Your resume is a one sided document that is meant to capture who you are as a student or working professional. While there are many valuable websites that show you how to create a solid resume, here are some unconventional tips that you may not find in them:
- Your resume should tell your story. After someone reads your resume, they should have an idea of how you’ve grown over the last few years. They should understand your interests and your industry-related passions. Most importantly, they should understand your skill set. Therefore, it is important to make the resume clear and concise by including details that encompass your time at school and in industry. Additionally, be careful to not include redundant facts. For example, if you used AutoCAD during an internship, there is no need to say that you learned AutoCAD in a class. This is so that your resume isn’t cluttered and only uses facts that add to your story rather than repeat it. Alternatively, if you are applying for an AutoCAD position, then make sure to list all the times you’ve used AutoCAD. It depends on the situation!
- Locations are optional. As a student, it’s typically assumed that you will be willing to move anywhere for internships, so prior locations aren’t important. Some exceptions are:
- A prior internship or education was international
- You have a strong location preference. If so, you can list it in the “objective” section. (Having a strong location preference can be due to personal reasons such as a sick family member or visa status, but in general you should be willing to relocate anywhere for a 12 week internship).
- You worked in different locations within the same company (Main office vs manufacturing facility)
- The city that you lived in for that experience is near the city of the job that you are currently applying for
- When grouping things such as leadership or volunteering work, you can either choose to sort by date or sort by relevance. Sorting by date is more formal, but sorting by relevance can sometimes get the most important things up top so recruiters can see them more easily. The general rule that I personally use is: sort industry experience by date, sort leadership and extracurriculars by relevance.
- Do a taste test. Give your resume to someone and set a timer for 1 minute. After 1 minute, take the resume away and ask them for the top 3 takeaways. If the top 3 takeaways are random and don’t highlight your biggest strengths/experiences, then you need to do the following:
- Rearrange your resume so that the most relevant experience/items are more prominent
- Re-consider your use of bold, italics, underline, and larger font sizes
- Word your resume so that it has quantifiable metrics. There is a big difference between: “Worked on team that designed XYZ product and learned design process” and “Worked cross functionally to decrease XYZ product design weight by 10%”
- You can never have too many people review your resume. Give it to everyone you trust, but take everyone’s advice with a grain of salt. Not everyone is going to give you sound advice. Use your best judgement and never be afraid to ask for a second opinion! Most people are more than willing to help you by taking a glance at your resume.
Scott Gong Tutoring 