Keep it in perspective
Your resume matters, but it’s table stakes. It gets you in the door. What actually lands the job is people: the handshake at the career fair, the referral, the follow-up. Almost nobody follows up. Be the one who does.
A good rule of thumb: spend most of your job search time talking to people, and a smaller slice on your resume and LinkedIn. Jeffrey J. Fox’s book Don’t Send a Resume makes the same case: the job goes to the people who reach the decision maker directly, not the ones waiting in a pile of applications.
The essentials
- Contact info: phone, email, and a customized LinkedIn URL.
- Education: school, specific degree and major, expected graduation date.
- Experience: internships, jobs, research, and projects. Every job counts. Lifeguarding, restaurant work, and campus jobs all show reliability and work ethic.
Show it, don’t list it
Skip the list of adjectives. “Hardworking, reliable, detail-oriented” is on thousands of resumes, and anyone can write it. Show those traits through what you did instead.
“Reliable and hardworking.”
“Worked 20 hours a week through the school year while carrying a full engineering course load.”
If a trait matters, there should be a line on your resume that proves it.
One page, used well
- One page is ideal for most students. Go to two only if you truly have that much that’s relevant to the job you want.
- Reclaim wasted space, like oversized margins or half-empty lines, but keep the page clean and easy to scan. Clutter hurts more than it helps.
- Quantify when you can. “Managed a $5,000 project budget” says more than “budget management.”
- Use the language of the job posting. Many employers screen resumes with software that looks for matching keywords.
What students often leave off
- Select courses. Highlight classes that show what you’re interested in, good at, or want to be noticed for.
- Projects. Hackathons, design competitions, lab work, class projects, personal builds. Say what you made, what the challenge was, and your role on the team.
- Activities. Club sports, intramurals, student organizations. Not everyone includes them, and they show involvement and teamwork.
- Volunteer work. It shows character and care.
- Standout awards, even from high school. Some people will tell you to remove everything from high school. A major award or a clear pattern of achievement can still belong, especially early in college. Try an “Activities and Awards” section.
References
Leave them off your resume. Instead, keep a separate one-page list ready, and ask each person for permission before you list them. Bonus: those conversations are good practice and often lead to useful feedback.
The most important resume skill: asking for help
Getting comfortable asking for help will serve you your whole career. Before you call your resume done:
Want more examples? The University of Florida Career Connections Center posts sample resumes for more than a dozen STEM majors, from engineering to computer science to the sciences: Sample STEM Resumes.
After an internship: update while it’s fresh
The best time to update your resume is the week an internship ends.
- Write down 3 to 5 things you learned. Think about the technology, projects, clients, colleagues, and your manager.
- Turn the strongest ones into resume lines. Show what you did and what came of it.
- Update your LinkedIn profile at the same time.
Advice from Jim Riney, Talent Acquisition Manager at Freese and Nichols.
Your resume and LinkedIn travel together
Employers will look you up. Update both at the same time.
Resume feedback from Square Roots
Until then, work through the asking-for-help worksheet above. The best feedback you’ll get is from people who know you and the work you want.
Some campus job boards and career sites offer free automated resume checks. They’re a fine first pass, not the final word.
Download the one-pager
Everything on this page on a single printable sheet, worksheet included.