How a Student Can Build a Resume

The book Smart Is the New Rich: If You Cant Afford It, Put It Down contains a list of what employers (I'm guessing it's employers -- the source simply says "CareerBuilder" with no other explanation) consider work experience for new graduates (who generally have no "real" work experience) as follows, along with the percent of employers that said it counted as work experience:

• Internships - 62%
• Part-time jobs - 50%
• Volunteer work - 40%
• Class work - 31%
• School organizations - 23%

Some thoughts from me:

1. I highly recommend internships for a couple reasons. Not only do they give a graduate something to add to her resume, but she can also see if she likes a particular field/job or not.

I had several internships during my college career. The first was working for a lawyer. I wanted to be a lawyer and was set to go to law school when I took an internship with a lawyer during my junior year. I hated it. The law was nothing like I had imagined (where was all the presenting a case in front of a judge and jury?) Anyway, that internship changed the course of my life -- in a good way -- because I found out I didn't really want to be a lawyer.

My second internship was the summer of my junior/senior year. I went to Washington, DC and worked for the federal government (Reagan was president then, so you know I'm an old guy.) It didn't really advance my career, but it was an impressive credential to put on my resume.

My third internship was between my two years in grad school. I worked for a company in marketing and learned the real-world applications of what I was learning in the classroom. Not only did I get some GREAT (and relevant!) experience to put on my resume, but I also got paid so much per moth that I was sure it was illegal to have a salary that high. ;-)

2. I'm surprised that part-time jobs count less than internships. After all, they are "real" jobs, aren't they (where many internships aren't really "real" jobs)? Anyway, I worked at a grocery store as a stock boy during high school and most of the summers during college.

3. Volunteering is a GREAT way to build your resume IMO. I didn't do any volunteering when I was a student, but then again I was pretty strong in the top two categories. Our kids are big volunteers and I think they will be well-served when it comes time to develop that first resume.

4. How does "class work" count as work experience? I must be missing something here...

5. Being in extracurricular activities and, specifically, holding leadership positions in them, is another terrific way of enhancing your resume. I was actively involved in many organizations in both high school and college (and was an officer for many of them). These experiences gave me plenty to talk about (including my accomplishments) in job interviews.

How about you? Did you take advantage of any of these when building your resume?

Comments

[Mike]

My undergrad was in IT. Some of my IT classmates worked food service or other non IT part time jobs -- jobs that had nothing to do with getting IT experience. An internship is guaranteed to be related to your field of study and is typically more difficult to get, I think, than a soft burger serving job.

In our classes many of the projects were legitimate IT projects some of which I still reference 4 years later. In some fields classwork counts!

Lastly, if an applicant says they love programming (or Linux, or building computers) if they can't talk about at least one project that they did on their own just for fun, I don't believe them and am much less interested in them.

[Everyday Tips]

I think college internships are absolutely critical to finding a job after graduation. (or at least it was when I graduated.)

I was lucky in that my fiancee was well versed in this as he was raised in a different background than I was. I would have just kept working in a minimum wage job because I didn't even know internships existed, and I didn't know any professional people in my life. I currently work for the company I had my first internship with, and that was a long time ago.

[jbhk]

I will also add Student Exchange experience is great to add on the resume as well. I always encourage young students to go overseas to learn new culture and really experience it. When you have seen things from another country, you will have a broader mindset and concern things around the world. Even just a different perspective to see the same thing is huge.

[JM]

"4. How does "class work" count as work experience? I must be missing something here..."

We (as in the whole class of 30) worked on a real marketing project for a real company in my marketing class, and executed it with flying colors. It is something I mentioned in interviews and companies seemed impressed with it.

[kjaxx]

"class work" might also give you specific skills (ex. certain computer programs come to mind) that would be pertinent for a resume

[texashaze]

From personal experience, the best experience I got was with internships and technical/hourly jobs in my field. Internships also help get you in the door -- after doing an internship the company I worked for offered me full time professional a job. I can only speak for the field of engineering though.

[Tyler]

All of my job offers after college were a result of internships. In a world where who you know can be more important than what you know, internships are the most important. No one ever asked me my GPA or about the extracurricular actives. Over the course of my career, I cant remember a single hire fresh out of college who didnt intern with the company or a company/person we knew well.

On study abroad- really dont care. In fact, it might be a red flag. Study abroad these days is a way for college kids to take an expensive semester off. If one decides to go, they had better do something of value because I am going to zero in on it and hammer them on their experience.

[MC]

A key thing to remember with internships and other jobs---you absolutely have to impress people while you're there, or it's worthless.

[jim]

I got my current job after an internship with the company.

I definitely agree that internships are a good thing to have on a resume. Second to that would be any kind of work experience that is relevant to the job in question.