Tips to Build up your Resume

You could be a fresh graduate looking to build up your resume (hopefully you don’t wait till now) or you could still be a student, but your resume should be one of your priorities. Regardless of which group you fall into there are many ways you can develop yourself and your skills to be most appealing to potential employers. In this article we hope to present some ideas you can add to what you’re already doing or some totally new choices to try altogether.

Join Clubs

The key takeaway from participating as a member of school clubs and groups is it shows your extracurricular efforts as well as your ability to manage time outside of your core responsibilities i.e. school work.

These organizations provide a variety of opportunities to build skills, network, and provide avenues to explore new things you otherwise would have no access to.

If you are joining these clubs while in school with a clear career path you could position your club choices to bolster your experience i.e. while studying engineering you could join a robotics club that gives you the opportunity to further develop your engineering skills. You could also just be exploring an interest that’s far from your career goals to broaden your palette.

Volunteer Strategically

The great thing about volunteering is that you are making that choice, so you determine what is valuable enough for you to sacrifice the time you will need to. In doing so you should choose something you feel strongly about to keep that dedication without potentially getting monetary compensation.

With the assumption that you are taking on this role to gain relevant experience and potentially network, the motivation to make a good impression should fuel innovative thinking and dedication.

In the event the volunteering you do is not career related, it alternatively presents a more rounded view of who you are and what you stand for i.e. volunteering with your community, or local religious congregation etc.

Internship Maximization

Leading in from the previous point, a good way into the workforce is through volunteering. Volunteering gives a company an opportunity to see what you can do with no commitment. This could graduate into an internship which could blossom into a role at the company.

Unlike volunteering where you are open to whatever might be presented to you, with an internship you may want to be more precise in your goals; meaning picking an internship that will directly impact your chances at your chosen career.

It might be worth noting that internships are a lot less competitive in the fall/winter while they are hottest in the summer.

Highlight your Extra Skills

When applying for jobs there are the obvious requirements and corresponding skills needed which you include, but there are also skills that are not immediately obvious which could also be added.

The skills and abilities accumulated through your hobbies, side projects, volunteering could be included such as organizational skills, content creation, digital marketing, sales etc.

The point is not to include everything you ever did in life whether relevant or not. The point is to change how you look at the things you have spent time doing. Doing so opens you to see some of them may have applications in the workforce. However, unless you present them properly potential employers won’t know.

Highlight Other Achievements

If you are still in school or you are trying to implement some of the suggestions listed above you will be submitting resumes to employers while still in an educational institution. What this means is you will not have the certificate, but you may have some milestones, achievements, or awards you can highlight. These milestones signify to the employer that you are making progress along your studies, and you are someone they want to keep an eye on.

Another beauty of having a resume before you finish from school is it may highlight where your resume is weak so you still have time to remedy it accordingly. If you need to join some clubs, pick up some classes, get some community engagement going, whatever deficiency you can see in your resume, or something to give it a boost to a higher level.

Hopefully you found these suggestions helpful, and if not that then at least encouraging. For those that have started doing some, or all of the above we wish you perseverance and success. For those that are just starting or about to begin, its never too late and better to do it right than not at all.

Wishing you all the best on your journeys!