TUN sits down with Katie Seitz, a career coach at Stony Brook University’s Career Center, to discuss tips and keywords that you can use to make your resume stand out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
TUN: Katie, thanks so much for joining. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n SEITZ: Jackson, thank you so much for having me here today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n [adthrive-in-post-video-player video-id=”1I3RHjKQ” upload-date=”2023-10-19T22:27:47.000Z” name=”Resume Tips to Make Your Resume Stand Out” description=”TUN sits down with Katie Seitz, a career coach at Stony Brook University\u2019s Career Center, to discuss tips and keywords that you can use to make your resume stand out.” player-type=”static”]<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are four main things that students want to avoid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first one is, avoid having long paragraphs. I tell students that bullet points are really great to showcase skills. Recruiters usually take about 6\u201330 seconds to look at a resume. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You want to make sure that you’re utilizing as much of the page as possible. That means maybe taking the entire page laterally and making sure you don\u2019t have too many blocks of different paragraphs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second thing that you want to make sure you don’t do is, include words like \u201cobjective\u201d at the top of your resume. In the past, a lot of students might have explained that their \u201cobjective\u201d is to gain a full-time job. That’s very straightforward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, we encourage students to change the title. A great example is saying something like \u201ckey accomplishments,\u201d \u201ckey strengths\u201d or even \u201ccore competencies.\u201d Again, you\u2019ll want to use bullet points. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, you might want to quantify how many years of experience you’ve had in a specific industry or highlight great transferable skills that might align with the job posting that you’re applying to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In that \u201ckey accomplishment\u201d section, you might emphasize what we call \u201cpower skills\u201d \u2014 those transferable skills like communication, being detail-oriented or organized. You might want to highlight that in the first section of your resume. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Another thing is that, a lot of times, students will put \u201creferences upon request\u201d at the bottom of their resumes. I personally think that is a space filler. The candidate will be able to provide a separate document with references, so you don’t need to put that on your resume. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The third thing that I tell students to avoid is, having bullet points that start out with words like \u201cresponsibilities\u201d or having words like \u201cduties\u201d and then listing all of the responsibilities that were on the job description when they applied for the position. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, you might want to just demonstrate more accomplishments that you’ve been able to fulfill in that position or more of those key strengths. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ll give you an example. A lot of times, students have customer service experience. So, instead of just saying you were responsible for providing outstanding customer service skills, you might want to have a bullet point saying something like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n See how you’re explaining your accomplishment rather than just saying that you have customer service experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The fourth thing that you might want to avoid is, saying pronouns like \u201cI\u201d or \u201cmy.\u201d You never really want to write in the first person on your resume. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Great question. Think about how you can utilize your action verbs. Also, students sometimes forget where they can show skills like communication. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Think about class projects, internships, volunteer work or also even part-time jobs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the eyes of the recruiter, think about rather than telling me that you have communication skills, show me where you use those communication skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ll give you an example. You might want to use strong action verbs on those bullet points like, for example, ” conveyed,” ” engaged,” “connected” or “influenced,” even words like “negotiate.” That’s great communication skills, transferable ones that might be related to the industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ll give you a perfect example of a bullet point that you can use for communication: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Not only are we, as the recruiter, seeing your communication with different groups of students, you’re also quantifying how many people you’re able to reach. That’s a perfect example of communication.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s very important for students to show that they have organization skills<\/p>\n\n\n\n Think about action verbs like \u201ccataloging\u201d or \u201cmanage.\u201d You could even use words like \u201carrange.\u201d Another great phrase to use is \u201cmeet deadlines.\u201d That shows transferable skills with organizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, we can use a bullet point like: <\/p>\n\n\n\n See how you’re able to juggle different things with that description and you’re utilizing different practitioners as well? You could be organizing different things, including your time, tasks and deadlines, for example. <\/p>\n\n\n\nCollege students and recent graduates have to compete for jobs and other employment opportunities with professionals who may have a lot more experience than they have. That makes it even more important for students and recent graduates to create well-crafted resumes so that they can stand out from the competition. <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Are there any specific words or phrases that you would advise students to try to keep off of their resumes?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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If a job calls for specific skills like strong organizational skills, for example, you want to include that in your resume. But, simply saying that you have strong organizational skills is pretty cliche and doesn’t stand out. <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
So, I want to go through a few skills that employers often look for and ask you how they can be rephrased to sound more compelling. <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Let’s start with communication skills. What are some ways that students can explain that they have good communication skills without simply saying it bluntly? <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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How about organizational skills? How can students better explain on their resumes that they have good organizational skills?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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How about interpersonal skills? How can students better explain that they have good interpersonal skills on their resumes?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n