Crafting a resume is not an easy task, especially for a recent graduate. The situation in the market is already tough, let alone for people with relatively little experience. COVID-19 has brought its changes to the landscape of the labor market, so the only way to increase your job interview chances is to make sure your college graduate resume trumps others.
In this article, we are going to discuss the following.
- College graduate resume: what is it?
- Tips for writing a college graduate resume
- Great resume samples
- The importance of the resume to start your career
If you want to save your time while getting an impeccable college graduate resume, professionals from the resume writing service can help you in your job search.
What Is a College Graduate Resume?
A new college graduate resume is a document that helps applicants land an interview even if they lack professional experience and certain skills. Making a resume like this means highlighting education, custom projects, and other gains as resume sections to go through the ATS and impress hiring managers.
A college graduate resume is different from a professional one, but it’s totally worthy of your attention. This document, if written correctly, is your ticket to an interview and possibly to an entry-level job.
Why Do You Need a Recent College Graduate Resume?
Hiring decisions for entry-level graduates are made based on their personal skills, educational gains, and project success rather than on professional fitness. A resume recent college graduate highlights what a candidate is eager to accomplish in the future rather than what they already have achieved.
If your first work resume fails to go through the applicant tracking process, you may lose your chance to try yourself in a few interesting and rewarding roles. To boost your chances of a successful career start, do spare some time to read our guides and write a killer resume.
College Graduate Resume Examples
The Internet offers a variety of resume samples to help a candidate in their resume writing. Yet, when it comes to resume college graduate, your job hunt is even tougher. You don’t have enough experience yet to impress potential employers. At the same time, you need to match your skills with the position to win a place. We offer a few best examples to your attention.
Sample Resume for Recent College Graduate With No Experience
To help you measure and word your soft skills and hard skills, we offer an example of a resume of recent college graduate with all key points addressed. This is an imaginary candidate who graduated in Chemical Engineering. You can also look for other recent college graduate resume examples on our website.
How to Write a Resume for Recent College Graduate
SkillHub has prepared a few tips on how to write a college graduate resume no experience highlighting skills, education, and potential professional accomplishments. Knowing how to present your strengths in the job application means a lot for your success.
Tip #1: Before you start writing, check job descriptions for keywords to formulate a perfect objective or summary section that hides a lack of experience.
How to Choose a Structure for a Recent Graduate Resume
Many former students ask themselves a question about what to put on a resume out of college. The structure of a college graduate resume shouldn’t be very much different from the one used by professionals. It should include the following:
- header;
- objective or summary;
- education;
- experience;
- key skills;
- other relevant sections.
However, if professionals ask how to fill out a resume, the answer, most likely, will be “experience.” For a recent graduate, the answer is “benefit.” You need to persuade a recruiter that you are a benefit for your potential employer.
Write a Perfect Objective for a Post College Resume
It’s essential to write a college graduate resume objective that suits you. It should be a paragraph that includes your industry aptitude and states your career goals. Job description analysis doesn’t matter much in this case.
CORRECT ✅
Looking for a [position] to start a career applying my communication, interpersonal, and organizational skills, along with university knowledge, contributing to the employer’s goals and objectives.
INCORRECT ❌
Looking for a job to fill my pockets with some cash.
New Graduates Resume Summary
If you choose to write a professional summary, you must normally look for relevant information and experience. However, recent graduates may not have enough of it. In this case, this statement explains how they can use their skills to achieve employers’ goals.
Here are professional summary for recent graduate examples.
CORRECT ✅
Recent Chemical Engineer Graduate with several custom projects in catalysis who is ready to apply university knowledge and practical skills while joining forces with more experienced mentors to contribute to the company’s project goals.
INCORRECT ❌
A recent graduate in search of a job who is passionate about cooking and dancing.
Education Section of Newly Graduate Resume
A great entry level resume college graduate should list lots of details about education to impress a hiring manager. These educational gains should meet requirements set forth in the job duties. Sometimes, even high school achievements matter if they are relevant.
