5 Proven Fresh Grad Resume Tips to Get You Hired

Hiring managers look at resumes for six to seven seconds on average. That may not be 100% true all the time but this should change how you approach your resume fresh out of college–it has to stand out right away. If you want to land your dream company, follow these 5 resume-writing tips for fresh graduates.

1. Make it short, relevant, and scannable

This isn’t the time to chronicle every detail of your eventful life. Save that for your interview! You want the recruiter to see your value right away. Here are some pointers you can follow to spruce up your resume without getting overboard: 

• Keep it to one page. Remember the seven-second rule.
• Make the flow logical.
  • Use clear sections: contact information, objective or summary, experience, skills, and education. 
  • Present information in a reverse chronological format: most recent to the oldest ones. 
• Get to the point. When describing your previous responsibilities, follow the action verb + what + how + impact formula. For example: Headed recruitment for Alpha Chi in 2022 resulting in a 25% increase in new members. 
• Highlight your relevant competencies only. Adding unrelated experiences and skills may draw the attention away from those that matter more. 
• Use simple language. Big words won’t secure an interview. If you can’t picture a statement in your head, chances are the recruiter won’t as well. 

Before formatting your resume, create a master file of all of your information. This will make your life easier as you go about this task. If you’re unsure of what to put on your resume, check out this step-by-step guide. 

2. Choose functionality over flashiness

Avoid choosing or creating a flashy resume template. This isn’t art class. Prioritize readability over fancy visual aesthetics. Check out these fresh grad resume templates from The Muse for inspiration. 

3. Demonstrate your value

As an applicant, you’ll contribute to solving the company’s pain points and challenges. Your objective, relevant experience, and skills sections should showcase that you can be a valuable addition to their team. 

Go through the job description and note the requirements that match your skills. For example, if you’re applying for a social media management position, you should highlight your experience as an influencer or social media manager of your org. 

When writing your objective:

• This is the gist of your resume. Stick the landing right away and make it count.
  • Here is a simple formula:
    • Your strongest traits + your college major + the career track and the industry you want to pursue

Here’s an example:

A driven and creative communications major and an aspiring social media marketer with strong communication and promotions skills looking to start a career in the digital marketing industry.

When writing your relevant experiences: 

• Always keep the job requirements in mind.
• Use the action verb + what + how + impact formula. 
• Be specific. 
• Quantify your results. 
• Include relevant part-time jobs, volunteer work, and org projects. 

Here’s an example:

Increased Alpha Chi’s IG followers by 375% (800 to 3000) within 3 months through consistent posting of relevant and engaging content. 

When choosing what skills to highlight:

• Include hard skills like Photoshop, Google Suite, Facebook Creator Studio, and etc.
• Add soft skills like problem-solving, public speaking, time management, and so on.  

4. Be accessible online

Once you’ve impressed the recruiter with your resume, they may want to know more about you before inviting you for an interview. 

• Include your LinkedIn profile link. Don’t have one yet? This is your sign to make one. Got one but it needs a little sprucing up? Check out this useful guide on how to optimize your profile. 
• If you have a strong portfolio of previous work, you may want to upload them online. If you're a writer, consider publishing your write-ups on Medium. If you have social media management experience, link the pages you’ve handled before. 

5. Proofread 

We can’t stress this enough. Your resume should be 100% clean of errors. Triple-check your work! Or have someone else spot any mistakes. 

• Make sure your spelling, grammar, and punctuation are immaculate. 
• Check for formatting errors: spacing, alignment, color consistency, font sizes, etc. 
• If you’re creating versions for different applications, make sure to send the right one to the right company. 

If you follow these steps to making a standout resume, it’s only a matter of time before you look up guides on how to answer common job interview questions for fresh graduates. Let’s keep you one step ahead. Bookmark these articles now:

• 15 Common Interview Questions and Answers (for New Grads)
• How to Prepare for Your First Job Interview After College