Writing a Good Resume For Fresh Graduates ~ One With The Machine

Monday, December 24, 2007

Writing a Good Resume For Fresh Graduates

Your salary depends on your resume and how you sell yourself, it also depends on you skill sets. but what if your fresh out of school and doesn't really have valid experience?

When I applied of a software engineering position (I was fresh out of college), I BSed my way in, from the resume to my Interview but thats not important now because I've proven myself to my employer I just needed that chance to work, like everyone else does...

So here you are, fresh from school wanting to create a resume that would hopefully land you a job, and probably be your lifetime career.. You ask yourself where to start?, How do I write it?

First of all you need to decide of what type of job you want to be taking, and make sure you have enough patience to last at least 1 year to build up relevant experience.

So you rush to google and search "resume sample" you read through the instructions and structures. then you start copying the format, also you start copying some text to add fillers.

You placed in your objective "highly motivated individual, willing to be trained if needed blah blah crap"

Heres the problem. gazillion people do this, and everybody hopes to get attention to a potential employer.. and you'll be part of that crowd. There is a big chance that the big fat boss wont notice your application.

So what to do? you can place something catchy like "I'm a fresh graduate unexperienced, very hungry to learn and need the chance to prove myself to the world", or "I work hard, to attain my goal and help the company grow" .. thats a bit bold and honest in a way, but at least your being true to yourself.

It is very important that you reflect your personality on your resume, after all employers are not hiring papers but real people to work on a team and they need to know your character/personality.

There is no standard format in writing a resume. but I follow this order:

0. Objective (optional)
I'm putting this as optional to leave something for the interviewer to ask question later on. if you don't have something catchy to write in this section like "I work hard and play hard" sort of shit then its better to leave this part blank.

I personally don't have objective as I want to leave something for the interviewer to discuss with just in case.

1. Personal Information
This is where you place things like your name, age, martial status, birth date, parent information, likes, and interest. for me it is important to state your interest as this will give your resume character.

I personally don't like placing "religion" on my personal information, because it would be 1 source of discrimination.

2. Education
Here you place your educational attainment, college, highschool and stuff. but don't put something like "most behave student grade 5" that sort of things. You put here the name of the school you studied in the date you graduated. You can also place here if your an outstanding student or something, to spark up interest.

3. Experience
Although you don't have much experience, you can place here your school thesis (hopefully its something interesting), projects you have been involve that is related to the job your are applying, also you can place here your internship and other freelance job you have(if you have any).

It is important to note that the most recent and valid experience you have be place on top of the older ones. you can also put some details about the work you have and a little profile of the company you've worked with.

4. Achievements
If you have achieve anything when you where in college/school it is best to place it here, like you've join a software engineering contest on you previous school, or you where involve in a project and got recognition for it. or any personal projects that is related to the job you are applying for.

5. Personal Reference
Reference, do not put anyone related to you, like you mom, or your uncle Ben. if you have worked before as part time then you can ask those people you've worked with. Your internship boss would also be nice to place here given that you where not a headache to him.

There, after writing that resume make sure to create a powerful cover/application letter. following the pattern I was blabbing above the keyword is "uniqueness, and character".

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing resume writing tips.

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Resume Objectives said...

this is great work. Extremely well documented - thanks.!@bose
Resume Objectives

nhnndfkfd said...

Writing a resume for fresh graduate is quit complex job... Because it needs more attractiveness and appealing ..

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Unknown said...

If you are a fresher in resume writing then it is fact that you will make mistakes in the resume. I think fresh graduates should be used resume builder software which is the best option to write resume effectively.

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