How to Write a Student Resume

Here’s what this article will cover:

1. How to Write College Student Resume with Example
2. What do you mean by a college student resume?
3. Things to add in your resume
4. How to start working on your student resume
5. Supplementary Sections
6. Tips to write your student resume
7. Formatting tips 
8. Samples

How to Write College Student Resume with Example

A resume is the official document anyone drafts when they start applying for a job. This step is essentially critical for amateurs like students as this is their first real experience with a professional working world. A well-written college student resume will highlight your presence among companies and employers, which will eventually land you a job. Throughout your span in college, you have accumulated sufficient knowledge and skills to prepare you for the outside world. A student resume will contain a summary of all of these skills and experience and explain how it will be beneficial in your future career. To boost your future endeavors- here’s a guide on how to write a resume for college with the help of rules, guidelines, and some examples.

What do you mean by a college student resume?

As discussed above, a college resume is a document containing an overview of the academic qualifications and other skill sets. Naturally, as students, you might have little or no professional experience. However, there are plenty of different co-curricular activities and aptitudes that you can add to strengthen your resume. For example, internships, part-time jobs, community service, volunteering positions, cultural and sports activities, and other valuable past experiences.  Therefore, please make sure that you actively take part in extra-curricular pastimes in college other than academics.

While hiring, potential employers are aware that students are on the verge of kick-starting their careers. Thus, they do not expect college student resumes to contain a long list of professional work experience. Nonetheless, they do assess them on different parameters like maturity, ambition, time-management skills, motivation, work ethic, and ambition. One can only develop the following skills by actively taking part in college activities and having good relations with teachers and peers.

Things to add in your resume

Do you have no prior work experience to add? No problem! Below is a list of things you can add to your college resume.

1. Emphasis on your academics

 Include all the details of your educational history, such as the name of your college, degree, GPA scores, other academic awards, or achievements. If you have studied extra courses over the summer or spring breaks related to the job you’re applying for, then mention those as well.

2. Entail appropriate jobs

 Write about an internship or part-time job you have taken up, which requires skills relevant to the job you want. Even if you don’t have work experiences promptly related to the job, emphasize how it helped you develop the qualities needed for the job.

3. Mention extra-curricular activities

 Freshly graduated college students are likely to have less working experience, and that’s why they must look for another alternative such as extra-curricular activities. It can include sports, cultural events, babysitting, and even volunteer work. Mention how it facilitated you in acquiring vital skills.

4. Illustrate leadership experience

It is substantial that your leadership skills are portrayed evidently to your employers. It is a must-have quality that companies look for in their future employees. Not only this shows your ability to lead the team but also makes you look reliable and responsible.

How to start working on your student resume

Starting anything new can be challenging- especially when it determines your future job prospects. Certain key details cannot be missed when you’re writing your college resume. If you’re daunted by the question “How to make a resume for college” or “How to write student resume,” then this piece of article is for you. Given below are some crucial foundational details on how to make a student resume.

1. Contact details

 This is the beginning section of your resume that contains all personal data about you. Employers use this information to contact you for or after the interview is over. It is not mandatory to add URL links to personal websites or blogs, but doing so creates a good impression on the interviewers/employers. However, ensure that links added are professionally appropriate. Following are examples of the details you should incorporate-

• Full name
• Address
• Mobile number
• Email address

2. Schooling

As you have spent a considerable amount of years earning your degree, you should highlight all your academic achievements. While understanding how to write a school resume, place this section right on top of your student resume. You can mention your major courses, minor courses, and other additional coursework related to the job you’re applying for.

If you have a master’s or a doctorate, then you can also write one or two sentences to summarize your research. Furthermore, list all academic scholarships, accolades, etc. To highlight your education. You can create a separate subheading to list all of this down to make your resume appear organized and neat.

3. Work experience (Optional)

 When it comes to how to write a student resume as a college student, you should include details about your whole work history. Even the ones unrelated to the job you want to apply for. Write about how all of these jobs helped you develop a wide range of skillsets required for the respective job. Some formal work experiences that you can add are:

• Summer jobs
• Part-time jobs
• Internships
• Volunteer/charity work
• Leadership positions

It is not a compulsory factor to possess work experience, so don’t worry if you don’t have one. Just skip this section and continue writing your resume.

