Her Campus Logo Her Campus Logo
samantha gades BlIhVfXbi9s unsplash?width=719&height=464&fit=crop&auto=webp
samantha gades BlIhVfXbi9s unsplash?width=398&height=256&fit=crop&auto=webp
/ Unsplash

Resumes: What to Lose and What to Keep

Her Campus Placeholder Avatar Elise Rosati
Kyra Mackesy
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at TCNJ chapter.

You only get one chance to make a first impression.  When applying for a job or internship, your first impression is usually just a resume. Here are some simple tips to improve your resume.  

What to Lose:

  • Experience from high school that are not current jobs, or activities

  • Babysitting positions or jobs from 10+ years ago, unless relevant to the position you’re applying for.

  • Objective: the employer already knows you want the job, so unless you’re changing industries completely, you don’t need the objective.

  • Personal information: marital status, age, social security number, or religious preferences are unnecessary to include in your resume.

  • Unprofessional email addresses: You want to be sure that you have a professional-like email address for employers to contact you.

  • Too much text on your resume: keep your resume simple, one page, experts recommend no more than a 0.8 inch margin, and say that there should be lots of white space.

  • References: If the employer wants to contact your references, they’ll ask you, and this will give you a greater amount of time to tell them that your potential employer might be contacting them.

 

What to Keep:

  • Consistent formatting: you want it to be easy for the hiring manager to quickly scan over your resume and pick out important points.

  • A diverse word-choice: Mix up different words and phrases, such as “was responsible for”, etc. Hiring managers will get bored of reading the same word over and over.

  • Honors & Awards: Highlight honors and awards you received, not just your GPA. Listing honors or awards will show your future employer(s) some skills and abilities that you are capable of and will stand out more than your GPA.

  • Strut your stuff: List out your skills and show some personality through listing interests that are relevant to the job.

  • Proofread: Make sure that you don’t just spellcheck and look over your resume by yourself, but also ask family members and friends to glance it over to avoid spelling and grammatical errors.

 

If you follow these guidelines you’ll be sure to stand out to employers and get the job!

 

Cover Photo Source

 

Her Campus Placeholder Avatar
Kyra Mackesy graduated The College of New Jersey with a BA in Journalism and Professional Writing and a minor in Criminology in 2019. While at TCNJ, she was an active member of their Her Campus chapter, holding a wide array of positions: President and Campus Correspondent, Editor-in-Chief, Senior Editor, Marketing and Publicity Director, and Social Media Manager. She loved seeing her chapter grow throughout her four years in college, and will remain an active Her Campus Alumni.