Table Of ContentBEST
RESUMES
College
for
Students
New Grads
and
Jump-Start Your Career!
Third Edition
Louise M. Kursmark
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Best Resumes for College Students and New Grads, Third Edition
© 2012 by Louise M. Kursmark
Published by JIST Works, an imprint of JIST Publishing
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ISBN 978-1-59357-887-9
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About This Book
You’re a soon-to-be college graduate. Or maybe you’re still in college, looking for a co-op
job or internship. Perhaps you’re a nontraditional student, with years of work experience
that’s only marginally related to your degree. Even if you’re finishing up an advanced
degree, you’re probably a beginner in your career.
Best Resumes for College Students and New Grads will help you make a successful
move from college to the world of work. This step-by-step guide to writing an effective
resume starts with some prep work (Chapter 1, “Proving Your Value to Employers”) that
will help you pinpoint what it is about you that is interesting and valuable to employ-
ers. Chapter 2, “Writing Your Resume,” provides easy-to-follow guidelines, worksheets,
and examples to draft your own unique resume. Once you’ve learned how to write your
resume, use Chapter 3, “Managing Your Job Search—Online and Off,” to gather the lat-
est techniques on using social media and other online tools and resources to manage
your job search and advance your career—now and into the future. Chapter 3 also has an
in-depth discussion of traditional networking and other “old school” activities that you
should include in your job search. Because you’ll need a variety of job search letters to
go along with your resume, I’ve included an overview of the types of letters you’ll need
and some good examples of each type (Chapter 4, “Writing Effective Job Search Letters”).
Throughout these “how-to” chapters, I answer the questions and address the issues new
grads raise most often.
In Chapters 5 through 10, you can browse through 123 resumes to get ideas for strategy,
organization, language, and formatting. All of the resumes were written by professional
resume writers for real people in college or with newly earned degrees from associate to
doctoral level. Each student had unique circumstances, educational and work experiences,
career goals, and areas of strength and weakness. I’ve provided comments that will tell you
such things as how the strengths were emphasized, how shortcomings were downplayed,
or why a particular approach was taken for this resume—information that can help you
strategize, write, organize, design, and format your own resume.
As a professional resume writer, I believe wholeheartedly in the value of a good resume.
But I’m well aware that the resume is only one piece of the puzzle—and maybe not even
the most important piece. Learning how to look for a job is probably the most
valuable skill you can acquire as you start your professional career. In addition
to serving as a comprehensive guide to writing your resume, this book will also cover some
job search essentials:
■ How and why to look at the job search from the employer’s perspective
■ How to extract meaningful information from education and experiences that seem
unrelated to your career goals
■ How to make your resume and cover letters appealing to the “what’s in it for me”
mentality of hiring authorities
■ Why networking is so important and how you can do it effectively
This book is an early step in what will be a lifelong journey. Just as you pursued your
major field of study in college, you should devote the time and energy to build a solid base
of knowledge in the field of job search and career self-management. The knowledge and
skills you develop will make it easier for you to land jobs that will provide intellectual chal-
lenge, professional growth, financial reward, and personal satisfaction.
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I n t r o d u c tIo n
Fourteen Steps to an
Effective Resume
This book is built on the framework of 14 steps to writing an effective resume that will
get you interviews for the jobs you want:
1. Identify Your Job Target and Write Job Target Statements (see Chapter 1)
2. Identify Your Core Job Qualifications (see Chapter 1)
3. Compile Evidence of Your Hard and Soft Skills (see Chapter 1)
4. Start Strongly with Well-Organized Contact Information (see Chapter 2)
5. Sell Your Strongest Qualifications in a Powerful Skills Summary (see Chapter 2)
6. Emphasize Education as a Key Credential (see Chapter 2)
7. Describe Your Work Experience with a Focus on Skills and Achievements (see Chapter 2)
8. Add the Extras to Give You a Competitive Advantage (see Chapter 2)
9. Format, Edit, and Polish Your Draft (see Chapter 2)
10. Cross-Check Your Evidence Against Core Job Qualifications (see Chapter 2)
11. Proofread Your Final Resume (see Chapter 2)
12. Convert Your Resume for an Online Job Search (see Chapter 3)
13. Make Networking Work for You (see Chapter 3)
14. Write a Great Cover Letter to Accompany Your Resume (see Chapter 4)
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Contents
Part 1: Working toward Your new career ...............................1
chapter 1: Proving Your Value to Employers .............................................3
STEP 1: Identify Your Job Target and Write Job Target Statements .........................3
STEP 2: Identify Your Core Job Qualifications ........................................................5
Understand Hard and Soft Skills ..........................................................................5
Find Job Qualifications ........................................................................................6
Know the Skills That Are Always Valuable ..........................................................8
Put Together Your Core Knowledge and Skills Checklist ....................................9
STEP 3: Compile Evidence of Your Hard and Soft Skills .......................................12
Consider All Sources for Evidence of Your Abilities ..........................................12
Draft Your Skills Proof Statements .....................................................................13
chapter 2: Writing Your resume ..............................................................23
STEP 4: Start Strongly with Well-Organized Contact Information .......................24
STEP 5: Sell Your Strongest Qualifications in a Powerful Skills Summary ............26
Write an Objective Statement ............................................................................26
Create a Simple Skills Summary ........................................................................27
Consider Objective and Skills Summary Alternatives .......................................29
STEP 6: Emphasize Education as a Key Credential ................................................30
