10 Steps to Create an Impactful College Student Resume

Simran Pandey
Nov 1 · 16 min read

Hi There!

Last week I had the opportunity to conduct a Resume Making Workshop for college students at my Alma Mater. I have converted the presentation which I gave to this guide, hoping that it would help also other students to create an impactful student resume using this guide :)


Now you must be spending days, weeks, maybe even months working on your resume, fiddling with fonts and wording and getting it into the perfect shape for your dream job. But do you know how much time the recruiter actually ends up spend on a single resume?

6 seconds

This is called the “6-second scan” of the resume. Practically, the employer is looking for any details that are worth considering. If you get an employer to spend more than 6 seconds to look at your resume, then your chances of getting an interview are considerably higher.

The most challenging part of applying for a job is obtaining an interview and getting the chance to talk to your employer in person. But you need to send your resume first and hope that it is good enough to land you that interview.

This is exactly what we’re going to cover in this article~ learning how to optimize your resume so that you pass the screening stage because post that, most recruiters will spend a considerable amount of time on it.

So this was the original framework of the workshop which I conducted. It was divided into two parts:

Part I: The presentation (now this blog post), wherein we’ll be covering all the best practices to create an effective resume,

which will be followed by a Q/A round and

Part II: Post that we’ll have hand-on activity wherein I want you to work on creating the first draft of your resume using the tips and tricks and the best practices that we’ll cover throughout in this presentation.

Now, By the end of this article, I want you to have answers to each of these questions.

Going by the definition of it — a resume is a brief written summary of a job applicant’s past employment history, education, and other pertinent information.

Resumes are used to make a favorable impression on a prospective employer. Your resume is often the first impression a potential employer has of you. For this reason, it is often referred to as one of the most crucial steps taken during a job search.

Starting today I want you to think of your resume as a marketing tool that outlines your background, your skills, and your education so that a potential employer is quickly and easily able to see how your individual experiences can contribute to a company’s success.

So with this, I think we are clear with the definition of Resume and it’s importance.

So what do you actually put on a college student resume?

Three years back when I in my sophomore year and was working on making the first draft of my resume, I was in dilemma — thinking about what to include because I had just finished my first year of college and I had no real experience but only projects and a website that used to look more like a one page blog.

It took me some time to understand what all sections to include, what to exclude, how to structure the sections, drafting the bullet points, researching about templates and much more.

As you can see in the picture above, those are the sections that your resume could include.

Throughout this article, we are going to use this one-pager resume as a skeletal and break this one-page format into separate sections and learning how to effectively utilize the space to detail out the required sections and understand how to maximize the impact while also keeping it brief at the same time.

I want you to remember each of these sections because we are going deep dive and look at this one-pager resume section by section.

First and foremost is the contact information section. Now I think you can use this space very cleverly to guide the recruiter to go through the links at the top before actually going through the rest of the sections.

At the top you have your full name, followed by a title which is optional, you can use keywords here which you identify yourself with. I used to write Computer Science and Mathematics for long because those were my major and minor subjects respectively.

Next, you have the contact details which is your phone number, make sure to include the correct number so that the recruiter is easily able to reach out to you.

And your professional email address ~ I am emphasizing on the word professional, remember that email address you came up with when you were fourteen? Time to retire that one and go for something more professional.

In the social section ~ Your LinkedIn profile is a must because it’s an extension of your resume where you can elaborate more on your experience, projects, and other achievements. If you’re using Twitter to discuss stuff related to your profession, this one also goes in here.

If you’re targeting a creative or techie position, your student resume will be better off with links to your Behance and GitHub account respectively.

The rule is simple — before you add any social media handle, just ask yourself if what’s in there presents you as a better candidate for this job. Also, review all your accounts to make sure you’ve taken down any unprofessional content

If you have a personal website with your portfolio? Or if you run an industry blog? Show it off! Put the URL in your resume contact section.

The point is to remember that we’re living in the digital era. That means recruiters can and will research you on the Internet.

That’s a snapshot of my social section. Links which I include in my resume

On the top LinkedIn — I use LinkedIn to expand on what I have summarized in the resume. I elaborate on my work experience, my projects, all the subjects studied in undergrad and also other information like certifications, skills, organizations that I am part of, etc.

Personal Website — I use my website to share my experiences and learnings, and very recently I converted it into a portfolio website with details about my projects, my past employers, and other activities.

GitHub — I use my GitHub account to document and host all the code base for my projects. In the past, I have also contributed to a few open-source projects which are greatly valued by recruiters. So that goes on to show my activeness and my activities on that front.

Twitter –I use Twitter to share my activities in real-time, get updates from communities and personalities which I follow and also to connect with them on an informal level.

Next is the education section.

Which I believe is a very important section of your resume. The rule of thumb is: include only your highest degree. The only exception is If you’re doing or have done a Master’s degree, include also your Bachelor’s. On a college grad resume, you can omit your high school details. Anyways make sure to always put your current or most recent educational institution at the top. Then, follow it with the previous ones.