4. Pivotal skills

This is perhaps the most significant part of how to make a resume for college students. This is because it talks about all the skills that make you fit for the job. Thus, ensure to include a detailed list of your abilities. Prospective hiring

Some examples are:

Critical thinking

Time-management

Multilingual

Communication skills

Excellent work ethic

Team worker

Smart worker

5. Co-curricular activities

Adding a list of co-curricular activities is an essential step in how to write a resume as a college student. They help you pick up relevant qualities like leadership skills and the value of teamwork. Such qualities hold great importance to your employers. They note down these traits, which give you a higher chance of getting the job.

6. Pastimes and interests

What you do in your time speaks a lot about your character. Write down all the hobbies and interests you have appropriate to the job you’re applying for. For example, if you’re applying for the post of a data analyst, then you can mention how learning Python has helped you expand your interest further in this field.

Supplementary Sections

Achievements and Awards

In due course of time you spent in college, you must have participated in and won different events like quizzes, sports competitions, cultural events, and so on. These honors and awards showcase your talent and your hard work. Thus, you can mention them in your resume too.

Volunteer work

 Companies value an ideal citizen or anyone who strives to do something good for the welfare of society. If you have done any charity work, held volunteering positions, or did community service, then mention them in your resume.

Credentials and Training

Some students take up extra courses or sign up for training programs to complete over the summer to explore their interests in multiple horizons. Including them in your resume will add variety to your resume and make you look distinguished from other job applicants.

Tips to write your student resume

Next on how to write a resume for graduate school, we have top-notch tips to help you start your resume. These extra tips will make sure your student resume looks professional and impressive.

1. Endorse your exceptional work ethic

Hiring companies like workers who are dedicated to their work. You can include accomplishments like 100% attendance, being part of the student council, high GPA, other responsibilities you held in college to show your work ethic.

2. Verbs

Verbs or action words are basic grammar that you have studied since primary school, and it’s time to put it to great use. Usage of words like- “Organized,”  “Led,” ” Participated,” “Tutored” in your resume will make it more passionate.

3. Conciseness

 It is crucial to know what information is appropriate and relevant and what not. Companies don’t want to know about your trip to a different country until and unless you did some valuable work there. Ensure that your resume is concise. This way employers can focus on the critical details instead of the irrelevant ones.

4. Always proofread

Proofreading is an integral step while writing any professional document. The first draft will contain certain shortcomings that need to be rectified before you send it to your employer/interviewer. Resumes containing mistakes are considered ill-written and very unprofessional. To avoid this negative impression, always remember to proofread your resume.

5. Format

The first thing anyone notices about your writing is the format. The content is the second priority. Hence, properly format your resume after you’re done writing and proofreading. Make sure that it has clarity and is understandable to read. Choose a standard font and font size. Align and marginalize your text. Bold and underline the headings, subheadings, also ensure that they are in a bigger font. Once you’re done, save it in a PDF format.

Formatting tips

As mentioned earlier, formatting your resume is vitally important. It provides structure and clarity to your resume. Furthermore, it makes it easier for the reader to understand entailed data. Follow the key points given below to format your college student resume.

1. Select an impressive font

For your employer to understand your data, he/she should be able to read the font. Word offers a myriad of standard yet attractive, for instance, Times New Roman, Arial, and Calibri. Use any one of these fonts while typing your resume.

2. Range of font size is 10-12

The next step on how to make a good college resume is formatting the font size. The font size shouldn’t be too large or too small to read. It should be uniformly 10 or 12 for the entire content. Anything more or less than this is considered highly unprofessional.

3. One-inch margin

Although a minor detail, it plays an important role in maintaining the layout of your resume.  Setting a one-inch margin on all four sides of your document will ensure that the content fits in a readable space.

4. Left align your resume

Interviews and other similar job application processes are usually done in a limited time. This is because the employer is under time restraints and has other applications to review. That’s why left-align your resume to make it easier for skimming. This makes their work easier and ensures all your significant details are highlighted.

5. Subheadings

Another pointer to make your resume simpler for skimming is to increase the font size of your subheadings. Furthermore, you can highlight and underline them so the employer can easily find the information needed. Sectioning your resume makes it look very organized and proficient.

