Every spring and fall, the excitement builds as you and many of your closest friends get ready for the career fair at your college. Whether you're looking for part-time work as a student, an internship, a new job or a career, you know that your resume must stand out among all of the other resumes to score that interview. Using a resume template or resume builder is the first step to creating a resume that gets you noticed and your phone ringing. Find out how to make a resume that gets noticed.
1. Resume Paper and Multiple Copies
When it comes to handing out resumes at the career fair, you want to make sure your resume leaves a great first impression. Skip standard copy paper and print your resume on high-quality resume paper. This is a heavy-duty paper that gives your resume a professional-looking finish and shows you're committed to investing in your future. Have multiple copies of your resume printed and ready to hand out. In some cases, one company may have multiple departments represented at the career fair, and you want to have enough copies of your resume to give to each one to increase your odds of a call back for an interview.
2. Proofreading With a Friend
Before the big day, sit down with a friend and go over each other's resumes. Look for grammatical errors, misspellings or missing information. When you read your own work, it's easy to miss mistakes that you've made. A second set of eyes helps perfect your resume and ensures that you're not handing out resumes with simple errors. Nothing is more embarrassing than discovering that you wrote "to" when it should have been "two." These types of careless errors are not only embarrassing but can cost you a great job opportunity.
3. Quantifying Success
When writing a resume, you want to list your most relevant skills, education and successes. These successes can include awards you've won or articles you've written that were published in journals. You want to give an honest account of your successes highlighting them in the best light possible. If you've won a competitive award, you can emphasize the number of people who were eligible to win and the criteria for winning. List each success separately and what makes each achievement significant. Companies want to hire people who are already successful and work for that success.
4. Listing Your Education
When attending a job fair at a college, the recruiters already know that you're a college student, so you need to decide what information to add about your education. Start by listing the high school you graduated from, and include your GPA if it was high. List any special honors that you received when you graduated. For your college career, you can list any specific classes that you've successfully completed that apply to the types of jobs to which you're applying. List seminars or conferences that you've attended during your years at college that are similar to prospective jobs.
5. Attach a Business Card
Attaching a business card to your resume provides the prospective employer with an easy way to get in touch with you without pulling out your entire resume. Get some business cards printed with your basic information. If you don't want to damage the card by stapling it to the resume, you can buy folders with slots to include the business card. This option lets you include your resume, samples of your work and letters of recommendations together.
When the prospective employer gets back to his office, all he has to judge you on and decide whether or not to interview you is your resume, so make it memorable. With a little planning, you can ensure that your resume gets noticed at a job fair, and you find the job of your dreams.
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