Now instead of just listing out your degree and year of graduation, you can make this section more interesting by including other relevant details like

Explicitly mentioning your major and minor subjects and also stating the relevant coursework under each one of them. As you can see I have put only the relevant courses under my Major and Minor areas of study

You can also add your favorite fields of study, research publications, and key academic achievements like scores in competitive exams or university ranks

Don’t forget to hyperlink the name of your college with the college website so that recruiters who don’t know about your college can take a look at it. This is especially helpful when you’re applying abroad for internships or research assistance ship

Listing your CGPA is optional. In general, add it only if it’s on the higher side. The most important part is to be consistent. If you list more than one educational institution you’ve attended — either include the score for all or none.

So with this, we are done with the education section

Next is the work experience section. Now many of you would be thinking:

Oh, but I don’t have any professional experience…?

Let me stop you right there.

Now If you have any prior internship experience then you can certainly put that but what if you don’t have any such experience?

I know you’re writing a student resume and Recruiters are aware that, as a student, you can’t pursue a full-blown job in your field. Yet 91% of recruiters want to see experience on your resume. I know that’s rough, but remember: they want to know if you have what it takes to hit the ground running in your new job.

To prove them that you can! On your student resume experience section, list all your past professional experiences. Think you don’t have any? Think again. Even the smallest activities count.

Such as? Have a look. You can put Internships, part-time jobs, it can be freelance experiences or even extracurricular student activities

Even if some of the activities you’ve done in the past aren’t related to your industry, you should still put them in the work experience section. This way, you’ll show that you’re dependable, well-organized, responsible, and willing to self-improve.

Now what to include in your experience section? While writing the internship or work experience section.

You should include your job title or designation.

The name and location of the company

The correct dates worked and up-to to 4–6 bullet points describing your duties and achievements. As you can see that I have spent a year and a half at my previous workplace so I have used around 6 bullet points to summarize my experience, similarly it depends on the amount of time spent at a particular job or the nature of the work done to decide on how much to write.

But try to keep it short to only include the most relevant points related to the job that you’re applying for

You should always try to use action words in the description of the duties.

What do I mean by that? Look at the words ~ Developed, Formulated, Conducted, transformed. These sound so much better and impactful; than “responsible for creating, researching, and producing.” Remember that you want to come across as an achiever, not merely a doer. So using action words will help you establish that identity

Now It’s time to take a step back and recap what we have learned till now —

Contact information? Check.

Experience section? Check.

Education section? Check.

So, that’s everything. Right?

Not quite.

At this point, you might want to consider adding extra sections to your resume. But how do you decide what’s worth it? Let’s take a look

Next up we have the skills section, which will help us in differentiating our resume from the lot. You should do two things with your skills section

First, create subcategories to classify each one of your skills, for instance, I have divided my skill set into three parts ~ Tools and Technologies, frameworks and statistical analysis tools.

Second, Only put your strongest and most relevant skills here. By relevant, I mean the skills that will help you perform well in the job you’re trying to land. (Yes, that means you’ll have to skip your amazing dancing skills in a resume for an accounting internship.)

Next, have a look at a job description. You’ll see some skills-related words there which we call the keywords

Ask yourself, how many of these skills do you have. Quite a few? Good! Now Pepper these skills throughout your resume. Include some in your resume objective, some In your coursework description, and experience section, etc. because most of the times resumes are screened by bots which use keywords to filter out the resumes which are rich in keywords from the job description.

Now, If you want to outshine other candidates, Adding additional sections like Honors and Awards will help you to distinguish your graduate resume from the lot. It goes on to show that your skills and experiences have been awarded and appreciated by others in the past.

In this section, you should try to only mention the most recent and relevant awards. Include the year in which you received them. Write the name of the Honor or Award that you received and a line describing the issuing committee

For instance, as you can see, In 2018, I received a travel grant of 600 US dollars from the IFIP TC-13 committee to attend INTERACT Conference. So the idea is to keep it brief while also giving the requisite information

A Tip here is to: Try to quantify your awards and achievements. Instead of writing that you received a cash prize, mention the amount which you received. If your publication got accepted for a conference, mention how many submissions were there. If you received a rank in the university, mention approximately how many students are there in the university who took that exam.

There’s no need to know the exact number, you can mention the approximate figures.

Adding an activity and associations section is good for college student resumes with little to no experience. It gives you a chance to show where and how you developed certain skill sets especially skills like leadership qualities, communication skills, being collaborative — working in a team, being organized and much more.

Your activities can range from on-campus student body organizations, publications, and clubs to volunteer work, athletics, and other activities off-campus as well.

Pick those activities that reflect the type of work you’ll be doing and illustrate skills you found in the job description.

Now in this section — Make sure to include the relevant associations, year and the designation that you held if applicable and finally the name of the association. Don’t just mention the name of the association like Croydon but write Croydon — The fine arts society to give them a little context about what the association is about.

Certifications on a resume. Do I need them? Of course, you do!

Listing certifications on a resume is a good way to attract hiring managers. Because certifications prove that you’ve gone above and beyond to learn a skill

Certification should be listed in reverse chronological order as given in the example above.