6. No pictures

Companies are not interested in how you look. While determining how to create a resume for college students, remember that your resume is a professional piece of document that holds essential information about you and not your dating profile. Thus, you should treat it with all seriousness and remove irrelevant content like your photographs.

Samples

Here are a few samples you can use as a guide to writing your resume.

1.

Sam Houston

XYZ Address

Samhouston78@gmail.com

www.samhouston.net

Education

University of California, CA

• MA in Journalism, 2019
• 4.3 GPA
• Recipient of Journalism of the year award
• Charles Cameron Half Scholarship, 2018

University of Texas, TX

• BA in English, Journalism, and Media
• 4 GPA
• Dean’s List 2017

Work experience

California Daily, California, USA

Intern Journalism Summer Program 2018

• Worked on finding new lead stories
• Helped with research and editing
• Personal assistant to the internship managing director

Key Skills

• Proficiency in English, French and Spanish languages
• Creative Writing
• Photography
• Leadership experience

Activities and Associations

• Articles published in New York time and Teen Vogue magazine
• An active member of Journalism Daily of University of California
• Winner of the Fincher creative writing competition

Hobbies and Interests

• Avid reader
• Passionate about watching documentaries
• Volunteer at a local soup kitchen
• Basketball player

2.

Sonia Gerber

XYZ Address

1999soniagerber@gmail.com

Education

Harvard Medical School

• Ph.D. in Cardiothoracic Surgery
• 4 GPA
• East Asian country scholarship 2019

 University of Pennsylvania

• MSc in Cardiology
• 4.2 GPA
• Dean’s list 2016

University of Pittsburgh

• BSc in Cardiology Disease
• 4.GPA
• ARGUS scholarship 2014

Work experience

Boston Hospital

Intern

Shadowed Head of Cardiothoracic Surgeon

Observed surgeries

Worked at the emergency room

Pennsylvania State hospital

Intern

• Classified Medical Records
• Observed surgeries
• Shadowed the inter cardio director

Key Skills

• Stable Hands
• Photographic Memory
• Proficient in updated technology
• Time-management
• Critical Thinking

Activities and Associations

• Winner of the cardiovascular disease grant 2017
• Member of the Cardiology Department, Harvard Medical School
• Published Author in the Cardio daily newspaper

Hobbies and Interests

• Interested in outdoor activities like camping and fishing
• Lead singer in the Mayflower band
• Volunteer at the local old age homes.

3.

Joel George

XYZ Address

iamjoelgeorge55@gmail.com

Education

Chadwick University

• BA in Performing Arts
• 4.2 GPA
• Broadway play- Hamilton
• Audrey Hepburn scholarship 2018

Work experience

LA Center of theater

Junior theater artist April-July 2018

• Worked under senior broadway artists
• Helped write scripts
• Managed costumes

Key Skills

• Fluency in English, Spanish, German, and Italian
• Team worker
• Dancing
• Singing
• Quick learner

Activities and Associations

• Starred in multiple local adaptation plays of Shakespeare- King Lear, Julius Caesar, and Romeo and Juliet
• Member of the young theater artist group of Chadwick University
• Runner up of solo dance competition

Hobbies and Interests

• Taking part in dancing and singing competitions
• Avid historical reader
• Creative Writing

4.

Amy Adams

XYZ Address

Amyadams008@gmail.com

Education

Metropolitan London University, UK

• MSc in Clinical Psychology
• 3.8 GPA
• Research Project Topic: Motivation in working mothers VS non-working mothers

Cardiff City University

• BSc in Psychology
• 3.7 GPA
• Young psychologist of the year
• Ellen Bennett scholarship 2016

Work experience

London city hospital, London, UK

Intern psychologist, June-October, 2019

• Studied different kinds of psychological disorders
• First-hand experience with counseling
• Classifying medical files

Key Skills

• Critical Thinking
• Highly Patient
• Listening skills
• Fluency in multiple languages

Activities and Associations

• Winner of the upcoming psychologist of the year grant 2019
• Active member of the psychology association
• Gold medalist, national swimming competition, 2016, 2017

Hobbies and Interests

• Passionate about painting
• National Swim Team
• Sunday community service