Map Out What You Want Your Resume To Look After Four Years

For college students, having a great resume is not only crucial for when you graduate but when you apply for internships as well. Your resume is an opportunity to provide a snapshot for a potential employer or internship supervisor a reason why he or she should bring you in for an interview. These people are looking for people who can help them succeed, reach their goals and have a drive to learn. Taking the time to map out what you want this piece of paper to look like during your college years will help you get your foot in the door when you need it the most.

Even though it might sound odd, taking time to figure out what experiences you want on your resume will pay off later on. This will help you plan what type of internships to go after, what work and professional experience you want to have under your belt, and how to reach these goals. This will help you decide where you want to go in your college career, what you want to work towards and how you are going to get there.

By taking time to figure out what experiences you want on your resume, you will set goals for yourself and create a polished resume that could look enticing to a potential employer when you graduate. Having a resume that shows internships, work and leadership experiences will show a potential employer when you graduate that you were active, outgoing and willing to learn. This will help set you apart from a lot of the other resumes that will come through there and increase your chances of getting a call for an interview. Having mapped out these experiences will also provide different successes to talk about during your interview.

Even though it might seem odd mapping out your resume, taking the time to do so will help you succeed later on. This will give you goals to reach for, find what you want to achieve in and outside of college and provide great experience for when you need to look for your first job out of college. Take the time to figure out what path your resume to take.

Short and Sweet is a Good Strategy

In today's world, hiring managers and even HR professionals are pressed for time. With appointments, assignments, and other daily tasks to take care of, time can be limited for these individuals. This time shortage could also limit the amount of time someone takes to look at your resume, listen to your phone message or read your cover letter. With little time to spare, having a message in a resume, cover letter, phone call or e-mail that is concise, short and sweet to the point will help you get your foot in the door for a job interview or networking opportunity.

When applying for jobs, having a resume that is concise, to the point and easy to read will get your message and ideas across to a hiring manager. Writing up a resume that is concise takes time but can be done with hard work, another set of eyes looking at it and patience. It might seem hard but there is a way to get your accomplishments and experiences across in shorter sentences. Look for words that are repeated too often, redundant phrases that are repeated more then once in the same section, and use bullet points to list your accomplishments. Have another set of eyes look at it before sending it off so that you can tell whether or not you got your message across. If this person can't read your resume because it is not concise, the hiring manager won't be able to comprehend it in a short amount of time either.

In addition to a resume, a cover letter that is to the point and has concise points to it can easily get your message across effectively and efficiently to the hiring manager. If you are applying for a job that is posted online or was posted elsewhere, take a look at the qualifications the company is looking for and figure out different bullet points as to how your experiences match what the company is looking for in a candidate. Using bullet points with good lead in sentences before them can help a hiring manager read your resume in a short amount of time and determine if you are a good candidate for the position. A cover letter is designed to prove what you are capable of and show how your qualifications match what the company needs and having a cover letter that has concise bullet points will help get your message across effectively.

During the networking process, if you decide to reach out to someone via phone call or e-mail, make sure your message is short and sweet so that the hiring manager can understand why you are reaching out and what you are looking to do. When reaching out via phone call or e-mail, one of the best ways to format this type of communication is do use the following template:

"Hello Mr. Smith, my name is Jeff Sabo and I obtained your name from [fill in the blank here. Always mention the name of the person who gave you the name of the contact]. He [or she] thought you would be a good person to talk to in regards to finding a [fill in the blank here] position within your industry.

When it's best for you, I would welcome the opportunity to hear your thoughts and advice on finding such a position. Please call me at [leave your phone number here] when you have a free moment.

Thank you."

By using this type of template, you are getting your message across quickly, you are getting to the point and the person you leaving the message for will understand what you are looking for easily. A message that is way too long runs the chances of being ignored or ends up being responded to by someone who is very confused on the other end (I once sent off an e-mail that was WAY TOO LONG to a possible network contact and the person told me over the phone during a call back that she had no idea what I was really looking for because my message was so long and drawn out.)

Whether you are writing out your resume, cover letter, or placing a phone call or e-mail, having a message that is concise and to the point will help the hiring manager or network contact understand your message and know how to help you.

The Resume; The Key To Getting Your Foot in the Door

On a daily basis, hiring managers are often forced to sift through hundreds of resumes in a short amount of time. With little time to spare, hiring managers have to decide quickly who will get the phone calls for interviews and put the other resumes in the trash. Being able to keep your resume from hitting the trash can will mean the difference between getting your foot in the door and possibly getting a job.

In order to have a resume that stands out, you don't have to resort to goofy tactics or gimmicks to catch the attention of the hiring manager. Some people have resorted to sending balloons, wild animals (no joke), and even printing their resumes on different colored paper to get them to stand out (anyone remember the resume Reese Witherspoon had in the movie Legally Blonde?). Having the right content is what will get your resume noticed and help get your foot in the door for the interview.

With great content, your resume has a better chance of catching the attention of the hiring manager when he or she is going through lots of resumes in a short amount of time. Below are some tips on how you can tailor the content of your resume to make sure the hiring manager considers you to be a candidate for a position:

1) Keep your content concise and to the point- having lots of experience is helpful but keep in the mind the person looking at your resume will only have about 10-15 seconds to read each resume in the pile. Having content that is long, lengthy and hard to follow will make it difficult for the hiring manager to grasp and could make it easy to pass you up. Keep your content concise, to the point and easy to read for the hiring manager

2) Don't Be Afraid to Use Bullet Points- using bullet points can make it easier for a hiring manager to look at your accomplishments (more on that later) and follow the content in your resume. It also helps the hiring manager determine whether or not your experience is relevant to the position he or she is interviewing for and makes your resume an easier read.

3) Add Sizzle By Adding Accomplishments to Your Resume- prove to the hiring manager that you can get the job done by listing your accomplishments for each position. If you increased sales at one job, give a percentage of how much you increased sales. If you increased participation or membership, explain and give a number by how much. Make sure your accomplishments show the hiring manager you can make and meet goals and prove you can make a positive difference in the workplace.

4) Tailor Your Resume to the Job You Are Applying For- read the job description and ask how you can tailor you resume so that the qualifications the hiring manager is looking for can be shown in your resume. It's not unusual for someone to recreate the same resume 10-15 times for each specific position. Make sure the content of your resume reflects what the open job is looking for and prove your skills and background match the qualifications.

5) Have Another Set of Eyes Look at Your Resume- you never know what someone else will point out, good or bad, when looking at your resume. While you might not catch it, someone else might catch something that doesn't make sense, spelling errors or anything else that might get your resume thrown in the trash.

Prove to the hiring manager you are right for the job by having content that is concise, to the point and matches what the hiring manager is looking for. By doing that, you will have a better chance ending up with your foot in the door and getting a new opportunity.