How to Write a Fresh Graduate Resume
For fresh graduates blasting dozens of resumes at once to land a job is pretty common. It’s just a minor challenge for them since the real challenge is in the writing process. What should fresh graduates put in their resume considering that most of them have next to zero experience?
What Fresh Graduate Resume Needs
#1. Education
Fresh graduates should always put their education credentials right on top of their resume. Write the name of the university or college you attended, GPA, and degrees. Be sure to add academic honors if you have any.
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#2. Internship
Having an internship to add to the resume is a huge plus for those who recently graduated. Yes, you might not do much back then but that doesn’t mean your experience there is insignificant. If you have part-time jobs or volunteer experiences, be sure to put them up too.
In this section, list the company (or companies), your responsibility, and how long you hold the position. Remember to avoid any exaggeration when describing your responsibility. HR can sniff that out in no time.
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#3. Skills and knowledge
What kind of skills and knowledge did you acquire in college? For instance, if you’re applying for a junior developer position, list all the programming language and framework you’ve learned and mastered. Actually, scratch that. Even if you only have basic knowledge of the language and framework, don’t be afraid to list them. Why? Because once you’ve grasped the basics, you can learn the rest as you go.
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#4. Extracurricular activities
Employers love fresh graduates who were active in various extracurricular activities during their studies. Something about interpersonal skills or something like that. Those activities also let the hiring manager know about your interests and character. After all, there’s so much more to a person than just grades, right?
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Presentation Matters Too
OK, now that you know what to put in the resume, here are some more tips to make that resume more appealing to your potential employer.
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#1. Keep it short
Your resume should be at most one page long. HR doesn’t have the time to read a long resume. They also know you’re just a fresh graduate, so trying to make the resume longer with unnecessary details will put them off.
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#2. Put lots of whitespaces
Do you know how many resumes HR has to go through whenever a position is open? They don’t want to skim through a wall of text. That’s why you need to apply proper whitespace use to make your resume looks clean and presentable.
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#3. Double-check for spelling and grammar mistakes
You can’t expect people to take your job application seriously if your resume is filled with grammar and spelling mistakes. With your credibility at stake, always double-check your writing before you send that email. If you need help, use the online spelling and grammar checker tool. That helpful tool can spot mistakes that your tired eyes just can’t see.