STEP 7: Describe Your Work Experience with a Focus on
Skills and Achievements ...............................................................................33
Write Your Work Experience Section .................................................................34
Sample Work Experience Phrasings ...................................................................34
STEP 8: Add the Extras to Give Yourself a Competitive Advantage ......................35
Write Your Extra Section(s) ................................................................................35
Use What Others Say About You .......................................................................36
STEP 9: Format, Edit, and Polish Your Draft ..........................................................36
Use Formatting to Guide the Reader .................................................................36
Use Type Creatively Yet Appropriately ..............................................................37
Keep It Short .......................................................................................................38
Write Using “Resume Language” .......................................................................38
STEP 10: Cross-Check Your Evidence Against Core Job Qualifications ................39
STEP 11: Proofread Your Final Resume ..................................................................40
v
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Best Resumes for College Students and New Grads
chapter 3: Managing Your Job Search—online and off ..........................41
STEP 12: Convert Your Resume for an Online Job Search ....................................41
Convert Your Resume to Text Format ...............................................................42
Convert Your Resume to PDF Format ................................................................46
Post Your Resume on the Internet .....................................................................46
Build Your Online Image ...................................................................................47
STEP 13: Make Networking Work for You .............................................................49
chapter 4: Writing Effective Job Search Letters .....................................53
STEP 14: Write a Great Cover Letter to Accompany Your Resume .......................53
A: Attention! .......................................................................................................54
B: Because… ......................................................................................................54
C: Close ..............................................................................................................54
Sample Cover Letter ...........................................................................................55
E-mail Cover Letters ...........................................................................................56
Make Contact Through Networking Letters ..........................................................57
Follow Up with Thank-You Letters ........................................................................57
Part 2: Sample resumes for college Students
and Graduates .............................................................61
chapter 5: resumes for Associate degree Graduates .............................63
chapter 6: resumes for Internship and co-op Applicants ......................75
chapter 7: resumes for Graduates with Bachelor’s degrees ..................95
chapter 8: resumes for Graduates with Advanced degrees ................. 155
chapter 9: resumes for “Average” Students ........................................ 191
chapter 10: resumes and Strategies for nontraditional Students .......213
Appendix: resume development Worksheet .........................................227
Find a Professional resume Writer ........................................................230
Index ......................................................................................................232
vi
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Part 1
Working Toward
Your New Career
Chapter 1: Proving Your Value to Employers
Chapter 2: Writing Your Resume
Chapter 3: Managing Your Job Search—Online and Off
Chapter 4: Writing Effective Job Search Letters
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Chapter 1
Proving Your Value
to Employers
Why would a company want to hire you?
Looking at hiring from an employer’s perspective is an essential first step in preparing
your resume and launching your job search. Generally speaking, companies hire people who
have the skills needed to do a particular job and the attributes that will make them a good
employee, one who will contribute to the mission and goals of the organization.
Don’t assume that your new college degree automatically qualifies you for a great job. Yes,
you’ve worked hard, learned a lot, and feel prepared to launch your career. Now you must
show employers that you have skills, attributes, and abilities that will help them be more
successful, and your resume is the tool to use to do just that. The purpose of the resume is
to motivate employers to call you for an interview to better determine whether you are, in
fact, a good fit for their needs. Your resume must clearly relate your education, activities,
and work experiences to specific job qualifications—both the “hard” and “soft” skills that
together paint the picture of the ideal candidate.
STEP 1: Identify Your Job Target and Write Job
Target Statements
Before you can create an effective resume—one that presents your skills, abilities, and poten-
tial that will interest employers—you must know what kind of job you want.
?
FAQ
I’m not sure exactly what I want to do. I’m open to a lot of different jobs, and I’m
afraid that if I pin down a position, I won’t be considered for others. Won’t that hurt
my job search?
Companies aren’t in business to help you figure out your career path. It’s not enough to
present yourself and your spanking-new degree to a company and expect the employer
to determine where (or if) you fit in. Businesses have specific hiring needs. If your resume
shows skills and attributes that fit those needs, you’re likely to get an interview. But if
your resume is vague and unfocused, the employer won’t make the connection (and
doesn’t have time to try). Instead of being an attractive candidate for many opportunities,
chances are you’ll be attractive for none. As you continue in this chapter, you’ll learn
how to research job descriptions to find those that match your skills and education. And
you’ll see that you don’t have to tailor your resume for a narrow target but can instead
show yourself as a good candidate for a number of different jobs that call for similar
skills.
3
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