Having an eye-catching resume is your footstep in the doors of career opportunities. Thursday, Weber State University career counselor Shari Leder helped students learn the do’s and don’ts when it comes to resume writing.
“Weber has great resources you can use at home to help write your resume,” said Leder. “I would guide you that a resume should only be one page. When I go through resumes, I spend 10-15 seconds looking to see if the applicant is meeting my minimum qualifications.”
Have your resume be the judgment call by letting the employer know you have read the job description and you are qualified.
Leder encouraged adding something that will set you apart, such as a GPA, awards, volunteer work, or military.
“It’s OK to brand yourself,” said Leder. “Have the employer look at your resume and think ‘hmm I wonder what that could be.’”
When Leder gets resumes in and they don’t list their qualifications for the job right away, she sets them aside. It’s not that those applicants wouldn’t do a good job, but she picks the resumes first that speak to her about the job.
If you ever get stuck on writing a resume, Leder suggests recording your voice and talking about your work or things you have done. A lot of times, we don’t know how much we really have done.
“Sometimes, we don’t’ realize how much cool we can put down on our resume,” said Leder.
WSU has resources to help enhance students’ resumes in their career services tab online.
The resume writing guide on Weber’s page is what Leder calls a “gold mine.” There are several pages with tools to help better your resume, such as suggested words to use to help quantify and qualify what you say, videos, and example resumes.
Leder handed students examples of several resumes with different layouts to help explain what resumes work best for what jobs. WSU also offers a job-posting site, as well at jobs.weber.edu.
“It’s great when a company posts on the Weber jobs because you know they are looking for students,” said Leder.
Some sites that will help students work on resume-writing skills as well as with applying for jobs are jobs.utah.gov and weber.edu/careerservices.
WSU student Savanna Page, majoring in Education, was happy she got tips on how to spruce up her resume to increasing her chances of getting jobs and scholarships.
“I am so glad I came because I really needed to fix my resume. It was not a professional resume. I don’t know how I got jobs with it.” said Page.
WSU student Alex Holden, majoring in business, attended the resume workshop, so he can have his resume look better than other job candidates.
“I can’t believe how bad I have been at writing my resume. I’m happy I do have the job I have now because my resume looks like a monkey made it,” Holden said jokingly.
Holden was able to get one-on-one help as Leder went through and helped him with his resume.
“Good thing I got tips today that will make me and my resumes look more professional and more presentable, as well as the tips I learned to land a job,” said Holden.
Leder believes that knowing the job you are applying for, having a stand-out resume and an understanding of the interview process are the three small steps that will help students land jobs. For more information, students can visit career services.
