10 Resume Tips and Resources to Help You Get Hired
Written by Debrini Sarkar
The first time I tried to write a resume was my sophomore year of high school, a week before my interview at Little Caesars. Did I need a resume for that job? No. Was it a good resume? Not at all. Do I still use that same template? ...Maybe.
Back then, the hardest part was figuring out what resume-worthy things I had done in my life up to that point. Now that I’m older, I’ve realized that the emphasis is on how we describe our role in every experience, the action verbs and quantification we use, and the details we choose to highlight. Knowing how many facets there are when it comes to building a strong resume, let’s dive right in.
General Tips
Keep it simple
Unless you’re applying for a design-based job where a creative template might contribute to your portfolio, keep things simple. Most companies will put your resume through an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) before it is ever seen by human eyes. This system uses AI to identify whether you would be a good fit for the company by analyzing keywords in your skills, previous experiences, and educational background. To keep yourself from being eliminated, it is best to have a simple template, preferably created in a word processor like Microsoft Word—but don’t forget to convert it to a PDF when submitting!
Additionally, labeling every section clearly (Education, Experiences, Skills, etc.) helps the ATS software as well as recruiters trying to quickly scan through your resume. Each experience should have the company name, your role, start and end dates, and details explaining your experience. To make things stand out visually, try using the bold and italics features on your preferred word processor. Nothing too fancy!
Change it up
Every company has different expectations for potential employees. On our end, we can cater to this by creating different versions of our resume for each prospective employer. This way, we can include specific keywords from the job posting in our resume. For a job that is more customer-oriented, it’d be smart to include any prior customer service experiences as well as skills having to do with communication and problem solving; however, if it’s a desk job having to do with machine learning, a better use of your one page could be including the math, statistics, and other related courses you’ve taken in the Education section. As long as you stay honest about who you are in each version, this is a great strategy for individualizing your resume.
Be specific
People are simple. We see big numbers and we get impressed. Due to this, try to quantify your actions so they have a greater impact on your reader. Chances are, the recruiter looking over your resume is already familiar with the general expectations for the positions you have held. They know you had to design, write, test, and debug your code; instead, mention how you handled 5,000 lines of data using a certain data structure or how you enlisted a specific project management tool to better manage tasks and projects within your organization of 20 people.
Know every bullet
In an interview, anything on your resume is fair game. So, know your resume well and be ready to speak about any bullet point you included on there. If you are doing a virtual/phone interview, feel free to even keep your resume open on your computer for quick reference!
Something recruiters who are more on the business side may look for is that you can tell a story with everything you’ve done. For this, practice being able to talk about every experience on your resume from memory: why you did it, what role you had, the contribution you made, and what you learned. If there is an experience that did not have an impact on who you are or what you know today, it might be something to take out.
Practice
Keep practicing talking about your resume, even when you are not actively looking for a job. Applying and interviewing are both skills which we should continue to develop as we progress in our professional lives. This can take the form of attending career fairs even when you’re not job searching, attending GEECS professional development events, and doing practice interviews with friends. This will all contribute to your ability to speak in an organized and confident manner when it truly matters.
Resources
Engineering Career Resource Center (ECRC)
A great place to start (even if you’re in LSA) is the ECRC Career Guide. This guide covers every step of the recruitment process, from searching for companies to negotiating offers. Resume-specific advice is on pgs. 10-17 of the PDF, including a list of action verbs, resume tips, and even sample resumes/templates. I like to refer to the action verb list on pg. 11 every time I am updating my resume so that I can change each “led” and “taught” to be more descriptive, like “delegated” and “facilitated”. If you’re looking for a way to confirm you have a good structure in your resume, take a few minutes to read over the resume tips on pg. 12 of the PDF.
Also through the ECRC: students in Engineering can sign up for 15-min resume critiques once a semester. This is a 1-on-1 session with an ECRC adviser where you can receive critique and also ask specific questions about anything on your resume. Sign-ups go fast, so keep an eye out for when it shows up on Career Fair Plus!
One last note for both Engineering and LSA students: the Sweetland Center for Writing also offers 45 minute 1-on-1 appointments through the Peer Writing Center where you can receive help on cover letters, resumes, and personal statements.
Recruiters
Even though we want to have perfect resumes before we talk to any recruiters, they can also give us valuable feedback on them. At career fairs, feel free to ask what skills and experiences they are looking for on potential interns’ resumes. If you were talking with a recruiter for a job you didn’t end up receiving, take the time to ask for feedback so that you can come back even stronger the next recruiting season. Aside from this, GEECS periodically holds professional development events with alumni and/or recruiters where they will give you resume tips as well as 1-on-1 resume feedback. Want someone to look at your resume now? Feel free to reach out to an e-board member at GEECS, they are always willing to help out!
VMock is software that uses machine learning to assess the strength of your resume and compare it to thousands of others at Michigan. After creating a free account using your school email, upload your resume to see detailed feedback on what you have done well and where you can improve.
The feedback VMock gives will be divided into three categories: Impact, Presentation, and Competencies. For any feedback, VMock will highlight and explain the specific part of your resume it is referring to, and also give recommendations for how to change it. In every subcategory (eg. what words to avoid, communication skills), try also clicking the info bubble labeled “Insights” to see recruiters’ opinions, what other students are doing, and strong examples.
University Career Center (UCC)
The University of Michigan created the UCC with the primary purpose of assisting you in reaching your professional goals. Every week, the UCC holds resume labs, internship labs, and job search labs through Handshake. These are 30-minute drop-in labs where career coaches share strategies on how to approach the recruiting process. In the resume lab, they spend fifteen minutes talking about designing and formatting, how to structure strong bullet points, and how to target your resume for specific companies. For the rest of the time, advisors will split everyone up into breakout rooms to give immediate feedback on your resume. This is a great way to get individualized advice from experienced people who have analyzed thousands of resumes.
Maybe one of your connections shared a post about receiving an internship that interests you. Maybe you have a couple of goal companies within the industry you want to work in. Either way, check out the profiles of anyone in a position you hope to be in! Though there is never a mold to fit into for getting an internship, by looking through other people’s LinkedIn profiles, a pattern may start to emerge in terms of how details are phrased or what experiences people have. This can give you insight into what the company may be looking for in an intern so you can restructure your resume accordingly, using keywords closely related to the position you’re seeking.
Bonus
In addition to your resume, keep your LinkedIn updated! Coded a cool project for a hackathon? Let your network know. Took an online class and added new skills to your repertoire? Again, let your network know. Often, recruiters will look through several students’ pages when trying to fill an internship position and reach out to them solely based on the contents of their LinkedIn page.
For starters, add a description to each experience on your page. These can be the same points covered in your resume, but also, you can add extra details on LinkedIn since it doesn’t have a page limit. In the Accomplishments section near the bottom of your page, make sure to add relevant courses you have taken, awards you have won, projects you have worked on, organizations you are a part of, etc. Remember: everything on your resume should be on your LinkedIn, but not everything on your LinkedIn needs to be on your resume—so go more in-depth and let people see how great you are when you aren’t limited to representing yourself on just one page.
That’s It!
That’s all the tips for now—best of luck to you in the recruitment process and remember to stay positive! Apply to any position that interests you, regardless of whether you have every qualification. A negative response is only a catalyst for future improvement, and in the wise words of poet and lyricist Kelly Clarkston, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” You got this :)
Special thanks to Katia for her feedback and insight into what makes a great resume.