Don’t wait until a few months before graduation to realize that your résumé is “lacking.”  While paid consultants,  like those at the University of Utah’s Alumni Career Services might help you create a visually appealing résumé, they can’t help you with the actual content. That’s up to you!

Having plenty of accomplishments to list in your résumé is your responsibility, and it is never too soon to start working on it. Our write-up “Keeping AboutME notes” should help you recognize that many other things must appear your résumé  beyond the SINGLE SOLITARY LINE saying that you earned a degree. What else can you say to fill up the rest of the page?

The “AboutME” document suggests that you should routinely (once per semester) write down your honors, awards, internship experience, publications, presentations, etc.  Keep empty placeholders in your AboutME notes for anything that normally is listed in a résumé.   Those empty sections will remind you to do something in that category, thus increasing your job prospects.

A final advantage of keeping track of your accomplishments is that you simply start to feel so good about yourself that your day-to-day performance improves … leading to even more things to add to your list!

To open your eyes to what recruiters say and think, take a look at the following collection of notes from a major R&D science and engineering industry recruiter (S.P.)

Resume Tips and Suggestions
Resume Anti Tips (what *not* to say)
Resume funny or weird excerpts

Interacting with Recruiters