When you attend a business school with over 8,000 students, you’re bound to face some competition when applying for a company position. Whether you’re meeting a recruiter at the Invitational or submitting your application online, you want to make sure that your resume stands out to employers so that you can differentiate yourself from other applicants. Therefore, we’ll be covering some keys to success for enhancing your resume so that you can Get to the One!
Tailor Your Resume to the Position You’re Applying For
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t want your resume to appear too “evergreen,” where your resume looks generalized and could be used to apply for any position. Instead, you want to show recruiters that you are serious about working for their company by tailoring your resume to the position and company you want to work at.
This could be as simple as including the company logo in the top right corner of your resume or discussing your desire to work for that firm in your mission statement/ executive summary section. If you know about the requirements for the job ahead of time, you can include those keywords and phrases in your resume to meet the unique requirements that the employer is looking for and to increase your chances of standing out in the company’s Applicant Tracking Software (ATS).
Clean it Up!
No one wants to read a resume that appears sloppily written and thrown together last minute. Take the time to polish up your resume and make it easy for employers and the ATS system to read. If you’re unsure whether your resume is legible enough, ask a friend or classmate to look it over and provide any feedback.
Once your formatting is properly adjusted, scan it over for any typos and correct any grammatical errors. Make sure your resume is written in active language! One solid trick is to change the font of your resume to a one you don’t often use because that can help you notice any errors you would’ve missed with a font style that you’re already more accustomed to.
Don’t forget to change your resume back to a professional font such as Arial or Times New Roman. You don’t want to accidentally keep it in comic sans!
Visit our Office of Professional Development for a Resume Review
Once your resume is free of grammatical errors and properly formatted, feel free to get it reviewed by our Office of Professional Development for additional suggestions. Schedule an appointment to chat with our amazing OPD staff that can help with adjusting your resume and providing additional resources. The Office of Professional Development staff can also aid you in searching for jobs and internships with our corporate partners and help make those connections! Learn more by visiting their website here.
Keep a Master Resume for All Your Jobs & Accomplishments
While you’re tailoring your resume to the job you’re applying for, you don’t want to forget all the experience you gained from your past positions. That’s why it’s important to keep a “master resume” that lists all of your experiences, including freelance and professional work, academic achievements, and extra-curricular activities. By doing so, you’ll be able to cut and paste the information from past positions that might be more applicable to certain jobs than your current resume details.
While it’s generally accepted to keep your professional resume a page long, your master resume is allowed to be as long as you need it to be to highlight all of your accomplishments. Consider this your bragging profile that you can pull relevant information from for any position you apply to!
Now that you know some of our resume keys to success, why not create an account on Knightline to gain access to positions offered exclusively to College of Business students? There, you can submit your updated resume and create an online profile to easily apply to major companies. By applying these 4 keys to improve the quality of your resume, we hope you’ll be able to Get to the One!