Writing a student resume

Finding a job while studying is a considerable challenge most of us have to face at one time or another – sometimes for purely financial reasons, and sometimes to gain work experience when the academic load eases up. Therefore, it’s crucial to define for ourselves what we’re capable of. Work experience is great, but during our studies it’s important to devote ourselves completely to the degree. That’s why we should choose work that won’t require too much of our attention and hurt our academic achievements. Look at your schedule, and only after considering a significant amount of study hours, prudently assess how much time you’ll have left over for work.

Once we’ve decided to look for a job during school that requires a resume, we’ll often meet a completely different challenge. What to include in the first professional resume that we draft? Students in professions where student jobs are commonplace, such as engineering, computer science, or exact sciences, are often faced with this question. It helps to think about what companies are looking for with these jobs. Most often, they wish to foster the best talents in order to recruit them fresh out of school. Thus, it’s important not to describe your degree too laconically or succinctly: use your education to clarify why you’re an excellent candidate. First and foremost, mention if your grade point average is high or if you’re an honors student. In addition, if you’ve taken courses that are particularly relevant to the field of the company you wish to join, emphasize them. If you’ve worked in a laboratory in this field, mention it. If you’ve worked on a relevant seminar, list it. You may be competing with students with a degree similar to yours, but it doesn’t mean you’re identical candidates. You may have an advantage you haven’t even thought of.

Another problem with a student resume is that the little details make it difficult to get a sense of the person behind them.  Are they social? Attentive? Leaders? Think outside the box? While work experience can give an idea of an employee by the roles they’ve played, a student has to be more creative in order to convey their uniqueness. Thus, think where you feel comfortable expressing yourself more directly and freely. Perhaps you can briefly describe yourself and your ambitions in the email to which the resume is attached. Or perhaps as a brief introduction at the top of the resume itself. Don’t overdo it, but even mentioning the fact that you’re an honors student or passionate about the field might give the employer a better idea of ​​who you are. Remember that when an employer considers hiring a student for a position, they need to know that they’re dealing with a serious, diligent person who will make special efforts to learn the new job.

Another great way to improve your chances and stand out is to attach a letter of recommendation to the resume. Take a moment to think which of the lecturers or department heads you’ve had a particularly good rapport with. Whose course did you excel in or attend often? Try asking them for a letter of recommendation. There’s no shame in this, and a warm letter of recommendation will only improve your chances of being hired. Particularly in the more competitive professions, attaching a letter of recommendation can convey the seriousness and diligence that will impress a future employer.

It’s fine that you haven’t yet built up many lines of resume experience, but your resume shouldn’t broadcast this instantly. Remember that employers superficially scan large numbers of resumes, and therefore first impression is critical. Look at the document you’ve submitted and check that it does not look sparse, that the page doesn’t look blank. Of course, we don’t suggest that you cram words or choose a bigger font just to fill up space. If your resume looks a bit empty, you might want to use one of the many free templates available on the Web and arrange the information on the page more invitingly.

After listing everything you could think of on the resume, arranging the information, and making it easy to read, forget everything for a moment and ask yourself: What makes you special? Are you especially smart? Are you hardworking and curious? Are you entrepreneurial and forward-thinking? Try to think of these key features, then read the resume and see if it reflects them. If not, use all the tools we’ve mentioned to express your uniqueness. Good resumes are ones that represent you most accurately. So, the question isn’t necessarily what experience you’ve gained, but how that experience reflects your uniqueness as employees and as people.