This makes it easy for the recruiter to scan the resume for the latest certifications and quickly make a decision.

Again, bolding of the important words in the certification comes across as professional and more readable. It makes a huge impact on the recruiter’s mind as bolded information registers easily.

If your certification has an expiration date, you’ll need to add that as well. Don’t list certifications on a resume that have expired. Is your certification in progress? Then add the anticipated finishing date.

Just make sure to only include certifications that are relevant to the job for which you’re applying for. In your certification section — you should add the name of the certification and the certifying body, year of obtainment, year of expiration and location (if applicable).

A tip here is to add the URL to the certificate.

Do you need a Cover Letter?

Actually, it’s your best chance. Why?

Because as a student, you probably don’t have enough achievements to fill up your resume up to the brim. Cover letters do what even best resumes can’t. They tell a story. And humans love stories a lot more than datasheets.

In your student cover letter, you can explain your passion for the industry, talk more about your skills and support them with solid evidence.

Do employers read cover letters?

45 out of 100 recruiters won’t even be bothered to open your student resume if there’s no cover letter attached. So writing a cover letter basically doubles your chances of landing interviews.

How important is a cover letter?

About 26% of recruiters read cover letters and consider them important in their decision to hire. Another study on employer preference suggests that 56% want applicants to attach a cover letter to the resume.

A recent study found that 49% of hr managers consider a covering letter the second best thing to give your resume a boost (number one being customizing your resume.)

Now in your cover letter, explain how you will bring value to the company. Touch on what’s most important to the hiring manager. Choose things that will illustrate how you will be a valuable hire. Tailor your answers to the company, individual, and job offer.

How do you structure an effective cover letter? Take a look

Start by introducing yourself and stating the position you’re applying for, as the opening of a cover letter sets the tone for what follows.

Here’s how to make a cover letter intro:

First, It must introduce you to them as a candidate and officially identify the position to which you’re applying.

Next, It should give a quick overview of your professional background, skills, and experience.

Also, It has to be relevant to the company and the particular position that you’re applying for.

Explain How the Company Benefits by Adding You to their Team, because you’re applying for a job, and the hiring manager’s job is to assess how well you’d fit in.

Show You’re Interested in Them Rather Than Any General Company

Now Don’t simply tell them how you’ll make their lives better. Explain to them that they’re perfect for you, as well.

Show love for the company, its products, or its history; Display enthusiasm for the work you’ll be involved in; Demonstrate your willingness and readiness to take on their challenges:

And towards the end…

Make Your Offer by Crafting a Powerful Closing Statement

Invite them to discuss further, request a meeting, and promise them all this greatness you’ve exemplified is just the tip of the iceberg.

Don’t Write a Generic Cover Letter

Always tailor your cover letter to one specific company and one particular job position.

Format the Cover Letter Before You Begin Writing

Most employers prefer to read a resume if a cover letter comes attached. And guess what? Those same employers favor a cover letter which is arranged correctly. So consider arranging your cover letter using the template that we just discussed in the previous slide.

Be Professional in Your Contact Details

When adding an email address, don’t use your old high school handle. Also, it’s disrespectful to use your current company’s email address as your contact email, so just don’t use that.

Don’t Make the Cover Letter All About You

The application letter is meant to inform them of just how well you match the company’s needs.

However, don’t make it all “I’m looking for such-and-such” or “I have this skill and that ability.”

Show Personality

The cover letter is where you have the opportunity to showcase your personality a bit. Take a look at the company’s webpage and social media and mimic their style and culture. Always be authentic and yourself, but if you feel that there is a synergy or similarity to your personality and the organization’s philosophy, then bring it out in the cover letter

Use Keywords

Many organizations, particularly larger ones, use an ATS (applicant tracking system) to help them sort through and manage all the resumes and cover letters they get each day. The ATS also has the added role of locating particular keywords and phrases the HR manager or recruiter searches for. The ATS then scores each resume and cover letter based on how well they match the job description. Now If you’re a poor match, then there would be an interview for you.

Proofread, that’s an obvious

Always use a spell checker and grammar checker such as Grammarly to be safe. Then, you can also give it to a friend or family member for review because It would be a shame to be super qualified for a position but getting dismissed from being shortlisted just because of a stupid typo!

Now summing it all — A cover letter should be relatively simple: It should demonstrate why you are interested in the position, why the company should be interested in you, and how you fit the job posting. So the idea is to be authentic and to not over-complicate it.

The Hands-on Activity included using the template discussed in the presentation to create their very own first draft of the resume. You can use any of the template from Overleaf here. If you want to use the specific template that we used in this presentation then you can find it here.

I created a PPT version of the presentation for students who were not comfortable in using LaTeX. You can find the same here.

If you enjoyed reading the article, consider joining my mailing list which I created for the purpose of bringing us closer — to let you ask any question that you have :D

I pick a few questions every few weeks and send a well thought-out (and researched) response to all of you as a newsletter.

You can join the mailing list here.

Simran Pandey

Written by

Product Manager | Computer Science Grad.

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