CORRECT ✅
New Hampshire University
Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering (2021)
- Dean’s List
- Graduated magna cum laude
- Futuro Organization member
- Relevant coursework: Kinetics, Mechanical Engineering, Chemistry, Catalysis
INCORRECT ❌
New Hampshire University
Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering (2021)
Relevant Experience on a Graduate Resume
College graduates may not have enough experience to cover job description requirements. Yet, most of the jobs look for their soft skills as well. In this case, achievements in volunteer service or customer service experiences should go on their resumes even if they plan to become an engineer.
Here are several recent college graduate resume examples.
CORRECT ✅
New Cristo’s Pizza
Waiter
- Greeted customers, accompanied them to the tables, and assisted with menu selection, providing exceptional customer service.
- Handled cash and credit card transactions and ensured financial records were accurate.
INCORRECT ❌
New Cristo’s Pizza
Waiter
- Served food and helped clients pay.
Additional Tips on a Resume for Recent College Graduate
To land a job, a recent college grad resume should impress recruiters. This may be achieved by including extra resume sections that add some value. For example, you can list hobbies that make you stand out or meet the requirements of the job descriptions. Or, if you have certifications, you can put them as your main asset.
Resume Examples College Graduate: Main Skills
To pass through the ATS, your resume should include certain skills as keywords. You need to be honest while listing all those competencies of yours. At the same time, while selecting the skills for resume college graduate, one should still remain objective and mind relevancy.
If you don’t know how to set up a resume, there are some skills anyone can add. For example:
- responsibility;
- communication;
- analytical thinking;
- critical thinking.
College Student Resume Skills Examples (List)
Your skills resume section, however, must also be unique and relevant. Based on your field, decide what skills you should add to make your resume look good. Below is the list of the possible options:
- computer skills;
- management;
- social skills;
- communication skills;
- problem-solving;
- decision-making;
- time management.
Resume for College Graduate: Additional Sections
If the previous sections do not include all your achievements, or if you feel that you need to share a passion of yours, consider including additional sections to your resume for college graduates.
Professional resumes usually exclude sections like interests, hobbies, and even languages. You’ll ask why. All career coaches say that if you want to know how to make a professional resume, you need to focus on the experience.
For a college grad, however, additional sections might be an asset. They will help recruiters understand that you stand out from your peers and are an interesting personality.
Certifications
Your college grad resume may win you an interview if you have a few certifications to brag about. Don’t hesitate to attach this document to a resume. Certifications demonstrate your success and ability to learn by yourself. That’s why it’s often suggested to attend a few courses to get certifications and list them in resumes college graduates.
EXAMPLE
Catalysis in Action (2020)
Language Skills
Knowing several languages may also look good on a resume recent graduate. Specific job postings look for bilinguals or trilinguals. If you are one of them, do mention these languages on your resume.
EXAMPLE
- Spanish (Advanced)
- Italian (Intermediate)
Also, visit the website of the organization you want to work for to check if this employer works with different countries. This might require your communication skills.
Interests
Hobbies may also help you start your career. For example, if you like playing Monopoly, do mention it. This skill will be helpful if you try to land a job in finance or investments. Also, hobbies make resumes for college graduates sound more personable and interesting to read. But do not exaggerate in this section.
Professional Portfolio
Many recent college grad resumes will benefit from adding a professional portfolio as well, especially those whose owners excel in IT, creative writing, graphic design, etc. With that in mind, try to accommodate your results into a website or storage accessible by others. Many recruiters would love to check your proofs and processes online.
Best Resume Format
A format of a resume for college grad means a lot since this document also gets scanned by the ATS. To craft a winning resume, make sure you choose a modern template that is easy to scan. Do not forget that proper resume formatting means text layout as well. Try to ensure that your resume looks good. There are three types of resume format:
- chronological;
- functional;
- hybrid.
As a recent graduate, you might want to choose the functional one, as it highlights your achievements or any relevant skills and hides insufficient experience.
We also want to mention that college graduate resume samples online are often non-ATS friendly. Be cautious because you need your resume to be a ticket to the interview. In summary, try to wow employers with your skills rather than a bright picture.
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