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The search for the summer job or internship is underway!  To make sure that your resume rises to the top, check your resume to ensure that it avoids the following pitfalls.

Vague job descriptions

Job and activity descriptions that are too general or are merely a laundry list of tasks often undersell skills and experiences. For example, "Contacted clients and coordinated special events," does not provide enough detail to illustrate the activity. Consider instead this description: “Acted as liaison between government officials and nonprofit organizations” or  “ Recruited and managed over 50 volunteers.”  These statements provide enough information for the employer to recognize the skills and positive results of your efforts.  Remember, employers cannot read your mind - you have to give details about your activities using  language that is meaningful to employers.

Squeezing it all in: Sometimes less is more

It's great to see that most students know that most resumes should be confined to one page. However, when you try to squeeze all of your experiences on to one page, the resulting resume often becomes an impenetrable block of miniscule text. Ideally, resumes highlight relevant experiences and they have enough white space to be pleasing to the eye and easy to read. A text-heavy resume could scare the employer off. If you are having trouble downsizing your resume, consider the following tips:

• Analyze job descriptions to discern what is important to employers; include experiences that demonstrate that you are a match for the position and downplay or eliminate others.
• In general, leave off high school experiences once you are a junior.
• In general, leave off community college or other institutions if you did not earn a degree from them.
• Cut down on extra wording. For example, instead of saying, "Responsibilities included analyzing financial data and writing related summary reports," just say,  "Analyzed financial data and wrote related summary reports."  

What, where, when

Since people tend to read resumes from left to right and tend to trail off as they do so, we recommend that you list job information in the following order: title, company name, dates worked; job descriptions will follow underneath. Place dates after the other information, not first. Not only are dates not as important as what you did or where you did it, but they often appear in their own column, using up a lot of precious resume real estate.

Get your priorities straight

Not only do most people read from left to right, but they read from top to bottom, paying more attention to what's on top than what falls underneath. So, when listing job responsibilities and achievements, make sure you list them in order of importance or impact to the employer – descending in importance from the top to the bottom of the section.

Format it for you

Use the same “top-down” approach in considering your format - choose a format that puts the most relevant and important experiences near the top of the resume.  If using the traditional reverse chronological resume that lumps all experience together under one heading (e.g., "Experience") means you have to list your most relevant experiences toward the bottom of the page, consider grouping your most relevant experiences together under a descriptive heading (e.g., "Communications Experience") and listing other experiences lower on the page under a different heading (e.g., "Additional Experience").

It's a small world, after all

Language skills are a marketable commodity, but they are not always mentioned on resumes. Even if the jobs you apply for do not ask for language skills, listing them lets employers know that you can communicate across cultures. On a related topic, if you do list language skills, there is no need to list English as a language skill. Employers can infer that from your attendance at a US university.

AACNDMATTME

What? You don't know that AACNDMATTME stands for "acronyms and course numbers don't mean a thing to most employers?" Guess what? Chances are employers won't always be familiar with acronyms either. So, don't abbreviate (unless you know the abbreviation is universally understood, e.g., PhD, USA, etc.) and make sure to write out course titles.

Have we met before?

You want to avoid using "tired" resume templates that come with word processing applications. Not only are resume templates all too familiar, but they are often inflexible; often they won't allow you to move sections around or to modify headings. Instead, try using CalJob’s new Resume Wizard feature – it provides you with several customizable templates so you can create a unique-looking resume without having to start from scratch. 

Be sure to write your own job descriptions. Not only is copying verbiage from sample resumes lazy, it's unethical. Employers who come to Cal are familiar with the sample resumes produced by the Career Center. So, what do you think? Do employers prize laziness and questionable ethics in employees? We didn't think so.

Don't despair: Resume help is available

So, do you find yourself falling into common resume pitfalls or do you have other questions about your resume? Never fear! You can get your resume reviewed by a career counselor at the Career Center. Make a Mini-Appointment online or take a look at the Resume section of the our Job & Internship Guide

Additional Resources

Resume and Letter Writing