Graduating from college is an exciting time in your life: the transition from the academic to professional world opens up plenty of possibilities. However, ending your time in college can also be a complex and stressful process. We’ve all heard about how hard it is to find employment in today’s crowded job market.
Luckily, there are plenty of tweaks you can make to your resume to maximise your chances of landing your dream job. In this article, we’ll go over some tips on how to tailor your resume for graduate positions.
Format Your Resume Correctly
A common mistake many people make is incorrectly formatting their resumes. If you aren’t an expert in graphic design, or if you just want to know you’re using a recognised, professional layout, you can use a CV maker to design your resume according to a premade template. You can personalise it to cater to the industry you’re applying for, but use the base formatting as a starting point.
How you style your resume will depend on the type of position you’re applying for. If you’re applying for a role as a legal assistant, for instance, a clean, minimalist resume would probably work best. On the other hand, there’s more leeway for creativity if you’re looking for a career in the arts.
You should also order the sections of your CV in order of importance. As a student or a recent graduate, we recommend placing your education near the top, as this will be your main selling point. You should also arrange your experience, skills and certifications in order of how relevant they are to the position you’re applying for.
While the content of your resume matters, how you present it is also important. Format your CV correctly to boost your chances of landing a job.
Talk About Your Education
As a recent graduate, your biggest asset is your degree. Whether you hold a degree in physics, marketing or mathematics, employers place plenty of stock in what you studied and where.
When writing your resume, you should put the education section at the top of the document, unless you have exceptional work experience. List your current degree, even if you haven’t graduated yet (but write when you expect to finish your studies). If you’re currently a graduate-level student, you can also mention what program you did as an undergraduate.
One mistake recent graduates should avoid when writing their resume is simply listing the degrees they hold and the universities they received them from. To give employers more context about what you studied, you should also share individual courses you took. The courses you choose to include should change depending on the job you’re applying for.
Mention Soft Skills
When writing a CV, many graduates immediately jump to listing all their degrees, past work experiences and industry-specific skills. While these are all essential components of a resume, you shouldn’t neglect your soft skills.
Soft skills are personal characteristics that are continuously developed through life and work experience and will boost your chances of success in any job. Think of the ability to solve problems, a strong work ethic, a capacity for independent work and team collaboration, or the confidence to speak publicly.
In today’s saturated job market, you can expect many of your fellow applicants to possess similar qualifications and technical skills. To catch recruiters’ attention, it’s important to show that you also possess the personal qualities to thrive in the company you’re applying to.
Include Relevant Test Results
Certain jobs require applicants to take standardised tests, like the CPA exam for accountants and the bar exam for lawyers. Most employers have a separate verification process for these tests, but it can be a good idea to include your scores on your resume, especially if you got particularly high marks.
There are also cases where it can help your case to list standardised tests you’ve taken even if they’re not explicitly required by your potential employer. For instance, mentioning a high TOEFL or IELTS grade can make you a more attractive candidate if the job is located in an English-speaking country, especially if you’re applying as a foreigner.
Of course, you want to read the job description before adding test scores to your resume. Some openings may specifically require you to indicate your scores somewhere other than your CV, in which case adding them in may be superfluous, and take up precious space.
Add Work Experience
When you’re applying for a graduate position, hiring managers won’t expect you to have decades of work experience behind you. However, being able to demonstrate some level of professional experience and the desire to learn can set you apart from other applicants.
Internships, part-time jobs and volunteering roles all count as work experience. If you’ve worked multiple jobs before, only include the most relevant positions in your resume. Remember that recruiters have to go through countless CVs on a daily basis, so you want to immediately grab their attention.
Searching for a job right after college is an incredibly exciting experience, but it can be challenging. Given the amount of competition in the job market, you need to make sure that your application is as strong as it can be. We’ve just gone over some practical ways to tailor your resume for graduate positions. Apply what you’ve learned in this article to your own search, and give yourself the best possible chance of securing the job you’ve always wanted.
Also Read: Preparing for Standardized Tests
