Job and internship recruiting is well underway at Ohio State. Whether you are a senior looking for a full time position, or a freshman going to your first career fair, use these tips to quickly improve your résumé before you go job-hunting!
1. Proofread
This one should go without saying, but grammatical errors are a very common résumé mistake. If you give a potential employer a résumé with errors, it makes you look bad. Proofread it yourself and have a friend look at it, as well.
2. Edit your information
When employers look at your résumé, you want it to give them a quick overview of who you are and the experiences you’ve had.
As great as it is that you were Student Council President in high school, that information no longer belongs on your résumé after your first year of college. Use that space to highlight your more recent accomplishments instead!
Contact information, the degree you are seeking, GPA, and expected graduation date are all important things to include on your résumé! You want employers to be able to quickly learn a lot about you—and this information is critical.
4. Use a legible font
A résumé is not the place to get creative with fonts. Stick with a basic, readable font in black ink. You can’t go wrong with some good, old Times New Roman.
5. Format
There are many different ways you can format your résumé. Experiment with bold font, italics, and different font sizes. The most important thing is that your formatting is consistent throughout the document. Remember that your résumé should never be longer than one page! Short and sweet is the motto.
6. Get professional help
Contact the career services office in your college for a résumé critique appointment! A career counselor will be able to provide you with more résumé tips specific to the types of jobs you are looking for.