Whether an Ohio University student is studying medicine, business, law or another field, a strong resume might be essential in getting a foot in the door. According to Career One Stop, a powerful resume “grabs” the attention of employers and showcases skills, experiences and accomplishments. Employers use a resume to determine who the right candidate is for the given position. OU offers several outlets for Bobcats to build a good resume.
Katie Thomson, associate director of career management and career education for the College of Business, said a few of the university business classes teach students about resumes.
“We have three required courses where we do have resumes and assignments, and I think having it built into our curriculum really helps to enhance the document because it's going to be connected to point value,” Thomson said.
Luckily for students who are not in the College of Business, the university’s Career Services department is ready to help.
“For students who don’t have that built into their curriculum, I think taking advantage of career coaches and the resources that exist through Career Services (is important),” Thomson said. “Every single person at this university has access to a career coach to be able to help them build out a strong document.”
The department offers services including career coaching, networking events and digital applications like Handshake, a “leading career platform used by 500 plus colleges and more than 250,000 employers,” according to OU.
Aaron Sturgill, executive director of career readiness for the Career Services department, said career coaches work closely with students to learn about their aspirations.
“We use a coaching approach,” Sturgill said. “We want to understand what your goal is, and then we want to work with you to develop a plan that is not created by me but that’s created by you with me (and) helping you sort of think through those steps.”
Thomson said perfecting a resume does not always mean having the most experience, but rather how the experience is represented in the resume.
“A lot of the mindset shift that we work on with those students is that all experiences have skills that have been built upon and can often be transferable to the next thing,” Thomson said. “So just kind of owning your story, whether that was working as a cashier at a grocery store or running food at GrubHub, it is all really important experience and work that we can articulate and try to help sell you as a candidate.”
Duane Bricker, a sophomore studying chemistry, said a beneficial resume shows employers the type of candidate they are looking at.
“A good resume would be able to tell a story about you based on your past experiences, your prior job experiences (and) anything that will give employers an idea of who you are as a person,” Bricker said.
OU’s website states that resume content should include a student’s contact information, education, job positions with brief descriptions of the skills learned and responsibilities and activities. For Bricker, developing details about prior jobs or internships can also help employers analyze the depth of the candidate's experiences.
“When it comes to building your resume, (employers are) more looking for why you did this or like action points, quantitative points to why you did this, or what experience you gained, instead of just listing out what you did,” Bricker said.
Sturgill said many Bobcats will under-represent the skills they developed over the years on resumes.
“Not so much a section but overall they really fail to embed skills into their bullet points,” Sturgill said. “A lot of them will do a really great job of creating a skills section … but what is more impactful than a skills section is pulling those skills out and putting them in the context in which you use them.”
For example, Sturgill said graphic design students might use Adobe, Illustrator or Photoshop at a job, and he recommends highlighting the tools obtained from the apps, rather than just listing them. Sturgill also said students can find themselves shying away from articulating the experiences and skills they developed, but should refrain from doing so.
“If you’re really good at something, tell me you’re really good at it because you’re trying to find a job and those five other people said they were awesome at it,” Sturgill said. “So it’s just being comfortable I think in selling yourself.”
Resumes can be a pivotal factor for employers when weeding out candidates. Sturgill said developing the document can help students realize how special the experiences, skills and values they have are.
“I think there’s a misconception that everyone around you has it figured out, and that is not the truth,” Sturgill said. “Resumes are tough and they just have to spend some time working on it and the ones who come and work on it with us … get a really good product in the end and they also learn how to do it themselves.”
