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advice on resume
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With a career fair coming up next week, I'm trying to land me a internship for this summer.
Any tips on writing an impressive resume?
This is what I have so far:
Any tips on writing an impressive resume?
This is what I have so far:
Name goes here Address, phone, email here OBJECTIVE To obtain a challenging internship in the field of computer engineering that will utilize my experience, knowledge, and creativity; and provide beneficial insights and a better understanding of the profession. EDUCATION The University of Kansas Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering, Expected May 2010 Overall GPA: 3.84; Engineering GPA: 4.00 WORK EXPERIENCE Thai Place Waiter and Host, 2003-2006 Lonestar Steakhouse & Saloon Host and Busboy, Summer 2006 Thai House Busboy, Fall 2006 • Experienced with customer care and satisfying the needs of clients • Provided friendly service and welcoming environment • Responsible for the organization and cleanliness of the workplace • Collaborated with various colleagues Blue Valley North High School Web Development, Spring 2005 • Designed and created BVN’s track and field website for spring’05 season • Administered and managed the website HONORS • Garmin EECS Scholarship • State of Kansas Scholarship • Kansas Minority Scholarship • University of Kansas OAS Scholarship • Will B. Anderson Memorial Scholarship • Spahr Engineering Scholarship • John F. Dawson Scholarship • Paul & Virginia B. Miller EECS Scholarship • Dean’s Honor Roll 2007 • National Honors Society • Principal’s Honor Roll 2003-2006 • Two times Future Business Leaders of American (FBLA) national qualifier for programming • 5th at Greater Kansas City Computer Olympics 2006 SKILLS • Expert in assembling computers, installation of hardware and software, viruses and adware removal • Experience with HTML, DreamWeaver, 3D Studio Max, Photoshop, Flash • Programmed in C++, JAVA, VHDL, Visual Basic, and Quick Basic; and the willingness to learn • Great communication skills • Creative and artistic • Open-mindedness and enthusiastic • Fluent in Thai and studied Spanish for 4.5 years
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Also, this line:
• Experienced with customer care and satisfying the needs of clients
-> shouldn't you make it an action or say experience instead of experienced? I don't really know.
You're a smarty pants. I'm not. Sad.
Relevant Q: - How early do you need to start applying for internships anywho? I'm in your class year and I want me one too.
Seriously though, with your GPA, and GPA within your field, you should have no trouble. Have you done more things related to that? Old high school jobs are good and all if you're trying to get a job at Walmart, but not an internship. I'd stress more of your techincal knowledge.
That's what I'm worry about. I have no work experience in the field. Other than you know, goofying around with my computer and being a tech support for friends and family.
p.s. you know BVN?
One other thing I found is kind of a matter of preference, but I'd put my list of skills before a list of honors. The HR person handling resumes is going to be going through them very quickly, and you need to arrange your information so that the most compelling and relevant information is at the top.
Here's a sample of what went into my objective area when I was searching for a job and sending out resumes:
"Creative, passionate, and driven educator with a broad range of instruction experience and recent graduate of the teacher education program at [university]. Equipped with the necessary skills and unwavering enthusiasm to offer dynamic and memorable lessons, presentations, and assignments using the latest educational standards and technology. Praised as an especially gifted writer and orator able to inspire learning and critical thinking using hands-on activities, discussion, and focused writing, among others."
The areas I touched on there were then listed in more detail under my "Teaching Experience" section. But basically, I wanted to sell myself the best I could, as I knew I'd be competing against people with years more experience than myself. And it seemed to work well.
Give it a try, as a strong introduction like that can really set the tone for your interview and show your prospective employers that your confident in your abilities to give them what they need. It's worth noting I edited that section of my resume a good dozen times before I settled on something.
Warframe: TheBaconDwarf
I'm not so sure what you are achieving with your honours roll. It's great that you have so much cool stuff, but your intellect is all in your GPA. I think the space would be better used telling people more about what you've been doing in your course. Start dinging the important things like teamwork and communication skills. Tell me more about what you learnt in the jobs you've worked. Don't say "busboy" if you can possibly help it. "Front of house host" or something sounds much grander, even though it's essentially the same thing. It's like saying Gordon Ramsey is a cook rather than a "gourmet chef": same thing, different words.
It's easy to get CVs from qualified applicants. Make your CV stand out, show that you have some really useful experience and job skills that the other guys don't. You have that experience, so get it out there.
Yes, I think I was trying to get at this point as well. A list of items is nice, but given the length of the list presented, the odds they will read all of them? Low.
Front load the resume with your strongest attributes. That means, I'd probably move the SKILLS section ahead of honors and even work experience. It's good you have some job experience, but it doesn't really do much to make you a better pick for computer engineering. And like Lewisham said, highlight your experience as it relates to the positions you're going for.
Warframe: TheBaconDwarf
When I went to the UW it would start right about now with a few business looking and then the fall career fair where is started to ramp up and then basically everyone is looking in the winter and it slows down past there.
You really should add a section on coursework and what you've done in your classes. Its expected from a college student and can take the place of work experience if you don't have any in the field your looking to get a internship in as you working in restaurants is good if you have nothing else to fill the space with, but if possible put something in that relates to the field you want to get work in.
Yeah, went to high school at Olathe South. I live in Lenexa, right now, about a block from St. Thomas Aquinas (talk about rich snobs). I was just giving you a hard time, I know a couple people who graduated from BVN, and they turned out ok. ;-)
Something similar to Hewn's introduction would be really impressive.
And I will move stuff around and probably add coursework. From the look of it, I'll put SKILLS in pretty early in the resume.
That intro is fantastic and all, but the success it brings you is going to depend on what kind of job this is. If it's a corporate internship, they are going to be processing these things after about ninety seconds each, and you don't want to make them waste time reading something that wordy.
Do you suggest that I keep the intro I had before?
No, I like Hewn's. If you have to cut it out for space, do it, but Hewn's is fine. The important thing is that you show evidence for the skills you mention in that intro. If people don't want to read it, its cool, because you've reiterated it somewhere else. If you never back up what you say, then it's just going to look like empty buzzwords.
No, not at all. As said in my first post, I think you need to retool it to give a quick, broad idea of what things you can offer them, and not so much what you hope to gain from the internship. I'm of the mind that short and sweet is how you should keep it when you're applying for a job in the technical field. Here's what mine looked like, and I didn't have any difficulties getting hired by a great automotive company.
Yours will likely be more condensed, but feel free to have a 2 page resume if you need the space. White space is key to a resume looking appealing.
Here's a quick screenshot of the first page of my resume: Resume Example.
Page two was the rest of my student teaching and then some related work experience. Each in the same format you see the first teaching entry. It gave interviewers a starting point to ask questions about and highlighted the parts I wanted to elaborate more. For example, on mine I fielded a lot of questions about how I was going to integrate the methods I picked up in New Zealand, because I set it up in my resume to talk about it.
I hope this helps spark some ideas. When I was building my resume I borrowed ideas from a lot of sources and came out with what you see there. And I bet I drafted it about 30 times before I settled on a layout. Was it stronger for all the drafting? Truth be told, drafts 10 to 30 were probably unnecessary, but hey, it all worked out.
Warframe: TheBaconDwarf