Career coach: How to write a resume that gets you noticed

If you’re looking for an internship or beginning your post-graduation job hunt, you’ll need a resume. Your resume serves as your elevator pitch — its job is to get your foot in the door of a potential employer — so it needs to be compelling.

Writing a resume can seem daunting, but you’ve got a whole team of experts waiting to help at Virginia Tech’s Career and Professional Development. The services are free, easily accessible, and available to you any and every day the university is open.

Wondering how to get started?  First, visit the guide to resumes to get an overview. Cody Smith, program coordinator at Career and Professional Development, shared some advice.

“This is not the time for creative writing,” he said. “Always be honest. Embellishments on your resume will come back to haunt you.”

Smith shared a few rules of thumb – although he cautioned that there are exceptions to all of these rules. For example, the first rule might not apply to those in graphic design.

• Choose a simple format. Avoid infographics and functional resumes. A chronological resume with a classic format will perform well with applicant tracking systems, used by most companies to scan applications, and hiring managers alike. Stick to a 1-inch or a half inch margin and unless you’re looking for an acting job, avoid photos.
• Keep it short and concise. While it's important to showcase your accomplishments, aim to keep your resume to one page, two if truly needed. You want it to be skimmable.
• Begin with a strong objective or summary. If you use one, your resume's opening statement should grab the employer's attention. Craft a concise objective that’s relevant to the job.
• Highlight transferable skills. While you might not have much work experience, many of your skills are considered transferable skills — read on for examples.
• Include extracurricular activities. Clubs, sports, and leadership roles can demonstrate your collaboration, time management, interpersonal communications, and leadership skills.
• Use action words. When describing your experiences, use action verbs to make your accomplishments more dynamic, such as "led" and "initiated."
• Quantify achievements. Whenever possible, quantify your achievements. Smith abides by the PARQ method: briefly outline the problem, describe your action to resolve it, give the result, and quantify with specific numbers or percentages to showcase your impact when possible.
• Tailor your resume. Customize your resume for each job application. This is not a rewrite — it’s simply tweaking it for each job description, using relevant keywords.
• Add a Linkedin profile. If your Linkedin profile is up to date, consider including a link to it.
• Proofread thoroughly. Errors will throw people off. Proofread your resume, check the spelling, and ask a friend or your Career and Professional Development advisor to review it as well.

Once your resume is completed, treat it like a living document that you can easily update as you gain more experience and skills.

If you have any questions, please reach out to Career and Professional Development. Appointments can be made on Handshake or by calling 540-231-6241. Advising appointments are available in person, by Zoom, and by phone any time between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. whenever the university is in session. Career and Professional Development is in the Smith Career Center on the Blacksburg campus.