Resumes for College Students

Whether you're looking for a summer job, or hoping to land that first "real" job, college students all face the same challenge.  You're trying to write a resume that highlights all the knowledge you have acquired in school.  At the same time, you don't want to draw attention to the fact you don't have a lot of work experience.  That's why we put together this article on resumes for college students.

In many ways, college students are faced with the same problems that we discussed in our article on Finding a Summer Job.  But what students lack in experience, they make up for with fresh ideas.  They have state-of-the-art knowledge, and a fresh perspective.  That's a valuable mindset, and if a company doesn't appreciate it, then you don't want to work there anyway.

Resume Formats for Students

In case you're not familiar with the various types of resume formats, we'll give you a quick rundown on each, and how they apply to college students:

Chronological Resume Format

Unless you have a lot of great work experience you can write about, you need to steer clear of the chronological resume format.  This is a resume your mom or dad might help you put together because it helped them get their job.  But unless you've been working for years, it's not a good choice for college students, because the emphasis is on where you've worked in the past.

Combination Resume Format

If you have done a lot of pertinent internship work, then you might want to see how it looks on paper with a combination resume format.  This is the best choice for seasoned workers with many skills they can write about.  But this format still emphasizes your work history; something many college students often lack.

Functional Resume Format

Saving the best for last, we have the resume solution that's the best choice for most college students:  the functional resume format.  This format highlights a student's skills and achievements, without drawing attention to the fact that they don't have a lot of work experience.  That's a great combination for college students.

Next up, we're going to provide you with samples of what you should include in this resume, and provide you with an example resume that you can download for free.  The point here is that a resume is like a personal advertisement.  They need to be tailored to suit the individual's situation, and one size does not fit all.

Example Resume for College Students

Before you run off and download our free resume example, we want to provide you with some of our standard warnings and ego boosters.  The first warning is simply this:  Be prepared for rejection.  Unless you are extremely lucky, you need to be rejected a lot before you find the right job.

Don't be afraid of rejection, and don't take it personally.  It's a business decision, and you may never know why a company didn't offer you a job.  But if they don't, then it's their loss and you need to move on.  Don't dwell on things you can't control, work on those you can control - like your next job interview.

Here is another tip for finding a job after college.  Stay tapped into your career center at school.  The people working in that center should be your best friend.  It's their job to help college graduates find jobs.  So make then do their job, and make sure you're first in line.

Before we give you the link to that example (although our guess is you've probably downloaded it by now), we want to give you one last tip, and it has to do with job networking.  A very high percentage of jobs go to people known through personal networks.  If you have a relative or friend that works for a company you'd consider a great opportunity, then don't be afraid to tap them on the shoulder and ask for their help.

Free Resume Download and Resources

Now that we've said our piece, here is the link to the free resume download - Resume for College Students - that we've been promising.  It's in the functional resume format, and it uses a resume template that you can use to fill in your own information.  It also contains several samples of information that you should include.  Not a complete list of information, but just enough to get you started in the right direction.

You might also want to take a look at the many resume writing resources we have to offer.  There you will find many more tips that can help you put together a great resume - one that gets results.

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