve done where you can detail your skills.
- Employers are not looking for a narrative; they’re looking for bullet points that enable to read quickly.
- When considering organization, keep two basic principles in mind: most to least recent and most to least important.
- The activities/honors section is usually a list–without details–of your scholarships, awards, memberships and relevant hobbies. If an activity helped you develop skills that are related to the job, then it is experience and should probably be give more attention on the resume.
- Minor details can make or break an effective resume. Here’s a checklist:
- Omit all personal pronouns.
- Use white space (horizontally and vertically) to aid in readability and show relationships between segments. Resumes crammed with too much text in small font are difficult to read.
- Use top quality bond paper.
- Unless you’ve been in the workforce for years, limit your resume to one page with a separate page for references.
- Proofread! Proofread! Proofread!
- Remember to always present your best self. Take the time in making your resume perfect so that you can be confident in sending it out and those who receive it will be confident in you.
- Politely follow up for every resume you send. Sometimes your email or mailed envelope simply gets misplaced.
CxC offers a variety of student workshops throughout the semester to help you improve your communication skills. Most are open to all LSU students, so plan to attend one soon! You can also make an appointment with Career Services or a CxC writing coach to help you further improve your resume.
What students said about the CxC-Career Services Fall 2012 workshop:
“Extremely helpful! It taught me how competitive the job market is…even minor details are more important than you think.” – Darien Northern, chemical engineering sophomore
“It was very informative. I now feel more confident about submitting a resume.” – Alexis Caletta, communication disorders sophomore
“I’ve never made a resume, but I feel like this was really helpful and that I can do it on my own now.” – Samantha Bares, creative writing sophomore
“I’ve made tons of resumes for my classes before, but there are still a few things that I missed.” – Andrew Griffin, industrial engineering sophomore
